Little Rock’s animal shelter: It’s the four-legged, furry version of death row, right? Something out of a Charles Dickens novel, where animals howl and meow in dirty cages until their time is up.
But if the Little Rock Animal Village was a Dickensian pet prison, probably there wouldn’t be a bowl of doggie treats by the door.
“We are the first save of these animals,” says Tracy Roark, director of Little Rock Animal Village.
The Village is an adoption center as well as home for Animal Control. Strays are brought here. So are abused and neglected animals, and those whose owners are no longer willing or able to care for them.
It’s a difficult job, seeing unwanted and abused animals every day. But there are people so anxious to adopt a certain dog they show up at the shelter before dawn, like shoppers on Black Friday. Some come by every day to bond with the puppy too young to go home.
“We just truly want to see people walk through our front doors and see what we really do,” says Skip Lunders, the shelter’s adoption coordinator. WELCOME MAT
Cora, a basset hound, stretches her long body and short limbs to get a closer look at the human visitors. She doesn’t bark. The abandoned 5-year-old was picked up by Animal Control.
On a given day, Animal Control officers may go with police to a raid on a drug house and come back with several pit bulls or rescue a group of dogs found chained behind an abandoned house.
Roark says some shelters discourage people from abandoning animals on shelter property, but Little Rock’s facility welcomes drop-offs.
“I would rather them leave their animals at our door or in our fences instead of dropped on the street,” Roark says. “We’ll take them.”
When Cora was brought in, she was given routine shots, examined by the full-time, onsite veterinarian and put in a kennel.
Roark calls the two years he worked at the former Little Rock Animal Shelter “the hardest of my life.”
Since the new facility opened in 2007, things have been different. The welcome area is bright and open; the staff projects a feeling of calm.
“We do not want people overwhelmed at the door,” Roark says.
Dogs and cats are divided into adoptable, sick or aggressive animals.
The dog room can get noisy when a visitor arrives, as the dogs vie for attention. Their kennels are washed out three times a day, with waste whisked away to the septic system.
The cats’ cages are smaller; they have toys and boxes to play with, with special boxes for the feral cats to help them feel more secure.
There’s no torn, soiled newspaper. “We use towels and blankets,” Roark says. The towels and blankets are washed in the commercial washers and dryers secured with a grant from PetSmart. Before that, the shelter used regular residential machines, keeping a spare on hand for when one broke.
There’s also a veterinary clinic where animals are treated and sterilized and puppies and kittens are born.
In 2006, the shelter handled 594 pet adoptions. In 2012, there were 1,466. Adoptions in 2013 passed the 1,500 mark at the end of November.
With a success rate of more than 60 percent (including adoptions, reunions with owners and animals that go to rescue groups), the shelter is above the national average which, according to estimates from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is about 40 percent for dogs, 30 percent for cats.
But there’s never enough room.
CASE IN POINT
Queenie stares out from her Petfinder Web page with huge, arresting yellow eyes. She’s a sweet mother cat who gave birth to four kittens on April 11, the day she arrived. All five went to live with foster mother Jan Jupin.
“We always need more fosters,” Roark says.
The foster care program gives a safe, temporary home to vulnerable kittens, puppies, new mothers and sick animals who need to recuperate, and it frees space in the shelter. To make more room, Little Rock also takes advantage of the PetSmart adoption centers in North Little Rock and west Little Rock.
Queenie’s offspring were adopted quickly. But it took longer for Queenie, an adult black cat who had to compete with human superstitions, cute kittens and colorful cats. She finally found a home in October.
UNENDING SUPPLY
Eight-month-old Labrador puppies cuddle and tumble over each other in two metal crates in the shelter’s lobby. They were found abandoned at a carwash. Two weeks later, all had been adopted.
A female Lab can give birth twice a year to litters of up to 12 puppies; cats can reproduce three or four times a year.
Residents’ failure to spay and neuter pets is a major stumbling block for any animal control or rescue organization. While other states have mandatory spay-and-neuter laws, Arkansas’ law is relatively lax, requiring sterilization only for animals adopted from shelters through statute 20-19-103.
“Eventually that’ll start working for us,” Lunders says. But it’s a problem that endangers the lives of other dogs and cats at the shelter. The more crowded it is, the more likely animals will be euthanized.
WORST CASE SCENARIO
Little Susie was a month old, playful tabby kitten when she was brought to the Little Rock Animal Village. She was sent to foster with Jupin and when she was old enough, returned to the shelter to be spayed. But her tests for feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus came back positive.
After a second positive test for the contagious diseases, she was euthanized.
Euthanasia is a fact of life at most shelters.
“If we were not here, someone else would be doing it,” Roark says. “One of the things I’m most proud of is that we do it with love and that we care for these animals.”
At the Little Rock Animal Village, the primary reasons for putting an animal down are lack of adoptability and ill health.
Health determinations are usually made by the staff veterinarian. Sick animals could infect other animals, and they occupy space that’s needed for healthy, adoptable dogs and cats. Others are chosen by Roark on a case-by-case basis, with overly aggressive animals among the first to go.
As much as Roark tries to base such decisions on suitability for adoption, an adoptable animal that fails to catch a visitor’s heart eventually will make a trip to the back room.
“Once I feel it’s unfair to other animals, we’ll put it to sleep,” he says.
There have been last-minute reprieves.
“Just as we’re about to give up on the dog, someone walks in and says, ‘We saw so-and-so online,’” Lunders says.
ADVOCATES FOR PETS
Animals arrive here frightened; some show aggression, some extreme shyness. With regular food and gentle talk, many calm down and show their true natures. Adoption evaluations are ongoing. Volunteers of all ages, races and both sexes are helpful in assessing pets’ temperaments.
“We have some dogs that, because I’m handling them, they’ll be very well-behaved,” Lunders says. “But when you get them out with a female, they go wild and take advantage. Then you have some really huge dogs an 8- or 9-year old kid could walk.”
Over time, staff members see which animals need extra attention, like a cat that needs more human interaction or a house-trained dog that needs regular trips outside.
The shelter has a variety of methods to find homes for the animals, such as calling on local rescue groups or enlisting their volunteers to spread the word.
Social media has had a big impact, Lunders says.
When choosing animals to highlight on the Facebook page or in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, volunteer “cat lady” Debbie Heller says she looks for a variety of cats, something for everyone. Lunders selects dogs that have been overlooked.
With her good looks and sweet temperament, basset hound Cora generated interest but no commitment. In September, her photo was shown atop the Little Rock Animal Village Facebook page. Four days later, she had a home.
For animals that aren’t in high demand, the shelter gets more creative. The occasional “free adult adoptions day” and “Cats Night Out” (with free adoptions for adult cats) the first and third Thursdays of every month give an extra boost for adult animals, often overlooked in favor of puppies and kittens.
One thing the staff doesn’t do is tell sad stories.
“I don’t believe sad stories work,” Roark says. “What we want to do is bring the positive and uplifting and get people excited.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
People tend to feel sorry for the dogs and cats locked up in kennels and cages, but Roark says confinement is an opportunity.
“For some, it’s the best thing that ever happened to them,” he says. “They never had great meals and regular food, clean water, air conditioning, people who love them.”
On Saturdays, the shelter buzzes with potential adopters, volunteers and children. It hosts free birthday parties every Saturday morning, at which children are taught how to treat animals. Some kids ask their friends to bring dog or cat food as their birthday gift.
“You have a kid that loves an animal, they’re going to make a good adult,” Roark says. “That’s what we’ve got to get into these kids - love and compassion.”
Style, Pages 49 on 12/22/2013