Bay County Animal Control may be only months away from being designated a ‘no kill’ shelter.
From 2016 to 2017 Bay County Animal Control increased its save rate of animals from about 65 percent to 85 percent.
Of the 150 dogs euthanized last year, 110 were at their owners request. Of the 294 cats put down 125 were at the owners request. In total just over 400 animals were put down last year compared to over a thousand in 2016.
Jim Barcia is the Bay County Executive. He says the name ‘no kill’ has some false pretenses.
“It’s not really quite an accurate description of what we’re doing. We have a goal of adopting 92 percent of healthy adoptable animals and there’s about eight percent that may not be adoptable if they’re dogs and they have temperament issues and they can’t be rehabilitated we’ll euthanize those dogs.”
Barcia said cats within that eight percent are typically suffering from either being hit by a car or respiratory infection.
He said initiatives like “Clear the Shelter” events and low-cost spay- neuter programs have helped adoption rates increase. He said the goal is to reach no kill status within the next few months.