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Lost Pets Harder to Find if Sent to City Pound Under New Rule, Critics Say

By Ted Cox | March 30, 2015 8:06am
 Impounded cats that don't have an identification microchip are eligible for immediate transfer from the city pound to other animal rescue agencies.
Impounded cats that don't have an identification microchip are eligible for immediate transfer from the city pound to other animal rescue agencies.
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PAWS Chicago

CITY HALL — Thousands of city pet owners are miffed over a new city policy that reduces the time required by the Animal Care and Control department to hold stray cats and dogs in the city pound before sending them to other animal-rescue agencies.

The new policy the City Council signed off on in November cut the minimum time Animal Care and Control has to hold strays from five days to three for dogs that don't have licenses or identification microchips. Cats without chips are eligible for immediate transfer to one of the city's affiliated pet-rescue agencies.

Critics contend that's not enough time for a pet owner to track down a lost dog or cat before the animal is sent to any of the dozens of agencies designed more for adopting out the animals than for reuniting pets with their owners.

 Commissioner John Fritchey would like to see a single, central database to track lost pets in Cook County.
Commissioner John Fritchey would like to see a single, central database to track lost pets in Cook County.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

An online petition signed by almost 10,000 people demands that the city revisit the new policy, saying pet owners haven't been sufficiently warned that their impounded animals could quickly be transferred and lost for good. What's more, dozens of comments on the site have only made matters worse by wrongly suggesting the pets are more in danger of being euthanized.

"I don't think anybody really knows what's going on," said Portage Park resident Jennifer Dianovsky, an animal advocate. "It's definitely an issue."

In a November City Council committee meeting, PAWS Chicago founder Paula Fasseas endorsed the new policy, saying the new process would limit the time stray dogs and cats spend in pounds, thus maintaining their health and speeding their adoption. She said 97 percent of impounded cats are never claimed by owners.

At the time, Sandra Alfred, executive director of Animal Care and Control, said "Our goal is not to increase euthanasia."

Yet the petition, posted by Chicago resident Laura Townsend through Change.org, insists that aldermen promised the city would conduct a campaign to warn pet owners about the new policy and the need to microchip dogs and cats, and "that has not happened."

Although the new policy has taken effect, there is nothing about it readily found on the Animal Care and Control website, although the site does have a page on the benefits of microchips and how to get them.

PAWS Chicago, which is part of the Chicago Area Shelter Alliance and accepts transfers from the city pound, does have an information page on the effect of the new ordinance, stating it prevents the spread of disease and makes for "quicker release for lifesaving," while leaving the policy on euthanasia untouched.

All dogs and cats must be held a minimum of five days before being considered for euthanasia, seven days for those with licenses or ID chips. Alfred, however, emphasized that those are bare minimums, most are held much longer than that and most animals put down are euthanized for illness or behavioral issues.

Fasseas emphasized that Wednesday, saying, "No animals will be euthanized any sooner." She allowed, though, that the hysteria of commenters on the petition site indicated the city could have done a better job getting the word out on the actual changes and benefits in the ordinance.

Fasseas also repeated that the new policy is actually intended to protect the health of strays by getting them out of the city pound as soon as possible. Fasseas said speeding the processing of kittens in particular through the city pound would keep them from catching potentially fatal kennel illnesses and "probably save several thousand cats a year."

Fasseas and other animal-rescue officials have pointed out the city pound is usually the first stop for strays and is simply not equipped to be as efficient or as hygienic as a well-run rescue agency.

Animal Care "strongly recommends" city pet owners have their dogs and cats microchipped and licensed. Impounded animals with microchips are kept for a minimum of seven days while all efforts are made to notify the owner.

"Our main goal is to reunite pets with their families," said Brad Powers, Alfred's assistant at Animal Care and Control, "and we will continue to expand our efforts to remind pet owners about the importance of microchipping because a dog with a microchip or tag is five times more likely to be reunited with his owner, and a cat is nine times more likely."

Yet implanting a microchip and registering it can cost $75, raising issues for households on tight budgets.

Fasseas said both Animal Control and PAWS, as well as other rescue organizations, have programs providing low-cost microchips, although again it comes down to getting the word out.

"Obviously, everyone's got to do a lot more," Fasseas said.

And PAWS is following through on that, announcing Thursday it will offer $15 microchips to all pet owners across the city.

"Just because of this ordinance, we want to get people in and do it," Fasseas said.

Powers added Thursday that Animal Care will hold an event to implant microchips for free on April 23, with as many as three more free events coming this summer. He said it's joining with the Department of Streets and Sanitation to distribute fliers in neighborhoods on microchipping and where to find lost pets. Another partnership with the Humane Society of the United States will find workers going door to door to pass out information, while posting information on strays near the areas where they were found.

Cook County Commissioner John Fritchey (D-Chicago) has sought to centralize pet searches throughout the city and suburbs and thinks it's a promising area for the county's Animal and Rabies Control unit and the city's Animal Care department to more efficiency working together.

"It's fiscally sound, and it's morally right," Fritchey said. "The goal should be how do we make it as easy as we can for people who've lost their pets to find out where the pet is?"

Fritchey was sympathetic to the cost of a public-relations campaign, but said it only made sense.

"Obviously, government budgets at every level are under a strain. But when you're talking about animal welfare," he added, "you're talking about the fate of their owners as well."

Fritchey said publicizing the benefits of chipping a pet, much like the benefits of rabies vaccinations and picking up dog waste, "should be a fundamental part of animal-control policy at every level," adding it should be looked at "more as an investment than an expenditure."

Fritchey said that, as a city-based commissioner, he's heard from constituents about both the city's Animal Care and the county's Animal and Rabies Control, and "it's fair to say the complaints far outweigh the compliments."

Dianovsky, however, embraced the concept of a single website where pictures of found dogs and cats would be posted, no matter where they're impounded or what rescue agency they're sent to.

"The way dogs and cats get found is by being able to network them," she said. "With three days, that almost is not possible. Before you know it, the dog is either adopted out or dead."

According to Animal Care data, the city impounded 19,415 cats and dogs last year, with 1,545 claimed, 1,307 adopted and 10,642 transferred to other rescue agencies. Yet 3,668 dogs and 1,917 cats were euthanized. On average, an impounded cat was euthanized by the city 23 percent of the time, an impounded dog 36 percent of the time.

All those figures were down slightly from 2013 levels, and Powers said year-to-date figures for 2015 were down additionally through March 15, while the adoption of cats was stable and dogs were up.

The petition, posted three weeks ago and intended to be sent to aldermen and other city officials, seeks 10,000 signatures, and as of Friday afternoon was just 68 short of that figure. Townsend could not be reached through Change.org.

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