State of the shelter: Young County Humane Society sees stability

Things have not always gone so smoothly for the Humane Society of Young County, but the start of 2020 has things looking more stable for the local animal shelter.

It has been a rough road for the Humane Society over the past few years, with rumors of shutting down to struggles with the board of directors, 2020 brings some optimism for the area shelter.

“The state of our shelter right now is, I would say, stable,” said Director Shelby Brogdon. “Financially we could be doing better, but we’re not closing the doors. We had that scare a while back, but I think we have stayed very stable since then.”

Some of the most promising things have come through the numbers over the past year. They had 858 dogs, 624 cats, five chickens, four horses and two pigs for a total of 1,493 animals that were taken in during 2019. This compares to 360 cats and 786 dogs for a total of 1,146 animals taken in during 2018.

As for outcomes in 2019, 165 dogs, 128 cats, five chickens, four horses and one pig were adopted out, while 423 dogs, 35 cats and one pig were sent to local rescues. In 2018, Young County saw 169 cats and 188 dogs get adopted, while 61 cats and 349 dogs were sent to rescues.

With some of the cats that come in, the shelter performs a trap/neuter/release which went from 33 in 2018 to 140 in 2019. Brogdon said that this is a helpful program because the cats will not  repopulate and new cats will not come in.

Not all animals get adopted or rescued. In 2018, there were 69 cats and 169 dogs that were euthanized. In 2019, the shelter saw their cat (199) euthanasia go up while dogs (114) went down.

“Our euthanasia is usually behavior based and medical based,” Brogdon said. “We’ve euthanized very few on space alone, but space necessitates. So when we run out of space, we look to the medical cases and the behavior cases.”

As Director, Brogdon said that preventative care is important on many levels, and the shelter provides two different clinics.

“It’s a vaccination clinic and spay and neuter clinic. Our spay and neuter clinic stays booked, and depending on if you are talking dogs and cats or males and females; like our female cats right now are booking almost in March,” Brogdon said. “So it stays very full. The vaccination clinic I think is doing okay. We could use more, because that’s kind of what helps generate some funding for our shelter.”

Brogdon said getting the word out about vaccination and preventative care will help both the shelter and the community.

“We are seeing an average of about 20, at our vaccination clinics,” she said.

She and the Humane Society would like to see more in order to gain some funding for the shelter.

Brogdon said the vaccination and spay and neutering is done through a partnership with P.E.T.S. out of Wichita Falls. She said their relationship is going well and they are hopeful about the future.

One of the biggest things the Humane Society of Young County needs is donations, especially financial Brogdon said.

“Spring and summer tend to be rough, intakes are way up and donations tend to dwindle,” she said. “The donations seem to go to nothing in the summertime. Of course around Christmas, end of the year, with tax season the donations come up. And I would say right now our intake has been slower than usual.”

To find out more about the Humane Society of Young County, visit their website at http://www.humanesociety-yc.org/.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Jan. 22 edition of The Graham Leader.