Q. I have been hearing disturbing things about Caring Hands Humane Society putting down animals for unjust reasons. What needs to be done?
A. I’ve had some interaction with Caring Hands in the past year — mainly because my husband and I adopted our wonderful schnauzer T-Bone from there last fall.
And I do think I should mention the humane society is a private, non-profit organization. It isn’t run (or supported) by the government or the city, although it does have a contract with the city of Newton to house animals brought in by animal control.
The organization is run by a board of directors.
Anyway, someone asked me this a while back, and I consulted with Jack Brand, director of marketing for CHHS, who outlined the reasons why animals do, sometimes, have to be euthanized.
He articulated it pretty well, so here’s what he had to say:
“This is a great question because it touches on our No. 1 goal, which is to become a no-kill shelter. I hope readers will come to understand that we are absolutely committed to that goal.
“The kind of euthanasia we are talking about here happens when we have to balance our responsibility to many people and animals against our desire to help each and every animal who comes to CHHS. Usually, this type of euthanasia fits into one of four categories: Lack of space, medical reasons, behavioral reasons and feral cats,” Brand said.
“1. We’re out of space: When we don’t have enough space to take in any more animals, we have to make the hard choice of which ones have the best chance of finding a home — thereby freeing the space to save another animal. Unfortunately, this means we have to euthanize some animals that seem least likely to find a home quickly. Equally unfortunately, this means we have to make a judgment call. While our track record is good, we are only human. And every one of the pets we have to put down was loved by someone.
“2. The animal is or becomes sick: We have limited space to isolate sick animals, and some diseases are so contagious that afflicted animals must be euthanized to protect all the other animals here.
“3. There is a behavioral reason, such as body handling issues, food aggression or aggression to people. At a guess, I would say this is probably the biggest source of complaint. The safety of the families who adopt from us is vitally important. This is why we have a behavioral assessment system. This system helps us detect animals who may be aggressive in certain situations. If the issue is treatable and we have resources to work with the animal, we will. We are able to transfer some breeds to rescue groups who will work on helping the animal’s behavior.
