Starting this year, the Maui Humane Society, a 58-year-old nonprofit that provides animal management services for the County of Maui, will release a statistical breakdown of its annual activities.
“It is our role, under the County contract, to accept all homeless, abused, unwanted, and abandoned animals on Maui,” said Maui Humane Society CEO Jocelyn Bouchard in a Sept. 15, 2011 news release. “We are the only agency on the island with this kind of open-door policy. When our shelter is full, we do not have the option to turn animals away. Thousands are adopted or returned to their owners through our programs; others, however, are euthanized when there is simply no more space. We are continually urging the community to take action by spaying/neutering their pets, and we have low-cost programs to help them do this. We need the community’s help to curb the animal population. We cannot do it alone.”
WARNING: though the following numbers represent an improvement over previous years, they still tell a grim story…
Number of field calls MHS personnel responded to last year: 8,874
Number of animals MHS received at their shelter during 2010/2011: 9,402 (roughly 26 per day)
Number of dogs received: 2,862
Number of cats received: 5,647
Number of miscellaneous “other” animals received: 893
Number of cats received considered “feral”: 2,256
Number of animals euthanized in 2010/2011: 5,174 (Number of animals euthanized in 2009/2010: 5,258; Number of animals euthanized in 2009/2009: 6,077)
Number of dogs euthanized in 2010/2011 considered “healthy”: 119
Number of cats euthanized in 2010/2011 considered “healthy”: 48
Number of spay/neuter surgeries performed by MHS staff in 2010/2011: 2,997
PHOTO: Krzysztof P. Jasiutowicz/Wikimedia Commons
Tags: cats, dogs, euthanize, Maui Humane Society, neuter, spay
1 Comment
September 16, 2011
This is a travesty.
Spay and neuter, people (and when I read stats like this it’s tempting to omit the comma.)
9th Life will do it for free if you can’t afford it. They’ll even arrange for transportation.
Adoption from MHS includes it. There is absolutely no excuse.
And don’t breed your fucking dog. Every purebred you bring into the world is another sweet mutt killed for lack of shelter space. If you didn’t breed, your customers would adopt. If they wouldn’t adopt, they don’t want a dog, they want a fancy piece of furniture.
Thank you, Maui Time, for reporting on this. Please keep showing the harsh reality. Show the sweet faces of innocent, healthy, affectionate cats and dogs about to be put down for lack of homes and shelter space. Whatever it takes for people to wake up.