Greater Shepparton City Council has struck back at critics who say their kill rate is too high;
Greater Shepparton City Council has responded to a Facebook post slamming the organisation’s pound (kill) rate.
It says the rate dropped by 10 per cent in the last financial year and the council has recently started working with an animal rescue group to help rehouse abandoned or surrendered dogs.
“Our statistics for euthanasia at the shelter dropped by just under 10 per cent in the 2013 to 2014 financial year,” (Council’s Business Director Chris Teitzel said).
“The statistics for dogs show nearly 54% were claimed by their owners and nearly 18% are rehoused. The remained are deemed medically unfit or dangerous, and 15% were not of the right temperament for rehousing.”
Let’s look at those stats more closely for a moment;
54% reclaimed
18% rehoused
28% killed (15% ‘bad tempered’ – 13% ‘too sick’)
Now, I’m not going to hold back you guys – I’m pretty gosh-darn excited right now.
This stat:
54% reclaimed – in in my humble opinion – a national record!
I’ve crunched a lot of stats in the last six years of blogging. A LOT of stats. And I have never, ever seen a 54% reclaim rate for dogs in a council-run pound. Only a handful of charity pounds (those who engage some kind of lost and found or pet-detectives system) see these kinds of numbers. It is at least 3% higher than the most proactive pound I’ve ever personally investigated. And a full 8% higher than anything the Greater Shepparton Council has ever achieved before.
54% would make them potentially the most successful council-run pound in the country. IT IS AMAZING AND I’M TOTALLY GOING TO ASK THEM HOW THEY DID IT BECAUSE AH-MAZING!
But what is especially – I’m going to say weird – is that while they’ve gotten what seems to be an extraordinarily successful return-to-owner program off the ground, that their kill rate is still a whopping 28% for dogs.
Now I don’t wanna go all Negative Nelly on you guys, because reclaims WOO! But this means if we have 100 dogs enter this facility – 54 will go home – 18 will be ‘rehomed’ – but 28 are killed. Surely, with all the shelter space created from this mammoth 54% reclaim rate, more pets would be making it out alive?
So either two things are happening. Pound staff are somehow just ‘forgetting’ about the pets they have in their pound (oopsie!) who are nearly twice as likely to die there, than find a new home – OR – the Shepparton Council spokesperson simply pulled a bunch of numbers that sounded about right out of the air and they haven’t *actually* gone from one of the most brutal, to the most proactive pounds in just two years.
I wonder which it is?
A timeline of Shepparton Pound
– Killing pets in the face of alternatives – Greater Shepparton edition
– Greater Shepparton City Council is surprised you care
– Did Jade the Staffy receive appropriate care from Greater Shepparton City Council?
