What price for homeless pets?

COEUR d'ALENE - Dori didn't have long to live.

Not after having her back left leg severed by a fan belt when the car was started as she sought warmth under the hood.

The 5-year-old cat's owner, frantic and without enough money to pay her veterinarian for surgery, called the Kootenai Humane Society.

Could it help? Yes.

"We don't want to turn anybody away," said Pete Chichester, KHS marketing director.

The owner surrendered the feline, and a KHS vet performed a three-hour operation.

Dori, short one leg, survived and is available for adoption.

Situations like that, Chichester said, happen every day. Not just healthy dogs and cats, but ailing, injured ones too, are brought to the shelter at the north end of Ramsey Road in Hayden.

KHS tries to take them all. It would love to save them all.

But it is paying a price.

Demands for KHS services are rising, donations remain down since the recession, leaving shelter officials and board members pondering ways to keep pace with costs, generate more income and raise understanding of its no-kill policy.

"Without funding we can't help everybody," Chichester said.

Meantime, strays, abandons, and unwanted animals continue to fill the shelter's kennels and cages. There are currently 56 dogs and 70 cats there, close to capacity.

Dori Peck, KHS executive director, said money is tight at KHS, with more going out than coming in.

Funds from grants, donations, fundraisers, thrift store sales and adoption fees - less than a million year - aren't keeping up with costs to care for over a thousand dogs and cats each year.

The KHS staff of 11 - four administration, two front desk, five dog and cat technicians - is bare bones. Volunteers are great, Peck said, but she is concerned about finances, especially when considering that the shelter will eventually have to move from its home near the airport.

"We are not in great shape," she said.

Great shape, no.

Busy, yes.

Through Thursday of this year, it has taken in 757 dogs and 705 cats. Of the dogs, 492 were adopted, 207 were returned to owners, five were transferred out to rescue and six went into foster care.

Of the cats, 558 were adopted, eight returned to their owners, five transferred out to rescue organizations and 39 into foster care.

"They're coming in and going out pretty quickly," Peck said.

All animals that go out are spayed or neutered, and there have been 621 such surgeries this year.

But monetary questions persist.

So, what is the best course for KHS?

There is a plan.

It wants to better explain the no-kill policy to the public, increase the number of board members, and encourage folks to visit.

"The community needs us. There's no ignoring the fact they need us," Chichester said.

No kill

KHS has been no-kill for around seven years. Some say it could ease its problems by going to a kill policy. The cost to feed and care for so many dogs and cats would be reduced, and the animals that have little chance of being adopted wouldn't be kept for months, even more then a year, behind bars. Some say in today's world, no-kill is not feasible.

But Andy Smith, KHS board president, said there's no plan to change that policy.

He called no-kill a solid business model that has been adopted by around 6,000 shelters nationwide.

"There's no reason to change it," he said.

The answer, Smith said, is to find permanent homes for shelter animals. The best way to do that is develop a strong connection with the community.

He believes the emphasis on adoption, spay and neuter is reducing the area's homeless pet population.

It is, he added, a long-term investment.

When he joined the KHS board, it was euthanizing hundreds of dogs and cats each year. But yet, hundreds more arrived at the shelter's doors.

"They just kept coming." he said.

"If killing altered reproduction, we would have seen that," Smith said.

KHS will not put pets down because they've been there too long, or for lack of space. The only exceptions are if an animal is too aggressive or too sick.

Peck invites people to visit the shelter. It is bright, clean and cheery. Dogs and cats are exercised and well cared for. But they need homes.

"We feel there are enough homes. We just have to get the people out in order to adopt the animals," Peck said.

Post Falls shelter

Post Falls Police's dog shelter takes in dogs from Post Falls, the Kootenai County Sheriff's Department, Idaho State Police and Spirit Lake.

The shelter keeps the dogs from Post Falls for at least three working days and five working days for the other areas before they are considered for adoption. Dogs are euthanized as last resort and if they are viscous or unhealthy.

"We do everything we can to locate the owner of the dog," said Chief Scot Haug, adding that some dogs have even been matched up with people from other areas through online sites and transported by volunteers. "If the dog is in good health and adoptable, we'll generally keep it longer (than the minimum days). There is a misconception among some that, after the minimum days, we automatically have the dogs euthanized, but that's not the case.

"We don't euthanize dogs if they are adoptable."

Haug said the shelter also works with the KHS if the owners can't be found to give the nonprofit the option of taking the dog in. Many of the dogs are picked up by their owners, however.

In 2011 the Post Falls shelter housed 1,040 dogs. Of those, 635 were picked up by their owners. Fifty (4.8 percent) were euthanized.

So far this year, 725 dogs have been housed and 467 were picked up by their owners. Twenty-six (3.6 percent) were euthanized.

The department's animal division annual budget is $141,000, which includes salaries and other expenses. That amount last year was offset with $24,000 in revenue such as citations and dog licenses and $35,000 in impound fees.

Haug said the shelter's $82,000 cost to taxpayers is cheaper than if officers had to drop dogs off at the KHS and be charged an impound fee. It also saves residents and officers from driving to Hayden.

"I think the cost is well worth the service we provide," Haug said.

Haug said dogs that are not adoptable and that are kept at the shelter for extended periods of time get to be a strain on taxpayer dollars and it's not good for the dog to be in a kennel for a long time.

"I'm not opposed to having a no-kill facility; I'm just of the opinion that taxpayers don't want us spending a lot of money to keep unhealthy dogs alive," Haug said.

More board members

The five-member board will be increased to eight or nine. New board members are needed to learn the ropes if longtime board members leave, as well as generate more ideas.

KHS is seeking "influential," forward-thinking people who support the no-kill policy. It hopes to reach out more into the community. Corporate contributions would be lovely.

"We need people's connections," Peck said.

The main problem facing KHS is money. It needs more. If not, there could be cutbacks.

So the board, with newbies, will consider its options.

"We have to look hard at these realities," Smith said.

He believes KHS is operating at a high level and serving the community well.

But finding homes for hundreds of cats and dogs will always have challenges. There will always be ups and downs.

And at KHS, Smith says, there will always be a no-kill policy.

"You can't kill your way out of pet over-population."