Lucas county dog warden started a project a few years ago where hard-to-adopt dogs were sent to local prisons and inmates trained them. They had great success getting those dogs regimes. Don’t know if they’re still doing that or not.
Problem lately is irresponsible owners. Whatever the popular breed is, too many people get the idea they’re going to make money at it, whether they know the first thing about breeding or not.
And too many are still not spaying/neutering, so there are loads of unplanned litters.
I spoke to a volunteer at one shelter who said they get at least six whole litters a week, double that in the spring.
The local Facebook group has several new pups for sale posts every day.
We just have dogs coming out of our ears.
There is one vet that I know of that does low cost spay/neuter for pit bulls once a year, because that’s the dog of the day in these parts. A good half of the dogs in the closest shelter are pits. And yet you still hear of people intentionally breeding them. They think they’re going to make money, and end up selling 2-3 of a litter because you can adopt them for almost nothing. So all those pups, at 3-4 months when the owner realizes they won’t sell and are not willing to feed them, and not allowed to have so many dogs without a kennel license, go to the pound.
It’s just never ending.
None of the local counties even have a budget to deal with cats. No TNR, no nothing. I personally think that’s why the coyote population has exploded, people leaving cats loose. Easy pickins, especially all those unwanted litters. At least if a dog is stray, the warden will pick it up. But we’re lousy with cats. I see more cat roadkills than almost all the other animals combined. And I’m not crazy about them, but that is just so sad.
