The Porter County Animal Shelter today released animal intake and outcome data for the first half of 2017 which indicates a zero growth in the number of animals at the shelter and confirms their continued status as a NO KILL Shelter.
From January 1 through June 30, the shelter had 355 animal intakes and 355 animal outcomes, a net zero affect on the number of animals in the shelter’s care. At the beginning of this reporting period, the shelter housed 28 dogs and 49 cats, and at the end of the period they house 51 dogs and 26 cats, an almost total reversal of the ratio of dogs to cats.
“The adoption rates of cats is improving, and we have intentionally been reducing our reliance on rescue groups to take dogs,” said Shelter Director Toni Bianchi in explaining the changes in the makeup of the population. “The zero growth in the overall animal count is encouraging, especially since this was the period where significant staff time and efforts were focused on the planning and execution of our move to the new building.”
Of the total intakes as of June 30th, 69% were strays, 18% were owner surrenders, 6% were adoption returns and 7% were seized through law enforcement actions.
Of the total 355 outcomes as of June 30th, 4.23% (15) of those outcomes were the result of euthanization, 6 for aggressive behaviors and 9 for medical reasons. The standard for achieving no kill status is that the shelter maintains a euthanization rate below 10%. 95% of the animals taken in were adopted, reclaimed by their owners or placed with rescue organizations.
“The unknown factor in our future animal population is the impact of the addition of animals from Portage Animal Control,” noted Bianchi. “We started taking animals from Portage in June, so we don’t have enough data to reliably predict future growth.”