ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — As recently as 2017, less than half of all animals that came into Winnebago County Animal Services left the shelter alive.
In each subsequent year, the percentage of animals leaving alive has risen from 39% in 2017 to 50%, 66%, 70% and 84% in 2021, the Rockford Register Star reports.
The improving numbers are no accident. They coincide with the August 2018 arrival of Brett Frazier, the shelter’s administrator.
“We euthanize when illness or injury makes euthanasia the humane choice and when public safety is a concern,” Frazier said while giving a tour of the shelter. “So, then that means we’ve got all these other cases where we’ve got to figure out a way to create what we call positive outcomes.”
The rising number of “positive outcomes” is even more impressive when you compare with the fact that the shelter has taken in more animals each year for the past three years: 4,676 animals in 2021 compared to 3,717 in 2020, and 4,612 in 2019. At the same time, the number of euthanized animals has declined: 926 in 2019, 690 in 2020, and 588 in 2021.
Driving up the number of positive outcomes are more adoptions and a concerted effort to return the animals to their owners. There were nearly 2,600 adoptions last year, up from 1,785 in 2020 and 2,110 in 2019.
In an effort to find the animals – particularly kittens and cats – a new forever home, Frazier touted the shelter’s partnership with PetSmart stores in Machesney Park and in Janesville, Greenfield, Pewaukee, Wauwatosa and Brookfield, Wisconsin. Cats taken in at the shelter and showcased in the PetSmart Charities Adopt-A-Pet program accounted for 636 or 35% of the shelter’s feline adoptions in 2021.
Also, thanks in part to animal chipping clinics and lowering or waiving pet retrieval fees, 804 pets were returned to their owners last year compared to 566 in 2020 and 763 in 2019.
“So, we’re not necessarily setting out to have a really low euthanasia rate,” Frazier said. “It’s more of a byproduct of us doing things to have a high probability of a live outcome.”
