The Humane League of Lancaster County is turning the screws on government, and government is fighting back.

Mount Joy City Council voted Nov. 2 to oppose a contract with the Humane League for the collection of stray cats and dogs. During 2008, they had 29 stray dogs. The Humane League offered the borough two options - $5,550 annually based on a per-animal fee (which comes to $191 per dog) , and $4,059 annually based on a per-person fee (which is about 60c per person.)

They're not the only community to vote down the Humane League. According to the Humane League's website, Bart, Colerain, Conoy, Drumore, East Drumore, Ephrata, Fulton, Leacock, Little Britain, Providence, Rapho, Sadsbury and Salisbury townships declined the Humane League's kind offer of exorbitant fees.

I have other objections to the Humane League. Both my current dog and my former dog were adopted from the shelter. Both ate as if they had been starved, when we first got them, and both of them really hated the Humane League. That doesn't make it sound like the Humane League is very "humane".

They make a fuss about "puppy mills", suggesting that such operations lead to unhealthy animals, but the Humane League itself has repeatedly been quarantined because of epidemics among their animals.

They also assert that puppy mills lead to overpopulation. You can't accuse the Humane League of going out of their way to keep dogs alive. A significant fraction of the cats and dogs that they received are killed, rather than being adopted. For instance, from October 6-12, they received 130 cats, and only 44 were adopted, with 1 reclaimed by the owner, and 2 transferred to other rescue organizations. That means about 2/3 of the cats were killed. The statistics on dogs were slightly better.

The Humane League of Philadelphia goes so far as to offer vegan information on their website. Another vegan organization, PeTA, has a couple of shelters that have acquired horrible reputation for killing animals. In 2005,when two PeTA employees were charged with 31 felony counts of dumping the corpses of 18 pets they had just picked up at a North Carolina shelter into a dumpster, PeTA chairman Alex Pacheco said, "We just don't have the money" to care for the animals. At the time, though, PeTA had no trouble coming up with money to put up billboards in Lancaster County.

The Norfolk (Va.) SPCA finds adoptive homes for 73 percent of its animals and Virginia Beach SPCA adopts out 66 percent of its animals. Why doesn't the Humane League of Lancaster County do better? They don't want to.

In Dayton, Ohio, local residents that care about animal welfare took action a few years ago, and formed an alternative to their existing kennel. The Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Stray Animals, SICSA, started out by having members keep stray animals in their homes until they were adopted, bringing them into a central location one day a week (or by appointment) to meet prospective owners.

We can do better today, because we have the web. We could post videos - not just still photos - of each animal that has been found on a central Pet Lost-and-Found. Not every pet is suitable for every family, but pets thrive in a home setting, as compared to the concrete and hurricane fence concentration camp of the Humane League.

I can't do it by myself. Someone needs to go to the various municipalities of the county, offering an alternative to the Humane League, and asking for voluntary contributions to cover the cost of an adoption center - someplace where foster "parents" can bring pets to meet with prospective new parents. Someone needs to design and print up little cards, and distribute them to the bulletin boards of churches, schools, grocery stores, pet shops, etc., all over the county. A number of people need to volunteer to talk on the phone to people who've found strays, and people who want to adopt pets - and someone needs to train these volunteers. We especially need someone with greater leadership skills and more tact than I possess, to lead this organization.

If you love cats and dogs, and you think they deserve better than the wholesale killing that the Humane League practices, your assistance is needed. Until we can snooker someone into taking responsibility for this project, you can contact me. I thank you, and on behalf of strays around the county, Marie and Dusty thank you as well.

Other Bloggers On Related Topics:
euthanasia - Humane League - Humane Society - PeTA - SICSA - SPCA - strays