New rules sought for pet families
published Tuesday March 2 in the Salt Lake Tribune:

Cheryl Smith is sick of the statistics: By some accounts, half the dogs and cats at traditional animal shelters are euthanized.

The executive director of Bountiful's Wasatch Humane -- which finds homes for all its charges -- wants government shelters to stop killing adoptable pets and start helping them find families.

So she is lobbying Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County to lift rules that limit residents to owning two dogs and two cats. Smith hopes that if the two large agencies allow more adoptions, others will follow. A survey of a handful of cities shows they have similar caps.

"There are a lot of animals being euthanized in our shelters that otherwise would have responsible, secure, loving homes if the ordinance was relaxed just a wee bit," said Smith, who is part of the statewide No More Homeless Pets campaign to end the euthanasia of adoptable cats and dogs by 2005.

"It's a tragedy that taxpayers are paying to impound, shelter and kill perfectly adoptable animals," Smith said.

Salt Lake City, at least, is listening.

A tentative proposal that is still being drafted and is working its way through city channels would allow residents to expand their pet families. Maybe residents could own three dogs and three cats. Maybe there would be no limits and the city simply would enforce nuisance and health ordinances.

In fact, Smith said government agencies should be more concerned with monitoring noise, smell and breeding issues -- not the number of animals a resident owns.

One difficult dog (or owner) can cause more problems than three well-mannered mutts, she noted.

In some cases, lifting the animal limit would legitimize what people already are doing. Smith said her shelter allows people to adopt more than two dogs if they prove they are responsible owners. Salt Lake County Animal Services -- which oversees pets for the capital city, Taylorsville, Herriman and the unincorporated county -- does not.

The county received 170 complaints last year about residents who harbored too many animals, 93 from Salt Lake City residents. There are more households breaking the law. They are discovered when neighbors complain about barking, for instance.

Smith and Temma Martin, spokeswoman for Salt Lake County Animal Services, say it is critical that cities allow residents to own more pets only if all of the animals are vaccinated, licensed and spayed or neutered. The owners also should have no record of nuisance problems. Adopting more furry friends should be a privilege, not a right, they said.

"I would rather see it stay where it is now than make it legal to have more fertile animals [contributing to the need for euthanasia]," Martin said.

The Salt Lake City animal proposal also suggests that the city require owners to license their cats -- which is rarely required in other Wasatch Front cities, according to Salt Lake City research.

The cat-licensing provision could doom the proposal, Martin said. Cat owners have been resistant to licensing. And few people who lose their cats look for them at the shelter.

By Heather May The Salt Lake Tribune

Our cookbook"How to Cook with Pet Hair" is a fund-raiser for our animal rescue programs. It contains pages and pages of delicious recipes, both for your human and animal family members, including a large vegetarian section. Recipes have been sampled and collected by Wasatch Humane volunteers and friends for your enjoyment and for the love of animals. Order yours today while they last for a donation of just $15.00, plus $1.00 for shipping. Send your check or money order to Wasatch Humane, c/o "Cooking with Pet Hair", PO Box 17891, Salt Lake City, UT 84117. You can also buy this cookbook at our Adoption Center or by visiting us at PETsMART on our adoption days, plus at many veterinary clinics and boarding places. The Dog's Meow on 33rd South and 21st East carries them also. Visa and M/C accepted.

Wasatch Humane received the PetsMart Charities Award of Excellence for 2000. Following is the text of our press release that accompanied the announcement of this award. Nominated with many other animal-welfare organizations around the country, Wasatch Humane was awarded the honor for its extraordinary, mostly volunteer efforts to reduce the tragedy of pet overpopulation and euthanasia of healthy animals in Utah. With a paid staff of only three people and about 50 dedicated volunteers and foster homes and a new Adoption Center in Bountiful, Wasatch Humane rescues, neuters and finds homes for more than 1,500 homeless animals and provides low-cost spaying and neutering services for more than 2,000 cats and dogs in Utah every year. Most of Wasatch Humane's animals have been saved from euthanasia at local animal control shelters where their stray time has expired and no-one has come to claim or adopt them, a model that other groups are now following. Wasatch Humane pulls animals from shelters all along the Wasatch Front, from Utah County and Orem, Salt Lake County, Ogden and Tooele, significantly reducing the numbers of animals that those shelter employees have to euthanize and saving tax dollars for residents of those communities.

PetsMart does not sell dogs and cats; instead the stores provide adoption centers from which local animal-welfare groups can adopt out homeless animals. Wasatch Humane hosts adoption days every weekend at PetsMart stores in Layton and Taylorsville, where the group has been holding adoption days for more than seven years.

"We were impressed and inspired by the work being done by Wasatch Humane to improve the plight of homeless animals in Utah," said PetsMart Charities Executive Director Joyce Briggs in presenting the award.

Wasatch Humane's principal low-cost spay/neuter provider and longtime board member John Martin, DVM has also received an award: "Individual of the Year" from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, for financing the building of Wasatch Humane's new Adoption Center, located next to his Bountiful Animal Hospital. The award will be presented to him at the Distinguished Service to Animals Awards Dinner, October 20.

Established in 1983, Wasatch Humane is a leading partner in the state's No More Homeless Pets in Utah coalition, funded by a grant from a California-based Foundation called Maddie's Fund. At the end of the first year of the campaign, euthanasia in Utah shelters is down 10%. For more information on these important achievements or about adopting, volunteering, fostering, or donating to Wasatch Humane's lifesaving programs, please call 486-6210.