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Finding homesN*k Hem ph iii/The Hutchinson NewsHutchinson Animal Shelter technicians Bin Willis and Roger McClure hold down Sandy as McClure injects a microchip into her back. Sandy recently was adopted. If she is ever lost or stolen, a scanner can be run across her back where the chip is inserted and an identification number will come up and she can be traced back to her owners.Area residents adopt 34 animals in January from city-owned shelterBy Matt McNabb■The Hutchinson News mmcmbbfajhu tchnews. comRecords show an increa.se in adoptions and a. decline ineuthanizations at the new Hutchinson Animal Shelter, which opened last month.Area, residents adopted 34 animals in January from the city-owned shelter. That number compares with an average of 30 adoptions a month in 2004 and 21 a month in 2005 at the privately owned Hutchinson Humane Welfare Association, subsidized by the city before the new animal shelter opened Jan. 4Shelter staff put down 56 animals in January. The average at the old shelter was 76 per month in 2004 and 35 per month in 2005.The 2005 figures are 11-month averages, City Manager John Deardoff said. The owners of the Humane Welfare Association, Sally and Loyd Shropshire, did not provide the city with data, for December 2005.Shelter staff expected even lowfer euthanization numbers and higher adoption rates for January director Amber Mings said.“I’m glad that they were better compared to what it has been as a whole in the community, but I was not very pleased with them overall,” Mings said. “Almost all of those euthanasias were due just to limitations on our space. That was a disheartening aspect of the January numbers.” Shelter supporters continue fundraising efforts for a building addition on the south side. The shell of the addition is built.Mings hoped for more adoptionsin January to reduceeuthanizations.“I realize we are new, and people might want to watch us and how we operate before they come on out,” she said.Richard Benjes, a member of the Animal Care Advisory Board, said he was not surprised by the first month’s figures.“Some of the initial numbers are not where we want to be a year from now,” he said. “They’re about where I was expecting them, at least.”Mings stepped into a situation in crisis mode, Benjes said, and has done well.“Ideally, you want to do no euthanasia,” he said. ‘Thafs not feasible until you get a good, solid adoption program going. Thai’s a goal. Thai’s no thing you’re going to achieve in the first couple of months.”
Newspaper Details
Hutchinson News
Hutchinson, Kansas, US
Thu, Feb 23, 2006
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Hutchinson P.
KS, USA 17 Jan 2023
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