"July 4th Dogs" Expected to Flood the Shelter - What You Can Do

While Fourth of July fireworks and parties are fun and exciting for people, they can be terrifying for pets, especially dogs left alone in backyards. In their fear they break chains (illegal in Austin!), and go over, under, or through fences. They may be miles from home and unable to find their way back by the time the noise is over and they calm down. Shelters across America are so inundated with lost dogs over the next few days that they've even coined a term for them – "July 4th dogs." The fate of these family pets is often tragic - death in a frightening and unfamiliar place. Even if the "July 4th dogs" make it home again, other dogs who have been at the shelter longer may pay with their lives as shelters make room for the flood of new arrivals. Cats can be victims of July Fourth as well. Don't let your dog or cat become a statistic - keep them inside on the Fourth!

Here are some tips to keep your pets safe this Fourth of July:

• Keep dogs and cats inside your home the evening of the Fourth.
  
• Make sure all pets are wearing well-fitting collars with up-to-date tags. Better yet, get them microchipped and make sure to keep your contact information updated.
• If you'll be away from home, provide safe chew toys (like stuffed kongs) to distract your pet.
• Consider crating pets known to be especially anxious or who may become destructive or break out through a window. If you don't have a crate, confine them to one room with safe chew toys and remove any objects they could destroy or that would be harmful if chewed or eaten.
• Leave a radio or tv on to cover the noise of any fireworks or loud parties.

Don't forget to keep pets safe during the heat of the day by providing a continuous supply of fresh water, a shaded place if outside, and limiting exercise to morning and evening hours. And NEVER leave your pet in the car in the summer, even in the evening.

Lost Pets
If your pet is lost, visit the shelter every day or check online until found. Post large flyers with color photos of your pet around your neighborhood. Post a lost pet ad on Craigslist and check the found pet ads. Contact your neighbors or post to your neighborhood's mailing list or newsletter.

Found Pets
If you find a lost pet after the Fourth, if possible keep them at your home while you look for their owner to ease the strain on the shelter and save lives. If the pet isn't wearing tags, you should take it to the shelter to be scanned for a microchip, photographed, and entered in their lost and found database, then bring it home with you.

Some other communities, like Albuquerque, New Mexico, are taking special steps to ensure pets and owners are quickly reunited this holiday. We hope to see Austin's shelter take such a proactive approach in the future.

Other articles of interest:
Pet Detective Tracks July 4th Orphans
July 4th Safety Tips for Owners
Tips to Keep Your Pets Safe This 4th of July
Don't Let Your Dog Become a July 4th Dog
Chew Treats Needed to Calm Shelter Dogs on July 4th (Austin)
Valley animal shelters to be closed on 4th for lack of space

KVUE News Seeks FixAustin.org's Comments

In Austin, we're well known as the independent animal-welfare advocates in town. We don't take money or any other resources from the City, so we can speak with an unbiased voice on animal issues.

Today, we used that voice to speak against Town Lake Animal Center's ill-advised proposal to cut funding for low-cost and free spay-neuter services next year. You can watch KVUE reporter Steve Alberts's coverage of the controversy here: http://bit.ly/Hv4XS

Update on City's Proposed Cuts to Spay/Neuter Services

A lot of people are appropriately fighting to keep Emancipet from getting its funding cut as TLAC staff has imprudently proposed to the City Manager.

But it's also important to point out that several of TLAC's alternative budget cuts (in addition to the Emancipet cut) propose to replace cut items using funds from TLAC's "donations fund," which is currently used essentially as a "slush fund" by TLAC's director. The donations fund has nearly half a million dollars in it. TLAC has argued, then, that the proposed cuts to Emancipet and other items (like microchipping, and medical services for feral cats) are not really cuts at all---because their funding will be replaced by the donations fund.

Here's the problem: the donations fund currently pays for lots of items, including emergency medical services and (most importantly) free and low-cost spay/neuter services. So if an item on the proposed list of cuts (say, microchipping) gets its funding cut but then replaced by the donations fund (as TLAC currently proposes), that too will effectively cut spay/neuter services because the money from the donations fund won't be able to be used for spay/neuter services.

So what's the alternative? We truly believe the only way to have a serious, open, and honest discussion about budget cuts is to have a real, line-by-line TLAC budget that is open to the public for all to see--- and for all to suggest cuts. While the Animal Advisory Commission has been given a more detailed budget this year than in prior years (after Council staff intervened), the more detailed budget still does not provide the level of detail necessary to propose real, honest cuts. For example, TLAC spent $13,300 on "cat tents" to use as give-aways at the same time they proposed to cut spay/neuter services. But there is no "cat tents" line in any budget anyone has seen.

This is not to say that real cuts haven't been proposed despite the (probably intentional) difficulty in comprehending TLAC's budget. Pat Valls-Trelles has proposed several real cuts, and a subcommittee of the Animal Advisory Commission is attempting to do the same. And, several FixAustin members are also attempting to come up with proposed cuts--- and those "cat tents" are a good place to start.

We will continue to attempt to find unnecessary spending in the TLAC budget that is of lesser priority than TLAC's proposed cuts to spay/neuter services. Just thought it was important to communicate where we are in this process, the main reason this is more difficult than it should be, and the importance of contesting not only TLAC's proposed cut to Emancipet, but also the proposed cuts to anything that will have its funding replaced by the donations fund.

Animal Lovers Needed in Williamson County!

While we tend to focus on Austin's homeless pets, let's not forget about our neighbors to the north! The Williamson County Regional Animal Shetler is completely full of cats and kittens and needs people to come up and adopt or foster a cat or kitten. Williamson County's shelter director, Cheryl Schneider, believes that we should do everything we can to humanely save lives before resorting to euthanasia, so let's give her some help!

Please adopt or foster a cat or kitten from the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter. They are located at 1855 S.W. Inner Loop in Georgetown, Texas. Check out their website at wilcopets.org, or call the shelter at 943-3597 for more details.

Thanks for helping Central Texas's homeless pets!

Historic Vote at Austin Animal Advisory Commission

Hello all,

Tonight was an historic evening at the Austin Animal Advisory Commission. For the first time ever, the Commission unanimously voted to recommend that Town Lake Animal Center adopt programs and policies that have ended unnecessary shelter killing in other communities. Among the recommendations were that TLAC implement a comprehensive adoption program including off-site adoptions, a large-scale foster program, improved customer service, and candor and honesty with the public.

I cannot underscore how important this was. And I would specifically thank Larry Tucker, Vice Chair of the Commission, for drafting the plan and getting it unanimously passed by the citizen commission.

The next step is that we need the Austin City Council to adopt these recommendations and implement them as a mandate to staff. Please begin e-mailing the City Council at http://bit.ly/19xZG to tell them to implement the Animal Advisory Commission's No Kill recommendations.

Please forward and cross-post.

Warmest regards,
The FixAustin.org Team