A German shepherd-mix puppy nuzzled its head into Ariel Council’s neck as she stood at the counter of the Little Rock Animal Village with her husband, Phil Council, on Tuesday afternoon.
The couple made it to the shelter less than an hour before it closed on Christmas Eve, just in time to take Bella - who will get a new undecided name - home for Christmas. Bella had been adopted and returned but came back with burns on her feet.
“We don’t really know what happened, but we’re going to take care of her,” Phil Council said. “We’d been trying to find a dog to keep our German shepherd company. And when someone returned her, we knew she was the dog we wanted.”
The couple came back several times over the course of the week to introduce the new dog to their other one, fill out paperwork and check on Bella’s spaying and other medical treatments.
“She looks right at home,” an Animal Village employee said, as the Bella pressed herself against Ariel Council’s neck.
“Best Christmas ever and best shelter ever,” Council replied.
Dozens of central Arkansas families welcomed furry friends into their homes for Christmas this year.
More than 100 dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens and a few horses were adopted from the Little Rock Animal Village and the Pulaski County Humane Society shelter in the past few weeks. The year end surge in adoptions caps record-breaking adoption numbers at both shelters in 2013, officials said this week.
At the Animal Village, with an hour left Tuesday,the city-owned shelter had adopted out seven cats and dogs. Several couples and families were sitting in the lobby filling out paperwork to take more animals home.
The shelter is closed Sundays and Mondays, but Tracy Roark, director of the Animal Village, said the shelter adopted out 17 animals on Saturday and had dozens of visits from people starting the adoption process over the past week.
“It’s not a quick process because we spay and neuter the animals, and sometimes there will be a hold on, say, adult animals to make sure someone hasn’t lost them,” he said. “But it’s been … busy isn’t even the word. We’ve had a lot of people come in the past few weeks looking for pets.”
With a week still left to bolster its adoption numbers, Roark said the shelter has sent 2,548 animals to new homes or reunited them with their owners so far this year, compared with 2,494 animals in 2012.
Of the pets sent to homes this year, 1,586 were adoptions of new pets by central Arkansas families - also a new high. The shelter also counts lost animals reunited with families and dogs sent to other states as part of the adoption programs.
Roark said 23 dogs will start a journey to Wisconsin today, when the shelter opens its doors at 8 a.m.
The Little Rock Animal Services Division has almost doubled its adoption rate since the Animal Village opened in 2007, Roark said. That first year, the department adopted out 816 animals compared with almost 1,600 this year.
Roark said the shelter has seen some people surrender their animals because of poor economic times over the past three to four years. But the sluggish economy also plays a role in helping the shelter move animals to homes, he said.
“I think what we’ve seen is that people who would have gone to a breeder or to someone privately and adopted a puppy for $300 or $400, they still want to adopt animals, but our $90 fee that includes sterilization looks more attractive in this economy,” he said.
The Pulaski County Humane Society shelter is experiencing a similar uptick in adoptions, said board President Christine Henderson.
“We’ve broken a three-year record this year. We think when the year is over, we’re going to break 800 adoptions,” she said. “We’ve had probably close to 100 adoptions just in the last month.”
Two special cases in which a large number of animals ended up at the shelter has led high occupancy at the region’s only no-kill animal shelter.
The Humane Society still has many of the 54 cats that an elderly man surrendered to the shelter a few weeks ago. Henderson said the cats were well taken care of, with most being current on shots and sterilized before they were surrendered.
“His wife had passed away recently and he felt he just couldn’t take care of all of them anymore, so he reached out to us for help,” she said.
The shelter is temporarily charging a reduced $30 rate for cat adoptions, which includes sterilization and vaccinations.
The other case that resulted in a large number of animals arriving at the shelter is a little more complicated, Henderson said.
About 18 months ago, 137 dogs and puppies were confiscated from a Lonoke County woman. Some of those dogs were pregnant or have since had puppies, raising the total to 180 dogs.
The woman was convicted of keeping the dogs in poor living conditions and failing to seek veterinary care. She was not convicted of charges that she was running a puppy mill, according to court records.
Because only a few of the dogs were cited in the criminal charges, under Arkansas law, she is able to reclaim the remaining dogs.
The Pulaski County Humane Society has filed an appeal to keep the dogs from returning to the woman.
“We’re in limbo right now. They’re all being walked and loved, but we really do need a resolution to this so we can go back to performing our mission and helping as many other animals as we can,” Henderson said.
The shelter is not allowed to sterilize the dogs, have them fostered off-site or adopt them out until the case is resolved.
“We’re still doing well, even with that drain on our resources. We’ve been able to have a record-breaking year and to find homes for so many animals,” Henderson said.
She said if residents want to help the shelter with supplies or costs, donating money toward the care of the dogs is the best option. She said the shelter has negotiated discount rates for food and other supplies with wholesalers and retailers.
“We know how to stretch every dollar that comes in, and we so, so appreciate any contribution people are able to give,” she said.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/26/2013