Pulaski County worked with rescue organizations to adopt out eight animals, and county officers euthanized six since moving in February to a new system for handling strays.
County officials set up a facility to keep animals that are determined to be unadoptable for five days before officers euthanize them. Animal-services officers are no longer picking up all animals in unincorporated Pulaski County, said Barry Hyde, the county judge. If officers see pets that have collars and licenses, they will call the owners and inform them where their animals are.
Hyde said officers are picking up animals they determine are unadoptable -- if they are sick, injured or vicious. They will pick up an animal when "basically it's a threat to the public or an animal is suffering." Hyde said officers usually consider pit bulls to be unadoptable.
Pulaski County communications director Cozetta Jones said sick or vicious animals are generally euthanized after five days, but injured animals may be adopted on a case-by-case basis if they can be nursed back to health. In all cases, officers try to find the owners before euthanizing the animals or putting them up for adoption. The county works with nonprofit groups to find homes for the adoptable animals.
Jones said the goal is to keep county residents safe and keep animals from suffering.
Debbie Howell, president of the Humane Society of Pulaski County board, questions the county's use of the word unadoptable.
"To us it's hard to use the word unadoptable. It's like how do you define unadoptable?" Howell said.
At the Humane Society, Howell said the group works to rehabilitate animals that the county would determine to be unadoptable. The Humane Society is a no-kill shelter.
Pulaski County's facility opened Feb. 1 at 3403 W. 33rd St. in Little Rock and has 11 cages. As of March 19, there were two dogs in the shelter. Because the building opened in February, Jones said, the county doesn't yet have a good idea of its operational cost. The facility cost less than $5,000 to open.
Before February, Pulaski County animals were going to the North Little Rock shelter. North Little Rock spokesman Nathan Hamilton said Pulaski County animals were taking up roughly 40 percent of the shelter's space. Now the shelter has more room and time to rehabilitate animals that would have been considered unadoptable and euthanized before.
"We didn't have that opportunity before," Hamilton said.
Not having to take Pulaski County animals also has reduced the staff's stress as they no longer are required to euthanize as many animals. In 2018, the shelter accepted 1,136 Pulaski County animals and euthanized 758 of them. County animals are more likely to be injured or diseased from living in the rural areas and are more likely to need to be euthanized, Hamilton said.
But even with Pulaski County animals, a lack of space had not caused the shelter to euthanize more animals, Hamilton said.
On Feb. 26, Pulaski County made its last monthly payment of $8,333.33 to North Little Rock for keeping its animals, Hamilton said.
In the future, Pulaski County could explore creating a full-fledged shelter that would adopt out animals, but Hyde said it's too early for the county to commit to doing so.
"We're not trying to jump into the pond where we don't know where the bottom's at," Hyde said.
Hyde said county officials will be flexible regarding the regulations and learn as they go in order to offer the best service to county residents. That might include working with outside organizations in adopting out animals or helping the injured ones. The nonprofit Arkansans for Animals has offered to help the county find homes for any adoptable animals.
As of March 19, the Humane Society had taken two adult dogs from the county since the change, Howell said. One of the dogs had 10 puppies after the Humane Society received it.
"We're willing to help. I've suggested that we'd love to come in and be on a panel and talk about how can we transition to something that is more closer to what they had before?" Howell said. "But I don't get the impression that at this point they're really interested in doing that. I would like to be wrong."
Pulaski County residents say people dump unwanted animals in the unincorporated area. Vicki Wolfe said she and her neighbors take care of their animals and try to care for any animals they come across.
"I think the people in Pulaski County, here in Ferndale, take care of their animals," Wolfe said.
Jones, with the county, echoed this sentiment, saying animals away from their owners often make their way back home.
Howell said her organization has seen an uptick in people dumping animals since the three Pulaski County animal-control officers quit taking animals to the North Little Rock shelter, leaving residents of unincorporated areas with no place to surrender their animals in times of need.
But Hyde disputes the idea that abandoning animals is a problem in the county, saying he thinks the number of animals has been exaggerated.
Howell said she is disappointed with Pulaski County's transition to this new system and hopes Pulaski County can one day have a no-kill shelter.
"The frustrating part to me is that this is Little Rock, Ark., the capital city," Howell said. "Pulaski County surrounds, holds our capital city. We should be exemplary in everything we do, including our treatment of animals"
Metro on 03/24/2019