![]() "Carter gets a lot of attention," she added as she clapped and whistled to the parrot, who responded by bobbing its head and doing an avian two-step around its cage. He was found walking down Dexter Avenue, Phelan said, and adopted by shelter staff. "Oh, and we have ducks." The shelter also picked up a parrot named Carter around six months ago. "And an iguana just came in today," she said last Saturday. Deb Phelan, a volunteer team leader in charge of critters, said the shelter has rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, a ferret and several rats up for adoption. Volunteers also staff the shelter itself. "We always need foster parents," she added. Titus said about 200 of the volunteers at the shelter are involved in the foster-care program. "But the cat one is the biggest one," she said of roughly 1,000 cats taken in by foster-care volunteers each year. The foster-care program started in 1999 just for dogs, but it has been expanded to include programs for cats and other critters, Titus explained. Once the animals are back in good shape, they are returned to the shelter for adoption. Also fairly unique is a foster-care program for animals, which people take in at their homes to socialize or care for as they recuperate from injuries and diseases, she said. "Running with the dogs is very unique," said Titus, who added that the shelter gets a lot of calls from other animal shelters about that program. These include promoting the adoption of shelter cats, training both dogs and cats, grooming the animals, walking the dogs and, with "Get Fit with Fido," jogging with the dogs. "We know it's much, much more than that because people underreport their hours." Christine Titus, a Magnolia resident and the volunteer coordinator at the shelter, said she works with "an out-standing volunteer force." Volunteers have 18 programs they can choose to work on. Even that number doesn't give a full picture of the amount of time volunteers spend on shelter animals, according to Jordon. The volunteer labor amount-ed to a whopping 50,000 hours of time donated to the shelter in 2002, he said. To the rescue What has really saved the day at the shelter are around 600 volunteers who work with the animals in various capacities. Money for filling three vacant positions at the shelter was cut from this year's budget, but it looks as if the shelter will do okay under the 2004 budget, Jordon added. ![]() The shelter and the spay-and-neuter clinic are operating this year on a budget of $2.4 million, which funds the equivalent of 31 full-time positions, he said. "One of our success stories is we've doubled the amount of animals adopted during the last five years," Jordon said. While the number of animals ending up in the shelter has plummeted in the last three decades, the number finding homes has skyrocketed lately. The animal shelter does its part as well, insisting that pets adopted there can be released only after they've been sterilized at the Spay and Neuter Clinic next door. "Now we are handling about 8,000 live animals a year." Jordon attributes the steep drop in numbers to public education about adoptions and an aggressive campaign to convince people they should spay and neuter their pets. Back then, staff had to deal with approximately 25,000 live animals per year, he said. A sea change Since the animal shelter was opened in 1972, much has changed. ![]() "That's on top of the $150,000 to $200,000 a year we spend caring for the animals," Jordon added. In fact, using money donated by the public to the Help the Animals Fund, the shelter spends more than $100,000 a year on veterinary care for the animals in its charge, he said. "We do our best to rehabilitate animals," Jordon said. But those pets were too old, too dangerous or too sick to save, he said. Jordon emphasized the word "adoptable" because shelter records indicate 2,095 other animals were killed last year (see graph). ![]() "In 2002, only five adoptable pets were euthanized," he said. But the statistics are far rosier at the Seattle Animal Shelter on 15th Avenue West, according to shelter manager Don Jordon. Indeed, 71 percent of the cats and kittens that end up at animal shelters nationwide are put down, according to a 1997 National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy survey. The black-and-white cat had been surrendered at the shelter that day by its owner, and his chances of survival would normally be a hit-and-miss proposition, something the cat seemed to realize. Oz looked thoroughly depressed as he sat motionless in a cage at the Seattle Animal Shelter last Saturday. ![]()
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