At the Licking County Humane Society, why do you only see cats and dogs? Why do you not see other animals — snakes, birds, or reptiles?
Louis S.
That is a great observation — why do cats and dogs dominate the adoption floor here in Licking County?
There is only one place that knows that answer — the Licking County Humane Society.
So I sat down with Elycia Taylor, one of the communications specialists for the LCHS, to get to the bottom of this.
Why do you only see cats and dogs?
The LCHS functions as a non-profit organization that accepts adoptable dogs and cats that are surrendered or transferred from previous owners, unlike local shelters, which mainly manage stray animals.
“We’re a managed intake shelter, so we realize that if we spread ourselves way too thin, we’re not going to be able to do the work that we really need to do. So if we just said yes to any owner surrender of a guinea pig, or to any owner surrender of a snake, it’d be spreading us so thin that then we wouldn’t be able to do some of the numbers that we do with dogs and cats,” Taylor said.
On average, the LCHS adopts over 1,500 cats and dogs every year, functioning as a “no-kill shelter.” The LCHS has vowed to never euthanize any animal out of convenience, instead opting to keep animals for as long as they need to find them homes, resulting in limited space.
“The space, it’s nice, but still we’re kind of packed to the gills. If we then had a reptile room and then had a pocket animal room, that’d be cool, and maybe in the future if we are able to expand out. But I think right now, focusing on intaking just dogs and cats makes us be able to actually impact more, in a way, because we’re able to fill those areas; versus say, this is a reptile room because there’s a snake in here, and we can’t then also have the cats in the same room,” Taylor said.
So it is not completely out of the question to see these more specialized animals, however, you just might!
“We had one within the last year, like 30 to 40 sheep. And so, of course, we don’t have the space here. Although there have been times when one of our play yards were pigs. We would portion it off, and had three pigs in this play yard,” Taylor said.
She went on to explain how their staff at LCHS are well ingrained in the rescue community, allowing them to reach out to community members about places where unorthodox animals can find a home. They have had adoptions of rabbits, goats, and just last week, a couple of parakeets.
Ultimately, the LCHS works to keep animals in caring homes through their outreach programs in the communities, especially with atypical animals, outside cats and dogs.
“And we know that we aren’t able to keep [other animals] for an extended amount of time, but we will provide resources, maybe basic veterinary care, to keep the animals in their homes, if it’s not an abuse situation. If it’s just a situation where maybe they don’t have the resources for the veterinary work or food to last them the next six months, then our humane agents will keep going back to those places and make sure that they’re touching base, make sure that the animal is safe and secure and well cared for. Then we’ll be able to help out a little bit to keep it, because that’s the point is to keep animals in loving homes.”
So keep a lookout for the off chance that the LCHS might post on their social media for a loving home to snakes, and birds, and reptiles, oh my!
And thanks for asking away!
Tyler Thompson writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.