SLO County Animal Services deserves respect and support

Paso Robles Mayor Steve Martin wrote touchingly of his love for his cat; equally admirable and humane would be extending that concern to all animals in our county’s shelter.

Our shelter does a stupendous job. Statistics prove the point. Success in shelters is measured by the Live Animal Outcome Rate (LAOR), which is the percentage of animals leaving alive, either through adoption or reunification with owners, over the number of live animals entering.

The most recent data: SLO shelter’s LAOR for dogs is 93 percent and for cats 92 percent — extraordinary rates. From neighboring counties for comparison: Santa Barbara, 77 percent; Santa Clara, 67 percent; Ventura, 90 percent; Kern, 41 percent; and Monterey, 45 percent.

Our shelter’s amazing success deserves full support. It’s something to be proud of. Breaking up this successful program is unconscionable. Everyone in the county pays for the new facility, and I am pleased to see my taxes support it. Claims of saving money by having many smaller facilities are questionable. For example, one vet tech serves our shelter. Will smaller shelters each hire their own? The Board of Supervisors and Woods Humane Society have it right — stick with SLO County Animal Services.

This story was originally published October 27, 2017 at 8:00 AM with the headline "SLO County Animal Services deserves respect and support."