CCHS Bloghttp://www.cuhumane.org/NewsEvents/CCHSBlog.aspxThe Importance of Early Age Sterilizationhttp://www.cuhumane.org/NewsEvents/CCHSBlog/TabId/106/PostId/12/The-Importance-of-Early-Age-Sterilization.aspxby Shelter Veterinarian, Dr. Robert Weedon. Early-age sterilization is now the standard in shelter veterinary practice.EducationTue, 24 Apr 2012 14:16:22 GMT<p>Up until recently, veterinarians were trained to wait until a dog or cat reaches 6 months of age before performing surgical sterilization.&nbsp; This &ldquo;standard practice&rdquo; was based on a variety of concerns regarding the safety of operating on very young animals and the long-term effects of early sterilization.&nbsp; However, evidence now shows that it is O.K. to sterilize animals that are younger than the arbitrary 6-months-of-age benchmark.&nbsp; Today, many shelters and high-volume spay/neuter clinics perform sterilization surgeries on puppies and kittens as early as 6-to-8 weeks of age.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>In an article entitled, &ldquo;Determining the optimal age for gonadectomy of dogs and cats,&rdquo; published in the December 1, 2007 issue of the <i>Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association</i>, Margaret V. Root Kustritz, DVM, PhD, DACT, concludes, &ldquo;Animals housed at humane societies should be treated as a population. &nbsp;Societal benefit resulting from gonadectomy of unowned dogs and cats in the United States outweighs all other concerns.&nbsp; &nbsp;Male and female dogs and cats should be spayed or castrated before being offered for adoption by humane organizations.&rdquo;&nbsp; </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Dr. Phillip Bushby, a recognized expert in pediatric sterilization, published a recent article in the <i>NAVC Clinician&rsquo;s Brief</i>, in March 2012.&nbsp; In his article entitled, &ldquo;Early age spay-neuter,&rdquo; Dr. Bushby says, &ldquo;With millions of homeless dogs and cats euthanized in animal shelters each year, it is time for veterinary professionals to actively support early-age spay/neuter procedures to help reduce pet overpopulation.&rdquo;&nbsp; </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Champaign County Humane Society practices early-age sterilization in order to adopt-out only sterilized animals to the community.&nbsp; By sterilizing puppies and kittens <i>before</i> they leave the shelter, CCHS ensures that the pets it sends home won&rsquo;t contribute to the population of animals later requiring care at CCHS, or any other animal shelter, due to an &ldquo;accidental&rdquo; litter. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> Read more about early-age spay/neuter on the <a href="http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/spayneuter/early-spay-neuter.aspx">ASPCA website</a>.No Excuses if You Love a Pit Bullhttp://www.cuhumane.org/NewsEvents/CCHSBlog/TabId/106/PostId/10/No-Excuses-if-You-Love-a-Pit-Bull-by-Tief.aspxThose of you that follow the Letters to the Editor in our local paper, The News-Gazette, may recall a letter that appeared on January 5, 2012, from a Danville resident (Jimmy Bryant). He opined that it should be illegal to own all dogs known as “Pit Bulls” and such animals should be “gathered up and put down.”Education,GeneralThu, 23 Feb 2012 09:38:07 GMT<p>Those of you that follow the Letters to the Editor in our local paper, The News-Gazette, may recall a letter that appeared on January 5, 2012, from a Danville resident (Jimmy Bryant).&nbsp; He opined that it should be illegal to own all dogs known as &ldquo;Pit Bulls&rdquo; and such animals should be &ldquo;gathered up and put down.&rdquo;&nbsp; </p> <p>I can&rsquo;t say for sure what inspired Mr. Bryant to write, but the letter appeared not long after a jogger in Chicago had been attacked by two Pit Bull type dogs that were running at large.</p> <p>Since Mr. Bryant&rsquo;s letter appeared, several letters have been printed that defend the breed.&nbsp; A few of those letters have made broad assertions, such as: &ldquo;The only pit bulls that are dangerous have been abused.&rdquo;</p> <p>You might assume that the director of a humane Society that adopts out hundreds of Pit Bull type dogs a year would agree whole heartedly with this statement in their defense.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t.&nbsp; While I find Mr. Bryant&rsquo;s position harsh, ill-informed, misguided, and cruel, assertions that the only dogs unfit for life in society are &ldquo;abused&rdquo; is also misguided and naive.&nbsp; And, it would be equally so for Golden Retrievers, Labs, or Basset Hounds.&nbsp; </p> <p>As is so often the case, it&rsquo;s just not that simple. </p> <p>Dogs behave &ldquo;dangerously&rdquo; or exhibit behaviors that can harm or frighten humans (barking, lunging, biting, jumping, mouthing, scratching) for a variety of reasons.&nbsp; The underlying cause of these behaviors in any given dog could be (1) a combination of genetics, rearing, socialization, and present circumstances; (2) a medical condition; (3) frustration, fear, or stress; (4) lack of training and/or appropriate outlets for energy and expression of normal dog behaviors; or (5) psychological damage due to past experience (e.g., abuse, neglect, or extreme fright).&nbsp; Rarely is there just one single factor at play.&nbsp; While suffering abuse can certainly render a dog fearful and unstable for life, cases of dog abuse are actually rare.&nbsp; It is far more likely that the dangerous or unruly dog you encounter became that way due to the &ldquo;crime&rdquo; of human ignorance.&nbsp; </p> <p>Lovers of Pit Bull type dogs undermine their own credibility when they make na&iuml;ve assertions &nbsp;&nbsp;about the benevolence of <em>all</em> Pit Bulls.&nbsp; Dogs with &ldquo;issues&rdquo; come in all breeds and mixes, &ldquo;Pitties&rdquo; not excluded.&nbsp; Pit Bull type dogs have become very popular and many have been bred without any regard for physical and psychological soundness.&nbsp; </p> <p>Pit Bull owners and lovers need to focus not so much on changing the <em>perception</em> of their breed, but on changing the reality.&nbsp; Everyone who owns and loves a Pit Bull can do the most good for the breed&rsquo;s reputation by making sure that their dogs are model canine citizens or, when that&rsquo;s not possible (because some &ldquo;issues&rdquo; can never be overcome, despite an owner&rsquo;s best efforts), by being model dog owners.&nbsp; </p> <p>A model owner of a Pit Bull type dog understands that he has a responsibility to show the community that Pit Bulls can be well-behaved, safe, non-threatening dogs.&nbsp; Specifically, I&rsquo;d be thrilled to see all Pit and Pit-mix owners take the following measures:&nbsp; </p> <p>(1)&nbsp; Train your dog!&nbsp; If you are going to take your Pit Bull out in the community, he should respond to your commands to sit, lie down, wait, &ldquo;leave it,&rdquo; and come when called.&nbsp; Taking a Pit Bull out in the world that you cannot control sets your dog, and the entire breed, up for failure.&nbsp; </p> <p>Imagine your dog gets away from you by accident and runs toward an elderly person.&nbsp; You call the dog, but he has not been trained to come when called, and in his excitement and confusion, knocks the elderly person to the ground, causing an injury.&nbsp; It doesn&rsquo;t matter that your dog had no intent to harm.&nbsp; The headline in the paper will focus on the fact that a &ldquo;Pit Bull&rdquo; dog &ldquo;attacked&rdquo; and injured an elderly person who was minding his or her own business.&nbsp; It is your duty as a Pit Bull owner to consider this type of scenario and prevent it.&nbsp; No excuses.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>(2)&nbsp; Understand your dog&rsquo;s body language and respond appropriately when your dog behaves in a way that is intimidating to other dogs or people.&nbsp; I&rsquo;m talking about things that many dog owners ignore, such as staring, pulling at the leash, and posturing.&nbsp; Excuses for these behaviors are unacceptable:&nbsp; &ldquo;He just wants to play.&rdquo;&nbsp; It doesn&rsquo;t matter what you believe your dog &ldquo;wants&rdquo; when he stares or barks at another dog.&nbsp; Staring is interpreted as an act of aggression by many dogs and it&rsquo;s your job to redirect your dog when he or she engages in any intense behavior suggestive of aggression toward another dog.&nbsp; Period.&nbsp; No excuses.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>(3)&nbsp; Do not allow your Pit Bull dog to be a bully at the dog park, jump up on strangers, or take hold of human body parts with his/her mouth. Allowing these behaviors only sets you up for the inevitable misunderstanding in which you find yourself explaining, &ldquo;she didn&rsquo;t mean to . . .&rdquo;&nbsp; If you can&rsquo;t eliminate these behaviors in your dog, then keep him on leash and under control in public.</p> <p>And finally, I have to include the obvious . . . </p> <p>(4)&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t breed your Pit Bull or Pit Bull mix and make sure he/she is spayed or neutered.</p> <p>No question that all dog owners should take their responsibility to public safety and public perception just as seriously.&nbsp; <strong>But all dog owners don&rsquo;t bear the extra burden of needing to prove to society that their dogs deserve to live.</strong>&nbsp; Is it fair?&nbsp; No.&nbsp; Does fairness matter?&nbsp; No; we already know that we can&rsquo;t win-over public perception by pronouncing how unfair it is to label the entire breed based on the acts of some.&nbsp; This will always be a losing argument when there are disfigured children and torn-up limbs on the other side of the equation. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> I&rsquo;m reminded of the highly popular Gandhi quote, &ldquo;be the change you want to see in the world.&rdquo; &nbsp;&nbsp;If Pit Bull lovers want to change the reputation of the breed, they must make every effort to help their dogs become the model canine citizens that they want us all to believe they are!&nbsp; No excuses.Tief's Top Ten Things to Consider Before Surrendering your Pet at an Animal Shelterhttp://www.cuhumane.org/NewsEvents/CCHSBlog/TabId/106/PostId/7/Tiefs-Top-Ten-Things-to-Consider-Before-Surrenderi.aspxThere are times when surrendering a pet to the humane society is the best option for the animal or the animal's owners. The Champaign County Humane Society's shelter is an open admission facility that accepts all companion animals brought by their owners for surrender.Programs & Services,Surrendering PetsSat, 04 Feb 2012 14:32:33 GMT<h3>1. Your animal is not a &ldquo;donation&rdquo; to the shelter.</h3> <p>Caring for animals costs the shelter more money than it earns in adoption and relinquishment fees. And in most communities, more animals need new homes than can be found for them. No matter how cute and wonderful your pets are, the shelter would prefer not to have them.</p> <h3>2. Are you truly ready to permanently sever your bond with your pet?</h3> <p>Surrendering your animal to a shelter is not a retractable act. It&rsquo;s not a temporary fix. It should be your option of last resort. If you have no other options, you can trust that a good animal shelter will treat your animal humanely, even though they cannot guarantee that your animal will go on to have a wonderful story-book life with a new family. That&rsquo;s the best that a shelter can promise. </p> <p>Shelters do not exist to provide temporary respite for pet owners with problems. When you commit the act of animal relinquishment, you are proclaiming that, for whatever reason, you are not in a position to responsibly and permanently provide care to that animal. When the shelter screens applicants for adoption, they are looking for someone who is in a position to provide just that. &ldquo;I changed my mind&rdquo; is not likely to constitute sufficient evidence of a new-found ability to care for your pet. In addition, shelters don&rsquo;t have sufficient resources to care for animals on a revolving door basis. If you have other options, pursue them before you surrender your animal to a shelter.</p> <h3>3. Giving up responsibility means giving up power.</h3> <p>If you want to retain a say in what happens to your animal, you aren&rsquo;t ready to surrender him/her to a shelter. When you surrender an animal to a shelter you are transferring the financial burden of caring for your animal to a public charity. That charity now has to determine not only what is best for your animal, but what steps are necessary to maintain the health and safety of all other animals in the facility, the shelter&rsquo;s staff, and the shelter&rsquo;s volunteers. The shelter must also protect its reputation for adopting out healthy and temperamentally sound family pets. By relinquishing the animal to the shelter, you give up the right to determine what is best for that animal.</p> <h3>4. An animal shelter&rsquo;s top priority is the welfare of its entire animal population, not the welfare of any one animal. </h3> <p>Some medical conditions that are considered minor and treatable for a pet living at home can be devastating in an animal shelter environment. Animals living in close proximity to each other and under stressful conditions are less able to fend off pathogens than animals living in homes. Medical personnel at animal shelters have to be vigilant and proactive in diagnosing contagious medical conditions and preventing them from affecting other animals at the shelter. </p> <p>When you surrender an unhealthy animal to a shelter you are placing other animals at risk. While good shelters use sound protocols to reduce disease transmission, the risk of disease outbreak is always present and when you surrender any animal to a shelter (even a healthy one), you put him/her at risk from exposure to other animals.</p> <h3>5. Your animal&rsquo;s behavior may be different at the shelter than what it was at home.</h3> <p>The environment at an animal shelter is foreign and stressful to most animals. They have been separated from their pack. They are surrounded by strange scents, sounds, other animals, and people. They are housed in kennels or cages with limited opportunities for exercise and interaction. Everything they know is gone. Their routine is drastically changed. </p> <p>While some animals adapt to the change within a few days, others have a hard time handling shelter life and display behaviors that you never saw at home. Shelter stress can cause an animal who at home was slightly reserved with strangers to become an animal that displays extreme fear in meeting people. It is impossible to predict how your dog or cat will respond to the stress of being left at a shelter.</p> <h3>6. If you could not solve your animal&rsquo;s behavior problems, are you being realistic in expecting somebody else to take them on?</h3> <p>If your pet already has behavior issues, they are not likely to improve or go away while the animal is living at the shelter. And how many people that you know want to adopt an animal that has behavior problems? Would you adopt an animal that is soiling the house, can&rsquo;t be left home alone, attacks other animals, or nips at strangers?</p> <p>If you are having problems with your pet&rsquo;s behavior, resources are available. It&rsquo;s important to take action as soon as a problem arises because most behavior problems will get worse if steps are not taken to address the behaviors and the underlying cause. Start with a call to your veterinarian &ndash; many behavior problems arise due to a medical condition.</p> <h3>7. Lying about your animal&rsquo;s health, behavior, or the reason you are relinquishing the animal puts your animal at risk as well as shelter staff, volunteers, and the public. The shelter needs as much accurate information about your animal as you can provide.</h3> <p>If you&rsquo;re giving up the animal because of a behavior problem, let the shelter know. However, if you&rsquo;re giving up the animal because you just don&rsquo;t have time or money to provide for him/her, don&rsquo;t exaggerate the animal&rsquo;s behavioral issues to assuage your guilt. </p> <p>Omitting information about your animal&rsquo;s behavior problem is not only unfair to the shelter, but is unfair to the family that may eventually adopt your pet. And, it puts your animal at risk of once again being returned to a shelter.</p> <h3>8. Understand the policies of the agency you are surrendering the animal to.</h3> <p>There are animal shelters that call themselves &ldquo;no kill&rdquo; but still euthanize &ldquo;unadoptable&rdquo; animals. There are animal shelters that call themselves &ldquo;no kill&rdquo; and don&rsquo;t provide humane outcomes for the animals they take in. Don&rsquo;t rely on labels. Depending on the shelter&rsquo;s intake policies (do they take all comers regardless of health, age, or temperament? Or do they turn animals away that are not adoptable or because the agency is full?) &ldquo;Unadoptable&rdquo; can serve as a catch-all term for a wide range of health and behavioral issues. And, the term&rsquo;s definition can change based on whether the shelter has empty kennels or is full to capacity. If it matters to you, ask the shelter staff how they determine adoptability.</p> <h3>9. Shelters require you to read and sign relinquishment forms for a reason. Read them!</h3> <p>If the form states that your animal may be euthanized, believe it. If you cannot live with that possibility, do not surrender your animal to that facility.</p> <h3>10. When you surrender an animal to an animal shelter, you are asking a group of compassionate people to take on a burden that you are unwilling or unable to bear yourself.</h3> <p>Be nice. </p>CCHS Giant Memorial Day Garage Sale: 26 years and countinghttp://www.cuhumane.org/NewsEvents/CCHSBlog/TabId/106/PostId/6/cchs-giant-garage-sale.aspxWho would have thought that a modest garage sale on a driveway on Iowa Street in Urbana in the summer of 1985 would go on for 25 more years and get bigger every year?Volunteer OpportunitiesSat, 04 Feb 2012 14:21:25 GMT<p>Who would have thought that a modest garage sale on a driveway on Iowa Street in Urbana in the summer of 1985 would go on for 25 more years and get bigger every year?</p> <p>The CCHS Giant Garage Sale, so called because we can think of no better way to describe it, was born as a volunteer effort for the building campaign for the &ldquo;new&rdquo; shelter in Urbana. We moved into the new building three years later, but the need for funds continued, and besides, we had so much darned much fun. </p> <p>That first sale yielded $1500, an astonishing sum to us for an event back then. We held the next two sales in the old Sears Roebuck store on Neil Street in Champaign, then in 1988, we moved to the Champaign County Fairgrounds, where we&rsquo;ve stayed ever since. </p> <h3>The Rewards</h3> <p>Putting on this sale every year is work - darned hard work - and the volunteers who come back year after year would offer a variety of reasons for their loyalty, but for me the bottom line is this: Every year in mid May a wacky and delightful community of comrades springs up under the shade trees of the Fairgrounds, lasts for an intense couple of weeks, then quietly folds for another year. </p> <p>During that interval we greet old friends and make new ones; dig through stuff, sometimes finding treasures and sometimes finding crap; get dirty, get hot, get cold; lift heavy boxes and unload cars; meet the public and get a chance to offer our thanks for their support; laugh, get sore feet; marvel with each other - &ldquo;What IS this thing?&rdquo;. </p> <p>For hundreds of volunteers over the years, it has simply been a blast.</p> <h3>Window on Popular Culture</h3> <p>And it&rsquo;s not just the entertainment, but the window it provides on popular culture and fading technologies over the years. We remember the first microwave, the first exercise equipment and the last beta tape. We remember a year we had 35 manual typewriters and another that brought us 12 red electric woks. </p> <p>In the past few years we&rsquo;ve seen the &ldquo;As Seen on TV&rdquo; trend, which well predicts what to expect. This year was the first for chocolate fountains and we had three! George Foreman grills are tapering off as digital cameras and printers flow in. The Pet Supply department experienced a surge in doggy fashion apparel, including a Santa outfit, and reports that Plexiglas aquariums are a hot item. The Boutique received a number of highly desirable blown glass paperweights, and Personal Care is happy to report the demise of the foot bath, for this year at least. Gardening had an abundance of wind chimes and wants everyone to know we can sell every single canna bulb and garden tool that anyone cares to donate. Sporting Goods received a number fishing poles this year, which sold like hotcakes and customers kept asking for more, so if you&rsquo;ve got fishing equipment you no longer use, do keep us in your thoughts. </p> <h3>Recycling Pays Off</h3> <p>A few years ago we started a recycling program during the sale, which brought in additional cash for the over 3000 lbs metal we can extract and the truckload of clothing, shoes and linens we send to a St. Louis firm who pays us by the pound and processes it for textile recovery or resale.</p> <h3>Is it worth it?</h3> <p>But aside from all the fun and culture, what&rsquo;s the bottom line? Has it been worth it? </p> <p>I&rsquo;ll say it has, and this year was another record breaker. 155 volunteers spent 4,528 hours and as of this writing, raised $53,533 for the shelter during the two day sale. Since that first driveway, the CCHS Giant Garage Sale has brought in an astonishing $600,000, all going to care for the animals. We&rsquo;ll say it again: our volunteers are the best in town, and year after year, astonish us with their dedication, compassion and good nature. </p> <h3>Thank to Our Sponsors</h3> <p>We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Champaign County Fair Association for allowing us to occupy their beautiful setting once again, and special thanks to the donors who generously provide us goods to sell, and to our business partners who provide the snacks, drinking water, semitrailers, masking tape, markers, plywood, cash registers, trash hauling, recycling bins, shopping carts, tables, and bags that we need for this sale:</p> <p>Alexander's Lumber, Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, U. of I. Do-It-Best Hardware Champaign , McCormick's Food , Michael's Catering, Rogards Office Products, Schnuck's Urbana, Interstate Trailer and Equipment, Urbana U-Cycle, Community Resource, Champaign County Fair Association.</p> <h3>See You Next Year?</h3> <p>It&rsquo;ll happen again next year, so mark your calendars. We move into Kesler Hall on the second Sunday in May, start to accept donations from the public a few days later, and hold the sale on the Friday and Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend. We absolutely guarantee bargains galore, and it this sounds like something you&rsquo;d like do, send an email to 2.volunteer@cuhumane.org and ask about how to sign up.</p>