Animal Shelters should be a refuge that accepts every unwanted, lost, and homeless animal without restrictions, fees, or waiting lists. The animal shelter should never turn animals away for being too sick, injured, old, or aggressive. 

How do you measure the success at any animal shelter?  The measure of success should address how the shelter is reducing the animal population in their area of responsibility.   To do this you must look at the animal intake numbers: “animals brought in” and “animals picked up”.  The total of these intake numbers forms the basis of why any animal shelter exists, and the extent of the animal problem in your area.  The goal of your shelter should be to reduce this total intake number, not by turning animals away, or other gimmicks, but by providing spays and neuters to the community owned animals. 

We actually did this at our animal shelter.  By providing free spays and neuters to the citizen’s animals living in our service area beginning July 2000 ; this had a direct effect in reducing the average number of animals coming into the Shelter each year from 1,642 to 452.  In summation, we took a different path, by focusing on the animal intake problem; we provided 12,386 Free Spays and Neuters throughout the community.  

All animal experts have agreed for years that spaying and neutering is the most important focus to help solve the unwanted animal overpopulation problem. The HACC, Inc wanted to take this proposition one step further and test this idea at a public Animal Shelter. The animal shelter would provide free spays and neuters to all the citizens living in the service area. The goal of this test is to reduce the number of unwanted dogs and cats coming into the animal shelter.

Twenty years ago we began a long term commitment to privatize the county animal shelter. The goals we had were to increase adoptions and provide a better quality of life for shelter animals, and most of all help solve the animal overpopulation problems. We are happy to have success in all three areas.