North Carolina euthanized more than 47,000 shelter pets in 2019, third most in the United States behind California and Texas, according to The Best Friends Network.
A lot of shelters struggle with space, leading to using euthanasia as a way to take in more potentially adoptable pets.
Orange County had a 10% euthanasia rate in 2020. The Best Friends Network ranks the area as “Nearly No Kill,” meaning it has a save rate between 85% and 89.99%.
Tenille Fox, the communication specialist at Orange County Animal Services, attributes this low rate to community support, funding from local government, and spay and neuter programs.
“Our spay-neuter numbers have typically gone up as the other numbers go down and so, there does seem to be a correlation there,” Fox said. “We’ve all pretty much always offered no cost spay and neuter services for households that make up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level guidelines.”
The money from pet licensing fees pays for the program.
Fox said Animal Services receives grant money to offer no cost spay-neuter services for those who make up to 400% of federal poverty guidelines.
“Don’t assume that you don’t qualify because we can help way more people than you think,” Fox said. “But if you don’t qualify, or you’re not an Orange County resident, we can still offer low cost options and talk to you about that.”
Orange County also has a program for spaying and neutering free-roaming cats.
Spaying and neutering pets is an effective way to reduce the number of shelter animals. Spaying pets can also help female animals live a longer and healthier life, and neutering can prevent cancer in male pets. This surgery can also help prevent behavioral issues.
One program that helps with Orange County’s spay and neuter efforts is SNAP, the Spay-Neuter Assistance Program of North Carolina. Its mobile unit comes to the Animal Services parking lot to offer appointments.
“When you have a really robust spay and neuter program you’re going to see lower numbers as far as euthanasia and shelter intake, but particularly euthanasia because if you can keep these unwanted litters from happening just a little bit more,” Fox said.
Sandee Roof from AnimalKind said counties in the eastern part of North Carolina struggle with resources to get better spay and neuter programs.
AnimalKind offers a 20$ Fix program in Orange and Alamance counties. The program helps low-income families by only charging a $20 copay for spay and neuter surgeries. If you don’t qualify for the 20$ fix program, you can still contact AnimalKind for help finding options in your area.
Roof said AnimalKind helps facilitate about 1,000 spay and neuters per year.
AnimalKind was working to expand into eastern N.C. in January 2020, right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. That was put on hold, but Roof hopes they can restart that effort in late 2021.
There is a program called Spay Today in Greenville that has a low-cost spay and neuter program, but it is one of the only of its kind in the region, Roof said.
She said the eastern part of the state is so spread out and there are so few shelters that space becomes an issue, especially with few low-cost clinics.
John Graves, the East strategist for Best Friends, has been working in animal welfare and with shelters in North Carolina since 2006. He began working for Best Friends in 2020 and is contributing to its goal of no-kill 2025 and builds relationships with shelters across the state to accomplish that goal.
Best friends is a national nonprofit that distributes resources and grants to shelters in order to help them find low or no-cost spaying and neutering, start fostering programs and community cat programs.
Community cats are those that are born into and live in the community and aren’t owned by a single individual. Spay and neuter programs help keep the size of free-roaming cat colonies stable.
“That’s a huge issue in North Carolina, access to low income or animal services for shelters and for individuals is so sporadic,” Graves said. “In some areas, there’s just tons of opportunities and there’s tons of things going on, and then in other areas there’s nothing.”
Graves named Johnston County and Robeson County as two examples of this issue. Robeson County is No. 1 in the state and the 14th highest county in the nation for euthanizing.
Though Best Friends doesn’t work directly with Robeson County’s shelter, Graves said it works with individuals who help with low-cost spaying and neutering and pulling animals from the shelter.
“One of the next things we really want to do is help them set up some more community care clinics, like free and low cost vaccines for the public,” Graves said.
Johnston County also has high euthanization rates.
“They are so engaged and they are so ready to see some life saving in their community, and they’ve got a really dedicated team,” Graves said. “I think Johnston’s gonna come really far in the next year.”
Graves said N.C. has limits on the ability to transfer animals from shelters to places where they would receive more help, which contributes to shelter problems.
According to N.C.’s Animal Welfare Act, after the minimum 72-hour holding period when an animal is surrendered to a shelter, it can either be returned to the owner, adopted or euthanized.
Graves said Best Friends just put a bill forward that would allow shelters to transfer ownership of pets in shelters to a rescue group. Right now, he said shelters have to adopt animals out to a member of a rescue group in order to move them.
Graves said the way to support Best Friends’ efforts is to support your local shelter.
“Almost every community in North Carolina has an animal shelter that needs your help or a rescue group that needs your help,” Graves said.
He said shelters and rescue groups always need help fostering, dog walking and socializing animals.
“One of the things that we always needed, and never had enough of was people that were willing to just go in and sit in a room and read a book to themselves and pet a cat,” Graves said. “The cats and the dogs, they get so much from just human interaction.”
Best Friends’ goal of no kill by 2025 is feasible in N.C., Graves said.
“It’s gonna take a lot of work. We know that COVID changed the way we do everything, so it’s definitely changed the way we’re looking at that,” Graves said.
