Is FREE Even Helping?
Here is a post by from the No-Kill Delaware facebook page who does have contacts within the Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary who handles dog control for Kent County.
This post was made this week, based on a recent television appearance by Safe Haven's director. I've tried to stay away from discussing Safe Haven because I wanted to give them an opportunity to get their affairs in order after their board removed their previous executive director, but there still appears to be issues there.
Despite handing out animals for free, their seems to be a disconnect in regards to how many animals are in their care. The No-Kill Delaware post above touts the fact that they claim to only have 170 dogs and that their dog population has decreased due to "adoptions, transfers to Faithful Friends and Pitbull Pride, even as more stray dogs are picked up in Kent County". While that sounds great on the surface, many of us are still hearing that animals are going out the door without being spayed or neutered. I can't confirm that, but before we were hearing similar second hand information, and as it turned out that it was true.
It's also disconcerting that there seems to be so many discrepancies in the information that is coming out of Safe Haven. Keep in mind that they have yet to post any statistics for even the first quarter (ending 9/30) that they had the Kent County contract, so the discrepancies are even more of an issue. Today, one of their board members sent out an appeal to rescues for help that directly contradicts the lowering dog population statement last week.
Subject: Introducing Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary
Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary is in Georgetown, DE. Our web site is http://www.safehavende.org/.
We just became a Network Partner for No More Homeless Pets and need help.
We took the animal control contract in Kent County, DE away from a kill shelter. They currently have the contract for the other 2 counties in DE. Safe Haven may bid for those when the current contract expires. We are overflowing with animals and are paying kennels in our area to handle this problem. We currently have over 200 dogs at our shelter and 70 cats. We also feed 900 cats thru our Pet Pantry program.
Could you possibly take some of our dogs? Any help you may provide would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Board Member
Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary
I have taken out the board members name due to the fact that CAPA has made Delaware a litigation haven for attorneys, but it has been passed onto a number of people that can confirm it exists, and I have it on file.
I haven't seen any major increase in the numbers of lost dogs picked up on Safe Haven's website or Facebook page, so how are they now "overflowing" with over 200 dogs again. And sadly, while the math part is disconcerting enough, it's how unrealistic and unprofessional this organization must be to think that they are prepared to take on 2 other counties when they are warehousing animals in boarding kennels in their desperation to keep these dogs alive at any cost and that's with only handling one county contract.
As I've noted before, I don't understand how our state attorney general can sit by and wait for this to get even worse. My fear is that Delaware will end up in the national headlines like Lied Animal Shelter did in 2007. And while some will argue that it doesn't matter because "alive is all that matters", there is suffering in being warehoused and the eventual outbreaks that usually occur as a result.
On A Lighter Note
It appears our legislators also have a similar dysfunction with math. There was an email posted on the No-Kill Delaware Facebook page from Senator Patricia Blevins.
The part that amused me was the reference to the Shelter Standards law (CAPA) being "enacted nearly 4 years ago". I'm not sure how she can think 4 years have gone by since July 2010, rather than the actual 2.5 years. But then again we have had enough drama to create a 10 year soap opera already.
I'm glad the amount of time feels longer to the legislators that made this mess. I'm sure it feels even longer to the poor animals that are suffering in boarding kennels without any sign of the problems abating.
