This morning I turned on my car radio to WAMU 88.5 and was thrilled to hear a story about local animal shelters. The reporter interviewed representatives from the Washington Humane Society and Montgomery County Animal Services about the tremendous influx of cats and dogs in the spring and summer months and the shortage of people interested in adopting them.
The interviews pointed up the sadness and frustration that shelter workers experience when animals keep pouring in (up to 100 cats per day in Washington) and there aren’t enough homes for them. It’s great to hear the news media presenting an animal story from the shelter workers’ point of view. These are the people on the front lines of animal welfare who must cope with the consequences of their community’s failure to spay and neuter their pets.
We in Arlington are fortunate to have animals coming into the shelter in much smaller numbers than in Washington, but summer crowding is always a problem. We currently have 54 cats available for adoption, some of which have been with us for months. If any WAMU listeners are inspired to adopt a pet from a local animal shelter or to spay and neuter their current pets, then the story was a huge benefit to animal welfare in our community.
