The director of the Broward County Animal Care, a county shelter for animals in need of a new home, has been on the job since May.
Doug Brightwell recently said that about 20% of the dog population at the shelter has been there for over 100 days and that is a long time.
“All of our long-term stay dogs are big dogs over 50 pounds,” Brightwell said. “All the dogs are walked, all the dogs are fed and all the cages are cleaned before we open for the day.”
Brightwell was the director of Animal Services in Pinellas County for nearly a decade.
“An under-sized facility is a detriment to us as far as being able to take animals in as quickly as the public wants us to sometimes,” Brightwell said.
Broward County spent over $16 million to build the 40,000-square-foot shelter with a capacity for 335 animals less than 10 years ago.
“They bring in the strays, they’re healthy, they’re not aggressive, so we will ask that citizen, ‘Can you just harbor this animal for us, foster it in your home? We will give you the supplies you need. We will give you fliers to put up in the neighborhood,’” Brightwell said.
One of his goals is to reduce the time the dogs’ stay in the shelter.
“If we can get our dogs cycling in and out of here in an average of two weeks that shows that we are doing right by the dogs, the community trusts us,” Brightwell said. “We are either getting them back home or we are getting them into new homes.”
The shelter still needs to average a 90% live release rate to be considered a “No-Kill” facility.
“It stays in the mid-80s most of the time and we try to always get it higher, it’s just a day-to-day struggle,” Brightwell said. “We are not going to euthanize for space; we are not going to euthanize for time. Our longest-term dog here right now has been here like 430 days.”
Brightline said the shelter needs volunteers and more support from rescue groups.
“We always say that for every one [dog] that you take, you save two because you save the one that you have taken out and you saved the one that can now come in,” said Claire Cornish, of Popo Pitbulls Rescue, a Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit organization.
The shelter has an annual budget of $14 million, less than 1% of the county’s budget. It has nearly 100 staff and four veterinarians.
More than 6,000 pets come in every year and sterilization is a challenge.
“We get our tag revenue coming in, we get the public licensing as we should, and we will be getting much more sterilization done for TNR cats and owned cats and dogs,” Brightwell said.
Trap neuter release for feral cats uses a voucher system and is budgeted through the tag program, which is underfunded.
While the annual surgeries are in the thousands, the county needs tens of thousands to control the population.
“Those are shocking numbers considering what we need to accomplish, but we can only accomplish what we have the finances to pay for,” Brightwell said.
The shelter needs more people to adopt the pets.
“If we had all the budget money in the world, but if nobody is coming in to reclaim their pets or adopt these pets or transfer these pets to rescues, you would just have to build bigger buildings and hold more of them,” Brightwell said. “That is not the goal.”
The director of the Broward County Animal Care, a county shelter for animals in need of a new home, has been on the job since May.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The director of the Broward County Animal Care, a county shelter for animals in need of a new home, has been on the job since May.
Doug Brightwell recently said that about 20% of the dog population at the shelter has been there for over 100 days and that is a long time.
“All of our long-term stay dogs are big dogs over 50 pounds,” Brightwell said. “All the dogs are walked, all the dogs are fed and all the cages are cleaned before we open for the day.”
Brightwell was the director of Animal Services in Pinellas County for nearly a decade.
“An under-sized facility is a detriment to us as far as being able to take animals in as quickly as the public wants us to sometimes,” Brightwell said.
Broward County spent over $16 million to build the 40,000-square-foot shelter with a capacity for 335 animals less than 10 years ago.
“They bring in the strays, they’re healthy, they’re not aggressive, so we will ask that citizen, ‘Can you just harbor this animal for us, foster it in your home? We will give you the supplies you need. We will give you fliers to put up in the neighborhood,’” Brightwell said.
One of his goals is to reduce the time the dogs’ stay in the shelter.
“If we can get our dogs cycling in and out of here in an average of two weeks that shows that we are doing right by the dogs, the community trusts us,” Brightwell said. “We are either getting them back home or we are getting them into new homes.”
The shelter still needs to average a 90% live release rate to be considered a “No-Kill” facility.
“It stays in the mid-80s most of the time and we try to always get it higher, it’s just a day-to-day struggle,” Brightwell said. “We are not going to euthanize for space; we are not going to euthanize for time. Our longest-term dog here right now has been here like 430 days.”
Brightline said the shelter needs volunteers and more support from rescue groups.
“We always say that for every one [dog] that you take, you save two because you save the one that you have taken out and you saved the one that can now come in,” said Claire Cornish, of Popo Pitbulls Rescue, a Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit organization.
The shelter has an annual budget of $14 million, less than 1% of the county’s budget. It has nearly 100 staff and four veterinarians.
More than 6,000 pets come in every year and sterilization is a challenge.
“We get our tag revenue coming in, we get the public licensing as we should, and we will be getting much more sterilization done for TNR cats and owned cats and dogs,” Brightwell said.
Trap neuter release for feral cats uses a voucher system and is budgeted through the tag program, which is underfunded.
While the annual surgeries are in the thousands, the county needs tens of thousands to control the population.
“Those are shocking numbers considering what we need to accomplish, but we can only accomplish what we have the finances to pay for,” Brightwell said.
The shelter needs more people to adopt the pets.
“If we had all the budget money in the world, but if nobody is coming in to reclaim their pets or adopt these pets or transfer these pets to rescues, you would just have to build bigger buildings and hold more of them,” Brightwell said. “That is not the goal.”
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
