Proposed dog law may bite into SPCA coffers (shelter below 85 degrees, etc)

[The Straight Story]

Proposed dog law may bite into SPCA coffers

By MARK MARONEY [e-mail]

Newly proposed regulations to change the state dog law could put the Lycoming County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to animals out of business, its leadership said Wednesday.

“These proposals will put non-profit shelters out of business, leaving the department without adequate housing for its strays or confiscated animals,” Victoria Stryker, executive director of the SPCA on Reach Road, wrote Mary Bender, director of the state Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement, in a letter.

Requirements such as keeping the shelter below 85 degrees would require the facility to install air-conditioning costing an estimated $55,000, Stryker said.

“Where am I going to get that?” she asked. Stryker agreed that humidity levels should be monitored to ensure health and well-being of the dogs.

Fans and doors are opened during the summer months at the facility, she said.

...

Other proposed changes include doubling cage sizes, requiring 20 minutes of exercise daily and improving temperature controls, sanitation, ventilation and lighting in kennels

http://www.sungazette.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=15680

Hopefully there will be some companies there that can donate the things needed.

[havocmom]

1. That' it, I'm growin fur and turning myself in as a stray.

Took a thermometer to work last summer. It often got above 100 inside.

Seriously, glad to hear the critters will get some consideration. Just hope they don't shorten the time before execution to cut costs now.

[Wilms]

2. Make breeders pay.

I hope no one's offended. I'm sure there are many a good breeder providing a needed service. But we all (could) know the rest of the story.

[pnwmom]

3. It doesn't really make sense, since dogs in the wild have to deal

with hot weather. And dogs live with humans in unairconditioned homes. The shelter SHOULD make sure the dogs get plenty of water at all times.

And why should dogs be protected from high temperatures and not humans? What about the human elderly who die when subjected to weather extremes? Nothing has been mandated for them.

[Tracyjo]

4. How big is this place?

Requirements such as keeping the shelter below 85 degrees would require the facility to install air-conditioning costing an estimated $55,000, Stryker said.

Can't they just spend a couple hundred dollars on a window unit?

I can't believe they can't come up with a compromise on this.

[Hidden Stillness]

5. This Story Doesn't Actually Make Any Sense

This is actually a very strange story, and I am completely baffled as to the attitude of the head of the Pennsylvania SPCA, Victoria Stryker. "Where am I going to get that?" referring to the money needed for new air conditioning. What? Are you kidding? What kind of a person would even say that? Non-profits are constantly holding fundraising events to raise money for ongoing shelter expenses, and from the contact I have had with shelter-related people, they are highly creative when it comes to organizing contests, raffles, walks, dinners, auctions, selling calendars with local star atheletes, open house days--and this is all just constant, making contacts all the time to get people to donate things, discounts from animal lovers, etc., etc. It even sounds like the SPCA person here, Stryker, is trying to obscure the issue, and get the law killed on behalf of commercial sellers, although I can't imagine why. No law would jeopardize animal protection and anti-cruelty groups to get at commercial abusers! The whole article, however, only painted this "dire" picture of "threat" to shelters, and never even referred to the true abuses by commercial dog sellers, which has led to this reform. Very suspicious on the part of the media story here.

As someone who has volunteered to walk dogs at a shelter during all kinds of weather, I can assure you that a hot summer day with no cooling or ventilation is deathly, and the dogs suffer. You hope they have water. Also, the claim that you would have to walk a vicious dog, (made during the article), who will probably have to be euthanized because of safety and liability concerns, is preposterous. The whole thing seems like a strange "plant," like the current media attacks on the fired Federal Attorneys, questioning their experiences of being threatened by Republicans.