Humane Society asks for no more guests in coming weeks
The Cheboygan Humane Society (CHS) has been near capacity, if not full, the last two weeks, and the executive director of the facility is asking pet owners in Presque Isle and Cheboygan Counties who need to drop off an animal to wait until next week. Last Thursday the Presque Isle County Sheriff?s Department was informed that the CHS was full and not able to accept any animals.
The CHS has 26 kennels and 24 cat cages, but at the height of the overcrowding last week, they had 32 dogs and 28 cats. Since then, executive director Mary Talaske says the situation has been corrected but they?ll remain near capacity until Saturday when an adopt-a-thon involving 10 animal shelters from northern Michigan is conducted at the Emmet County Fairgrounds.
?We?re hoping we?re going clean out our shelter,? said Talaske. Until then, Talaske is asking citizens in the two counties to call ahead if they can?t wait until next week. ?We don?t want to turn anybody away because we are so afraid that if you tell people that they can?t bring them in, then they?ll dump them,? said Talaske, who has worked at the CHS for 28 years.
THE CHEBOYGAN shelter reached a critical level two weeks ago when the Presque Isle animal control officer confiscated 12 dogs from a Millersburg farm. The owner hadn?t been around to take care of them. ?That has since been resolved,? said Talaske. ?The guy signed off on them and those animals are gone. It?s been a real hectic two weeks.?
This typically is a bad time of year for dogs and cats, as strays are picked up the first part of summer. ?I think we see a lot of this when kids first get out of school,? said Talaske. ?The parents go somewhere and they are too cheap to board their dogs, so they get rid of them, which is a sad thing to teach a child: as soon as something gets inconvenient, just get rid of it.?
?THAT AND the kids take Spot with them, and Spot gets lost, and mom and dad won?t go looking for them. They?re glad Spot?s gone, because they didn?t want him in the first place.? Talaske wanted to remind people that owning a pet is a 10-to 15-year commitment, not something that lasts only until the dog or cat is not cute and fuzzy anymore. ?We really feel bad when we have to turn people away because we?re full, because we?re so
A growing trend in other counties in Michigan may be creating more unfair treatment to animals, she said, as shelters are turning to a ?no kill? concept. ?It?s also what?s called a limited access shelter, which means they only take in animals they can place and turn everybody else away. That philosophy bothers me.?
Talaske said some shelters won?t accept a dog or a cat unless they believe it can be placed. Animals turned away, in most cases, are dumped. Instead of being humanely destroyed, the animals starve, get hit by vehicles, or are shot for trespassing, she said.
The phone number at the CHS is 231-238-8221.