Campus Dogs: Balancing College and Canines

Assignment 3

By: Taylor Carney, Steven Turville and Gabe Safford

     The Athens County Dog Shelter has long faced both local and state wide criticisms for its outdated euthanization techniques and inability to find suitable homes for its abundance of rescued animals. The Athens shelter, one of only 17 left statewide to do so, employs the use of a gas chamber when euthanizing rescued animals.

     The shelter is underprepared for the increasing number of pets that are dropped off or collected by local volunteers. A minimal amount of cages and limited funding has halted most efforts the shelters puts forth for finding their pets good homes.

Two dogs getting to know each other at the 6th annual Athens
County Human Society Mutt Strut on Saturday, June 2nd
at the West State Dog Park and Pavilion.

    Many local pet enthusiasts have attempted to pinpoint an exact cause of the problem and one glaring concern that all involved in combating the shelters practices have found is the amount of animals the shelter houses that were once pets of Ohio University students. Students often house pets without landlord approval and upon graduation rarely have plans for their pets. All too often this leaves students with the grizzly task of dropping their pet off at a shelter with limited cages and procedural practice that usually calls for euthanization.

     During several interviews, both students and representatives from the Athens Country Humane society and Athens County Dog Shelter were asked to share their thoughts on the practices of the Athens County Dog Shelter, as well as give us insight into how to address the growing concern surrounding the facility.

Athens County Dog Shelter

     It became clear that all those looking from the outside in were concerned with not only the safety of their pets but the continued safety of animals throughout Athens. If a student’s animal runs away especially if they have the pet against their landlords will, there is a good chance that upon being brought into the Athens shelter, that pet could be euthanized. This often happens within days of rescue and gives pet owners little time to execute a thorough search. Most pet owning students agreed that developing an initiative that demands each pet is properly “shopped” around for possible new owners would help to alleviate the sentiment felt towards the dog shelter.

     Whether or not such a program will be implemented by the shelter is yet to be seen, however local concern is usually enough to spark interest and, as more a more students are becoming aware of the controversial practices of the dog shelter, the likelihood of a policy change is high.

     There is a necessity for each county state wide to develop euthanization practices, however, the regularity of the euthanization and the methods in which it is preformed is what has brought the Athens County Dog Shelter under the gun. Most residents of Athens seem to agree that serious changes need to be made in order for trust to be developed between the dog shelter and the local community.