Hundreds of dogs still put down at county pound

Lucas County Dog Warden Julie Lyle checks the temperament of Hillary, a female miniature Pinscher. THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Warden Julie Lyle uses a fake arm to see if a 'pit bull' will bite to defend a food bowl. Dozens have been put down because the pound was at capacity for them. THE BLADE/LORI KING Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Considering the feverish pace of euthanasia a year ago at the Lucas County pound, it was a relatively laid-back summer for the doggy death squad.

Between June 1 and Aug. 31, Dog Warden Julie Lyle euthanized 389 impounded dogs, or 132 fewer than the 521 killed in the same period in 2009 by former Warden Tom Skeldon, according to a Blade review of department records.

The declining kill rate is outstanding news for local animal advocates and the likely result of Ms. Lyle's emphasis on adoptions, de-emphasis on eliminating certain breeds, and her willingness to transfer well-behaved dogs to rescue groups.

Even though lethal injection is down, scores of dogs still are meeting an early death at the Lucas County pound, especially those breeds classified under "pit bull."

So far, members of the animal-advocate community whose outrage pushed Mr. Skeldon from office are showing patience toward Ms. Lyle, who arrived in April from Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

"I think her numbers will continue to improve, but it's going to take some time because we have issues with spay and neuter in our community," Jean Keating, co-founder of the Ohio Coalition of Dog Advocates and a member of the Lucas County Dog Warden Advisory Committee, said.

Recently the department opened a Facebook.com account, where it announces dogs for adoption and the dates of its "adopt-a-thons." It also maintains a presence on Petfinder.com.

"The fact that they are doing adopt-a-thons is amazing to me," said Tamara Ernst, co-founder of 4 Lucas County Pets and a leading critic of Mr. Skeldon and his high kill rate. "They have gone above and beyond measures that they were previously very hands-off about. By and large, I don't think any of us can complain and say she's not doing a good job."

In an interview, Ms. Lyle described how she continues to work on several fronts to increase adoptions and the number of dogs that leave the pound alive. Additional resources and new initiatives, such as a proposed volunteer program, could assist in those efforts. Yet her overarching problem remains one of dog-pound economics: plentiful supply for insufficient demand.

The pound was at capacity last week with 113 dogs. Ms. Lyle said she would welcome more room and larger cages but doesn't consider bigger space a cure-all.

"I don't need more cages to stick them in; I need somewhere for them to go." Ms. Lyle said, referring to adoption homes.

"We're not a boarding kennel. And dogs, particularly 'pit bull'-type dogs, don't last very long in a shelter environment. They just don't. So to house more of them and make them sit in a cage for no purpose doesn't appeal to me," she said.

Ms. Lyle insisted that she has yet to euthanize dogs that aren't "pit bulls" for purely space reasons. Still, records show that dozens of "pit bull-type dogs" were put down this summer because the pound was deemed "at capacity" for them.

"Pit bull" is a generic descriptive term for a dog trained to fight and may refer to multiple breeds, including the American Staffordshire terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, and American pit bull terrier.

Lucas County commissioners do not allow direct adoptions of "pit bulls" to the public. And Ms. Lyle's predecessor killed any and all "pit bulls" that entered the pound and weren't reclaimed by an owner.

The situation improved this spring after the humane society agreed to accept as transfers the dog warden's best-behaved "pit bulls," providing the first pipeline out of the pound for those dogs - and, it is hoped, into loving homes. Still, the supply of well-behaved "pit bulls" exceeds adoption demand and many adoptable dogs are killed each week at the county pound.

Ms. Lyle said she is not interested in setting aside more than the maximum of five "pit bulls" for potential transfer to the humane society. Many "pit bulls" wait in vain for a transfer opportunity and eventually are killed.

"What's the difference between housing 40 and housing five if the end result is the same?" the warden said. "There is no sense in housing more of them if they don't have anywhere to go."

An example of the pound's limitations arose last week when the staff killed "Rascal," a 7-month-old Schnauzer and Jack Russell terrier mix, for reasons of aggression. Ms. Lyle said Rascal tried to bite a visitor who was looking for a dog to adopt. And when a kennel worker tried to put Rascal back into his cage, he tried to bite that person too.

So, with adoption or rescue-group transfers out of the question for young Rascal, Ms. Lyle decided the dog must be put down. She did not consider giving him to a rescue group or the Toledo Area Humane Society.

"We don't know if it was cage stress … or maybe he was having a bad day. But we can't have that here," she said of his bite attempts. "It's a safety risk. Why would I want to put the humane society's staff at risk or the public at risk?"

But given patience, attention, and the proper training, young and naughty dogs like Rascal can oftentimes be reformed into safe house pets, experts say.

"With unlimited resources, it's almost nonexistent the type of behaviors that can't be corrected with time and training," Ms. Keating said. "But you can't do that in the type of environment with the staff they have. You have to have volunteers come in and work with the dogs."

Ms. Lyle said that ideally - and given necessary resources - she would do some behavior modification for animals who fail the pound's standard temperament tests. But her first priority would go to dogs with minor behavioral issues, such as guarding their food dishes, not dogs like Rascal that want to bite.

"Number one, I don't have rescue groups to take all my healthy, nice dogs. And number two, is that really fair to put all these resources into a dog that's attempting to bite people when we have dogs who are dying that are not?" Ms. Lyle said.

At least one local rescue group said it might be interested in accepting a young dog like Rascal, whose behavior could be modified under the right circumstances.

"We would definitely consider a dog like that," said Cindy Smith, president of 4 Paws Sake of Sylvania, which has 40 dogs in local foster homes.

"We predominately pull from high-kill shelters - that's what we're all about - so if I could save that one [Rascal] and let someone walk in the dog warden's office and adopt a cute little puppy or one that doesn't need work, definitely."

She added, "But not to fault the dog warden at all; they don't have the means to spend days, weeks, months rehabilitating dogs."

One sore subject for animal advocates is the languishing state of a proposal to introduce volunteers to the dog warden department. Many government-run dog shelters welcome community volunteers to do tasks such as grooming and walking that ordinarily wouldn't be done by paid staff. Ms. Keating said Lucas County's pound is known for adopting out "dirty" dogs. Volunteers could clean up this image by bathing and grooming the dogs up for adoption.

"Julie is a hard worker and she's done a lot, but there are a lot of people who would like to get in there and do some volunteer work," Ms. Keating said.

Ms. Lyle said she could have a volunteer program in place by year's end. The department's employees union "is not opposed" to the idea, she said.

"It's just not something I've been able to get to yet," she said. "There's a bunch of information that I need to put together and decide how exactly the program's going to work."

Pet advocates are excited for the warden's newly expanding program for transferring adoptable dogs to rescue groups. Animal shelters with the lowest kill rates often make use of a large network of rescue organizations that find homes for pets that aren't getting adopted.

Mr. Skeldon, the former warden, often was faulted for his refusal to work with any all-breed rescues aside from the humane society.

Ms. Lyle said she had sent out more than 50 applications to area groups for the program. Last week, the department sent its first dog to 4 Paws Sake Inc. and the week before to Maumee Valley Save-a-Pet.

"These are all great positive steps, and those things were not part of the dog warden experience a year ago," Ms. Ernst said. "But it all boils down to the public going and adopting. So their success is kind of dependent on people willing to come down and adopt dogs from them."

Contact JC Reindl at:

jreindl@theblade.com

or 419-724-6065.