Animal Shelter’s future in the balance

Once again, animal activist Geoffrey Kaye, founder of the Animal Shelter and its attached dog adoption center in Riberas del Pilar, is faced with the possibility of closure.

Just two years after a grass-roots petition drive saved the center, neighbors have complained to Chapala’s Ecology Department that the dogs make too much noise and disturb the tranquility of the area. They want the center closed.

Kaye says he has complied with all the regulations set out by the municipality, which has inspected the facility and issued a business license. Effectively, he says he is jumping through the same legal hoops multiple times and is now faced with the same dilemma as before. Kaye adds that during a meeting with Chapala’s Ecology Department he realized those holding office now have little or no knowledge about how the adoption center works and its importance in the Lakeside community.

Kaye took time from his schedule this week to talk to Jeanne Chaussee about the situation and the plethora of rumors floating around.

How is the operation of the dog adoption center different from the way it was administered two years ago?

We used to care for 25 or 30 dogs at a time, but according to the municipality’s insistence, we have diminished that number to a maximum of 12 dogs. In a way it has worked out well. We’ve discovered that with fewer dogs to choose from, people are quicker to make decisions. We adopt out about 150 dogs a year. That’s the same number of adoptions as when we had 30 dogs. We continue to provide free spaying and neutering for pets of needy Mexicans and from time to time, when an animal is too sick or too lacking in social skills for adoption, we pay for it to be euthanized.

Yes. And he was astonished to hear it. He had no idea how much we do for the community. He said that he wanted time to make a decision as to whether we would be able to continue with our dog adoption center or not. So far we haven’t heard anything; but I am just about to the stage of not wanting to fight it anymore. In case things don’t go my way, I already have a loose arrangement with Anita’s Animals. I’ll transfer the dogs to Anita (Strehlo’s) shelter and help her out some financially. We’ll continue to operate the Animal Shelter store and handle the cat adoptions. We won’t take anymore dogs in ... and we won’t pay anymore to have dogs euthanized. The municipality can handle that. Some people think that putting animals down is a terrible thing to do but when they are terribly sick or are too mean to be adopted, we have no choice. We find boxes of puppies or abandoned dogs tied up to our building nearly every day. Practically every hour we have someone bringing in a dog or cat that they have found or that they don’t want to care for anymore. We have even had an injured horse walk up to our door looking for help. We took him to the vet and had him fixed up. Just yesterday someone brought in three animals adopted from here. They are going back north and claim that they can’t take the animals with them. What are we supposed to do? All of these things, the sterilizations, the adoptions and the euthanasia, mean that there are fewer stray dogs on the streets.

What’s going to happen to all of the dogs that you would be caring for if you can’t keep the adoption center open?

I suppose that they will just be on the streets. However, not spending money on the dog center will generate more income for the rest of the project. We spend about 35,000 dollars a year on the dogs. We’re fortunate that our store makes it possible to operate the shelter in the black. We’ve never had to have fund-raising events to keep it going. Without the expense associated with the dog center, we’ll have that much more money to spend for spaying and neutering the pets of Mexican nationals and toward all of the testing and treating we do when taking in cats.

So, back to the beginning. All of this started with a person living near the shelter complaining about the noise the dogs are making?

That’s right, even though he knew that the shelter was there when he moved in. You know, I live in an apartment. From my apartment I can see a place where a man keeps about ten dogs. Those dogs get upset nearly every night. They are outside. Something makes them bark. I can hear them. Do I complain to the city about them? No. There are people who live in various neighborhoods here at Lakeside who have many dogs. Does the city regulate how many dogs they can have or try to close them down? No. Why do they harass those of us who are serving the community? But this time, if they want to close down the dog shelter, I’m not going to fight it. It will just be closed down. Period.

When will we know?

That’s up to the municipality. They said they would let us know as soon as a decision was reached. That was several days ago and we haven’t heard. Maybe no news is just that – no news.