EBHS Unleashed
Staff and volunteers of the Elmbrook Humane Society will be blogging about what's going on at the society, as well as other observations about life in Wisconsin.
The mission of the Elmbrook Humane Society is to promote the human-animal bond through adoption and education, to provide shelter to homeless animals, and to prevent animal cruelty and neglect. EBHS services the city of Brookfield, the villages of Butler, Chenequa, Elm Grove and Nashotah, and the towns of Brookfield and Delafield. EBHS shelters unwanted pets and strays, and rescues injured domestic animals and wildlife, provides resources for individuals with companion animals and provides Humane Education to schools and civic groups.
Visit our web site at www.EBHS.org.
To Houston and Back
Happy new year everyone! While I was away I took a road trip to Houson, Texas to visit family. You never know how lucky you are until you see how the grass is not always greener.
Whenever I travel, I always make a point of doing two things. First to visit the local graveyard. This is usually far more interesting in older locals, or in Europe. Then I visit the local humane society, or whatever is passing as one in that area. I think it tells you a lot about a community by seeing how they treat their departed loved ones, and by how they treat their animals.
In Houston, I did not get to visit a cemetery. But I did get to see first hand the problems that they have with stray animals, and their local Humane Society. I noticed so many stray animals on the sides of the road there. Texas is odd in that you can have a city and then nothing for miles. There are stray dogs everywhere, and I suspect many stray cats which are better at hiding and blending in with the environment. I could have filled my car up 10 times over with strays.
The local humane society, Houston Humane Society , was a beautiful brand new building, the kind I wish we had. They had so many animals there, but there were lots of adoptions going on. They told me that they get so many surrenders each day it is hard to keep up, but they are always available for people because they cannot bear to see the animals let loose somewhere.
They have a vet clinic on site, and they do not do spays and neuters until after an adoption gets approved, far longer than the day or two that it takes here, as our animals are sterilized before they are made available for adoption. Unfortunately, they do have time and space constraints, and they will not make an animal over 5 years old available for adoption. This is because the public will not adopt them, and then they will take up badly needed kennel space for the many animals coming in behind them. This is sad, and I am glad that we are able to adopt out animals of all ages, and that we do not have any time or space constraints. As well, they will declaw cats - even all 4 paws - right there at the time of spay or neuter. We have a very strict no 4 paw declaw policy, and to know that a shelter is declawing cats is pretty hard for me to accept. They did say they do it because they know people will do it anyway and at least the cat is going to only have surgery once. It is still pretty creepy to me.
As well, if you are a pitbull or bully mix of any kind, you best stay out of Houston. They will euthanize all pits and pit mixes as they have terrible fighting problems, and people will not adopt pitbulls. Of course, this is a too horrible for me to comprehend. While I realize that bullies have a social stigma, they do not deserve that. I rarely see bully breeds here at EBHS that cannot be made available for adoption. I cannot remember the last one that we could not adopt out for behavior issues, in fact.
I met some staff members there who gave me a short tour of the facility, and I was impressed with the new building, the vet care they offer the public, and the entire group of staff and volunteers that were on duty while I was there. They were so nice, and helpful, and willing to answer all of my questions. I know they wish they could do more for the animals, but they are overwhelmed in a way that even I cannot comprehend. I am glad that I do not have to!
The people of Wisconsin will never know how good they have it compared to the residents of Houston when it comes to animal welfare. The animals of Wisconsin are pretty lucky too!
I am glad to be back, and I will need some time to recover before my next road trip. I am so happy to be back at the shelter, and finally able to start blogging again. I am looking forward to a wonderful year, and hope to be able to share many more stories from the shelter and beyond.
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