No Kill Adoption Shelter in Midland in the Works

"No one likes doing euthanasia and the reason we have to do euthanasia is because there are a lot of irresponsible pet owners, we're basically cleaning up the mess," explains Animal Services Director, Paul O’Neil.

Many of the pets you see at a shelter are the direct result of pet owners not having their animals spayed or neutered.

"84 percent of the animals that we handle are unaltered and it’s a proven fact that unaltered animals get lose more and unaltered animals are involved with more bite cases," says O’Neil.

And, of course unaltered animals create more animals that don't have homes.

"I think it’s really important that we find homes for the dogs that we can, some are difficult to place, but for those that deserve a good home, I think a no kill shelter is a wonderful option," says Pet Owner, Annaliese Scoggin.

For a no-kill shelter to work, all agencies that are in Midland right now would have pool their resources together and support a shelter that just does adoptions. Along with a no-kill adoption only shelter, the city would need to apply for a Mattie's grant.

"The Mattie's fund would just pay for spaying and neutering, but that's a big part of no kill," says O’Neil.

All shelters would be able to use this grant money to control the pet population and get rescued animals to the no-kill shelter.

"Basically, the only animals that would be euthanized would be if their too sick or injured or they have some sort of crazy personality disorder that can't be fixed by a trainer," says O’Neil.