Tristan
East Northport – When alerted to the
high adoption (and vacancy) rate at the Town of Huntington Animal Shelter early
in his term as new Town Supervisor, Chad A. Lupinacci enthusiastically agreed
with shelter management that the Town should begin to rescue dogs from
overcrowded municipal shelters in neighboring towns.
On July 31, the Town of Huntington
Animal Shelter pulled three beautiful pit bulls from the Babylon Animal
Shelter: “Tristan,” “Marble,” and “King.” This was the second time this year
that the Town of Huntington pulled dogs from the Babylon shelter, the first
time was in June, when the Town pulled the first three dogs.
“These are great, adoptable dogs,
they’ve just had a rough time,” said Supervisor Lupinacci. “There are several
measures the Huntington Animal Shelter has implemented to increase adoption
rates over the past several years that have created a situation where we can
now save more dogs’ lives and help get them ready for and find their forever
homes.”
The Town of Huntington Animal Shelter
has such a high adoption rate, it often has several vacancies in its 80
kennels, which prompted Animal Shelter Supervisor Jerry Mosca to suggest to new
Town Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci that the Town start a rescue program, taking
dogs from overcrowded shelters in neighboring towns to help those towns avoid
euthanizing dogs simple due to a lack of kennel space.
King
“When Supervisor Lupinacci started
his term, I presented this idea to him and he was in complete agreement with me
that this was not only a great idea but a moral responsibility on our part to
help out,” said Mosca. “We never have more than 15-20 dogs in-house at the most
and we often have as few as 6-8 dogs, so we have plenty of room to take in dogs
from other municipalities dealing with overcrowding.”
Mosca said the Town’s shelter
employees visited the Babylon shelter, which was filled to capacity, to test
and assess suitable candidates for Huntington’s adoption program. They
determined the three dogs chosen were “wonderful” candidates and had “great
adoption potential.” The dogs would start in the Huntington Animal Shelter’s
training programs the next day, with the goal of having them responsibly
adopted as soon as possible, allowing shelter employees to return to the
Babylon shelter (and others) and repeat the process.
Once the dogs arrived at the
Huntington Animal Shelter, they were put through a very intense assessment
process so employees would be able to see every personality trait each dog
possessed. The dogs were then worked into the shelter’s training programs and
dog socialization play groups, so they were completely ready to find their
forever homes when they were put up for adoption.
Dogs are given time to settle in and
become comfortable with Town staff to ensure they are adoptable. On August 10,
ten days after the Babylon rescue, the Huntington Animal Shelter posted photos
of Tristan, Marble and
King
on their Facebook page, which launched in
late 2015, to let the public know they were ready for adoption.
While the Town’s Animal Shelter is
not the only shelter micro-chipping all adoptions and holding spay-neuter
events, under Mosca’s direction, the Town of Huntington Animal Shelter has
implemented initiatives that have helped drive permanent adoptions up and kept
its kennels open for new adoptees.
Marble
Starting as the interim shelter
supervisor in 2010, Mosca began the practice of requiring all employees,
including animal control officers, to start walking the dogs in their care.
Until then, many of the dogs would sit in their kennels most of the day.
Soon after becoming the permanent
shelter supervisor in 2013, Mosca started a series of initiatives, starting
with the move to a digital shelter management system in 2014, a recommendation
of Michael Costa, a part-time shelter employee who became full-time and
effectively serves as Mosca’s right hand.
The benefit of a digital record
system meant better tracking of repeat offenders, owner records, veterinary and
vaccine records. The results were quicker actions, more effective enforcement,
and soon after implementation, “bad” dog owners no longer owned dogs.
In addition to the shelter’s
Facebook page launch in 2015, the Town contracted with Aimee Sadler of Dogs
Playing for Life to provide a three-day training seminar regarding dog play
style and identifying animal aggression. Sadler is a nationally recognized
trainer specializing in behavioral problems. This action led to the largest
adjustment to the Town’s live release rate. Shelter employees were able to more
correctly identify true animal aggression (versus simple posturing behavior)
and learned how to work with unwanted behaviors, increasing adoptions by at
least 10%. The adoption rate grew from approximately 85% to 95%.
The Town implemented a dog
socialization program in 2015. Animals that sit in kennels need to get out and
play, so Dogs Playing for Life (DPFL) taught the staff how to run the
socialization program, which includes regimented playgroups, outings, training
sessions and more. Results showed dogs were happier, less stressed out and
easier to adopt, reducing length of stay from approximately eight months to two
months.
In 2016, the Huntington Animal Shelter
added dog agility training. Putting shelter dogs through agility courses helps
some of the more intelligent dogs decompress, as these dogs are often more
nervous in a shelter setting. All physically suitable dogs are put through the
agility course, as shelter staff found that dogs were better able to focus on
behavior training after being put to task through agility training. This also
helped reduce the amount of time staff needed to spend with a dog before it was
truly prepared for adoption.
The Town of Huntington Animal
Shelter is located at 106 Deposit Road in East Northport. Shelter hours are
8:00 AM to 6:00 PM Monday through Friday and 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Saturday and
Sunday. The shelter can be reached at (631) 754-8722 or animalshelter@huntingtonny.gov.
The public can report lost or found animals on the shelter’s page on the Town’s
website: http://www.huntingtonny.gov/animal-shelter
In the photos: Tristan; Marble;
King.
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