Aaron-3/28/09-Animal Care and Control Center

Today Isabella and I went to the Manhattan Animal Shelter and Adoption Center at East 110th between 1st and 2nd. The center is funded by the government. This means they have to take any and all animals given to them. We met with Matt Wildman who is the AC&C Humane Educator and Volunteer Coordinator. He gave us a lot of information and some of it even shocked us. He told us that if you were to average the number of animals being dropped off or picked up a day is 120. He was telling us how they try to get 120 pets adopted a day, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen. He told us that out of the 44,000 pets that are dropped off a year about 18,000 of them are being put to sleep. There aren’t enough homes for these animals and they have no where to put them so they have to put them to sleep. He also told us that after leaving the center the animals only last about one year. He said we can avoid this by spaying and neutering the animals. By doing this we are stopping the reproductive system there fore stopping breeding and helping these animals find a home. I know this is sad, but we can find a way to avoid it. Our final visit will be once again to B.A.R.C on Saturday.