Dear Apple Valley City Council,
I'm writing to you because I'm very concerned about the animal care services provided in the Town of Apple Valley.
A few years after I moved here, I was extremely impressed by the new animal shelter that opened in Apple Valley behind the post office. It was so much nicer and more modern and spacious than the previous facility, and it was also able to accommodate more types and species of lost and stray animals.
However, I soon started to hear rumors that the kill rate at the AV shelter was still high, despite the much larger new facility; and I've heard these rumors ever since.
In addition, one of the employees at the new facility told me that the shelter euthanizes animals which contract ringworm, an easily curable malady.
And now I learn that, in 2023, 3469 cats were taken to the Apple Valley Animal Shelter, with the following outcome:
-- 2560 euthanized
-- 533 dead (including DOA)
-- 7% adopted,
-- 0.003% rescued
It's not a good use of my tax dollars to euthanize cats when, over the long run, TNVR (trap-neuter-vet-release) of feral cats and working with more animal rescues to save adoptable animals would greatly lower the demand on the shelter facility and services, and therefore the costs of same.
I know this approach works. Before moving to Apple Valley, I lived in the Seattle area for a decade. In Seattle and much of the Pacific Northwest, the animal shelters are net importers of strays and surrenders from areas like Southern California, because otherwise these shelters would pretty much have no animals available for adoption.
In short, TNVR, low-cost spay-and-neuter services, and no longer mandating a leash law for cats is not only the fiscally more prudent approach.
It's the humane approach.
Thank you very much for your attention to this urgent matter.
Best,
Cynthia Ward