Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Shelter volunteer Roseanne Bianco plays with a cat available for adoption at the Eastside Animal Care Center on Lomas Boulevard Northeast. Last year the city logged its highest rate ever of "live exits" from animal shelters, and more animals were adopted than were euthanized.

Photo by Erin FredrichsTribune

Tribune

Alejandro Valdez holds onto the leash of Smiley, a 2-year-old pit bull available for for adoption, while his wife, Maria, and their 2-year-old daughter, Ahrlet, pet the dog at the Eastside Animal Care Center on Lomas Boulevard Northeast. "He was going to buy a puppy," said Maria, "but I thought we should come here so we would know how big the dog was going to be." The city last year revamped parts of its animal welfare program, leading to record levels of pet adoptions.

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Albuquerque animal shelters have been sending thousands of unwanted dogs and cats to their deaths every year, but after a shakeup by the city, those numbers appear to be falling.

Adoptions are up, and for the first time ever the city is seeing more animals leave the shelters alive than dead, said Jeanine Patterson, director of the city Animal Welfare Department.

The shakeup was aimed at boosting the rate of "live exits" from the city shelters to as close as possible to 100 percent, said Patterson, who took over the reins in September.

"Mayor (Martin) Chavez has asked that I achieve some pretty high expectations of live exit over the next few years," she said, and results so far are promising.

Not everyone is convinced that the numbers have turned around so quickly. City Councilor Sally Mayer has asked for an audit of department procedures, and Patterson said she has found discrepancies in adoption and euthanasia figures made public previously.

Marcy Britton, who has fought for the welfare of shelter animals for the last 10 years, said she also is skeptical of the department's procedures and has filed a complaint with the Attorney General's Office, alleging the city violated the state's Inspection of Public Records Act.

"When there starts to be pressure on the staff to not euthanize, then horrific abuse is going to begin," Britton said.

Neither Mayer nor Carmen Kavelman, director of the city's Office of Internal Audit and Investigations, would discuss the focus of the audit until the findings are available later this spring.

"It looks like some things may not have followed procedure," Kavelman said.

To improve its live-exit rates, the city has embarked on an aggressive adoption campaign. Patterson said 80 percent of the shelter's weekly intake was adopted during the last two weeks of December, bolstering adoption rates for the year.

According to department figures, the city shelters last year had a live-exit rate of 55 percent - 14,703 animals - up from 46 percent in 2006 and 43 percent in 2005.

The 2007 figures don't include the nearly 1,700 animals adopted at Lucky Paws, the city's retail adoption shop in Coronado Center, Patterson said.

Animal advocates generally give the city good marks for its live-exit efforts.

"Jeanine Patterson ought to be given credit for meaningfully, significantly reducing the euthanasia numbers," said Debbra Colman, founder and president of the Alliance for Albuquerque Animals, a nonprofit organization that works to improve the lives of shelter animals and at times has taken on a watchdog role over city operations.

"It speaks to the fact that for three years the (euthanasia) numbers weren't going down," she said.

While Colman praises the higher adoption rate, there is room for improvement, she said. The Mayor's Office came out shortly before Christmas saying city adoption efforts had been so successful that the shelters were empty.

In fact, she said, an alliance volunteer counted more than 100 animals in the shelters over Christmas - animals that could have been adopted if people had known they were available.

"All people remember is that the mayor emptied the shelters," Colman said. "We spent over $100,000 in the last two years doing billboards and ads to educate people that if you're looking for a good pet, go to the city shelter. That one sound bite sort of nullified all that money."

Chavez has been a vocal proponent of animal welfare and cited a need to improve live-exit rates when he revamped animal control efforts in September. He dismissed Denise Wilcox as head of the Animal Services Division, then elevated the office and renamed it the Animal Welfare Department, appointing Patterson director.

While new spay, neuter and microchip mandates approved by the City Council last year will increase the live-exit rates eventually by helping prevent animals from becoming homeless, Patterson said, it will take years to see results.

She cited new protocols for helping boost the adoption rates in recent months. Measures have been as simple as ensuring adequate hand soap for employees and training staff about the most common infectious diseases among shelter animals, she said.

The shelter has begun testing for and treating diseases and immunizing animals immediately upon arrival.

"It's like being in day care with a bunch of kids," Patterson said. "The longer you're there, the more viruses can get around."

Sick animals used to be put to death almost immediately. Since September the city has increased its veterinary staff to treat the animals until they are healthy, Patterson said.

The animal advocates have noted the changes, said Colman.

"They used to - if an animal so much as sneezed - leash it right there and walk it back and euthanize it," she said. "Now, a vet or a vet tech has to concur" before euthanasia is considered.

James Hallinan, the Animal Welfare Department program coordinator, has promoted adoption through Albuquerque news media and at three adopt-a-thon events throughout the year.

He also makes a point of taking shelter animals with him to community events such as the mayor's news conferences, games and businesses, Hallinan said.

Oftentimes, people can adopt the animal on the spot using the same procedures they would go through in the shelters.

The city is seeing more volunteerism at the shelters, as well, Patterson said. Sandia National Laboratories workers make up a big chunk of the shelter's volunteers, she said.

Janet Philippsen, a project manager at Sandia who has been volunteering at city shelters for six years, said she mainly provides foster care for newborn kittens and their mothers until the kittens are mature enough to be adopted.

"I haven't seen so much action from that department since I started six years ago," Philippsen said.

Under rules adopted since Patterson took over, Philippsen said she was allowed to provide foster care for a cat that had been at the shelter for several months.

"You have to get that animal out of the cage or it will go bonkers after a while," Philippsen said. "It went far in terms of improving her personality," and therefore made the cat more adoptable.

Philippsen said she is also working with the city administration to develop a support group for volunteers who provide foster care, counseling those who might have had an animal die under their care, for example.

"A lot of volunteers suffer from compassion fatigue," Philippsen said. "The support group will decrease the number of breaks we have to take in between fosters."

Department officials say they are working more actively with animal rescue groups, such as the alliance and Watermelon Mountain Ranch, which take in animals that are injured or elderly, Patterson said.

The department also plans to open up a West Side retail adoption center this year and hire seven adoption counselors to work throughout the city, she said.

Hallinan said the city wants to change peoples' perceptions of what animal shelters are.

"They tend to think of it as the dog pound, where bad dogs go. But we have so many amazing animals. . . ."