It’s the worst day to be a dog

The county’s animal care center already is overcrowded, and hundreds of dogs that run away every year after the Fourth of July holiday will only add to the strain

On the Tucson Agenda’s first day, we’re bringing readers an in-depth look at an issue that’s close to our hearts: the fate of dogs that run away or are abandoned.

The yearly ritual begins again this week for thousands of dog owners in Pima County. Trying to keep their dogs calm while Fourth of July revelers set off bottle rockets in the streets and the sounds of the explosions rattle windows into the early-morning hours. 

When panicked dogs run away, as hundreds do every Fourth of July, they often end up in a system that is already too strained to care for them. Even with a $22 million facility and dedicated volunteers who put in tens of thousands of hours every year, the Pima Animal Care Center doesn’t have enough space to keep all the dogs in their care alive. And they have to contend with larger forces, such as outdated breeding laws and a housing crisis, that set the stage for this week to be particularly difficult.

Last year, 237 dogs were brought to PACC in the week following the Fourth of July holiday, county records show. That same week, shelter officials said they would have to start euthanizing dogs to free up space, something they hadn’t done since the new shelter opened in 2017. 

Pima County residents responded in force by adopting and fostering, or reclaiming enough dogs that officials didn’t have to resort to euthanasia. On July 7, PACC’s dog census was 538, but by July 16, that number had dropped to 411, even with dozens of dogs coming into  the shelter each day.

But it wasn’t long before euthanasia became the only option for some dogs. 

Kennel space continued to be scarce and PACC officials’ pleas for help became more urgent in the fall of last year. In late December, they started posting a euthanasia list on their website with photos and names of 20 dogs at risk of being put down if space wasn’t freed up at the shelter. They’ve updated the list every week since.

Officials say fewer than 10 dogs on the list were euthanized in the six months since its creation, but dogs are still being euthanized for other reasons.  From January to May, 217 dogs were euthanized and another 54 died in their kennel, according to county records. Most of the dogs were euthanized due to medical issues, but others had to be euthanized for behavioral reasons. 

.The weekly euthanasia list on Pima County’s website, as of June 28.

Longtime PACC volunteers have pleaded with the Pima County Board of Supervisors to take action to prevent the needless death of otherwise adoptable dogs.

“We are in crisis,” nine-year volunteer Barbara Monroe told the supervisors at the June 6 meeting. “Those who don’t intimately know the shelter system think, ‘What’s the problem?’”

The problem is that panicked dogs are going to run away this week, and wind up in Pima County’s overcrowded shelter with the possibility of ending up on that euthanasia list, or dying from the waves of preventable diseases that swept through the shelter in recent months. 

The reason for the problem is that outside circumstances, such as the rising cost of housing and the restrictions landlords put on breeds and the size of dogs, made it difficult for people to keep their pets, according to PACC public information officer Kayleigh Murdock.

“Euthanizing one, two or even 200 dogs for space today will not solve the larger problem,” Monroe continued. “It’s not the solution. Without consistent change, we’ll be back at capacity in one or two months' time.”

The goal: Save every adoptable animal

If local and state officials don’t figure out how to change the system, the dog census at PACC will continue to rise, resulting in more dog fights, more disease and more dogs being euthanized for space and other issues.

Pima Animal Care Center opened in 1968, when roughly 300,000 people lived in the county, according to campaign materials for Prop. 415, which was led by former Pima County Democratic Party chairman Vince Rabago.

At the time PACC opened, it was meant to be a pound, with unclaimed animals euthanized within days. That trend continued in Pima County and nationwide for decades, but PACC’s goal eventually shifted to finding homes for every adoptable animal brought through its doors.

That was difficult in the old, outdated facility, which was not built with the intent of saving animals. In 2008, the live release rate at PACC was 38%, but by 2014 — despite an increasing census – that rate had climbed to 76%, which PACC leadership attributed to a more robust adoption program, a growing network of rescue partnerships, a comprehensive foster program, expanded medical treatment, behavioral rehabilitation and more.

But holding healthy animals until they’re adopted and rehabilitating sick or injured ones back to health “taxed (PACC’s) resources to the limit” and the existing facility was not meeting many of the guidelines set by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, according to materials in support of Prop. 415.

The center tried to keep up with population growth over the decades by adding a few modular buildings, bringing it up to about 39,000 square feet, but that still wasn’t enough space. In March 2014, the county paid $280,000 for a 120-by-60-foot tent (and $242,000 for people to staff it) to hold an additional 96 kennels. The tent remained operational, with volunteers and staff struggling to keep dogs cool during summer months, until construction on the new facility was completed in June 2018.

The new shelter is just over 63,000 square feet, with more than 95% of that  used to house or support  adoption. The number of kennels for adoptable dogs increased from roughly 235 to 331.

In 2018, PACC recorded its highest ever live release rate of 92%, but with the rising census over the past five years, that number has dropped slightly to 90%.

Why more space isn’t enough

A lack of kennel space isn’t the only reason dogs at PACC face the risk of euthanasia.

Dogs have still been euthanized due to behavioral or medical issues, and an above-average rate of disease – a trend happening at overcrowded shelters nationwide – has also taken a toll.

Last month, a pneumovirus outbreak led PACC to only take in dogs on an emergency basis for two weeks, meaning the shelter only accepted hurt or injured dogs, dogs that posed a risk to public safety or dogs that had injured a human or animal.

This left healthy, stray dogs with nowhere to go and finders with no choice but to hold the dogs, or release them back into the wild.

Diseases spread easier in an overcrowded shelter, as dogs that are stressed have weakened immune systems, making them more likely to get sick in the shelter than they would at home. 

“Outside of the shelter with a healthy, happy dog, (pneumovirus) basically manifests as a cold and they can kick it pretty easily,” Murdock said.

But in the shelter, even a small virus can be deadly, Murdock said, since dogs don’t get time to rest and recover.

PACC has reported disease outbreaks roughly once a month since the start of the year. Treating those outbreaks is expensive and the shelter is already strapped for cash. 

Every time Strep Zoo comes into the shelter, each dog has to be medicated and the medication cycle often lasts several doses and days. There isn’t enough paid staff to give medicine to every dog, so the shelter has to put out a plea to volunteers to ensure the task is completed.

In two of the first five months of the year, there were an average of more than 500 dogs at PACC each day– 450 is considered critical capacity. This means considerable time and money is expended each time the shelter experiences an outbreak — time and money that could be spent helping pets get out of the shelter and into homes.

With PACC still working to manage and prevent the spread of disease, this Fourth of July holiday adds to what has already been a dire situation for dogs in Pima County. 

Some people returned their dogs to PACC because they no longer worked from home, but that wasn’t the biggest reason dogs were coming into PACC, Murdock said.

Spay and neuter services were limited during the pandemic, leading to an increase in breeding. On top of that, post-pandemic financial hardship forced many families to give up their pets.

Joey Fitzgerald, an eight-year PACC volunteer, told supervisors that housing restrictions or financial struggles accounted for half of the nearly 4,000 pets surrendered to PACC in 2022, many due to loss of housing or pet restrictions imposed by landlords.

“PACC and nonprofits alone cannot correct a societal foundation that fails to value pets as family members,” Fitzgerald said.

During the pandemic, PACC implemented a short-term foster program for people who were hospitalized or needed temporary care for their pets and collected information from people requesting assistance. 

Fitzgerald said 40% of people reported being homeless, many of whom said they were in their situation due to eviction or foreclosure. Another 35% selected “other” as their reason for needing assistance, many indicating their landlord wouldn’t accept their pet.

Of the more than 100 apartment complexes in Pima County, according to Fitzgerald, only about 10 are large-breed friendly and those that are price out many would-be renters with associated pet deposits and monthly fees. 

People who need emergency housing have an even harder time keeping their pets, according to Fitzgerald, who said that of Tucson’s 12 transitional facilities, only a few allow pets and only under certain circumstances that most people who need urgent shelter don’t meet.

Figuring it out

A county spokesperson didn’t respond to questions about whether the county was considering any of the suggestions PACC volunteers made at the board meeting or whether they were working on ideas of their own. But at the state level, progress has been slow.

Last year, lawmakers approved House Bill 2323, which prohibits rental and home insurance policies from discriminating against breeds. The law took effect last week and advocates hope it will provide a foundation for further legislation preventing breed discrimination in rental homes. 

A handful of other states have also passed laws that advocacy groups say will reduce the strain on shelters and help people keep their pets.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill last month that ended the last remaining municipal and public housing restrictions against specific dog breeds – usually pit bulls.

Also last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a  bill regulating how many dogs that breeders can have. The law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, will require state licensure for anyone who owns five or more unspayed females and breeds the dogs for sale.

In December, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law the Puppy Mill Pipeline Bill to end the retail sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores across the state by 2024.

Arizona is one of only two remaining states that doesn’t allow local governments to restrict puppy sales. In 2016, the Tucson City Council approved a local ban that limited pet stores to only selling rescue animals, but it was shelved when the Legislature passed a new law, written by the owner of Animal Kingdom, a long-protested and often-cited pet store in Tucson Mall.

“With hundreds of adoptable dogs at PACC, there is no excuse for importing designer dogs from out-of-state puppy mills into Pima County,” PACC volunteer John McLean told supervisors. “One can draw a direct line between the importation and sale of out-of-state-dogs to the euthanasia of dogs at PACC.”

Dealing with it this week

None of these long-term reforms will help the dogs who panic this week when they hear fireworks in the street. 

PACC’s Murdock says updating microchip information and ensuring fences and gates are secure is especially important heading into the holiday. Better yet, she said, keep cats and dogs inside and don’t take them to parties in unfamiliar settings.

PACC’s website includes suggestions to help reunite lost pets with their families, including checking for a microchip, posting on the Petco Love Lost website, talking to neighbors, and  posting on social media and online neighborhood networks.

PACC hosted back-to-back microchip clinics over the weekend, hoping to reduce intakes and increase reunifications following the Fourth of July. With drop-in hours from 8 a.m. to noon both days, PACC saw hundreds of people come out to help protect their dogs. By Sunday afternoon, staffers had microchipped 550 dogs.

Murdock said shelter employees hope to see a culture shift and that, instead of people bringing dogs straight to PACC, they first try to find the owner.

“Dogs are statistically more likely to find their way home if kept in their community, as most dogs are found within a mile of their own home,” she said. “Bringing the dog to the shelter makes it much less likely for them to make it home.”

On the Fourth of July, many pets who get spooked instinctually run and hide, then don’t come out for a few days until they’re hungry or thirsty. This results in a busy week following the holiday, but also means that most pets who are found even days later won’t be far from their homes, Murdock said.

Dogs coming into the shelter after the Fourth of July or dying before they can make it there is completely preventable, Murdock said, recalling a case from years ago at a different shelter. She received a lost report from a distraught owner whose dog, Buddy, had panicked and fled the fireworks show the pair were attending.

Buddy was found dead a short time later after being hit by a car.

”Stories like this happen every year.”