I was able to conduct an over-the-phone interview with Perri Dale, who is the assistant director the Tallahassee/Leon County Animal Service Center. She was able to give me insight on how the local shelter here is operated and the role that they play in the Tallahassee/ Leon County community. The shelter was built in 1996 and was originally run by the Humane Society, but now they operate under the city of Tallahassee.

     For my first question, I asked how the rescue shelter operates, Ms. Dale went on to explain how the shelter isn’t necessarily a rescue shelter. The shelter is a city-operated facility that has open admission to animals that are brought in. “An open admission shelter that means [the Animal Service Center] does not turn away animals, no matter the age, health status, behavior, or aggression tendencies, (Dale).” Dale went on to explain that since the shelter is open admissions, they sadly cannot be a no-kill shelter. Being an open admissions shelter leads to limited space for the animals, so if the shelter believes that one of the animals is too aggressive with others or their health is deteriorating, they are left with no other choice but to euthanize that animal. Though some animals in the shelter end up being put down, Dale explained that there is no set limit on long an animal can be in shelter before either being adopted or euthanized. With any animal that the shelter takes in, there is a seven-day period where the animal is up for adoption; if it doesn’t happen to be adopted within that time period, the animal becomes property of the shelter.

     I then asked how the shelter gets new animals, if they go out and physically rescue them or are the animals brought in my local community members. For this particular shelter, it happens to be a little bit of both. Dale explained to me that the most common way that they receive is from locals bringing stays, but the shelter also operates through city animal control. In these cases, animal control receives a call informing them of animal abuse or neglect; in this instance animal control goes in and retrieves the animal. When animal abuse is a factor, the case goes to court and is handled like any other civil case, where civil agents defend the animal and the shelter usually comes to testify as the witness. If the cases aren’t able to come to a ruling with local law enforcement, it then is handled by the state.

     When asked how the shelter receives its funding, Ms. Dale explained “since the shelter is city operated,” they do have a budget that is used to maintain the center. The shelter is also a part of the Animal Shelter Foundation, which is a non-profit agency, so they receive many donations as well. The donations are used to help improve the lives of the animals, for example buying heart worm treatments and spay/neuter surgeries.

     I asked how the shelter helps with the over-population crisis, and she explained that besides spaying/neutering all animals that come into the shelter, they also offer a responsible pet-owner course. She explained how most pet owners are unaware of this crisis and that can sometimes lead to city violations; again, animal controlled is called and the pet owner receives a fine for the violation.

     Since I hope to get involved in the community through volunteering, I asked if and how a person is able to apply. She explained that the center does offer volunteering opportunities and there is an online application, which can be found at www.tallygov.com. Dale also explained that people are also able to apply for foster parent positions, which helps to give these animals a chance at normal home environment.