Breaking the Silence

I made two resolutions for 2013. The first was to curb my evil ways and start eating healthier and lose weight. So far so good, I have lost around 15 pounds. My second resolution was to break the silence of this blog and commit to writing at least one time per week. Well it is now February 7th and it has taken until today for me to get some writing in. I cant say that every post will be groundbreaking or even interesting, but I am committed to do one a week from here on out this year.

 To start off with, I want to let you know  some great news about our 2012 stats. In 2012 the shelter received a total of 2895 animals as compared to 2820 in 2011. We were able to return 597 of those animals to their owners, a 10% increase over 2011. Adoptions were increased by 5% to a total 1815, and the number transferred to other facilities was 238. These numbers add up to the most important stat of all; the Live Release Rate or LRR.

The LLR is the number by which all open admission shelters ( we here at LPCHS are an open admission shelter ) are graded. This number is the percentage of animals that were adopted, transferred or returned to owner based on the total of incoming animals. Our goal every year is 100% live release rate. This number is of course nearly impossible to achieve. That would require that every animal that came through the doors was healthy and adoptable. Sadly this inst the case at all. In fact some of the animals we receive are to dangerous to people and other animals, and or to ill for are medical staff to cure.

The good news is, that our LRR was fantastic in 2012. For dogs the LRR was an outstanding 96%, while the LRR for cats was a record of 89%. This due to the hard work of staff and volunteers here at the shelter, and the generous support of this community. Compared to other shelters in the region we are head and shoulders above the rest. One nearby shelter has an LRR of around 35%, while still another is barely above 50%. These numbers may be a bit depressing, but take heart. Last year we were able to transfer in 367 animals from some of these surrounding shelters, and this year we hope to transfer in over 500.

Thanks for your continued support and I promise I will write more this year. I'm holding myself to it.