The RVSPCA board director Barbara Dalhouse and local municipal officers made the reorganization announcement at the Mountain View Humane Center
The Roanoke Valley SPCA, which has been plagued in recent months by social media rumors that its euthanasia rate was excessive, has decided to refocus on a core mission. That is, “to improve the quality of life for animals and the people they touch in the Roanoke Valley,” said Barbara Dalhouse, president of the RVSPCA’s board of directors. To help accomplish that, the RVSPCA will give up management control of the Regional Center for Animal Control and Protection, which shares the same facility just off Orange Avenue NE.
The Regional Center – that’s where stray cats and dogs, primarily picked up by animal control officers in the City of Roanoke, Roanoke and Botetourt Counties and the Town of Vinton – are brought. It’s an open intake facility, with unclaimed animals then processed and put up for adoption (if they are adoptable) through the RVSPCA shelter next door and other agencies.
Over 2/3 of all animals that come through the regional center wind up at the shelter, looking for new owners to take them home. Dalhouse said they might be able to take in even more as the new arrangement is implemented.
Under the agreement announced last week, those municipalities now using the center will take over day-to-day control. A new manager will be hired to do just that; those now employed (by Animal Care Services, established by the RVSPCA in 2004) will transition to the new arrangement.
Dalhouse said the new direction would allow the shelter to focus on adoption, spaying and neutering. Since 2004 almost 15,000 animals have been placed into adoption. The arrangement may take several months to be put fully in place.
The announcement was made by Dalhouse and local civic leaders, including Roanoke City Manager Chris Morrill and Roanoke County Administrator Clay Goodman, at the Mountain View Humane Center on Peters Creek Road, a private spay and neutering facility featuring state of the art equipment. The RVSPCA sends animals there on occasion when its own clinic is backed up, according to Dalhouse. In all 67 rescue groups take in animals from the regional center, with the RVSPCA being the largest.
The “robust agreement [is] the right thing to do,” said Morrill, who added that the agreement had been in the works for several months. He called it a “natural effort to improve best practices with abandoned animals.” A newly appointed RVSPCA board will help oversee the transition, which will require additional funding from Roanoke City and other localities. Vinton Town Manager Chris Lawrence and Botetourt County administrator Kathleen Guzzi were also on hand for the announcement.
“We will work that into our budget,” said Morrill, who wants to take a more analytical approach to how animals are processed through the regional center. Over time with better management and more community outreach, Morrill hopes to see fewer dogs and cats make their way through the center. He points to a similar arrangement in San Antonio that seems to have worked; “They’re taking exactly this same approach.”
Dalhouse alluded to “public confusion” on the current arrangement, in part because the adoption agency and the Regional Center for Animal Control share the same building. “We look forward to working with the municipalities [on the transition],” said Dalhouse, who was asked questions about the shelter’s kill rate. There are currently several investigations underway.
Dalhouse also said changes need to be made at the regional center regarding cleanliness, hours of operation and access to a veterinarian – claiming it does not meet national standards. She wasn’t sure if the reorganization will lead to a lower rate of euthanasia, but said spaying and neutering is the best way to bring that rate down in any case. “[We] have to get that through to people – it makes for a healthier pet,” said Dalhouse; “we really want to focus on that.”
Dalhouse said the RVSPCA had “improved over the years, tremendously,” since 2004, in bringing down the rate of euthanasia. Social media outlets have speculated about that in recent times. Dalhouse asserted that those investigations, including one by the City of Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney, did not force the new agreement. “We have been talking about this for quite some time,” said Dalhouse, who called it a “win-win” for all parties involved.
Although additional monies from the localities involved is expected to help manage the Regional Center, fundraisers will still be important to the neighboring RVSPCA, even as it sheds the management role. “I will still be donning the dog suit now and then,” joked Dalhouse, who has worn such an outfit for RVSPCA fundraising events. “We’re very excited. This is something that needed to happen…this is all good,” said Dalhouse. “We really want to focus on our mission.”
by Gene Marrano
