The Future Of Pet Shelter Design...Is Now!

Artist rendering of the soon-to-open South LA Animal Shelter

We loved this article in the LA Times that describes South LA's planned new animal shelter, because it describes in great detail the architect's thought process and reasoning behind the building's unusual features-unusual that is for an animal shelter. The nine million dollar shelter, which was scheduled to open in July, then early fall and now mid-January 2013, was designed with both the animals and the people who would be "shopping" for them in mind. The architect, Rania Alomar, has extensive experience in both retail design and various animal facilities and "through her design, Alomar is, essentially, marketing the animals." "You have to change your viewpoint and look at things from the dog's point of view...you have to enter their world," she says.

We think this innovative design is remarkable, and we'll check back to see if the way a place looks and feels to both it's temporary inhabitants and to the "shopping" public, really does make a difference in a shelter's euthanasia rates. In the meantime, let us know what your local shelter looks like-anything like this one? And do you know its euthanasia rate?

P.S. Stay tuned for a new giveaway coming in the next few days: an autographed copy of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by one of our favorite writers, Susan Orlean. Parental Unit absolutely loves this book!

Share

Easy Like Sunday..."Living With Your Pet Tips": Why You Should Microchip Your Pet

You know, Parental Unit was a bit "iffy" on microchips because she was worried that they might cause skin irritation or worse, based on some of the articles she'd read. But she had no choice in the matter when she got me-I came from the local shelter and the good folks there neutered and micro chipped me before they let me go to my new home (whew-glad that's over!). But the more she's read about microchips in the last four years, she's come to believe that there's no reason to worry-and that at the very least, the benefits outweigh any risks.

We learned today from our friends at Found Animals Foundation that May is "Microchip Your Dog Month"-who knew? And then we read this article from Cesar's Way where the Dog Whisperer discusses his reasons in favor of micro chipping your dog-in fact, he advocates as do some other countries and a few U.S. communities, the mandatory micro chipping of all dogs.

         Photo of Cesar Millan and Junior courtesy of Cesar's Way

Here are some of the reasons that the Dog Whisperer advocates mandatory micro chipping, besides the fact that you're more likely to find your dog if he or she is lost or even stolen:

__ It likely will discourage the abandonment of dogs-removing the dog's collar and tags wouldn't be enough to avoid tracing the dog back to the offending owners-and perhaps people might not abandon their dogs if they thought the dog and the crime of dog abandonment or endangerment could be tracked back to them.

__It also will likely discourage those who "buy dogs to use as weapons"-dogs who are trained using incredibly cruel techniques to harm other dogs or people. "If the dog was micro chipped, just like a gun with a serial number, it could be traced back to the owner."

And the bottom line is that micro chipping reduces the number of strays, shelter-overcrowding and euthanasia rates-problems that unfortunately, are still not under control.

By the way, Found Animals Foundation has a free resource to register your dog's micro chip that you can check out right here: www.foundanimals.org/pet-identification/pet-microchipping?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=dog_club_5_20_12.
And it is important that you make sure that your pet's micro chip number and your contact information are registered together. We're not sure if mine is correctly registered so we're off to check right now.

Is your pet micro chipped? Do you think it should be mandatory? Let us know!

Share