If you get a free cat from the paper, when you pay to get it fixed, shots and all other costs you know exactly where your money is going.

hooters
Jan 21, 2013 at 4:31 p.m.
Suggest removal

I visited the RCHS website and read through what they had there. I had no idea it cost so much to adopt a pet from them."

AGAIN- MUST I YELL- Try to get a free kitty out of the paper "fixed" for $75. PLUS all the other stuff they do to get them ready.
If they are ill they are treated and can be adopted when ready.

I visited the RCHS website and read through what they had there. I had no idea it cost so much to adopt a pet from them.

@i'll drink to that, i have adopted 2 dogs from private shelters, and they don't operate, like the RCHS. they don't pick n choose, on what animals to accept or to who from. they accept all and find foster homes, until they are adopted.RCHS needs to be reorganized, and find someone who cares about animals, to be the directer and not a dictator

Don't get a pet if you cannot commit to keep it for its lifetime. If most people would just do that one thing, the public problems would be much, much smaller in scale. And of course, spay/neuter is key. As for show dogs, I think the problem is it's a slippery slope. The show breeders sell or dump their cast-offs (i.e., the ones who aren't good enough to show or breed), and they can't make the purchasers agree not to breed without looking like hypocrites, and so those people don't spay/neuter, and they give offspring to others who don't spay/neuter, etc. Show, hobby and other supposedly justified breeders should do a better job of coming up with rules for their members that avoid contributing to pet overpopulation.

I don't think show dogs are the problem here.

We should get rid of the pet stores in town that sell pets. May people buy pets when they are puppies/kittens because they are cute. Then when they grow up and are not cute anymore they no longer want the responsibility. Many stores in other states are banning the sales of pets because they often come from puppy mills. New stores are opening up that are selling/adopting pets/strays from humane societies and rescues.

Suzq- you expect them to care for your dog for a few days for free???
When you travel and stay in a hotel it isn't free. You should be happy to get your animal back safely and be happy only $50. Tired of this town- free free free why isn't everything free!!??
ALso AGAIN $75 for a pet is not a bad deal. Try to get a fre kitty in the paper and have it "fixed" for $75, and then add all the other things they do to get your pet ready to go home. I do not agree with somebody bringing in a lost pet and charging them $80. People will just not bring them in anymore.

momof- plus 1
illdrink- EXACTLY- people don't get it and they think everything ahould be free.

Apparently most of you do not understand that RCHS is a PRIVATE shelter.

If you think you can do better....have at it.

Angela Rhodes has been controversial - very true. If memory serves, people tried to get the problems out there, but were shot down by this newspaper and its overt support of her. Rhodes has systematically degraded, discredited and defamed anyone who might disagree or ask questions. I don't understand why the RCHS Board continues to support her. It has become all about the money, yet the humane society does far less fundraising than they did in the past - instead Rhodes has just added fees and raised prices. Maybe they should ask Lakeland for some tips!

Spaying or neutering cannot be done on dogs that are being shown in AKC conformation competition as the AKC will not allow them to compete. I do agree that if you have a dog for a pet, that dog should be fixed.

But as others have mentioned, look at the problems the RCHS has and who has caused them ... the executive director and the board of directors that support her.

Spay or neuter your pet, Do not sit there with a starbuck's in your hand and tell me you can't afford it.

StormChaser, you make several good points, except one, uncontracted municipalities are not necessarily collecting taxes for animal control. Ask each municipality if they have a budgeted line item in their annual budget. Most (not all) problems can be fixed by throwing money at them. This is one that added tax dollars can effectively address. People might be surprised at the cost though, especially if more than dogs are managed.

If the fees weren't so high. More families would adopt the dogs and cats. In this economy they are asking more than other local shelters are. Many of us are going to those instead. They are also cleaner and better managed. My Son is volunteering in New Jersey (clean up from Sandy), I was taking care of his 2 dogs. One got loose and was taken in. almost they charged me $50.00 to get her back out. Even though, I called just as she was being brought in! That's Totally Ridiculous!

storm- if people cannot "afford"to spay or neuter then they cannot afford a pet at all. They will be more costs than just this over the life of the pet. Also you can get a pet at RCHS for less than what it would cost to spay or neuter the pet plus a chip etc. Rabies shot was inclu with the ones in Kitty room if they were old enough. That is $20-30 right there.
Seems we got this Rhodes chic because the last person was not capable either.

Maybe we could adopt more pets per person if the city didn't have issue with 4 cats or 4 dogs but okay with 3 cats one dog or 2 and 2, or 3 dogs and 1 cats. What is the big deal if they are all dogs or cats. I am still waiting for an answer on this.

Yes, spayme.com, you can NOT get any better quality than there no matter where you go or how much you pay...Fantastic.

All pets should be spayed/neutered.

Too many people are missing what the actual problem is. RCHS is, and has been for a long time, taking in strays from contracted areas. (RCHS not being a Govt facility yet offering services, the cities and towns can pick and choose who to use or how to do their own animal control so to speak. Unfortunately it has been very little to none in some areas, from what i've heard most just don't do anything. How about blaming the cities and towns for their OWN lack of services that YOUR tax dollars are paying for?) What RCHS is not able to do is take OWNED pets police are seizing from owners for whatever reasons. These are not strays so are ineligible to observed the 7 day holding period, ultimately they have to be held indefinitely until the owners court case is completely concluded. And we know that could take months, or even years to finish. The poor animal would be in limbo that whole time, and who do you expect to pay for that? The owner who most likely has no money? The police who seized the pet? Or the humane society who isn't equipped for long term quarantined holding? And what about the pet who would be forced to live in a cage indefinitely? It would NOT be a very "humane" way for it to live, but its the law! As for injured pets, RCHS has no Vet on staff therefor no way to treat them. DCHS has Vets on staff to give immediate care and treatments. I tell you what, if it was MY pet that accidentally got loose and hurt, I would be very grateful that he was being cared for, rather than euthanized right away for treatable injuries.
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To help reduced the number of unwanted litters, for low cost neuter/spay, they can get ahold of SpayMe.com for low cost services. My dog went there a few months ago and it was great!

Right now there are four adoptable dogs listed on RCHS's website. When the strays were being taken to RCHS, the number was never more than about seven. While any number greater than zero might be too many, it is not a lot for an area like Janesville/Beloit. The main problem is that the dogs they have there are generally large breed dogs and at least half are American Pit Bull Terriers or APBT mixes (even if they market them as "terrier mixes") which are less adoptable for most families. Our area does have a huge cat over-population problem and I think that should be addressed separately.

The first suggestion always seems to be government involvement to take away our rights as pet owners when the majority of responsible pet owners are not contributors to this problem. We should be encouraging dog training, veterinary care, owner education to help families retain and enjoy their pets for longer. Restricting responsible pet ownership among the citizens who are not causing the problem is a cop-out and will not fix the problem. I hope Greg will do enough research to not advocate for the quick but ineffective fix.

grayghost may have a point here....cant rhodes be removed and see if things improve for the RCHS

u sick pukebag

For cats: http://catrecipes.com/recipes/braisedcat...
For dogs: http://www.recipesource.com/ethnic/asia/...

I have the link, floating around facebook :) http://www.gazettextra.com/weblogs/lates...

twerp13 is correct it's been removed from immediate view. Although still there, the public wont be able to view it as it is no longer being shown on the main page where the other stories still exist.

If these animals are not wanted, why not put them down?

twerp13, the story is still there. Just commented on it a few minutes ago.

What happened to the story "Mounds shuts down Rock County Humane Society satellite adoption center" It was on the latest news feed. It has 47 comments as of right now, but it is burried somewhere in the Gazette files. I only accessed it through my user name as I commented on it. I tried searching using the the exact title of the article and other possibilites but it is nowhere to be found. Is this a glitch or is something else going on?

I think we can reach a reasonable decision if some people would stop anthropomorphizing pet animals so much. To be fair, I do it too. The difference is I know I'm doing it.

its time for rhodes, to be put up for adoption.