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Portland area shelters receive $1 million grant for saving animals
By Lynne Terry
OregonLive.com
May 21, 2013
Two men in blue scrubs lug a big, black sedated dog to the prep table as a woman wheels by a cart stacked with kennels of kittens. In a surgical suite nearby, four canines lie splayed on their backs on a row of stainless steel tables, each attached to a breathing tube, as surgeons snip, stitch, then bring in the next patient.
By noon, in the well-orchestrated efficiency of the Oregon Humane Society’s hospital, staff have spayed or neutered more than 50 cats and dogs. The operations, many performed for free or at low-cost, are part of an area-wide campaign by six shelters to cut euthanasia rates.
“We’re more successful saving lives when we have fewer lives to save,” said Sharon Harmon, executive director of the humane society.
The Portland-area shelter alliance has been so successful that it will be rewarded at the Bonnie L. Hays shelter in Hillsboro today with a $1 million grant from Maddie’s Fund, a California nonprofit focused on ending euthanasia of healthy and treatable pets.
Maddie’s Fund has handed out five other $1 million grants since it was created in 1999 by a high-tech billionaire. This is the first such award given to a community in the Northwest.
“The Portland area has done exemplary work in its life-saving efforts,” said Rich Avanzino, president of Maddie’s Fund. “It’s a model for the nation.”
The Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland spayed or neutered 10,000 pets last year, with half at Oregon Humane. That effort has helped the coalition achieve a milestone. Since 2010, it has not euthanized any healthy dogs or cats. It’s also cut the number of treatable pets killed by more than 75 percent.
But perhaps the biggest achievement: Last year, 85 percent of the alliance’s animals, or more than 25,000 cats and dogs, left the shelters alive. No other community in the United States with a population of at least 2 million people has done better. A coalition in Denver tied the Portland alliance record in 2012, while New York trailed at 84 percent.
Senate OKs bill defining service animals
By Queenie Wong
StatesmanJournal.com
April 29, 2013
People with disabilities in Oregon may have to think twice before bringing their service animal into places such as restaurants and onto public transportation.
The Senate unanimously passed a bill Monday that would allow people to bring service animals to public places if it’s a dog or other animal only if it has been trained to perform tasks for the benefit of an individual.
Senate Bill 610 stemmed from concerns by disability organizations that people are passing off their pets as assistance animals.
The lead sponsor of the bill, Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, told lawmakers he finds it difficult to understand how certain animals such as snakes can be passed off as service animals.
“Because there is no definition of service animal, people were taking all sorts of critters to restaurants and into stores and saying it was a service animal,” Kruse said.
The U.S. Department of Justice published revised regulations in 2010 about the Americans with Disabilities Act, clarifying the definition of service animal as dogs trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. There’s also a separate provision for miniature horses.
Although the federal regulations set the benchmark for how to define service animals, state and local laws are allowed to broaden that definition.
In Oregon, service animals allowed in public places aren’t limited to a particular species.
The bill now heads to the House.
qwong@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6694 or follow at Twitter.com/QWongSJ
Bill tightens leash on service animals
By Queenie Wong
The Statesman Journal
March 29, 2013
Oregon lawmakers could tighten the reins on which service animals are allowed in businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants and buses.
Disability organizations have raised concerns about people passing off their pets as service animals, prompting legislators to consider a bill Thursday to better align the definition with federal regulation.
Rae Hail, president of the Blinded Veterans Association’s Oregon Columbia Region group, said his guide dog retired after being attacked three times by other dogs that were not legitimate service animals.
Hail, a blind veteran, referred to these pets as “little Muffy” — dogs that aren’t trained as well as service animals.
“In short, we run into a lot of fraud,” Hail told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The U.S. Department of Justice published revised regulations in 2010 about the Americans with Disabilities Act, clarifying the definition of service animal as dogs trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. There’s also a separate provision for miniature horses.
While the federal regulations set the benchmark for how to define service animals, state and local laws are allowed to broaden that definition.
An amended version of Senate Bill 610 would allow disabled people to bring service animals to public places if it’s a dog or other animal designated by administrative rule that has been individually trained to perform tasks for the benefit of an individual.
In Oregon, service animals allowed in public places aren’t limited to a particular species.
Cherriots, also known as Salem-Keizer Transit, allows service animals aboard public transit if the animal is trained to do a task that specifically addresses the person’s disability. It’s not limited to just dogs or miniature horses.
Snakes, for example, can help people with epilepsy by detecting when their owner is about to have a seizure.
Sadie Carney, the transit’s director of community relations, said in some cases they’ve had passengers bring pets more for the purpose of comfort but aren’t trained for a task.
It’s something they try to avoid because an untrained animal on public transit not only increases liability, but it could pose a potential danger for the other passengers, she said.
“If it’s just somebody that is trying to take advantage of the system that doesn’t reflect well on us or on them and it certainly doesn’t make it as much of a welcoming environment for everyone,” Carney said.
qwong@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6694 or follow at twitter.com/QWongSJ
