A day at the Hutchinson Animal Shelter is always a busy one

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — When there are stray cats and dogs, runaways or pets that are surrendered, the Hutchinson Animal Shelter is the entity that takes care of those animals within the city and surrounding area.

*Michelle Schnabel starts the daily routine of washing out each kennel. The kennels have two compartments to allow the dogs to be isolated while the kennels are cleaned.*

It is a small staff and a lot of work. Work starts early in the morning and continues throughout the morning hours until the shelter opens at noon. It includes treatment of all animals, feeding, cleaning kennels and assessing new animals that come into the shelter each day. The director of the shelter is Ronald Schlabs. He says the work each morning is never-ending and talked about a shelter technician’s day.

“Today (Destanee Brammer) is going to be our treatment tech and she’s going to do morning feeding for all of the dogs and treating those that need medications,” Schlabs said. “Any new animals that come in, she’ll take their initial assessment exams.” Those exams include checking an animal’s behavior, health and checking for a microchip if the animal is a stray.

“The biggest thing is to make sure they are healthy, so we do an overall physical exam and then they get at least their first round of shots (depending on the age of the animal),” technician Courtney Keazer said. The physical check-up includes blood tests for any disease or possible illness that could spread throughout the shelter. The shelter also provides spaying and neutering for all animals. Most area veterinarians help with this and the shelter also gets assistance from Kansas State University. “The nice part is K-State comes in every two weeks and they help us out a lot by keeping our shelter on their rotation,” Keazer said. “We have not had any issues with other veterinarians in town helping us out.”

*Shelter technicians Courtney Keazer and Destanee Brammer draw blood from a kitten as part of a health assessment that is given to every animal that comes into the shelter.*

The kennels for the dogs are also an area that gets attention each morning. The kennels are designed with two spaces for each dog. Those spaces can be isolated with a door. This allows employees to clean the kennels without coming in contact with the animals. The kennels are sprayed down with water and a non-toxic cleaning solution. The dogs are then fed and given medications as needed. If volunteers are available, dogs that are healthy and friendly enough are taken for walks.

Cats and kittens are a continuous challenge for the shelter. The number of cats brought in has increased this year, making things crowded. “We had a 40 percent increase in cats this year,” Schlabs said. “In August, we had 175 cats in here.” Most of those are adopted out, some are taken to other shelters and some are used for the barn cat program. The cats are too wild to adopt as pets, but are great for farms and other areas where people want to control mice. “They’re not completely feral, they’re what we call semi-feral, where they’re tolerant with people but they would not be happy living in a house,” Schlabs noted. “We have people that apply that say, ‘I have a ranch or I have acreage, I like to use a barn cat as a mouser.’ So what we do is get that cat spayed or neutered and give it a rabies shot and it is microchipped.”

The shelter also participates in the Lucky Dog program, which is part of the Hutchinson Correctional Facility and Friends of Animals in Need. Lucky dogs are rescued from the shelter and receive training from inmates at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. The dogs are taught basic obedience commands and learn to come, sit, lay down and stay. They are housebroken, crate trained and taught to walk on a leash.

Technician Miranda Dover goes over the list of needs and history of the cats and kittens at the shelter. Each animal has a care guide that is followed each day. The average cost to care for an animal at the shelter is about $16 per day.

Inmates selected to participate in this program are given the opportunity to give back to the community by helping to train dogs that would likely be euthanized. The inmates that train the dogs are selected based on their performance in prison.

With the overflow of animals, especially kittens, the shelter also has volunteers who provide foster care. This gives kittens a chance to grow before being adopted. It also gives dogs that might become too stressed in a kennel environment some reprieve from the shelter.

The shelter does charge to adopt animals and there is a surrender fee. The fees help pay for the cost of keeping and caring for the animals, and can be about $300 to get an animal ready for adoption and about $16 per day while at the shelter. That includes about 100 pounds of cat food and 200 pounds of dog food per month. It also includes the costs of the medications needed to treat any animals brought in.

Many animals that are brought in are reconnected with their owners thanks to microchipping. The tiny chip can be read through the skin and provides information about the owner. Schlabs says it is one of the most important things a pet owner can do. “The biggest thing that’s so beneficial to microchipping is you can put a tag on a collar, they break, fall off, maybe for some reason, a person takes the collar off. There are too many ways a tag or a collar can just come off a dog,” Schlabs said. “That microchip is under the skin, it’s not going anywhere, so those are pretty much a lifetime ID on your dog.”

*A stray dog is weighed as part of an overall assessment for each animal brought into the shelter. The assessment checks out health, age and social well-being.*

The shelter is always looking for volunteers, foster homes and items to keep the shelter running. Items that are always needed include 55-gallon trash bags, toys, cat scratchers, dog beds, paper towels, rawhide bones, dog treats and cat litter.

If you need any information on any of the programs, call the shelter at 620-694-1924 or go to hutchinsonanimalservices.com.