For over seven years, Seminole County has touted its animal shelter as a “no kill” facility where it wouldn’t euthanize animals for lack of space, their breed or how long they resided at the Sanford facility.
But as Seminole Animal Services grapples with an increasing number of unwanted pets, it recently launched a “diversion” program that sought to send those animals to places other than its already cramped shelter. Fewer animals were taken in and more found their way to local nonprofits — many of which are hamstrung with shoe-string budgets and small volunteer staffs.
And now the county has changed course, again.
After outcries from animal welfare groups — who said they were being inundated by pets the county was diverting — Seminole on Monday pulled the plug on the program.
“We have heard from the public loud and clear that it was not working,” said Alan Harris, director of Seminole’s emergency management division which oversees the county’s animal shelter. “We tried the diversion program — that’s where we try to keep the animals with their families — but that’s on pause indefinitely … And we may not bring it back.”
The struggles in Seminole underscore the challenges, here and around the country, in managing pet populations at a time when many people give up their animals because they feel they can no longer care for them. But hardly anyone wants to see healthy animals euthanized.
Under its diversion program, Seminole worked to connect people to local resources for the help needed to hold onto healthy animals they tried to surrender at the Eslinger Way shelter. Officials offered help paying for food, medical care, grooming or finding pet-friendly housing.
But now the shelter is once again accepting all animals brought to it. But it’s likely they’ve traded one challenge for another.
Since dropping the program, the population at the county shelter has grown. As of Thursday it was at nearly 98% capacity — up from just under 90% last month.
Kris Buchanan, founder of nonprofit TEARS near Sanford who’s worked with Seminole Animal Services since 2010 in finding homes for animals, said the county was using its diversion program as a way of keeping its intake and euthanasia numbers low.
In effect, Seminole is turning away “desperate residents” who have no other alternatives than to give up their pets at a county facility funded by tax dollars, she said.
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“They are selectively taking in highly adoptable dogs, instead of those in need, and eliminating the shelter as a resource for residents to safely bring in unwanted or found pets,” Buchanan said. “By the time a person has decided to bring an animal to a [county] shelter, they are out of options.
“People have usually reached out to family and friends and other organizations by that time.”
But Harris said Seminole’s shelter is a small facility compared to other counties and it faces constant struggles in trying to remain a “no kill” shelter by not putting down healthy animals.
“We try to do everything that we can,” he said. “But 2023 was one of the worst years in our shelter’s history … Many times we’re in a no-win scenario no matter what we do in animal welfare.
“We have very, very passionate people who have differing opinions on how we operate.”
He added that Seminole operates an “open shelter,” meaning it will take in any kind of animal. However, sometimes euthanasia is necessary for terminally ill animals or those posing a threat to public safety.
By the numbers, the diversion program appeared to work for the shelter. More space opened up and fewer animals were euthanized, according to county data.
From January through August 2023, Seminole had a total of 4,438 animal intakes. However, so far this year, for that same time period, intakes dropped by slightly more than 20% to 3,542.
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From January through August this year, the Seminole shelter reported euthanizing 566 animals. That does not include those euthanized at the owner’s request. That’s a drop of slightly more than 65% from the same time period in 2023, when the number of euthanizations, not counting at owner’s request, was 1,622.
Although Seminole canceled its program, diversion is working in other areas across the region — including Orange, Lake and Osceola counties — even after those shelters saw a surge in unwanted pets after the COVID-19 pandemic, officials in those places say.
Orange County’s animal shelter launched a diversion effort in September 2023 after a case of canine pneumovirus was discovered at its facility. The program — modeled after one in Lake County — was put in place temporarily to prevent spread of the contagious disease within kennels.
The program became such a success, Orange officials made it permanent a month later. Over the past year, the shelter has seen 38% fewer animals surrendered by owners.
Diane Summers, manager for Orange County Animal Services, said the program gives pet owners some help and guidance.
“We’re quite happy with it,” Summers said. “It’s a program that’s been around for years in animal sheltering” across the state.
In Osceola, owners who want to surrender animals are provided a list of rescue organizations as part of the county’s yearslong “Rehoming Your Pet” program.
But the experiences in other Central Florida counties are in stark contrast to that of Seminole County.
Dozens of animal lovers and members of rescue groups turned out last month to a County Commission meeting to blast county staff about the diversion program.
The program, they said, has led to animals abandoned at public parks or dropped off in the middle of the night in a crate at the shelter’s parking lot. Workers at local animal rescue organizations said they’re being inundated with calls from frantic pet owners turned away from the county shelter.
“It’s ridiculous,” Judy Sarullo, owner of nonprofit Pet Rescue by Judy in Sanford, said Wednesday. “I’ve never seen anything as horrendous as now … And we’re getting so many calls. ‘Can you take this one? Can you take this one?’ all day.”
Phyllis Ayoob, founder of the nonprofit CATS-CAN animal adoption agency in Oviedo, said her organization has seen a “huge uptick” in calls from pet owners turned away by Seminole Animal Services during the diversion program.
“We don’t have the finances that the county has,” Ayoob said. “You can’t make yourself look good by not accepting animals and referring them to organizations like us.
“We would love to have an absolutely no-kill [county] shelter. But if you’re turning away animals, then people are just going to dump them. And to put a cat with no wherewithal outside puts them in more danger and harm than euthanization. It’s just cruel.”