Animal Control Impound Updates

From: Pamela Freeman [mailto:hillcrestkennel@rocketmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2008 4:30 PM
To: hillcrestkennel@rocketmail.com
Subject: Animal Control Impound Updates From Hillcrest Animal Hospital






Rescue Volunteers,

I wanted to take a minute to fill you in and bring everyone up to speed. Some of you have heard from me before and others have not. My name is Pam and I'm the Impound Manager at Hillcrest Animal Hospital in Maplewood, MN. Hillcrest has had a working relationship with animal control for the past 20 years. We have always provided the veterinary care for Animal Control Services Inc which is owned by Rick Ruzicka. Our kennel has always been for back-up boarding and animals under medical care. Starting in June we became the primary impound facility. We now do the impound boarding for over 30 cities in the metro area. People looking for their pets in our cities or neighboring cities should be instructed to call us and file a lost pet report. Sometimes we take close to 25 of these calls a day. We evaluate every incoming animal upon intake and compare their description to our lost reports. We do not take, process or relay any complaint calls. Anyone interested in making an animal related complaint should be directed to their city or county non-emergency police services. The police will then dispatch an officer to handle the call and/or pick up the animal. We do not take owner-surrenders. The cities we impound for are:

Arden Hills

Birchwood

Blaine

Center City

Columbus

Coon Rapids

East Bethel

Falcon Heights

Forest Lake

Gem Lake

Grant

Harris

Hugo

Lake Elmo

Landfall

Little Canada

Mahtomedi

Maplewood

Newport

North Branch

North Oaks

North Saint Paul

Pine Springs

Rush CIty

Shafer

Shoreview

Spring Lake Park

St. Anthony

Stacy

Stillwater Township

Taylors Falls

Vadnais Heights

West Lakeland

White Bear Lake

White Bear Township

Willernie

Wyoming


It is my job to process every animal that is impounded and try to track down their families. If an owner can not be located and they are un-claimed then it is my responsibility to fine rescue groups to take the adoptable pets. We also adopt out to families directly. There is no cost for the animal but we require that they are brought up to date on routine medical care before we release it to their new home. Every animal being adopted out also receives a physical exam. The price of the exam is worked into the cost of the distemper combination and they also receive a 30% discount. For those who are curious what the adoption fee works out to be:

Dogs
DHLPP-C 53.95
Rabies 20.00
Heartworm Test 47.90
121.85
w/30% off 85.30

Cats under 5#:

FDR-C 51.75

Rabies 20.00

FeLu/FIV Test 54.85

Revolution 14.59

141.19

Total w/30% off 98.83



Cats over 5#

FDR-C 51.75

Rabies 20.00

FeLu/FIV Test 54.85

Revolution 16.50

143.10

Total w/30% off 100.17

We also require that they alter the animal. We give them the option of making an appointment with their family vet or doing the spay/neuter with us. To encourage families to do it through us before the animal goes home we offer them a 30% discount off of the spay/neuter. All adoptions are run by and approved by our clinics veterinary staff and doctors. Rescues that are taking animals from us are given a 15% discount on any veterinary care that they may want to do before they take the animal. We DO NOT require that rescues do any medical care through us. This is due to the fact that rescues usually have their own method of getting the necessary medical care at a very discounted price.

I really love my job and the animals I get to work with every day. I am willing to bend over backwards and go above and beyond to see that every adoptable animal makes it to a forever home. In addition to my job I make personal contributions every day towards the cause.

This past week has been insanely busy and I'd like to fill everyone in on what our situation currently looks like. I have almost a full kennel of dogs that are still under their 6 day impound. We will probably be full after this weekend. There was a high flow of dogs coming in this week that have no id or microchip and I've had a very low number of lost calls. Our claim rate is usually very good. I'm starting to think that people don't know where to look for their dogs! I'm working on contacting every veterinary clinic in/near our cities and making sure that they have the list of cities that we impound for. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get some messages from owners over the weekend. Keep in mind that in a worse case scenario I am going to have over a dozen dogs that will be due out to rescue sometime late next week. Please keep us in mind if you think you'll have an open place in your program. I'll update everyone on Monday night and let you know what we still have un-claimed. Cats are always more difficult to place then dogs but with adoptions being unusually slow for many groups we are filling up fast. I have around 10 cats that need to go out to rescue ASAP. We're gonna be backed into a corner if this coming week is anything like this past one was. If you have room for even one of our cats please let me know and I'll fill you in on what we have. We have a very high rate of very friendly/healthy cats coming in and I'm doing my best to find rescues for all of them. If you can think of any rescues other then yourself whom you think might have room please forward them this e-mail or have them give us a call.

I'm down to my last resources on 2 dogs. I need to at least get rescues to commit to take them by Monday. I've had rotten luck with placing pits and am staffs in the past. Most of the pits we impound that go un-claimed are un-placeable. This makes it even more frustrating for me when I can't find places for the few that are adoptable. I've exhausted my resources on these dogs at this point. If anyone can help me out or knows of a rescue that would be able to let me know. The first is a neutered male Am Staff. He's right around a year old and he weighs about 55 lbs. He's red with white marking. He's just a big playful puppy. The other is an intact female Pit. She's brindle and only weighs about 30 lbs. She's definitely had at least on little of puppies and is around 2 years old. This zippy little girl is such a love bug. She would be the perfect Pit for someone living in a smaller house or town home. If you can help me I'd be willing to go snap photos of them and send them your way.

I'm looking forward to working together with local rescues to help re-home abandoned and un-claimed pets. I am going to do my best to provide e-mail updates to everyone on my contact list as often as possible. Some of this information may not apply to everyone but I wanted to make sure I answered as many questions as possible in advance.

If anyone has any questions about anything at all don't hesitate to give me a call or drop me an e-mail. Our office hours are Mon/Wed/Fri 8am - 6pm. Tues/Thurs 8am - 8pm. Sat 8am - Noon. If you want to leave a message for me on our voice mail after hours go ahead and I'll return your call in the morning the following business day. Keep in mind that I do all my on-line work from home and I return my e-mails in the evening.

Pam Freeman
Impound Manager, Hillcrest Animal Hospital
1320 East County Road D Circle
Maplewood, MN 55109
(651) 484-7211
HillcrestKennel@rocketmail.com