Scrappy is the Elmore County adoptable pet of the week

This month's Elmore County Human Society pet of the week is Scrappy. Scrappy is a sixteen-month-old male Labrador retriever mix He weighs just 60 pounds. He was found as a stray, kept for a few months, house and crate trained, and then brought to the Elmore County animal shelter. He is great with children, dogs and cats. He is active and playful but not super high energy. The shelter was told that he is more of a couch potato.

The adoption fees are only $100 for dogs & $50 for cats under one-year-old; cats over one-year-old can be adopted by approved adopters for a fee of their choosing. The adoption fee completely covers the mandatory spay or neuter, basic immunizations, de-worming, microchip, heartworm check for dogs, rabies vaccination if old enough, free health exam with your participating veterinarian.

If you are interested in meeting Scrappy or any of the Elmore pets, our first step is our Adoption Application you can go here:

https://elmorehumane.org/adoption-application-online-form2.html

Once approved, the Humane Society will coordinate with you to set up an appointment to meet and adopt.

The Elmore County Humane Society is located at 255 Central Plank Road, Wetumpka, AL, 36092, our phone number is 334-567-3377 and the website is http://www.elmorehumane.org

for more information.

Abandoned pets is a legal term defining a pet has been left to fend for itself by its owner. This is very common something that is far too common in Elmore County. Last year the 'owners' of 2270 dogs and cats in Elmore County actively left them to 'make it on their own' (or die), or for someone else to find and deal with. Those 2270 are animals were either brought to the shelters as strays or seized by animal control that no one ever came for. Abandoning a pet to its fate in the wild is a criminal act; but virtually no one is ever prosecuted in Alabama.

1163 Adult Dogs (over six months old) were taken in by the Elmore Humane Society last year alone. 767 came to us as strays. Of these 767, 185 (24%) were reclaimed and reunited with their owners. Last year 495 puppies (stray dogs under six months old) were found by the shelter. The reclaim rate for puppies was less than 4% which indicates that there are people who take their unwanted litters of puppies and simply dump them to fend for themselves. How many more litters of puppies were abandoned only to die by starvation, dehydration, cars, wildlife, etc.?

Cats are even worse. Of the 383 'Adult Stray Cats' brought to the shelter in 2024 only 6 or 1.5% were reclaimed by their owner. And of the 833 "Stray Kittens" brought in, only ONE was reclaimed. That left 1209 "Stray" cats & kittens for the Elmore County Animal Shelter to care for and try to find homes for. This was on top of the 753 cats & kittens turned in by their owners. Now with cats, many of these are feral (meaning no owner). Cats are also exceedingly challenging as they can be gone for weeks or months before returning home, so the shelter gets quite excited whenever they can get a cat back to its family!

Additionally, over 1486 dogs and cats were surrendered by their owners.

Pets can and do run away or get lost, but why is it that so very few are ever reclaimed by their owners? The Humane Society does take in pets that are starved, filthy, sick and may very well deserve a better home than the one they had; but they also receive a lot of pets in perfect health, well groomed, clean, new collars (hardly ever any rabies/ID tag or microchip), and yet no owner comes for far too many of these pets.

That nobody bothers to come look for these pets is extremely frustrating to the people that work in Shelters everywhere.

Abandoning a dog or cat is not only morally wrong, but is punishable as a Class A Misdemeanor as Cruelty to Animals under the Alabama Code Section 13A-11-240(b). This code states: "the word "cruel" as used in this article shall mean: Every act, omission, or neglect, including abandonment, where unnecessary or unjustifiable pain or suffering, including abandonment, is caused or where unnecessary pain or suffering is allowed to continue."

The Human Society highly commends all the people who take the abandoned pets in, pick them up off the side of road, take the sick and injured to veterinarians, try to find the owners and do all they can to help these scared and bewildered pets who wanted so little in return for their loyalty.

If you have any questions about surrendering a pet or if you have found a stray or believe an animal to have been abandoned please call the Elmore County Human Society at 334-567-3377 or email hselco@bellsouth.net for guidance. The best option for any lost pet is to find its way back home and the Humane Society will always work diligently to help strayed pets go safely back home with their owner.