An open letter from the Wellington Humane Society on its stray boarding procedures
Sumner Newscow report — The following is an open letter from the Wellington Humane Society organization:
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“The Wellington Humane Society wanted to share some information with the public regarding the processes that we have in place and why. Since we are still fairly new in the community, we wanted to make sure the residents know the capabilities of the humane society and how we can assist you.
There is a legal procedure that has to be followed for stray animals in the City of Wellington. When an animal is found, Wellington Animal Control must be contacted to pick up the animal. Strays are taken to the Wellington Animal Clinic, the contracted city pound. Once an animal has served its stray hold and is not claimed, it is considered up for adoption.
At this point, the Wellington Animal Clinic can adopt the animal, or the Wellington Humane Society can transfer the animal to our facility. The State of Kansas requires a three-day stray hold, whereas the City of Wellington requires a five-day stray hold.
The Wellington Humane Society does not have a contract with the City of Wellington, surrounding towns, or the county to serve as a pound. Therefore we cannot take in stray animals. If an animal is found as a stray in the county, the finder can keep the animal for three days while working towards finding an owner. If an owner is not found, the finder can fill out paperwork to relinquish the animal to the Wellington Humane Society. We are happy to do courtesy posts on our social media to help find the owner or scan the animal to see if it has a microchip.
For those citizens who do not live in Wellington but reside in another Sumner County town, we encourage you to check with your local city officials to familiarize yourself with those animal ordinances. Each town in the county has different ordinances enforced by its specific law enforcement.
Relinquishing an animal to the Wellington Humane Society is by appointment only. To relinquish an animal, a form must be completed on our website. Once that form is received, it is added to the pending relinquishment waitlist. Most of the time, we run at capacity with dogs and cats. Once kennel space becomes available, appointments are scheduled. There is a required fee to relinquish an animal. This fee goes towards getting the animal updated on vaccinations, spayed or neutered, and general care of the animal.
Per the State of Kansas, the Wellington Humane Society is only allowed to hold a specific number of both cats and dogs in the facility at any given time. The State sets this rule, and it is a requirement that must be followed. The humane society gets inspected every one to two years, and there is a high standard of animal care that must be met to ensure the quality of life for every animal that comes into the facility. This includes animals in not only the facility but also those animals in foster homes.
For the humane society to be considered a no-kill shelter, we must have a saving rate of 90%. The only time we euthanize animals is if they have a life-threatening illness that we can no longer treat or if they are aggressive and pose a threat to the general population. That means we do not euthanize for space, so we have a waitlist for animals needing to come into the shelter. We network with other shelters and rescue organizations in the area. If we do not have space, we try to refer those needing to relinquish to other shelters in the area in case they may have room. We also do occasionally take in animals from other shelters and rescue groups, with the priority being Sumner County residents first.
There are several resources on our website, including area rescues, that we hope are beneficial. Please contact us if you have any questions about operations or animals. We would like to assist you in any way that we can!”
