Ashland’s Denise Krause says Jackson County needs a shelter that offers more room for dogs to play but also needs to admit non-canines
By Debora Gordon for Ashland.news
Jackson County needs a new animal shelter, one for both dogs and cats and run by a nonprofit organization, not the county, says Denise Krause, an Ashland resident who serves on the Rogue Valley Transit District board and is known to many as a candidate for county commissioner.
Krause said that state law mandates counties to take care of dog control, allowing counties to exclude cats and other animals from shelters if they so choose. “The mandate requires the bare minimum; dog control only, no cats.”
Other county shelters accept cats
Right now, the county is leaning toward the bare minimum of service provided, Krause said. Some other counties include cats and other small animals in their shelters. “They do fostering and they continue to care for cats.”
Krause said the county needs to carefully choose the location and capacity of the next animal shelter.
“We want to have a central accessible location with a facility designed according to shelter best practices. We’re not excluding cats here. Capacity to accommodate the future growth of our county. You want to have indoor-outdoor runs and maybe with play yards where the dogs don’t have to stay in a cage all day. They can go out in yards with other dogs.”
A loving pet-owner, Krause said she has three rescue dogs, three rescue cats, five sheep and several chickens. She said her career has been dedicated to helping “provide access to services, identifying those services, trying to reduce the barriers. I was in population health and I have a background in epidemiology, in relation to quality of life.”
Not only animals benefit
She said, “I started seeing the connections and how the barrier to care for animals would be something that could make a significant difference in other areas, a significant thing that we could do for our community to get in front of some of these problems. An animal shelter is a critical piece of making our world a better place, and not just for the animals. We benefit from animals, and not just only eating them.”
Going forward, Krause is focused on improving and expanding animal shelters, in Ashland and beyond. “I’m going to work on the animal shelter, looking at barriers to care and overcoming them. I’m putting all the pieces on the table, looking at what we have. We have an outpouring of support, lots of volunteers. The county decided that it would be dogs only. But most counties are both dogs and cats.”
She said that under the state policy, “what happens a lot is raised salaries and cut services and then the community tries to fill the void.”
‘No public input’
In Jackson County, Krause said, “The county administration has presented a plan. We all believe we need a new shelter. We have been meeting for months, and over 16 animal organizations showed up for the meetings last spring. We, the people, have assembled, and we have been visiting animal shelters, looking at funds, services, after the county said all they have to do is dog control. The county administrator presented his one-man plan for a dog control facility, and there was no public input.”
One of the prospective animal shelter goals Krause proposes is to provide adequate and pleasant shaded outdoor space for dog play groups and dog walking. There would be trails in the woods and an environment where volunteers and animals could enjoy “a warm and welcoming atmosphere, treating volunteers like they’re the greatest asset.”
Krause said the animal shelter could also do more to serve pet owners who are living in crisis. “We have an animal shelter. What if we also have a program where we help people, people who are in domestic violence situation — animals and people?
Services for people in crisis
“Animals, too, often are victims of domestic violence and sometimes abused by the perpetrator. “A lot of domestic violence survivors or victims can’t leave the situation because they don’t want to leave their pets. What we can have is a program where we will take the pets of domestic violence so people can get help in a safe place. Not indefinitely, but until they can reset, and get some help and get out of that situation. There are programs that do this, such as the Pet Haven program in Fairfax County, Virginia. They keep them for two weeks and will go ahead and vaccinate, microchip and spay and neuter. The person who’s now getting help can be reconnected, get their animal back.”
Krause’s would also like to see services offered to hold pets for pet owners who may face a short spell in jail. “If they’re going to jail for two or three days, or if they’re going to other treatment, that takes a toll on anybody if they have an animal.”
Ultimately, the county could put a pet facility, a “dog jail” next to the county jail, Krause said. “I think differently, let’s provide services that are more compassionate.”
Debora Gordon is a writer, artist, educator and nonviolence activist who recently moved to Ashland from Oakland, California. Email her at debora.ashlandnews@gmail.com.
