Pound saves dogs that need homes

The dog warden tries to get a photo of each dog that says, ‘I’m nice.’

By D.A. WILKINSON

VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU

LISBON — Dawn McVay, the Columbiana County dog warden, says she is a dog lover.

She has four.

And she uses the Internet to bring dog lovers and man’s best friend together.

Posting dogs for adoption on the Internet has helped drop the county’s rate of dog euthanasia from 55 percent in 2003 to just 2 percent so far this year.

The state average of euthanasia is about 43 percent.

And the majority of adoptions in Columbiana County — up to 90 percent — are done via the Internet by people in other counties.

McVay said she doesn’t know why the Internet is so popular, but she said it works.

On a recent day at the dog warden’s office on County Home Road, a woman in Massachusetts was arranging the pickup of a dog from the county by her parents in Cleveland. She found the dog on the Internet.

McVay suggested a “transport,” which is a volunteer who may be driving, in that case, toward Cleveland who could arrange to meet the parents somewhere and turn over the dog to them. The woman on a pending visit would pick up the dog.

The county dog pound has only 29 kennels.

“That’s one [dog] per,” McVay said, although two dogs may share a kennel if they are small. The county plans to build more.

Helpers

Rescuers who live in southern Ohio, Darlington, Pa., and other locales help to place animals from the county. Local residents also foster dogs.

One of the helpers is Toni Kennett of Cincinnati, who said in an e-mail that she began working with the county pound after helping to rescue animals in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

On the Internet, she found pleas to help dogs in Ohio dog pounds.

“Once I offered to help transport two dogs from the Columbiana County pound and ended up giving one of the dogs to my daughter, and I fostered the other for four or five months until, with the help of a rescue in Maryland, we found him a forever home.

“So I kind of adopted Columbiana to help when I could ... and my involvement has grown ever since. I never knew there was such a wide network of people all focused on saving lives that otherwise would have no hope.”

The pound didn’t have the Internet in 2003, when some 759 dogs were euthanized. When the photo program began in 2004, the number dropped dramatically to 471.

McVay said the placing the dogs on the Internet began before she took over.

Statistics

But statistics show the pound is handling more dogs each year with a decreasing number of animals being euthanized.

“We do everything we can do not to put the animals asleep,” McVay said.

The small number euthanized so far this year were either sick or were too aggressive.

Pound workers also call owners whose dog winds up at the pound and tell them to come get it.

If not claimed after 72 hours, stray animals can be put up for adoption.

McVay uses her own digital camera to take a full-body shot of each dog.

She often takes three, four, or five photos, she said, to get one that says to the viewer, “I’m nice.”

She posts them on the pound’s Web site at colcodogs.com, with links to petfinder.com.

The cost for an adoption in the county is $60. That covers having the animal spayed or neutered, a distemper shot, rabies vaccine and an Ohio dog license for one year.

wilkinson@vindy.com