When Hometown Alaska recently invited listeners to identify programs they’d like to hear (we make this request during our annual ‘All Ears’ shows), callers asked for information on how Anchorage is coping with strays. We found out, and that’s the topic for the next program.
Anchorage Animal Care and Control defines itself as an “open-admission” shelter for domestic animals. It becomes a temporary home for strays waiting to be claimed by their owners, or homeless animals that are waiting to be adopted.
The shelter has an active cadre of volunteers who help exercise and socialize shelter animals. And animal control officers from this agency respond to requests for assistance for animals in need and to concerns about animals that might be a threat to public safety.
So what is this job like? How is Anchorage faring with respect to lost and stray animals? What are the challenges and what are some of the animal stories inside the shelter? How often are lost pets reunited with their owners? What happens if they are not?
What if you have decided, after taking on a pet, that you can’t make a good home for it? Will the shelter take this animal for you?
What if you want to adopt a cat or a dog (or a rabbit or a turtle or a hamster). What are the requirements? How should you evaluate yourself or your family’s readiness to take on this commitment?
Title 17 of the municipal code promotes public health and safety and encourages responsible pet ownership and the humane care of animals. This includes monitoring and regulating noises that animals make, from barking dogs to clucking chickens. These are the regulations that animal control officers enforce.
Bring your questions and comments, and join us in this conversation about how Anchorage manages its stray animals.
HOST: Kathleen McCoy
GUESTS:
- Laura Atwood, Anchorage Animal Care and Control
- Captain Brad Larson, enforcement supervisor, Anchorage Animal Care and Control
- Pamela Meadors, director of clinic operations, Alaska SPCA
LINKS:
- Anchorage Animal Care and Control website
- Barking dogs, AACC website
- Adopting a pet, AACC website
- Off-leash dog areas and good petiquette, AACC website
- Animal bites, (1-pg PDF), AACC website
- Anchorage Ordinances, Title 17 (54-pg PDF)
- Friends of Pets, rescue partner with AACC
- Alaska Animal Rescue Friends (AARF), rescues animals, including many from rural Alaska
- Alaska Bird Club, website; 352-2762
- Alaska SPCA Adoption Center
- Alaska SPCA, website
- Alaska Animal Advocates (AAA), adoptions
- Reading a dog’s signals, 5 pg PDF
- Empty cages: Where have all of Anchorage’s shelter pets gone? ADN.com, 6.30.2016
- Alaska Rural Veterinary Outreach
- Alaska Native Veterinary, Inc website and Facebook page
- Kitty and K9 Connection,website
- One Health. a global initiative to unite veterinary and human health, website
- CDC One Health, website
PARTICIPATE:
- Call 550-8433 (Anchorage) or 1-888-353-5752  (statewide) during the live broadcast (2:00 – 3:00pm)
- Send email to hometown@alaskapublic.org before, during or after the broadcast.
- Post your comment or question below
LIVE BROADCAST: Wednesday, February 14, 2018, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (Alaska time)
REPEAT BROADCAST: Wednesday, February 14, 2018, 8:00 – 9:00 p.m. (Alaska time)
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