Group urges Pocatello Animal Shelter to become a no-kill facility

A viral outbreak in late August, forced the Pocatello Animal Shelter to put 100 cats to sleep.

Now, they are being urged by the Portneuf Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) to become a no-kill shelter.

When you visit the Pocatello Animal Shelter you are more then guaranteed to see furry faces you might want to adopt.

However, not all animals get adopted and some end up beingeuthanized.

PAWS wants to see the Pocatello Animal Shelter adopt a no-kill policy.

Animal Service Director Mary Remer said they cannot do that because they are not a private shelter and they are funded by tax payers.

“If you become a no kill facility then you have to limit your animals that come in. If you fill up and all your pens are full you have to start turning animals away. That’s how a lot of them (no-kill shelters) work, if the foster homes are full and they don’t have any place to take that cat or kitten. They are going to turn you away, so where do you go with those animals?,” said Remer.

“I would like to have a shelter where no animals are euthanized, that they are either placed here in our area or sent to or sent to other animal rescues around the west we have sent them all over,” said Jo Lynn Anderson, PAWS program director.

The Bannock Human Society refer to no kill shelters as limited admission shelters because they restrict the number of animals they take in.

Animals with health or behavioral issues have to be taken to a different shelter for housing.

The animal shelter director says they have a decreased number of animals that come in, because of the non-profit organization groups like PAWS and the Bannock Humane Society working together to spay and neuter animals.