Laserfiche WebLink
Attachment B <br />Lt. Rosand, <br />I'm sorry that no one from Hillcrest Animal Hospital will be available to directly answer council questions <br />tonight. I will be reachable tonight by text, in case any urgent questions need to be answered. My cell <br />number is 612-723-4310. In an effort to ease the understandable concerns about the euthanasia of <br />animals, please give the council the following statement from me: <br />My name is Jennifer Bouthilet, DVM. I am the sole owner of Hillcrest Animal Hospital (HAH), and have <br />been working at this practice for over 25 years. The practice has been involved with animal control <br />impound services since long before I started there. <br />We currently serve 30+ jurisdictions. That number may seem overwhelming, but some of the cities and <br />townships are quite small and have infrequent impounds. Most of the dogs we impound get picked up <br />by their owners. Most of the cats don't. For the animals that do not get reclaimed, we have a solid <br />system in place with a network of local rescue groups which take animals for adoption to new homes. <br />All of the animals are checked for the presence of microchips at intake and again before being sent out <br />to rescue, so every chance to be returned to their owners has been explored. <br />The only animals we euthanize are those that are severely injured/sick, are aggressive, or are feral (cats <br />that are essentially wild animals). Our euthanasia rate of all animals impounded (including those <br />situations just described) is less than 10%, which I'm told would qualify us as a'no kill' shelter. I do not <br />and will not advertise HAH with that description. Many people believe that'no kill' means absolutely no <br />animals are euthanized, and I do not want to give anyone a false impression. <br />Yes, we do euthanize some of the animals. However, I did not enter the profession of veterinary <br />medicine in order to euthanize healthy animals. Neither did my staff. My contribution to the animal <br />rescue world is to give the impounded animals a place to stay after their impound time and until we can <br />find a rescue group to take them. On very rare occasions we have an animal impounded which is <br />healthy but for whom we cannot find rescue foster space. In those cases, we have kept them for several <br />weeks past their impound time (at our expense), and if all our options for foster space have been <br />explored, they are humanely euthanized. Again, that is a very rare occurrence. We now have several <br />terrific rescues in our network that take animals which have traditionally been most difficult to place <br />(bully breed dogs, for instance). <br />I welcome any questions the council may have regarding the impound services at Hillcrest Animal <br />Hospital. I apologize that I could not be present in person tonight. <br />Sincerely, <br />