What are your adoption procedures?
Please visit Adoption Guidelines.
What is the difference between the Humane Society and Animal Control?
Animal Control, located directly behind our shelter, is a division of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department. Animal Control is the enforcement arm of animal welfare. It enforces the City and County Animal Ordinances and handles abuse cases (cruelty and neglect). Animal Control Officers are responsible for picking up stray, aggressive and/or lost animals. Animal Control has the authority to issue citations to owners not complying with local animal ordinance.
An individual who finds a stray animal must turn it in at the Animal Control shelter where it will be housed for 5 days. This is to provide time for the rightful owner to claim the animal. Anyone who has lost an animal should check immediately with the Animal Control shelter at 912-525-3100 ext. 1243. Animal Control, through F.A.C.T.S. (Friends of Animal Control Team Savannah) and Pound Puppies, does provide adoption services directly to the public. Other animal welfare groups, through transfers from Animal Control, also assist by finding adoptors.
The Humane Society is a private, non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization whose mission includes finding loving homes for orphaned pets. We accept pets, surrendered by their owners who, for a variety of reasons, can no longer provide care for them. The Humane Society is among those Savannah animal welfare groups that rescue unclaimed animals, deemed to be adoptable, from Animal Control.
How is the Humane Society funded?
The Humane Society is a 501(c) 3 private, non-profit organization that receives no government funding and is not affiliated with any other local or national animal welfare agency. Our funding comes from our adoption fees, our thrift shop, special events, grants, foundations and the generous support of individuals and businesses.
How long do you keep animals in adoption?
Unlike many shelters across the country, we have no time limits for the animals in adoption. Once an animal is placed in adoption it will stay there until we find it a loving home – usually no longer than a month.
If an owner has a sick or elderly pet, can the Humane Society provide euthanasia services? if so, how much would it cost?
Yes, we do provide this service. The fee is $20 for animals under 30 lbs. and $35 for animals over 30 lbs.
What does it cost to surrender an animal?
We charge a nominal fee to help defray some of the costs of caring for the animals. There is a minimum $25 per pet or $40 per litter, we do appreciate any additional donation that can be provided.
What happens if I bring you an animal and there’s no space available?
In this case we ask that you hold the animal a while longer until space becomes available. This can be a problem especially in the springtime when many litters are being born and are being surrendered to us. We will not turn away the pet, but there is an increased chance of euthansia.
How do I keep stray cats away from my yard/garden?
Visit the following website:
http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/HOW_TO_KEEPING_CATS_OUT_OF_GARDENS_AND_YARDS
Do you give rabies and other shots?
No. Georgia law requires that a rabies shot be administered by a licensed veterinarian, and we do not have a vet on staff; nor, do we provide other vet care or shots except to pets in our care at the shelter. As a community service, we do periodically offer low-cost shot clinics, so please check our website for dates.
Can you micro-chip my pet?
Yes. Bring your pet by during our regular viewing/adoption hours and have your pet micro-chipped for only $25. Our fee includes recording your pet on the national registry.
Where are you located?
The shelter is located at 7215 Sallie Mood Drive between Eisenhower and Montgomery Crossroad. Look for our colorful mural out front.
The Humane Society for Greater Savannah agrees with the ASPCA and the HSUS that feral cat population is a community-generated problem and that every community has a responsibility to work toward a solution. We endorse TNR as the only proven humane and effective method to manage feral cat colonies.
Free Roaming/Feral cats
You have seen them in the Wal-Mart parking lot, by the grocery store dumpster, in an alley around an empty building. What you are seeing are feral cats: offspring of once domesticated pets that were left generations ago to fend for themselves. Now they are, in fact, wild animals – unadoptable not because they are vicious, but because they fear humans. These cats do have a home: it’s the outdoors. They are community cats.
There is one simple way to help them: Trap-Neuter-Return. This program ends reproduction, stabilizes populations and improves individual cats’ lives. The behaviors and stresses associated with mating, pregnancy, yowling, and fighting… stop.
What is a feral cat?
A cat born and raised in the wild, or who has been abandoned or lost and turned to wild ways in order to survive, is considered a free roaming or feral cat. While some feral cats will tolerate a bit of human contact most are too wild to be handled. Free roaming/feral cats live in groups, called colonies, and take refuge wherever they can find food, e.g. rodents, reptiles, other small animals and garbage. They will also seek out abandoned buildings or deserted cars or even dig holes in the ground to keep warm in the winter months and cool in the summer.
What is Trap-Neuter-Return?
How does TNR help feral cats?
Through TNR, feral cats can live out their lives without adding to the homeless cat population. “It is very important to have all feral cats spayed/neutered because it is the only 100-percent effective way to prevent unwanted kittens,” says Aimee Christian, ASPCA Vice President of Spay/Neuter Operations. “Feral cats are prolific reproducers.”
Furthermore, by stabilizing the population, cats will naturally have more space, shelter and food, and a lower risk of disease. After being spayed or neutered, cats living in colonies tend togain weight and live healthier lives. Spayed cats are less likely to develop breast cancer and will not be at risk for ovarian or uterine cancer, while neutered males will not get testicular cancer. Neutering male cats also reduces the risk of injury and infection, since intact males have a natural instinct to fight with other cats. Spaying also means female cats do not go into heat. That means they attract fewer tom cats to the area, reducing fighting. If cats are sterilized and live in a colony that has a caretaker, they may live more than 10 years.
How does TNR benefit the community?
TNR helps the community by stabilizing the population of the feral colony and, over time, reducing it. At the same time, nuisance behaviors such as spraying, excessive noisemaking and fighting are largely eliminated, and no more kittens are born. Yet, the benefit of natural rodent control is maintained. Jesse Oldham, ASPCA Senior Administrative Director of Community Outreach and the founder of Slope Street Cats, an organization dedicated to feral cat welfare, notes, “TNR also helps the community’s animal welfare resources by reducing the number of kittens that would end up in their shelters—TNR creates more space for the cats and kittens who come to them from other avenues.” It is a waste of taxpayer money to pay an officer to drive out, trap a cat, drive back to the facility and kill the cat. TNR is win-win for the cats and the community.
Does eradication work?
Eradication, the deliberate and systematic destruction of a feral cat colony, by whatever method, almost always leads to the “vacuum effect”—either new cats flock to the vacated area to exploit whatever food sources attracted the original inhabitants, or survivors breed and their descendants are more cautious around threats. Simply put, eradication is only a temporary fix that sacrifices animals’ lives unnecessarily, yet yields no positive or beneficial return.
What about the birds?
While feral cats do kill some birds, they prefer to kill rodents and reptiles. Other issues, such as the decline of natural habitat and use of pesticides, have a greater negative impact on bird populations. When a colony is properly managed, with someone feeding the colony regularly, cats are even less likely to hunt and kill birds.
What can I do to help?
Support your local TNR program by helping to trap or manage a colony, donate towards a spay or neuter, be a voice in your community to gain support for these humane programs.
For more helpful information visit:
http://www.straypetadvocacy.org/tnr__the_law.html
