Editorial: Dakin's mission finds wider realm

Published on September 04, 2009

The Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society is gearing up to bring its vision of animal welfare to a far-larger area.

After years of working from modest spaces in Leverett and Greenfield, the nonprofit group led by Leslie Harris is pursuing an ambitious plan to improve the lot of animals not just in the Valley, but within 90 miles of Springfield.

The abrupt closing in March of the MSPCA Western New England facility in Springfield changed the game for Harris and her team. The plan they have shaped needs and deserves public support.

The demise of the MSPCA program this spring left Dakin Pioneer Valley with no place to refer animals that it could not accommodate, as it pursued its long-held goal of resisting the use of euthanasia. While not quite a "no-kill" shelter, the program has been able to place into homes roughly 96 of every 100 animals that came through its doors.

But it has only been able to achieve that by generally not accepting animals with undesirable behaviors that could not be changed.

It has been a different story for unwanted animals in Hampden County. Last year, nearly half of the more than 11,000 pets taken in to the region's three shelters - the former MSPCA and the Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center, both in Springfield, along with Dakin Pioneer Valley - were killed.

The loss of the MSPCA program could have made things even worse, if Dakin Pioneer Valley hadn't quickly adjusted its long-term plan and moved to fill a gap in service.

It dropped a plan to build a new facility and bought the MSPCA's modern quarters on Union Street for $1.2 million and on Aug. 1 opened for business.

Last month, Dakin Pioneer Valley announced that even as it confronts a need to use euthanasia more than it has in the past, it will work to end the killing of adoptable animals in its new three-county service area by 2012.

In the upper Valley, nearly all adoptable dogs have been finding homes. Cats are another matter. Valley shelters have been taking in 10 times as many cats as they can place in homes.

For that reason, while it expects by next August to be able to guarantee the adoption of all healthy dogs and those whose conditions can be rehabbed or managed, it will be a year after that, in August 2011, before even half of all homeless cats whose conditions can be rehabbed or managed will find homes. Only a year later can Dakin Pioneer Valley promise to find homes for all cats of that type.

To achieve its goals, the agency will open a high-volume, low-cost spaying and neutering clinic in Springfield this October. This clinic will work with animal-control and animal-welfare agencies from as far as 90 miles away to perform the quick surgeries that dramatically lessen the number of unwanted animals coming along. The clinic hopes to handle 7,000 operations its first year, then step up to as many as 12,000 by 2011.

By reaching across central New England, Dakin Pioneer Valley is not only owning up to this region's problems with unwanted pets, but helping to improve the lot of animals many counties away. It must, or risk having a general overpopulation of homeless animals upset its goals.

When change came its way, Dakin Pioneer Valley had no choice but to change itself. It dropped a building plan, invested donated funds in the Springfield property and is managing its way through dramatic growth - to wit, a budget increase from $1 million to nearly $3 million later this year and a roughly 40 percent increase in full- and part-time employees.

The goals it laid out last month make good sense - and need to be accepted by all who feel the pain of animal homelessness. The fate of such creatures says much about people.

Dakin Pioneer Valley is working to stretch across a wider region the decency that has guided its work. It will be asking for help to hit its benchmarks over the next three years. It needs its supporters now more than ever.

A version of this editorial appeared in the Daily Hampshire Gazette.