More care should be taken when animals are surrendered to ensure that there are no alternatives. Many animals end up as “throwaways” because of minor behavioral problems that can easily be corrected and sometimes will disappear with maturity. Currently there is no counseling or any effort whatsoever to prevent the surrender of animals when such is unnecessary. Those who surrender are also not made aware of the 50% chance that the animal will be killed.
This conflicts with the SPCA Code of Ethics: Point 1) subparagraph 2 and Section 2 point 2
Solution: Provide counseling to those to surrender an animal. Provide help during behavior modification if the parent chooses to keep the animal. This help could easily fit with the new current Pet Pal Program architecture and be handled by an appropriately trained volunteer.
Symptoms: This reinforces the disrespectful attitude towards animals by demonstrating that surrendering an animal is “no big deal” and allows for many unnecessary surrenderings.