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One of the biggest problems in the shelter is kennel cough, a highly infectious upper- respiratory disease, which can lead to pneumonia and death for homeless dogs.
Although kennel cough can be found in most large, high-volume shelters, the problem at PACCA, which must accept all animals, is more serious than at most other shelters, and it is not easily fixed.
At least not in the inadequate city-financed shelter at 111 W. Hunting Park Ave. that was a warehouse before being transformed, on the cheap, into a shelter. Every knowledgeable person I interviewed - whether a critic or supporter of PACCA - says that the building is a major roadblock to a healthy environment for Philadelphia's homeless animals.
It is inadequate in size and improper in design, offering no way to isolate sick dogs from healthy ones.
A new shelter would be the best remedy, but a retrofit of the existing shelter to provide isolation wards for dogs would help, as would funding for additional staff and programs, such as spay-neuter community outreach.
PACCA gets $2.9 million a year from the city for animal control and shelter operations. That translates to about $2 per city resident, but the Humane Society of the United States recommends a budget of $4-7 per capita.
I met with Mayor Nutter and Health Commissioner Dr. Donald Schwarz, whose department oversees the PACCA contract. They came prepared.
Chicago, for example, spends $1.61 per capita; Detroit, $1.65, according to stats Schwarz provided. They spend less than Philly, but that doesn't make it right. Spending more than Philly are Los Angeles, $3.98, and San Diego, $4.05, according to figures from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Nutter says he's interested in more than the numbers - he wants to know how well the money is spent. And he notes that PACCA has gotten small increases in recent years while some other city departments have not.
He also said, as an example, that he has 600 homeless people to take care of. True, but throwing $1 million at that problem is like melting an iceberg with a butane lighter, while an extra million - in a city budget of $4 billion - for PACCA could save thousands of innocent canine and feline lives.
Moreover, the city doesn't need to reach into its own coffers. One way to increase funding - without touching tax money - is sending money from dog licensing to PACCA.
Nutter told me that that money, like Free Library overdue- book fines, goes into the city's General Fund. But, according to the Philadelphia Code, "all licensing fees and fines" go to the Animal Control Fund, not the General Fund. In other words, that money should be PACCA's.
PACCA has 63 staffers - 54 of them full-time - to handle 30,000 animals a year, three shifts a day, 365 days a year. When you account for animal control, veterinary services, front-office staff, adoption staff, kennel staff and drivers, there's not a lot of fat there.
The agency needs more money to ensure animal health and to continue its life-saving work. Since 2005, PACCA has more than tripled the number of animals it saves - from fewer than 20 percent to more than 60 percent. The money it receives has been well-spent.
By law, all dogs in Philadelphia must be licensed. In 2004, the Health Department estimated that there were 150,000 dogs in Philadelphia, of which 7 percent were licensed.
The current estimate, provided by Dr. Schwarz, is 391,000 dogs in Philadelphia. Only 4.3 percent, or 16,978, are licensed, meaning that some 340,000 are not.
The annual licensing fee is $16 for an unaltered dog, $8 for a neutered dog. Even if we assume that every unlicensed dog in Philadelphia is neutered, which is an insane overestimate, getting them all licensed would bring in a minimum of $2.7 million, thus doubling PACCA's budget. That is, if the dog-license law were enforced.
The problem is, it's not.
In theory, PACCA is responsible for seeing that all dogs are licensed. In reality, how can PACCA do that when it barely has enough staff to handle animal control, treat sick animals and run a kennel?
The city has to step up. The law must be enforced for the safety of citizens and the health of the dogs, in addition to simple good citizenship.
Like Nutter, I don't believe that throwing money at a problem guarantees a cure. I do believe that PACCA can become a "no kill" shelter - in real terms, meaning that about 85 percent of animals entering the shelter could be saved and adopted out - within the next several years, if the city would throw some more change on the table to show that our brotherly love extends to innocent companion animals.
Speaking of change, we need some from PACCA, too.
* To eliminate criticism, whether justified or not, that PACCA's chief executive Tara Derby does not spend enough time at the shelter, the PACCA board needs a method to verify her time on the job. As employees of a tax-funded nonprofit, execs at PACCA must endure greater public scrutiny than at, say, a law firm.
* The policy of allowing shelter
workers to get first dibs on animals should be modified. Staffers are paid to work there, and should be neither discriminated against nor preferred as adopters.
* An aggressive spay/neuter
program is needed, with public education as its base. That, too, requires resources that PACCA does not have. Everyone in the animal-welfare community knows that it's impossible to adopt your way out of the animal-overpopulation problem, a problem created by stupid animal owners who allow pets to breed.
As board president John Martini told me, given the volume of animals PACCA handles each year, it will never be perfect. No one expects perfection.
With a greater financial commitment, which can come from licensing fees, PACCA could reach its goal of a compassionate, "no-kill" city within a few years.
That would be something to brag about. *
E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:
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