Delaware County SPCA to end animal-control services

Life for Delaware County pets and their owners is about to get a lot more worrisome.

By this time next year, the Delaware County SPCA said last week, the organization will no longer provide animal-control services, which means strays or lost pets will become the responsibility of the county's 49 municipalities.

The local SPCA will become a no-kill shelter, said Kerry Flanagan Bruni, executive director of the private nonprofit organization. Its focus will shift to core programs that prevent animal cruelty and overpopulation and that promote responsible pet ownership.

"We really wanted to make a bigger impact in our community, and as long as we were bogged down with animal-control functions, we were not going to be able to do what we wanted to do - address the root causes of the homeless pet situation in Delaware County," Flanagan Bruni said.

The shelter, in Media, will still care for pets surrendered by owners for adoption by the public. But animals that previously would have been dumped off at the shelter, which handles about 7,000 animals a year, will become the municipalities' problem.

The move surprised many in the county.

"We were floored by this," said Joseph Daly, Springfield Township chief of police. He hopes to sit down with township officials and other municipalities and come up with a plan for another shelter.

"Eleven months is not enough time to get all this done," Daly said.

Marianne Grace, county executive, said that the decision had also caught her unaware, and that she had not had a chance to speak with SPCA officials.

She does not see the county providing financial support to the municipalities. "Taking on a new program is not a good idea," she said.

Samantha Reiner, Edgmont Township manager, said the responsibility needed to be a shared.

"Stray animals don't recognize political boundaries," she said.

Reiner said one possibility would be to ask county and state representatives to help get more shelter licenses for local veterinarians or kennels to house stray animals until they can be adopted.

"We have to find a solution. We have to work together, and the county has to help us," Reiner said.

For one local rescue group, the quest for a shelter license has, so far, proved futile.

Bill Smith of Main Line Animal Rescue in Chester County said his group had changed its articles of incorporation months ago so it would be able to take in strays. The state Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for licensing, still has not given a go-ahead, he said.

"It is sad that we are willing and can't, and Delaware County [SPCA] can and they don't want to," said Smith.

In recent years, the Delaware County SPCA has been criticized for mismanagement, unhealthy conditions, inadequate veterinary care, and the placement of sick animals in new homes.

In January, it was found negligent in the 2006 death of a cat euthanized after a 24-hour stay, a violation of policy. A few months before, shelter employees covered up the premature euthanasia of another cat and falsified state records claiming it had bitten an employee.

In response, the agency brought in new shelter directors and board members, employed a veterinarian, and made improvements to the facility.