Dear Summit County Executive Russell M. Pry, Animal Control Manager Christine Fatheree, Council President Ilene Shapiro, Council Vice President Sandra Kurt, and Council Members: Nick Kostandaras, Frank Comunale, John Schmidt, Tim Crawford, Bill Roemer, Jerry Feeman, Tamela Lee, Gloria Rodgers, and Paula Prentice,

Over the past few years, our Summit County Animal Control Department has gone through many positive changes. As a result of these changes, many more dogs and cats have been able to find their forever homes, and the facility has not had to euthanize an adoptable dog in a few years.

While these changes are positive and are helpful in changing the public’s view of how our pound is run, we, the citizens of Summit County, Ohio, urge you to continue with the progress of the pound. We believe the next imperative step to ensure that the animals that leave through the doors of this facility are well taken care of, loved, and most importantly, not subject to the environment and conditions they were rescued from in the first place, is a stricter adoption policy.

With the new policy, we ask that the facility screens potential adopters. It should take more than the cash-in-hand and an I.D. card in order to adopt a pet from the facility. Every other reputable rescue in the area screens potential adopters and matches them with the perfect fit for their family. We urge the Summit County Animal Control Department to do the same.

In order to prevent this from being ruled out due to costs associated with staffing people to follow through with the screenings, we recommend allowing the volunteers to have a bigger role with the adoption process. We have very dedicated volunteers at the Summit County Animal Control Department who would be willing to follow through with the screenings, and help match potential adopters with the perfect dog for them. We believe the best solution to prevent pets from returning to the facility is this way. Screenings would include an appointment scheduled with the potential adopter (and family if applicable) to meet some of the dogs whose personalities match what the adopter is looking for, reference checks, and a final home check when needed or when other pets are present in the home.

We understand this can be a timely process, but other rescues have done it and have proven to have a higher adoption rate where the pet stays in the home for the remainder of its life.  This is for the general welfare of the animal, and anyone who says they can make this commitment should have no problem going through this screening process.

Thank you for taking the time to think of our shelter animals!