There is a problem with the euthanasia rates in Michigan. There is a Shelter in Kent County that has a euthanasia rate that is 20% higher, in 2017, than any other shelter in Michigan. The average euthanasia rates are 10% or less at each shelter. There was also a shelter in Bay County that stated they put down animals within the first couple days if not hours if the animal is aggressive. We propose that shelters in Michigan be required to hold animals for 4-7 days and attempt to rehabilitate aggressive animals instead of putting them down immediately because they are aggressive. Currently, animal shelters in Michigan have the right to euthanize animals if they are aggressive within the first hours of them arriving at the shelter. All animals deserve to have the right of life. The animals just need help to be rehabilitated. This can be done by requiring the shelters to give 4-7 days of a holding period for the animals. We understand this will take a lot of funding to support this change in holdings. That’s is why we suggest we gather taxes through animal related products. Any tax on animal products goes straight to the fund for animal shelters. These funds would help support expansions, supplies, employees, training, and anything else that would be needed. This proposal would help keep aggressive animals off the streets by placing them into good homes after rehabilitation.

        Although, there would be a shift in the taxes and it would take a lot of work. We are sure that this proposal will work. With the right training and determination, we believe that the euthanasia rates for aggressive animals would go down tremendously. There would still be exceptions to the proposal. However, the proposal was created to prevent euthanizing the aggressive animals no matter how aggressive they are. This proposal will work and we suggest starting in Kent County to give our proposal a test run to see how effective the solution we have created is.