Local opinion: PACC's recent accomplishments doesn't include population prevention

Current director of Pima Animal Care Center Steve Kozachik inherited the pet overpopulation and chronic shelter overcapacity crisis largely created by previous directors affiliated with Best Friends Animal Society and Maddie’s Fund directives that ignored meaningful population prevention to support growth in the pet merchandise and services financial ecosystem.

PACC’s new million-dollar east-side adoption center accommodating 35 to 50 dogs and 10 cats should provide some relief for the chronic shelter crisis. There are also beginning efforts to address dozens of hoarding locations of neglected breeding animals existing in deplorable conditions throughout the county.

This year, PACC has received an unprecedented number of litters with deadly contagious parvovirus and distemper as overcrowding perpetuates other contagions. Reportedly, PACC now has an eight-week wait to accept owner surrenders and Humane Society Southern Arizona practices “managed intake,” selectively accepting owned animals only (no strays), with a $75 surrender fee, barriers contributing to the cycle of stray and hoarding populations. The rescues are full.

As a research assistant for publications covering the nationwide shelter reform movement, it is acknowledged as mathematically impossible to stabilize our shelters and pet population without prioritizing quality VOLUME-sponsored sterilizing clinic outreach campaigns, especially after years of avoidance and a public increasingly unable to accommodate pets or afford even “low-cost” veterinary care. California has robust legal and legislative reforms in progress to address root causes of shelter crisis and enact more restrictions for puppy-mill and backyard-bred commercial breeding that Pima County authorities have not pursued.

The results of national organizations Maddie’s Fund and Best Friends and their corporate partners directing funding and priorities away from prevention are visible with most every city, town and region also in crisis. The only communities with stable pet populations are predominantly economically affluent with robust spay-neuter programs or those deploying quality, volume, free mobile clinics in underserved communities and outlying areas at a meaningful scale.

For those qualifying, PACC has initiated modest expansion of discounted spay-neuter access; however, Friends of PACC’s major nonprofit and corporate funding partners continue to deprioritize prevention even as overpopulation becomes a health and safety economic drain.

Rescue, rehabilitation, adoption and foster are essential components of supporting the pet population; however, shelter staff, volunteers, fosters and rescues are exhausted and overwhelmed with no end in sight and emotionally fraught euthanasia deadlines. It is easier to solicit donors and corporate sponsors for the camera-ready heartwarming stories of homeless pets finding new homes versus unglamorous volume spay-neuter clinic events in underserved areas and for the general public. It is time for Friends of PACC to immediately prioritize fundraising for VOLUME, quality spay-neuter outreach campaigns with local sponsors and donors requiring their donations be directed to meaningful population prevention at scale.

The Tucson community has generously responded to PACC’s urgent pleas and chronic shelter overcapacity crisis, but we can’t adopt, foster and rescue our way out of overpopulation. Those working on the front lines and the public are carrying the weight of prioritizing a system that focuses on managing the consequences of overpopulation rather than preventing it.