Steve Clark

This is National Animal Shelter Appreciation week so if want to appreciate Seattle's official animal shelter, you're lucky that it's a mile south of the Ballard Bridge on 15th Avenue West. You can go say hi to the staff, and even consider adopting. Visiting the animals is not as upsetting as you might think.

"It's an emotionally charged issue," said Don Jordan, the executive director of the Seattle Animal Shelter. Jordan has run the shelter since 1996. It contains about 100 animals at any one time, and also has a clinic, and animal licensing department.

Jordan said the best ways to appreciate the shelter are by adopting, volunteering or donating. He acknowledges that what often gets in the way is that the shelter can be a disconcerting kind of nexus for animal lovers' fears. A place where some adorable animals never get to leave.

"These are all animals that have a story, and are here through no fault of their own," Jordan said.

To take out some of the emotional sting in aiding abandoned animals, the Seattle Animal Shelter has off-site adoption drives and web cams, so people can get involved with helping animals without coming face to face with so many animals in cages.

The animal shelter is also trading in its burly super duty trucks - each emblazoned with ominous sounding "Animal Control" - for more friendly vans, decorated with pictures of potential pets. Jordan said there are also plans to paint the kennel itself with more cheerful colors, and get rid of the concrete 'cell block A' feel to it. It's all part of the shelter's mission to get homes for animals who show an obvious desire to be touched and loved, even through their steel cage doors.

More animals than not get their wish. About half of the 7000 animals that ended up in the shelter last year found new homes. Another 15% were reunited with their owners. And though a great many of the animals that were destroyed were either terminally ill or had dangerous behavior problems, it still meant more than 2000 mostly cats and dogs had to be put down.

Some of the animals that end up in the shelter were left by people that could or would no longer care for them, but many were simply abandoned.

"It's unfortunate we live in a disposable society," Jordan said about the cold tactics employed to leave pets, especially cats, by the side of the road, in parks, parking lots or dumpsters. Ultimately, the city picks up the disposed-of pets, and the tab. And unlike "no kill" animal shelters that can be selective about which animals they will help, the, the Seattle Animal Shelter doesn't turn any animals away.

To do the job, the shelter has 31 employees, covering a clinic, kennel, administration, and animal control. The operation runs two shifts a day, seven days a week, covering 92 square miles of Seattle, spaying, neutering, vaccinating, rescuing and rounding up a fraction of the 125,000 dogs in the city, and maybe a quarter of a million cats.

But there is also a network of more than 600 volunteers. According to Jordan, many of whom work several days a month at the shelter, giving of their time to make an animal's life a little better by fostering cats and dogs, dog walking, obedience training, fundraising and promotion. There are foster families too, more than 200, which take in injured animals and nurse them back to health.

Donations to the shelter totaled more than $250,000 last year.

The agency shelters other animals besides cats and dogs. There are several rabbits at the shelter now, and in the past there have been pigs, goats, chickens and birds. Reptiles too end up here. Iguanas, after they get too large and intimidating for their owners, and Reticulated pythons, too, when they get large enough to eat their owners.

Cats and dogs remain the mainstay of the shelter. According to the Humane Society, two cats can produce more than 400,000 offspring in seven years and two dogs, almost 70,000 offspring in just six.

Jordan credits a passionate community with coming to grips with animal overpopulation and an effective spay and neuter clinic, a self funded operation which offers microchip implants and vaccinations along with sterilization. Seattle has seen a dramatic reduction in stray populations since the animal shelter opened in 1972 and took in some 25,000 abandoned animals a year, the vast majority of which were euthanized.

To keep the emphasis firmly on prevention, anyone who visits the shelter this week and renews or purchases a Seattle pet is license is entitled to a certificate valid for a free spay or neuter of a companion dog or cat.

If you'd like to get involved The Seattle Animal Shelter lists five ways you can help:

- Offer a donation of needed supplies, such as new toys, treats, blankets.

- Spread the word about the importance of responsible pet ownership, including spaying and neutering.

- Become a part of the shelter's volunteer program.

- Report animal abuse.

- Choose your next pet from among the many animals being cared for at the Seattle Animal Shelter.

The Seattle Animal Shelter is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12:00 to 6:00pm and Sunday from 12:00 to 4pm and is located at 2061 - 15th Ave. W. The phone number is (206) 386-PETS (7387) and the web site is www.seattleanimalshelter.org .