Humane Society http://www.highplainsvet.com/ask-the-vet/humane-society             Every morning I  wake up to my clock radio giving me the top story of the day.  Recently it has been some variation on the theme of “ If you thought the economy was bad yesterday wait until we tell you how much worse it is today.”  Not surprisingly, the financial crunch is hitting our community services.  Along with many other important programs, the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region is facing the fact that their operating budget for next year is going to be decimated.  Without funding, lots of the services we have grown to expect from them will be in jeopardy.              One measure being taken to increase revenue for the Humane Society is the institution of licensing for cats within city limits starting January 1 of 2009.  This means that cats need to be current on their rabies vaccinations and owners must pay a small fee and will receive a tag for a collar that shows that the cat is street legal. (Even though the cat should be curled up comfortably inside the house rather than in the street.)  My first response to the new regulation was an eye roll when I thought about what a pain it was going to be to explain it to everyone and encourage them to comply with the law.  Then I had an idea:  Why don’t we as a community work together to put the Humane society out of business entirely.  Here is my plan.             Phase one involves adoption of each and every animal currently housed at the Humane Society, as well as all the other rescue organizations, into loving homes.  It should be automatic that animals in dire need of homes should be the first chosen.  Along with the choice to adopt a pet there needs to be the understanding that the commitment is to care for that animal until the end of his or her natural life span, not until the dog chews up your favorite shoes for the third time or the cat leaves one too many clumps of black hair on the tan carpet.  We would never consider moving somewhere we couldn’t have our pets any more than we would consider moving somewhere we couldn’t have our children.   In the rare cases that we cannot honor our promise to care for our adopted pets for the rest of their lives we will do the hard work of finding another individual who will agree take over our responsibility for us rather than dumping our animals out the door and assuming some stranger will pick up the slack for us.             Phase two involves spaying or neutering  each and every pet animal.  I cannot tell you how often owners are completely surprised, sometimes again and again,  that their intact female dog is suddenly pregnant by either the intact male dog that lives in the house with them, or the one that hopped the neighbor’s fence down the way.   Responsible breeding is difficult, expensive and  lots of work. Only dedicated experts should ever consider breeding.  The world does not need more litters of mixed breed puppies with hip dysplasia.  If the cost of spaying and neutering is an obstacle, we are fortunate to have Hamlett Spay and Neuter Clinic in our community.  They are subsidized and are able to provide spays and neuters at incredibly low cost.             Phase three involves keeping proper control of our pets.  No matter how sweet and friendly our dog is, or how much she loves to run all over the neighborhood, we will make sure that our property is secure so the dog does not run loose.   Our pets will have proper identification, preferably with a microchip, but at least with a tag on the collar that will get them returned to us immediately on the rare chance they escape.   We will keep our dogs on leashes when in public spaces even though our dogs are the best trained, best behaved, nicest dogs in the city.  Our cats will stay indoors in spite of the fact that the local fox population may have to go hungry as a result.             The beauty of this plan is that with only the minimum of basic responsible pet ownership we could have the staff at the Humane Society sitting around twiddling their thumbs all day.  Until that day arrives, however, paying the cat license fee is one small way that we can continue to provide for some of the most helpless and needy beings in our community.