Joe Tarr
Volunteers try to coax Carmella, a shy dog from Mississippi, into the Wisconsin winter. She’s in foster care until she can gain more weight and be offered for adoption.
Odelette is trembling. She’s just made the two-day journey from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with her brother, Oderon.
While a veterinarian checks Oderon over on an exam table, Odelette looks on, in the arms of volunteer, seemingly terrified about what comes next. Both 3-month-old puppies — terrier-shepherd mixes — have traveled here with 30 other dogs. The trip was arranged by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (or ASPCA), which regularly transfers pets from animal shelters in southern states to ones in the north, where adoptable animals are in higher demand.
Dane County Humane Society greets dozens of new dogs almost every week, usually on Wednesdays. On Feb. 6, the bus arrives around 2:30 p.m.
The trip appears to have been stressful: Many of the dogs have chewed off their ID collars, meaning the staff need to identify each animal by photos and descriptions on a ledger.
A cacophony of barking wafts out of the back of the bus, but when each dog is taken out of its kennel, it is generally quiet, its eyebrows drooping over pleading eyes. Volunteers line up to greet the animals in a slow orderly process. Puppies — there are 14 today — are handed over to a volunteer holding a towel and carried inside.
“If they are technically considered a puppy, we carry them in,” says Marissa DeGroot, spokesperson for Dane County Humane Society, noting that some of the puppies are quite big. “Adult dogs can walk on their own.”
The Cisco Kid, an adult blue heeler mix, lunges ahead with his tail wagging and panting, eager to give out kisses or receive belly rubs from anyone in his way. But Carmella, a skinny, 3-year-old lab-retriever mix, cowers next to her volunteer handler. She seems desperate to be hugged.
Inside the shelter, the dogs line up in a hallway until an exam room is free. “We have a lot of their medical records, we know who they are, but they’re all checked by our veterinarians before they’re made available for adoption,” DeGroot explains. The vets check for a GPS chip and give out doses of vaccines and anti-flea medicine.
Most of the dogs won’t stay here long, DeGroot says. “Our average length of stay for these dogs coming in is seven days,” she says. “Some of them, especially the puppies, as soon as they get medically cleared...they could get adopted the next day.”
Dane County Humane Society gets dogs every week, alternating between shipments arranged by the ASPCA and shipments from a shelter in Birmingham, which Dane County has developed a relationship with. Dane County also gets shipments of cats, although those tend to come from nearby shelters, not from across the country.
The trip from Hattiesburg to Madison involved an overnight stay at a shelter in Louisville, so the animals and drivers could rest.
The reason Dane County can take in so many pets is that the organization sees a relatively low number of both strays and animals surrendered by owners. “We don’t have that many stray dogs coming in and the stray dogs that do come in locally, 80 percent of their owners come in and claim them,” says DeGroot. “We’re finding their owners.”
That’s typical of many northern shelters, says Karen Walsh, director of the ASPCA Animal Relocation Program. The organization started relocating animals five years ago from a shelter in Los Angeles that had a high euthanasia rate. It now has three relocation routes, including the WaterShed Relocation Rescue Ride, which connects shelters in the South with those in the Upper Midwest.
“Northern shelters may have certain types of dogs available, but they’re looking for variety. And southern shelters are overflowing,” Walsh says. “The goal eventually is there will be balance and the relocation on this scale won’t be needed anymore.”
Although other shelters take in more animals than Dane County, Walsh says the shelter here is notable for its flexibility.
“One of the problems with [shelters] is they only want puppies,” she says. “Dane County is wonderfully flexible to take on all different types of dogs and cats that need homes.”
As of Feb. 12, 10 of the 32 dogs have been adopted, including Odelette, but her brother is still available.
Dogs transferred from other shelters to Dane County Humane Society in 2014: 321
Number in 2018: 1,064
Strays taken in by the Dane County Humane Society in 2014: 923
Strays last year: 665
Dogs and cats relocated by ASPCA nationally in 2018: 40,413
