The staff at the Everett Animal Shelter put down virtually ever cat and kitten in their care Monday — 81 total — after a kitten tested positive for an extremely contagious disease that can kill cats in the space of a day.
Don’t think that was easy for any of them.
By chance, I visited the shelter earlier this month to meet the city’s vet, Lisa Thompson. The city decided to hire her, in part, to cut down on the number of cats and dogs euthanized. She spays or neuters every cat and dog that gets adopted as part of that effort.
One thing was clear during my visit: Thompson and the rest of the people who work at the shelter love animals. They’d rather not have to put any down. The shelter is required to take in all stray animals and they end up with too many, some of which have behavioral or health problems that make them probably impossible to adopt out.
The staff told me about an aggressive plan they’ve put into place to cut down on the number of animals that are put to sleep, including working closely with other animal groups to get cats and dogs placed and starting a foster care program.
Yesterday, I spoke with Shannon Delgado, who now runs the shelter. She said the staff are doing their best to get through this latest incident. And she wrote this message for her workers on a shelter whiteboard:
“It takes a lot of strength to do what we need to do,” she told them. “I feel proud and honored to have a great group of people working with me.”
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