Lake County pets are seeing some positive trends, including fewer bites and more lost animals being returned to their owners, authorities say.
However, overpopulation remains high.
Some trends, like nuisance complaints, have seasonal spikes as the weather warms up, according to Robin Van Sickle, program coordinator for the Lake County Health Department Animal Care and Control. However the number of reported bites dropped from 1,925 in 2015 to 1,804 in 2016, she said.
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According to Van Sickle, that is largely due to the department proactively educating children in schools about how to act around a stray animal.
“Since we started doing this a couple years ago, we have noticed the number of bites reported to us has decreased,” she said.
Previously, the department recorded higher numbers of bites in Zion, Waukegan, and Beach Park, she said, adding that those communities are where the Health Department targeted the school education programs, which resulted in reduced bites.
“That was a good indicator that our efforts were working,” Van Sickle said.
Another trend is that more lost pets are being reunited with their owners, she said. That, in part, is due to social media postings related to lost animals, as well as the use of microchips. As a result, she said, fewer strays have to be turned over to animal rescue organizations.
However, the need for such organizations remains high because overpopulation remains at critical high levels, authorities said.
Many rescue organizations today are no longer shelter-based, but have animals placed in foster homes, said Joan Boro, co-founder and president of Underdog Rescue, a foster-based rescue in Antioch.
Because many foster-based shelters are popping up, other rescues no longer have the volume of intake animals they used to, said Sandy Wisniewski, founder of Animal Education & Rescue Humane Society, a foster-based rescue in Libertyville. However, the number of animals needing permanent homes has not decreased, she said.
Many of the animals in rescues came from people who decided they could no longer care for their pets. It is still common for a pet owner to lose their home and need to surrender their pet because they cannot take the animals with them to their new homes, said Terri Sween, founder of Haven at the Paws Inn, 17273 W. Edwards Road, Antioch, which is a shelter-based rescue.
“It’s still more common than you would think,” Sween said.
That happened more in 2008 and 2009, Boro said, but is still a common occurrence.
“We get that at least once a week,” Boro said.
Another reason animals are surrendered is that they are purchased on a whim from pet stores, such as a case of diamond doves someone purchased from a store then surrendered to the Animal Education & Rescue Humane Society, Wisniewski said.
“It’s a narrow market of people who want diamond doves,” she said, because they breed easily, without a nesting box.
The original owners made an “impulse buy,” and surrendered them when they multiplied, she said. That is common with ducks, quail and pigeons, she said.
As an animal investigator, Wisniewski said she has removed many rabbits from hoarding situations, where owners were breeding them to sell to pet stores.
“People have no idea … other kinds of pets that are sadly ending up on the streets, or getting stuffed in basements without the proper kinds of care,” she said.
Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter for the Lake County News-Sun.