Cliff Bennett, director of Flathead County Animal Shelter, told the Flathead County Board of Health Thursday that the shelter has taken in 110 dogs so far in February.

“Since we average four dogs a day for every day of the year, February could be a large dog month,” he said. “And we haven’t hit kitten season yet.”

Bennett then distributed a report that compared the statistics of Flathead County Animal Shelters with 19 others in Montana and 2,000 across the nation that use the same PetPoint software.

“What it shows is that we are doing quite a job for a municipal shelter when it comes to low euthanasia,” he said. “We’re also doing an exceptional job getting dogs back to their owners.”

The reports showed Flathead County euthanized 3.3 percent of animals in 2012 compared to 5.1 percent at other Montana shelters and 30.9 percent at shelters across the country. 

This shelter returned 31.6 percent of animals to owners; other Montana shelters returned 18.8 percent and those nationally returned only 6.6 percent.

Bennett said that the department was lower on adoptions with 52.8 percent compared to 73.5 percent at other Montana shelters. The national percentage is 42.4 percent of animals adopted.

The shelter excelled with the shortest lengths of stay for dogs and cats as well as the largest percentage of transfers to other facilities at 10.5 percent.

“I like what we’re doing in getting animals out, whatever it takes to get them out of there,” Bennett said. “And right now we don’t have an open dog kennel so every creative thing we can do to find a home for a dog keeps us from having to double up or start using outside kennels.”

Bennett said the department’s efforts to increase dog licensing have helped return animals to their owners. Licensing revenue has increased significantly but lags far behind other areas such as Missoula. 

He met with the director of the Missoula shelter and learned that revenue from licensing there during 2012 were $145,000.

“We’re hoping or predicting that ours are going to be right at $15,000,” Bennett said. “While Missoula is a larger county than Flathead in population, they’re not ten times our size.”

The Missoula director attributed the success with having just one entity responsible for licensing dogs. In Flathead county, Whitefish and Kalispell license dogs in their cities and the county licenses dogs outside those cities as well as those in Columbia Falls.

“There are still a lot of people in Flathead County who think that because their dog isn’t in one of the cities, it doesn’t need a license,” Bennett said.

He said both Whitefish and Kalispell want the county to assume responsibility for issuing licenses. Bennett said it requires a contractual agreement with the cities that is now under review by county commissioners.

He said the move would improve efficiency because the shelter has a Web-based database of all dog licenses that animal wardens can tap into with their laptops to quickly return dogs to their owners. 

“February has got us full of dogs so every little thing we can do sure helps that shelter keep its numbers down,” he said. “When we get numbers like this, the other thing it strains is our admin system.” 

During his report to the health board, Bennett was asked why the statistics showed few cats returned to owners. He said he was sorry to say that people seem to look on cats as more disposable.

Also cats rarely have any form of identification when they arrive. The shelter microchips each cat that enters.

Bennett said that cities such as Spokane require licenses for cats, although that he wasn’t suggesting cat licensing. Health Officer Joe Russell said that a bill before the Legislature now would require rabies shots for cats, which could lead to licensing for tracking. 

“So it’s probably coming,” Russell said. 

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.