ANIMAL WELFARE IS HUMAN WELFARE

We can’t just rescue our way out.

May 21, 2025

Nicolette Brown has been volunteering with Cherished Tails Senior Sanctuary (CTSS) since the early days, helping out with IT and other administrative functions. She and Executive Director Pauline Haas-Vaughn once worked together in an attempt to trap a lost dog in semi-arid Arivaca, 62 miles south of Tucson, in what Brown described as an “all summer long” effort.
Nicolette was also employed at Pima Animal Care Center (PACC) for two years, and her expertise with the county’s only open-admission municipal shelter prompted me to seek her out for a conversation.
My question was “What will it take to bring the canine population under control in Pima County?”

Adoptable Juju, Doberman mix. Highly trained. For more about him, visit Cherished Tails on Petfinder

Brown began by telling me she has a very political perspective on animal rescue. What did she mean?

“I think what it comes down to is animal welfare is human welfare,” she explained. “One thing I found out from working at PACC is that when people are housed and fed, their animals are also typically housed and fed.”

At PACC Brown worked to reunite lost pets with their owners, and with intake case management. It was her job to try and divert owner surrenders as much as possible. Did they need resources? Food, medical care, a kennel? What could PACC do so they didn’t have to drop the animal off?

If that didn’t work out, she would schedule an intake appointment.

“When people brought animals in, it was for the same reasons over and over,” she recalled. “They lost their house and they were homeless. Their dogs were fighting, or the dog was sick. Many of those times people could barely take care of themselves, let alone a dog. A lot of the people I encountered cared about their pet and wished they could keep it, but they’d had some unforeseen circumstances. That’s why I feel like if we take care of the human aspect, we can help the animals, too.”

One technique often employed by shelters is managed intake, which means no same-day drop offs. The reasoning is that an appointment for a week later helps prevent impulsive decisions and gives the owner time to come up with a different solution, if possible. Brown said people weren’t always happy about that, but the policy is firm, other than for extreme medical or bite cases. But while it’s true she encountered many people who cared about their animals, she saw another side as well.

“There are also a lot of irresponsible and unkind humans,” Brown said sadly. “A lot of people just wanted to drop their pet off the same day so PACC would ‘solve their problem’.

“PACC doesn’t have the space to safely keep adding more and more dogs,” she continued. “You can put dogs into little kennels or offices or whatever, and merge dogs together, but at some point there’s just a max!” Shelter intake in March, 2025 was 1063 dogs.

While Brown credited PACC for innovative community outreach, she believes expecting such organizations to lead the way to canine population control is unrealistic.

“It’s a complicated question,” she said, getting back to my point. “I think it’s not just one answer, it has to be a little bit of everything.” Like what? Brown had a few things in mind.

“More housing that allows dogs of all different breeds,” was her first suggestion, noting that sometimes people have to give up their dog or face eviction. Inability to pay for medical care is another common reason people surrender their pets, and Nicolette was excited about the opening of the new Friends of PACC Community Pet Clinic, established in March 2025.

“People called in all the time asking for low cost spay and neuter,” she said. “People who wanted to get their pet fixed, but they didn’t have the extra $200 to do it.“

Wouldn’t offering widespread free spay and neuter solve the problem? It seemed like a straightforward solution to me, but Brown injected a dose of realism. There simply aren’t enough vets to get it done, even if there was funding for it, which there isn’t. The American Veterinary Medical Association assures there will be plenty of vets by 2035 but other sources disagree, predicting an increasing shortage, especially in rural areas.

In the meantime, the U.S. is enduring a crippling lack, compounded by growing pet ownership and a trend of vets leaving the profession in accelerating numbers for reasons including everything from burnout to online bullying. It’s estimated it will take more than another 50,000 vet techs nationwide to meet the current need, as well.

Brown pointed out that the situation becomes even more critical when you’re talking about about access to low cost veterinary care.

Not everyone is on board with the idea of fixing their pet, either.

“PACC offers a huge waiver in fees if you agree to spay or neuter when you come in to reclaim your pet, and people still refuse,” Nicolette told me. “So, even though there are lots of people who would use low-cost spay/neuter, there are just as many who wouldn’t. The licensing team hears all kinds of excuses.”

What about implementing restrictions on breeding, then?

“There are some great models for that from other countries, but I don’t think it’s going to happen in Arizona,” Brown said bluntly. “We can barely keep up with basic licenses, there’s no way we can prevent people from having puppies. We haven’t even enforced leash laws here for decades.”

She explained that Animal Protection Services (APS) officers handle all neglect and abuse calls, and face a constant backlog of calls about hoarding. An officer is required to be present at every eviction where an animal is involved, they investigate bite reports, and respond to police calls for backup.

Pima County currently has 19 APS officers to cover all of its 9,188 square miles, and they are on duty 24 hours a day.

Which explains why it took repeated phone calls and several months for my neighbor to get a response last year after her Spaniel was attacked by another neighbor’s dog while they were out walking. Eventually an officer did come out and the case was settled as a civil matter, with the Spaniel’s vet bills being covered. After hearing what Brown had to say, my former indignation has transformed into a dismayed appreciation that they were able to show up at all.

“One thing everyone can do that would really help is just to keep your pet in your home,” Brown advised. “Keep your own pet healthy, and try to help your friends and neighbors if they’re having trouble. Sometimes that’s all you can do.

“I hope our lawmakers will make harsher restrictions on selling animals so we won’t have puppy mills,” she continued. “We need more funding for APS officers so they can do the job they wish they could do, like monitoring hoarding houses. And incentives for landlords to allow pets would help.”

After a moment’s consideration, Brown summed things up.

“Rescue is important, but we can’t rescue our way out of animal welfare issues,” she said thoughtfully. “It’s going to involve legislation, and that’s going to be tough, because people don’t like to be told what to do with their pets. In the U.S. pets are considered to be property, and you can’t tell somebody what to do with their property.”

This conversation has been a reality check for me, dashing my idealistic hopes for a simple solution to a complex problem. I’ve come away with a deeper understanding of the issues, though. If that feels overwhelming to me, looking on from my writer’s chair, I can only imagine what it’s like to be in the trenches. Anytime I’m feeling low on heroes these days, I look in the direction of animal rescuers.

And while rescue alone isn’t going to fix the problem, it does change the life of every dog and human it touches. As Nicolette suggested, the most impactful thing you can do to help with this crisis is to simply to keep doing whatever you can.