An Organization for the Helpless

The Animal Care & Control Division of the Public Works Department in Bloomington, Indiana is an organization responsible for addressing and responding to all companion animal needs in the community through education, enforcement and support in order to build a community where people value animals and treat them with kindness and respect.

It was set up in the year 2004 and started out with 15 employees and an annual budget of $782,931 USD. Sadly, about 2277 animals had to be euthanized in the first year alone, but on a positive note, 3257 stray animals were rescued and a total of 5608 animals were taken in and housed. People were happy to adopt treated and rescued animals into their homes and in that year, 1896 adoptions were overseen by the organization generating an annual adoption revenue of about $13,146 USD.

Let’s see if anything has changed, for the better or for the worse, in 2020.

The Yearly Budget

It is good to see that the State Government has been actively increasing the yearly budget for the organization. Animal welfare is becoming more relevant. For the year 2020, the budget has reached an all-time high at $1,807,195 USD. Deparment vehicles are used for the purpose of transporting animals safely. The organization has had three rescue vehicles up until 2019, when one more vehicle was purchased making it a total of four.

Number of Animals at the Shelter

The total intake of stray animals or animals given to the organization by the owners is steadily decreasing throughout the years. People are beginning to raise awareness on animal welfare and more animals are being adopted and taken care of leaving less animals at the shelter.

Please click the play button for the plot animation.

Stray Animals

The number of stray animals rescued by the organization in the city is gradually dropping. This directly implies that the stray animals in the city of Bloomington are constantly being rescued and put into the shelter or taken into new homes where are they are taken care of. The highest staff count was 20 in 2015. Now, the staff count has reduced to 19. This makes sense as lesser number of animals are needed to be taken in and fostered throughout each year.

Euthanized Animals

Animals may need to be euthanized for particular reasons. Reasons for euthanasia include incurable conditions or diseases, lack of resources to continue supporting the animal, or laboratory test procedures. It is really heartwarming to see that the number of animals that needed to be euthanized has dropped significantly from 2277 in 2004 to 103 in 2020.

Animals Surrendered by the Owners

Owners surrender their pets to the shelter often which is a very sad case. Mainly because they cannot spend the time and money to look after them. A happy thing to note is that this is also decreasing throughout the years. The number has reduced from 2351 in 2004 to just 1038 in 2020.

Please click the play button for the plot animation.

A Happy Future for Animals

It seems the city of Bloomington is on the right path towards animal care and welfare. With reducing strays, euthanization and surrendered animals each year, animals are being given the care and attention they deserve.

Adopt animals if you are in a position to do so. Animals have feelings and emotions too!

References

Sauder, Virgil. (2021, Feb 4). Animal Care and Control Division Annual Statistics. City of Bloomington.
       https://data.bloomington.in.gov/dataset/animal-care-and-control

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       https://plotly.com/r/

GGPlot2 Documentation. (n.d.). GGPlot2 Cheatsheet. Tidyverse.
       https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/

Kassambara, Alboukadel. (n.d.). GGPlot Theme Background Color and Grids. Datanovia.
       https://www.datanovia.com/en/blog/ggplot-theme-background-color-and-grids/

Department of Mathematics. (n.d.). [Introduction Picture, Image]. Indiana University Bloomington.
       https://math.indiana.edu/about/bloomington/visitor.html

Wonderopolis. (n.d.). [Introduction Picture, Image]. Wonderopolis.org.
       https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-people-keep-pets