DR. GWEN HAWTOFF is the hands-on director of the Animal Shelters in Marathon and Key West. The shelters are privately operated by the Florida Keys Chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA). KWTN's Mary Powell had an opportunity to take a road trip with Hawtoff.
Last year, the Florida Keys Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) took over operation of the Animal Shelters in the middle and lower keys. Dr. Gwen Hawtof is the director in charge of the shelters in Key West and Marathon, as well as the "holding facility" on Big Pine Key.
"Any homeless or dangerous animals from MM70 to Key West are the responsibility of me and my staff," she said. "But the buck stops with me."
Gwen, a retired anesthesiologist, loves animals. And she draws no salary for the work she does.
Three weeks ago, the interview I had scheduled with Gwen turned into an impromptu "road trip" as she had to bring supplies (trap cages, carriers, medicine) to the shelter in Marathon, along with a few animal control stops along the way.
We set out about 1:30 p.m. after loading the supplies and a little dog, a terrier mix in a cat carrier, who had been tested in Key West for heartworm. As a stray dog, she had been eluding animal control for weeks but was finally picked up wandering at the Home Depot store. Now, with a clean bill of health, she was on her way back to Marathon to a new home.
Gwen had three animal control calls to check out: two calls on a dog roaming the grounds at the Sugarloaf School— both describing the dog as either a friendly Boxer or a growling Pit Bull— and a third call from a former employee of the Marathon shelter who reported that a Jack Russell terrier was "trying to mate" with her two dogs, causing a nuisance, and roaming free throughout the neighborhood.
Our first stop at Sugarloaf School confirmed that the roaming dog was indeed a Boxer, a female. The dog looked like a purebred, was very friendly and obedient, and was thought to live in the neighborhood. She had a nametag "Keyra" and a rabies tag. Gwen checked the rabies tag and called Dr. Cruz's office on her cell phone to get an address on the dog.
Because the owner wasn't home, we decided to take Keyra with us to Marathon and return her on the way back. So off we went, the terrier in her cage, and Keyra the Boxer on my lap.
The traffic was heavy as there were two traffic accidents on US 1 that day and it was bumper-to-bumper at Summerland Key. We crawled along in the traffic and Gwen's cell phone rang a few times, ("Thank God for cell phones," Gwen said) relating information from both shelters, including another dog-at-large call from the same person about the Jack Russell on Big Pine Key.
On our way there, we saw two dead raccoons— roadkill— that Gwen said she would pick up on the way back to Key West.
I asked Gwen what she feels the big difference is between shelter operations now, under the SPCA, and the former operation, staffed by County employees. "The people here now work one-on-one with the animals," she said. "They're animal lovers first and not here just for the money.
"We still have to occasionally put animals down," she said. "It's part of our job. We put down sick and dying animals. And if we're at maximum capacity at the shelters and there's no more cage room, we have to euthanize healthy animals. "
There are plans to buy a mobile spay/neuter trailer, about 20-feet long, housing a fully-equipped surgical room and some cages, which can be moved up and down the Keys.
"This will make it more convenient and cost-efficient for people to spay and neuter their pets," said Gwen. "The trailer should be up and running in the next few months."
Gwen believes that the solution to healthy animal euthanization is "spaying and neutering of all domestic pets. And by spaying and neutering your pet, your dog won't roam, cutting down the amount of dog-at-large calls we receive."
She also has plans to maximize the space at the Stock Island shelter. She would like to buy two modular units to expand the cat quarters, and build more dog cages underneath. "The modular units cost about $20,000 each," Gwen said, "and are quite large for the money. So, for a little over $40,000, we could have much more room for both dogs and cats."
About 45 minutes later we finally made it Big Pine Key. The complainant had her dogs locked up, and was angry that it had taken us so long to get there. The Jack Russell was nowhere in sight. The woman, who was very upset, told Gwen that the dog lived next door and was constantly harassing her dogs and running loose. We went next door, and saw two dogs— including a Jack Russell, behind a tall hurricane fence. The Jack Russell was barking and jumping, but there was no way he could make it over the fence. The owners weren't at home, so there was nothing else Gwen could do at that time. We planned to come back here on our way home from Marathon to see if we could spot the dog allegedly running loose.
As we continued on to Marathon, I asked Gwen about the report that had appeared in the daily paper alleging that she had adopted out a dog by "mistake," while its owner was in the hospital suffering from a stroke.
"I met her dog by chance when I responded to a dog-bite call from the Sheriff's Office on another dog," she explained. "This was the second call on this dog."
On the first complaint, made in August, the dog was "home quarantined" on the dog owner's property.
"I located the dog and its owner, a Mr. Ford," Gwen said. "He also had another dog, which he said belonged to a woman friend— but he said he didn't know her last name or where she was.
"Ford said he had been taking care of this woman's dog for about six weeks," Gwen said. "When I told him his dog would have to be quarantined again, he refused to leash his dog saying, `I want my dog to run free.' When I explained that I would have to take his dog if he didn't keep it secured on his property, he said it was `too much trouble, so just take them both.'
"A day or so later, the man came to the shelter to reclaim his dog— but he never even mentioned or visited the second dog he'd been caring for," said Gwen.
"As it turned out, the woman who initially owned the dog had been in the hospital. But we didn't know that. And the woman's friend apparently didn't know it either. We thought this dog had been abandoned.
"I was just happy that we were able to find a good home for the dog," she said.
But the story doesn't end there.
Gwen told me that they received a third bite call on Ford's dog, but when animal control responded to the call, Ford had locked his dog in the garage and was nowhere to be found. Then a fourth call came in a few days after the third. This time the victim was a visitor from Miami who called the Miami/Dade Health Department which then called Monroe County's Health Department.
When authorities went out to Ford's place, said Gwen, they could not locate the dog to quarantine it. They then cited Ford, who claimed he gave his dog to a shrimper and now the dog was somewhere on a shrimp boat. And because the dog couldn't be tested, said Gwen, the bite victim had to submit to a painful and expensive rabies treatment.
When Ford showed up in court for his hearing, accompanied by Cindy Harper (former director of the shelter under County management) who was vouching for him, the judge ruled that if Ford's dog was sighted again in Monroe County, he would be fined $500 per day until his dog was quarantined and properly tested.
"You can't always take people's explanations about their animals at face value," Gwen concluded.
We finally arrived at the Marathon shelter and, along with employee Amy Jones, woke Keyra up from a nap and put her in a cage, brought the little terrier inside, and unloaded the supplies.
Gwen and Amy discussed the terrier's heartworm test results, and the young feral cat that had given birth to two dead kittens, one of which was lying next to her in the cage. The cat was hard to handle, but Amy's going to work with it to see if it can be tamed and adopted.
Six kittens and a mother cat, and about five adult cats were visible. There were about seven large dogs romping around in the dog run that were cleared for adoption.
Amy said that a man called and was bringing in his purebred Dalmation female and 10 puppies the next day. He promised to let the shelter spay his dog this time . . .
Amy also said that she had received a call from Commissioner Williams' office regarding the dog running loose on Big Pine. The same woman called again after we left, saying that the dog was back again. Gwen called Commissioner Williams' office and said we would check back on our way home.
There was also another dog-at-large on two dogs running loose behind the Marathon Burger King, "but they're always gone when animal control arrives." The dog owners have been warned, but they say their dogs don't get out of the yard. I was told that until they're caught running loose, there's nothing animal control can do but issue warnings.
On our way back we stopped at Burger King but no roaming dogs were seen. We stopped twice so Gwen could pick up roadkill— two dead raccoons.
Back to Big Pine. No Jack Russell around. The complainant said the dog was there and left again. Gwen told her that there wasn't much she could do if the dog wasn't there, but the woman swore that the dog belonged to the people next door. So we went next door.
The couple and their kids were now home. They said that it wasn't their dog that was running loose next door, but that it was another Jack Russell that belongs to someone who lives down the street and lets it roam free all the time.
They said their dog wasn't fixed and the woman said she might want to breed him because he was a purebred. Gwen offered to neuter the dog for no charge and talked to the owner about the overpopulation of animals and the healthy dogs that end up at the shelter all the time, many of them purebreds. Her husband voiced no objection, but the woman wanted a day or so to think about it and said that she would be sure to call Gwen. Gwen gave the woman her card.
Then one of the daughters went with Gwen to point out the house where the Jack Russell lived but there was no one home, and no dog around.
Then back to Sugarloaf to reunite Keyra with her owner. There was still no one home, but Gwen talked to a neighbor across the street who verified that Keyra lived at the house. Gwen was reluctant to leave Keyra at the house alone, so she left a notice where Keyra could be found and we headed toward Key West while Keyra snoozed in my lap.
It was almost dark when we pulled up to the Stock Island shelter again. Gwen put Keyra in a cage for the evening, and was going to water her and feed her and check on her other charges. And then she had to perform one last task— euthanize a sick raccoon— before she headed home. By that time it would be after 7 p.m. and hopefully all would be well with the animals until, well, tomorrow.
UPDATE: There was another call a few days later from the lady on Big Pine regarding the Jack Russell terrier. This time the complainant had the dog tied up. It was indeed the dog from next door, and the owner gave the shelter permission to neuter her dog. But the Dalmatian and her 10 puppies haven't shown up at the Marathon shelter as yet . . . and it's been three weeks since that call.
Whatever happened to Keyra the Boxer? Well, her owner showed up early that Saturday morning. Gwen said she talked to the woman about spaying Keyra but the answer was no. Keyra's a purebred and they want to mate her for her puppies. So be it.
At the Stock Island Shelter, fences are being moved to make room for another large dog run.