George Whiting came on board May 15 as director of the SPCA Shelters in Key West and Marathon. He has 20 years of experience in animal welfare and animal control, most recently in Prince George County, Maryland.
His focus, he says, is cooperation with other local animal agencies, and striving for a quality of life for animals and community members too. "I have a dual function," he said. "I must make sure animal control laws are upheld, and that the animals in our shelters are well cared for."
Whiting believes that licensing animals is one way of protecting them. He believes that cats should be licensed. "We have no control of our cat population here," he said. He believes that cats need ID tags like dogs, so shelter personnel can trace their owners quickly, adding that "cats are the number one pet in this country today."
Whiting is a personable, calm man who had just finished washing the office floor when I came in for our scheduled interview.
I mentioned that he has taken on a very heavy workload as director of two shelters that are both overloaded with abandoned and stray animals. He agreed, but said that at the shelter where he came from in Maryland, they had at least 40-50 aggressive dogs at any given time that were picked up by animal control, and hundreds more domestic animals that were surrendered to the shelters there on a daily basis. So Whiting isn't a stranger to the results of animal overpopulation or unwanted pets.
"I would love to see the need for animal control eliminated," he said. "I believe this can be accomplished through education on pet care and responsibility, and through spay and neuter programs.
"People must see that animals are not disposable property," Whiting said.
Just last week, in only one day, 17 animals were surrendered to the Key West shelter-- most of them by their owners. And most of the owned animals were abandoned because their owners were moving to apartments where pets are not allowed.
Whiting agrees the housing situation is unfortunate. But he asks that people don't just abandon their animals.
"Sometimes you have to make hard choices," he said. "Many times leaving a pet's chances to fate results in injuries from fights with other animals or car accidents. It's better to leave your animal at a shelter if you've gone through all other options. We will give them humane care and treatment here until they are (hopefully) adopted."
Whiting has three animals-- two cats and a dog-- that he considers part of his family.
Vincent, who now weighs 23 pounds, was a "dumpster cat," said Whiting. And he found his second cat Alfie in the middle of the road.
"I saw this puff of white on the median strip so I pulled over to the side of the road. Here was Alfie, only about four weeks old, trying to catch a cricket for lunch, I guess. He immediately bit me, so I had to quarantine him for a few weeks, as there was a rabies epidemic up there at the time."
After his quarantine was over, Alfie became the second member of Whiting's family. And then there's his dog Frisky, a pure-bred American Eskimo, who had been eluding animal control officers for weeks.
"I decided I'd just sit down and let her come to me," said Whiting. "She did, and I've had her for over a year now. Frisky's a great dog, and never needed any house training. That's how smart she is."
Whiting realizes that his position as animal shelter director requires "some very harsh choices. Sometimes I'll have to be the bad guy," he said.
Whiting's the man who makes the decision to put an animal to sleep or wait another week hoping someone comes to adopt it. He's also the guy who, along with shelter staff, will probably have to face an angered, scared animal that may be vicious and hard to handle.
But there's also the other side of it-- many shelter animals are adopted to good homes. And they're well taken care of while they're waiting.
Want a friend for life? Adopt a shelter pet. 294-4857.