Animal shelter changes

As you may have heard, the Blue Mountain Humane Association's animal shelter in La Grande became a no-kill shelter Jan. 1 due to the change in laws regarding the schedule class 2 drug that is used for euthanizing.

The laws have changed on the handling of this schedule class 2 drug, as well as who is responsible for the administering of said medication. The shelter is a non-profit agency that does not have the funding to pay for a veterinarian to be on staff to handle the medication (any local veterinarian can still euthanize at their clinics).   

Blue Mountain Humane Association is adopting a “working cat program” and Dr. Henry of Valley Vet Care has offered to help Union County and the animal shelter with the feral cat situation as they are willing to spay and neuter the “working cats” at no charge on a set day of the week. 

Any Union County citizen is encouraged to call the animal shelter at 541-963-0807 to make an appointment for any feral cat they are wanting to trap.

Please do not trap the cat until you have called the shelter and received complete details and received an appointment date.

The spay and neuters are only going to be once a week for now and are by appointment only. 

As far as aggressive dogs, we have many different trainers that are working with the dogs that come in, plus we have some rescue groups that specialize in aggressive dogs and retraining them. These rescue groups are out of the state of Oregon, so a transport is done with these types of dogs. 

Blue Mountain Humane Association has also set up transport to other cat rescues and dog rescues for any animal we have that may not be getting adopted here in our county. 

We have had great success with these rescues and every animal taken to them has been adopted to their forever homes.

If at any time it is necessary for the shelter to have an animal euthanized due to health or aggression reasons, the shelter will be taking the animals to one of our local vet clinics for this procedure to be handled by a trained and licensed professional as the new laws clearly state. 

This is how Blue Mountain Humane Association can stay within the new laws regarding euthanizing that were put into effect this year.

Blue Mountain Humane Association encourages anyone with any questions regarding any of these items to please call the new board chairman, John Brinlee, at 503-551-6827 or 541-963-0807.  

Blue Mountain Humane Association appreciates any help or donations anyone or any business could provide. 

John Brinlee is chairman of the board of the Blue Mountain Humane Association.