It’s warming up and people are starting to look for KITTENS.

Yesterday Jerry Burch posted at the Kingman Community Yahoo group that they are once again looking for KITTENS.

A year ago I started to investigate the Second Chance Center as Jerry posted repeatedly that they “DESPERATELY” needed kittens.  Just kittens, not adult cats.

I had some email with Mark Markussen and Kristen Gruen from the Second Chance Shelter.  My 2/9/11 email to Kristen Gruen got no reply:

2/9/11

Hi Kristen,

Please join the Yahoo group and read http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KingmanAZCommunity/message/6402 —  you can search for “kitten” and you’ll find 71 messages.  Most or all are related to posts by a Jerry Burch who seems to be affiliated with Kristen Freiert, who seems to be rounding up kittens to take to you.

So you don’t have any reports and the only thing on your website is a 2008 990 with $700,000+ in salaries $500,000 in expenses for WHAT?????

…

My followup email also was ignored.

Today I had a look at the Second Chance Shelter website.  Notably, there is NO phone number to contact them.  They do NOT accept animals from the general public.

Why do they want KITTENS?  Kittens are LUCRATIVE!

From http://secondchancecenter.org/pet_adoptions.sstg:

Adoption Fees:

  • Puppies:                $100.00
  • Adult Dogs:            $ 90.00
  • Small Breed Dogs:  $100.00
  • Kittens:                  $ 60.00
  • Adult Cats:             $ 50.00

I understand that there are costs involved for vaccinations and spay/neuter, but since I can get a puppy or kitten vaccinated and fixed for LESS, we know they’re making money.  And I really don’t have a problem with that per se as it costs money to run a shelter.

I have a problem with the fact that they spend about $1 million/year on SALARIES and that it costs about $2,500 PER ANIMAL to find a new home.

Total 2010 expenses:  1,650,697.00
Animals adopted: 654
Cost per adoption:        2,524.00

From the 2010 form 990 (linked at bottom of page)

When I reviewed the site a year ago, only the first page of the 2008 990 was at the website, but now the entire filing is there.

So where did all these salaries go?

And here are the “low cost” veterinary services:

I wonder whether this shelter wasn’t founded by some vets who are sucking up all the $$$.

Last year the website advertised “low cost” spay/neuter and vaccinations that cost MORE than FOR PROFIT services in Kingman.

I found this to be especially disheartening since they claimed to offer “low cost” services to the Indians — charging them MORE than the FOR PROFIT PetCo clinics and the Kingman Low Cost Spay & Neuter clinic on Northern.

Since they REFUSED to provide their financials last year, did they stop offering these overpriced services due to my inquiries?

As a 501(c)3 non profit, they are REQUIRED to provide information to the public, but apparently I was the first person to care enough to ask questions.

I actually don’t know how Jerry Burch and his wife Kristen Freiert (PetCo employee?) get compensated and what exactly their relationship with the Second Chance Shelter is.

From his posting yesterday:

The Bus is warming up and we’re 2 kittens short to fill the request.
Please call, email or text anyone you think might have 2 – 4 month old
Social Kittens.

We don’t get to add 2 to our next load so it Really would be a shame to
lose these slots.
Call Kristin –404-217-7877 or kristinmf@gmail.com

We ALREADY KILL 500+ A MONTH here in Kingman, lets give 2 a chance to LIVE.

Last year I tried to find out whether 500+ kittens A MONTH get killed in Kingman, but I could not get an answer from the Humane Society.

The million dollar question:  WHY does Jerry post at the Yahoo group INSTEAD of rescuing two kittens from the pound?

I’m sending this URL for comments and answers to Interim Executive Director J. Kevin Hertell at khertell@secondchancecenter.org and to Jerry Burch.

I love animals, always get “unwanted” dogs and I sure hope that the $2,500 per adoption cost is NOT the industry standard.