The Indiana County Humane Society Interview

By Kate

I was interested in learning more about dogs in local animal shelters.  I wrote five questions and shared them with a Humane Society employee.  I will share the interview and responses now.

The first question I had was, “How long do dogs live?”  The Humane Society employee responded, “How long a dog lives depends on the breed.  Typically, small dogs can live to 15 to 18 years.  While, larger dogs live a shorter time 8-10 years.  This of course is just an estimate, some live longer.”

My next question was, “What is their life cycle?” The Humane Society employee responded,“First, a dog is a puppy until it is one year old.  Then the dog is considered an adult.  After six years dogs are considered seniors.”

Then I asked them, “How big  do some dogs get?”  The Humane Society employee responded, “Some mastiff breeds get to be 250-275 pounds.”

After that I asked, “How do you find the animals that are at the shelter?  How do you get them there?”  They responded, “People bring the dogs in if they can no longer keep them or if someone finds them the dog warden brings them to us.  Or our humane officer picks up the dogs if they are injured or not being taken care of and the owner no longer wants them.”

Last I asked, “Can you adopt a animal from the humane society?  How do you process it?” They said,  “Yes,  you can adopt.  We have an application that gets filled out and approved or denied.  New adopters must provide a good place for the pet to live.  The application asks a lot of questions to help us decide this.”

In conclusion, my interview taught me that the Humane Society cares for many different animals that they get them from different places.  I also learned about the life cycle of a dog and that some dogs can be 275 pounds!