Three Days To Live

Upper Valley Humane Society handles more dogs than most of the state

EDINBURG - Three days to live...

That's how long each animal at the Upper Valley Humane Society has until they are euthanized.

The Upper Valley Humane Society takes in every stray from all Hidalgo County's 13 cities.

The shelter holds up to 600 animals at time and it's always full. That's because it's a never-ending cycle.

The county has six trucks which round up strays every day.

Each day about 120 new animals are brought to this shelter. But if 120 come in each day, that means about 120 have to go out.

Those animals which haven't been adopted by three days are put down.

Many of the animals are not considered adoptable because of sickness or behavioral problems, but others just aren't fortunate to beat the three-day adoption deadline.

Forty thousand animals pass through the Upper Valley Humane Society each year. Of that 40,000, 37,000 are euthanized.

They used to burn the animals after they had been euthanized. But because there were so many animals, the incinerator would often break down. It became too expensive to keep fixing the incinerator.

So for the past two and a half years, the euthanized animals have been transported to the Edinburg landfill. They're dumped into trenches that are 20 yards in length. In the short two and a half years since the animals have been taken to the landfill, it has become the graveyard for more than 100,000 animals.

There are ways the people of Hidalgo County can help. They can adopt a pet or even become a foster parent for an animal that needs to be nursed back to health. People can make sure their animals are spayed or neutered. A simple thing like getting a dog tag for animal with identification could make a huge difference.

For more information, you can visit the Upper Valley Humane Society web site.