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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nPolk County Animal Control has led the state in euthanization rates for at least three years now. The County is now one step closer to reaching its goal of becoming a no-kill county.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is not Polk County Animal Control\u2019s problem, it\u2019s a community problem,\u201d said Randa Ritcher with SPCA Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Local no-kill animal shelters like SPCA Florida in Lakeland are partnering with Animal Control to help save lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SPCA Florida said getting more animals fixed, has been crucial. They offer low-cost spay and neuter services and community programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe’re revamping our community cat program here at SPCA Florida and that is to spay and neuter community cats, or feral cats or stray cats so they stop reproducing,\u201d Ritcher said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SPCA Florida said they are tackling an overabundance of cats by transferring them to northern states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe get them up to date with all the requirements that state or that shelter requires, and I have volunteers that drive them all the way to the state of Maine, to Chicago to Ohio,\u201d said Ritcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The County has set a goal of becoming a no-kill county by 2025 and has already made major strides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018 only 40% of animals were leaving Polk County\u2019s Animal Control facility alive. This year, the live release rate is 77%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou need to meet at least 90% or greater to become a no-kill facility or county. So, them being at 77% they\u2019re very, very close to becoming a no-kill county or facility,\u201d Ritcher said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Polk County has set a goal of becoming a no-kill county by 2025 and has already made major strides. Polk County Animal Control has led the state in euthanization rates… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[2103],"class_list":["post-18861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-polk-county-animal-control-plans-to-convert-polk-county-into-a-no-kill-county"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/cute-ginger-kitten-looking-camera-close-up-cute-ginger-kitten-looking-camera-resting-head-paw-close-up-158479391.jpg?resize=800%2C533&ssl=1\")
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