Teaching for Creativity
The da Vinci Summer Symposium
McGary Middle School, 1535 Joyce Avenue, Evansville, Indiana
July 30-31, 2012
Members of the newly-formed Evansville da Vinci Institute, in collaboration with teachers and administrators from McGary Middle School, will participate in a summer symposium on Teaching for Creativity. This symposium, to be held July 30-31 at McGary Middle School, was made possible through a generous grant from the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana.
The symposium will begin with an overview from nationally renowned consultant, David Flatley, Executive Director for the Center for Community Arts Partnerships at Columbia College Chicago. Following the overview, participants will have an opportunity to work with local experts, including Brandon Field, Linda Goodridge, Scott Lank, and Pat O’Connor, in hands-on class sessions in the fields of engineering, art, theatre, and multidisciplinary areas of study.
The goals for the symposium are to learn about current research in the field and similar initiatives occurring in other cities; to better understand each discipline’s approach to creativity and creative thinking through hands-on experiences; and to provide opportunities for da Vinci members and teachers to form meaningful partnerships.
About the da Vinci Institute:
Co-chaired by Karen Ellerbrook and Sharon Kazee, the da Vinci Institute is a partnership of educational and community leaders in Evansville that fosters creative endeavors for our K-12 students. The organization was formed in the fall of 2011 and grew out of a desire to ensure the arts and humanities were aligned and equally nurtured with the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering, and math, so that our students will be inspired educationally and fully prepared to embrace the future. A key component of the organization is the importance of improving the quality of education through collaboration. Membership in the da Vinci Institute includes representation from Ivy Tech, The University of Evansville, the University of Southern Indiana, the Arts Council of Southwestern Indiana, the Girl Scouts of Southwest Indiana, Tales and Scales, and the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation.

EVANSVILLE REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
NOTICE OF EXECUTIVE SESSION

The Evansville Redevelopment Commission will hold an Executive Session on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. in Room 318 of the Civic Center Complex, 1 NW Martin Luther King Jr, Blvd, Evansville, Indiana.

This Executive Session will be held pursuant to Indiana Code IC 5-14-1.5-6.1 (b) (2)(B) regarding pending litigation.

By: Martha Crosly

There is a catastrophe of huge proportions in Evansville right now and good public policy is not being applied to intervene. Vetting is needed but is not being applied to solve this problem. The problem is uncaring and/or ignorant cat owners. My stance is that the cats definitely need to be fixed (and in some cases it probably wouldn’t hurt the owners either). Please let me explain.

There are two types of animal shelters in the area: Open Admission and “No-Kill”. I put “No-Kill” in quotes because euthanasia still does occur in these shelters in various forms. Some, like the new “It Takes a Village” shelter, selectively take dogs out of Evansville Animal Control (EAC) and places them in foster homes and now in their new shelter. They then leave EAC to euthanize the animals that are viewed as not adoptable or for which ITAV has no room. ITAV will reach a point where they will need to stop taking in animals due to limited capacity and can only continue when openings are created through adoptions.

Warrick Humane Society also is a “No-Kill” shelter who does recognize the need for euthanizing and does address this issue at times. They control their numbers by very selectively taking in animals and stop when they reach capacity which in their case I believe is a pretty low number. They refer all others to either Vanderburgh Humane Society or Evansville Animal Control letting these organizations deal with that which they can’t or do not choose to.

In contrast to Warrick and ITAV, both non-profits, we find Vanderburgh Humane Society (also a non-profit) and Evansville Animal Care and Control. Both of these are Open Admission shelters, Evansville AC because by law it must be, and VHS because it chooses to be, in part to give people an option to AC and to give healthy, well-adjusted pets a chance for a new home. I will also add that VHS’s intake is not limited to Vanderburgh County residents only. They receive animals on a consistent basis from Posey, Gibson, Warrick, Spencer, Daviess, and Dubois Counties and from time to time other Indiana counties as well. They also take in animals from Kentucky counties and from some counties in Southern Illinois. Most of these counties have their own AC and/or humane organization.

Of all these organizations in the Evansville area, Evansville Animal Control is the only one who receives your tax dollars. All the others rely entirely on donations from the local public. They get nothing from the Humane Society of the United States for example. I also believe that it is still the policy that all owner surrenders to AC are euthanized immediately and only strays are required to be kept for 7 days to allow for claiming by the owner. This policy may be waived under certain circumstances however. (Please check with AC for their rules and regulations.)

What does all this have to do with cats and their irresponsible owners? I will use VHS as an example although AC has this problem as well. In this coming week VHS will take in their 1000th cat this year and this is in addition to the cats that were already in house at the start of the year.

Here are some statistics: 1) 36 of these animals were brought in by their owners to be euthanized, which shows up on VHS stat board. 2) 143 have gone to rescue organizations mainly in Chicago and VHS is very grateful. It is VHS dollars that transport these neutered and spayed cats to Chicago, usually in a marathon up and back in one day trip. 3) Here’s the sad stat – 431 cats were euthanized for various reasons including illness, behavioral problems or for lack of space to put them and lack of personnel to care for them.

Here are some facts:

1) VHS has the capacity for about 52 adult cats and 104 kittens. This includes animals in foster care and is an approximation that varies on the size of the animal and the size of the enclosure. AC can care for a much lower number.

2) Many shelters take in only dogs not cats and some are able to take in only a limited number of cats.

3) Frequently both dogs and cats come in intact, meaning that they did not benefit from being spayed or neutered. Because of this, multiple animals are brought in together i.e. a mother cat and 6 kittens, with kittens often being too small to survive on their own and cannot be placed up for adoption right away. They either take up space that could be used for adoptable animals, are lucky enough to go into foster care (and there is a shortage of foster homes), are squeezed into the last corner of cat isolation, or they unfortunately must be euthanized.

4) It is not unusual for animals to be surrendered to AC or VHS in an unhealthy condition. A couple of days ago, four dogs were surrendered to VHS over the course of the day. Two of the 4 were suffering from heart worm, a horrible death sentence and one that is preventable. To cure heart worm requires a long time and considerable expense. (This reflects back to the uncaring and/or ignorant owners above.) The same issue occurs with cats.

5) The shocking situation with cats now is that with the moderate weather their reproduction, which has always been out of control, has now far exceeded that point. What AC and VHS are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what is out there.

6) I will highlight this very important fact: THIS CAT PROBLEM MUST BE SOLVED AND IT CAN ONLY BE SOLVED BY CITIZENS ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY TO BE A PART OF THE SOLUTION. This is very difficult as many know because some folks only wish to pass problems for all public good on to others. And this is a public health and welfare issue. It must however be addressed in a humane manner.

Here are some suggestions:

1) EVERYONE MUST SPAY OR NEUTER THEIR PET, CAT OR DOG. It is healthier and safer for the animal and will reduce tax dollars spent on AC. This includes that cute kitty that wandered up on your porch last winter and you began to feed who now has kittens under your laundry basket. You have been caring for her for months. She is your cat now and you need to get her as well as her kittens fixed. Kittens can be fixed at a very young age. At the VHS Low Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic the kitten must weigh at least 2 pounds.

2) Some of you may be familiar with a program called TNR, Trap, Neuter, and Return. This is a program for feral cats. These cats are trapped, fixed, and returned to their familiar environment to live out their days and not reproduce. This allows for natural attrition of the cat colony. But this program needs to be a city-wide effort. Non-profit feral cat organizations can be established to pay for the spay or neuter of these cats.

3) GOOD PUBLIC POLICY MUST BE APPLIED. Modify the city and county animal ordinances and empower Animal Control to enforce them diligently. This may require patterning our laws and practices after cities where this has been done with a great degree of success. Vanderburgh Humane Society is able to take cats to rescue to Chicago because that city has and utilizes a progressive spay/neuter law. This should be a no-brainer for our city and county. And before people start screaming about costs to do this, think of the costs that will be saved in the future by cleaning up this mess now in the correct manner for both dogs and cats. I will add it will cost a lot less than some of the other failed ventures that have been attempted lately in this area.

4) Most importantly DO NOT ACQUIRE A PET THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO CARE FOR. This is pretty basic. A cat or dog is a commitment for the entirety of their life. Period. Amen. No excuses. Too many people do not keep their promises in life. It is a big problem in government, private enterprise, and in personal lives. These animals are the innocents who suffer the most and have the most to lose when you break your promise to them. Be an adult. Don’t make promises you cannot keep.