To the editor:

Have you ever had a situation that required you to deal with the Lawrence Animal Control Department? Chances are if you have, it was not a very delightful or effective experience. I recently had the unfortunate opportunity to have such an encounter.

My animal was picked up less than a block away by Animal Control. I phoned the Lawrence Humane Society, who in turn told me to call Animal Control. I was forewarned about the difficulty I was probably going to encounter in trying to obtain the animal, even though she was completely legal (tagged and spayed) when she was picked up.

I spent the afternoon trying to figure out what needed to be done to get the animal, sorting through conflicting information from both the Police Department and Animal Control. Getting the animal out of jail would have been so much easier had communication occurred between these divisions.

Why do the residents of Lawrence have to endure such frustration when they are merely trying to obtain their animals? It is easy to see why there is such an overcrowding problem at the Humane Society. The Lawrence Animal Control Department makes it so difficult to obtain your pets that I am sure many caring citizens just give up. This leaves the problem with the Humane Society, a nonprofit agency that the Lawrence taxpayers help support.

Angela Ellison,

Lawrence