[violaine]

Hi all,

After nearly 2 hours of talking with Chief AC Officer, X Commissioner, and S. (Chief ACO's "#2 in-charge") today, I got several really positive points that I wanted to make everyone aware of. I am attaching the questions that I asked at the meeting (and I got nearly all of them answered) and have record of the exact answers in my possession. T. joined me at the meeting to take notes and interject her own comments/questions, and she really did a great job helping to keep the meeting on track while inputting some really great questions/comments as well!

The overall gist of the meeting that I got was that Chief ACO simply has too much on her plate to deal with all of the issues. Here's the basic meeting hightlights:

Volunteers: Ch.ACO said that she would "LOVE" to have volunteers. She said that she already has a volunteer application ready, but continually pointed out that volunteers could not walk dogs. While CH ACO really didn't give a concrete answer as to why volunteers weren't used, she did mention that HS did start a program "3 or 4 years ago" and that it didn't work out. She said that a previous HS President, ended up being the only volunteer that showed up through the "volunteer program" and CHACO said that she actually ended up hiring the one volunteer. CHACO said that it's up to the Commissioners if they want to allow volunteers, but she said that if HS wanted to coordinate the volunteers and start a program for the volunteers, the liability issue would be put on HS and not the shelter since they would technically be volunteering for HS. She said that she wouldn't care at all if someone came in, took pictures of the animals, and posted them to Petfinder.com. She said that she would even supply a bio for the animals being posted, and would let the person posting the animals know when one had been adopted. I made sure that X Commissioner noted that getting volunteers into the shelter was a top priority that I wanted brought up to the Commissioners.

Cleaning Practices: CHACO admitted to spaying down the cages with water while the animals were in them. She noted that was standard practice, and CHACO's assistant mentioned that it really didnt' matter anyways because the animals stand and lay in their own fecee's anyways. She said that she just doesn't have room to let the animal out while the cage is cleaned since the shelter is "at capacity". She said that the animal can get up on a bench inside the cage and stand while the cage is being cleaned so they don't get wet. She said that because they have heated floors, the animals aren't getting wet. She ended by saying that AC/shelter has one of the highest healthy adoption rates in the State.

Animal Control Authority: I pointed out the change in the ordinance from 1991, and asked her if she thought it would be a good idea to reinstate the Authority so that the Commissioners wouldn't have to deal with the shelter issues as often. She never directly answered if she thought it would be a good idea, but X Commissioner spoke up and said that it was certainly feasible to create an "advisory board" to act as a watchdog and buffer between CHACO and the Commissioners. He made sure to note that this would be comprised only of volunteers and the Commissioners would still be CHACO's boss.

Revenue & Financial Figures: The figures listed in her report actually checked out once she explained, so this was pretty much a dead end. We might want to contacty the auditors office and see her line items and where money is going because she had absolutely no idea. One important thing that X Commissioner and CHACO did mention was that donations couldn't be given with a stipulation attached (i.e. use this donation for cats only, spay/neuter,etc) and that CHACO and the shelter could use the donation for absolutely anything they wanted from buying new laptops, purchasing a vehicle, pizza parties for the staff, etc. She did say that she has 6 animal control officers, 1 kennel attendant, 1 kennel attendant/office help, and then her and the assistant.

Rescue Groups: She said that she 100% works with rescue groups, but the first thing that she does is tries to adopt the animals out herself before contacting rescues. She said that she really only wants to work with 501c3 "official" rescue groups. She did admit that the rescue has to go through the same process as anyone else trying to adopt an animal, but she claimed that this was a work in progress to streamline the process for rescue groups.

Euthanasia: Again, she had no idea how much it cost to euth. a 40 lbs. dog but said she will have that number to me by middle of next week. She admitted to using a squeeze cage on "feral, agressive animals" and a "gate" on wild animals, and she said that the shelter has a very nice table in the back where all other animals are euthanized. She did say that all animals are given a seditive prior to the euthanasia drug being administered, and that the euth. drug was either given intravenous or heart stick. She gave us the names of the drugs that she uses, and I'll look into them to see the effects and whether those are recommended. She stated that all of her animal control officers are approved to euthanize an animal and stated that Dr. M. and 2 other vets are the ones that give the officers the training. She didn't sound too sure about this, so I would bet that not all ac officers go to the vets she mentioned to receive training. She sounded like she was trying to cover up something when asked about euthanizing the animals. CHACO didn't seem to think that "shelter-requested" euthanasia rate was bad. She said that they are keeping track of the reasons why the animals are being euthanized now (at the request of the Commissioners).

Adoptions: CHACO seemed to think that her adoption process was easy (even though she requires cash payment for adoptions along a $9.95 money order made out to the AKC). She said that she would much rather adopt an animal than have to put it to sleep.

Marketing: CHACO agreed that she needed to get the shelter marketed better through online media and other media sources. She said that she would be happy if a volunteer would help to take this up.

Saturday Hours: I questioned CHACO about the Saturday hours, pointing out that she had listed 46 open Saturdays in her report, even though it the shelter could have only been open a maximum of 22. I also pointed out that her phone and website were never changed to note the new Saturday hours until April - she said it wasn't her fault and that the engineering department was responsible. I asked her point blank if she wanted to keep Saturday hours and she never gave me a direct answer but eluded to the fact that she doesn't because 1) she's getting more people surrendering their animals on Saturday's, and 2) it means that she has to lose a staff member one day through the week so that the shelter can be opened on Saturday's.

I hope that summarized most of the main points, but if there is a question that you see in the attachment that I did post an answer to, just shoot me an email and I'll get you the exact response. CHACO, X Commissioner, and CHACO's assistant know that I'm serious and that there are MANY serious people out here that want to see the shelter move into the 21st century, so I really think that as long as we stay on CHACO, assistant, & Commissioners, change is bound to happen. Please continue to attend the meetings about this, and certainly go to the Commissioners meetings every Tuesday at 9:30am. I am sticking with this until I physically see the change with my own two eyes, and I hope that everyone else sticks with it too!


Regards,