Kutch said the pending transition to a nonprofit may be affecting employee attitudes and performance. He said the county will hold three community meetings over the summer to answer questions about the transition and gather input from animal advocates who may be concerned about the pending transition. Workman said the county is planning to exercise its one-year notice to those cities before the end of June, allowing the humane society to take over the job by July 1, 2018. The county sought proposals and received a single qualified bid - from the San Diego Humane Society, which is housed with the San Diego shelter on a campus in Linda Vista. In addition to operating the shelters in Bonita, Carlsbad and central San Diego, the county Department of Animal Services provides contracted services to six cities across the region.Įarlier this year, the Board of Supervisors voted to explore the prospect of outsourcing the entire department to a third-party vendor. “The situation has gone from bad to worse,” said Bonnie Kutch, a former volunteer who keeps in touch with current volunteers. They also complained that notes they compose after spending time with the dogs are edited by supervisors, who remove positive comments in order to justify killing the animals later. It’s very frustrating.”Įight different current and former volunteers told the Watchdog that animals continue to be killed because they are too quickly classified as unadoptable by the staff. “There will be piles of laundry, dirty kennels, dogs that haven’t been out for a walk in a day and they don’t assist. “The workers sit around for hours at a time in hallways, offices, in the back smoking, hiding in the kitchen, etc.,” one volunteer said. They also brought in new help for longtime director Dawn Danielson and adopted new volunteer outreach efforts.ĭanielson retired in March and the Board of Supervisors is now planning to outsource the entire department.īut the changes have done little to satisfy many volunteers, who say they are doing much of the work required to care for animals. Most notably, the county opened its shelters on Sundays to promote adoptions. The county hired a consultant to examine department practices and make recommendations for improvement, most of which have been implemented. In 20, the Department of Animal Services was the subject of several U-T Watchdog reports, with volunteers repeatedly telling the newspaper that the county was not doing enough to prevent dogs and cats from being put down. And, “16.3 percent of total intakes were euthanized due to being medically or behaviorally untreatable or unmanageable.” “The 2016-17 fiscal year to date live-release rate is 83.7 percent for all animals - 77.2 percent for cats, 93 percent for dogs, 86.3 percent for dogs and cats,” he said. Since July 1, the death rate has declined to 16.3 percent, Workman said.
The next year the county put about 3,400 animals to sleep, or 16.5 percent of those it took in. In the year ended June 30, 2014, the county killed about 30 percent of the 21,000 animals received - almost 6,600 animals in total. Workman did not respond to questions about Bob the Builder. “Any pet that doesn’t get the socialization they need will act out, which can cause them to ultimately be euthanized.”Ī dog named Bob the Builder at the Bonita shelter was walked just five times in the month of February, records obtained by U-T Watchdog show. “When the pets don’t get the attention and the walks they need, they get stir crazy, they get anxious and they can appear to be behaviorally challenged,” said Karen Dole, who volunteers at the San Diego shelter. Some volunteers are concerned about the level of help, given that some dogs being walked as little as once a week. The number of volunteers at the county’s three shelters has been cut by half, and no new training sessions are scheduled.
#Pops secret life of pets for free
Two years ago, the county had almost 1,000 active volunteers, animal lovers who worked for free to fill up water bowls, clean soiled kennels and perform many of the less popular chores necessary to running a successful shelter. “We think we have it covered with the 450-plus on board now.” “No new volunteers are needed at this time,” Workman said.
#Pops secret life of pets update
In response to a previous request for an update on the shelter’s volunteer corps, county spokesman Michael Workman said the department has all the volunteers it can use and pointed to a declining kill rate in the county’s animal population as evidence. County officials did not respond to questions about the dismissals.
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