Animal Care in Lake Forest - How You Can Help

Yesterday we looked at the latest findings and recommendations from the Grand Jury concerning animal care in Orange County. Because the City of Lake Forest uses the County shelter, the report is of major concern to those of us who have pets and live in Lake Forest. FWIW – there are more families in Lake Forest with pets than there are with school aged children. There are more than 9,000 licensed dogs alone.

BRIEF REVIEW

Animal care services are widespread. They include protection from disease (e.g., rabies), removal of dead animals, protection from aggressive animals, rescue of wild animals who wander into our built-up areas, finding lost pets, educating the public about animal related issues, etc.

The County received two scathing reports in as many months, severely criticizing their health and safety practices, staff training, management practices, as well as the general operating philosophy. This is nothing new. There have been three previous Grand Jury investigations that produced similar results, pointing out organizational malfunctions relative to poor morale, unfair hiring and promotion practices and mistreatment and mishandling of the animals.

In addition to the Grand Jury reports there are several recent lawsuits, one of which resulted in a $6,750 fine (safety violations) and the other is still making its way through the courts, alleging that staff failed to provide injured animals with appropriate veterinary care, and routinely euthanized healthy, adoptable animals while failing to hold the animals for adoption for the period mandated by law.

For nearly the past 20+ years the Board of Supervisors has been promising to deliver a new animal shelter to replace the one built in 1941. Here are some excerpts from past County reports –

· 1999. “Continue the process of Animal Shelter relocation to the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station. Hire architect and initiate design.” (Page 16)

· 2000. “…In addition, continued planning for the relocation of the Animal Care Center will remain a priority.” (Page 6)

· 2001. “Relocate or remodel the Animal Care Center. Complete an Animal care Center study on constructing a facility at a new site compared to remodeling the existing facility by April 2001.” (Page 20)

· 2002. “The new Animal Care facility draft design development and schematic drawings will be ready for Agency approval by December 2002.” (Page 22)

· 2003. “Developed the draft design and schematic drawings for the Animal Care facility.” (Page 29)

· 2007. “By December 31, 2007, Regulatory Health Services will update the existing Animal Care Services facility design to meet current and future needs…[and] initiate site planning for relocating…to Santa Ana” (Page 28).

Even now the Board of Supervisors are promising a new shelter, with no specific date, as if the decades of false promises should somehow now be accepted.

NEXT STEP

The City of Lake Forest is required by law to respond to this Grand Jury report as well as the previous Grand Jury report.

Meanwhile, at the last City Council meeting (June 16), Councilman Nick made a motion to put the subject of the County shelter on an upcoming agenda. I seconded the motion and Mayor Voigts concurred. The intent of the motion was to review the Grand Jury reports, ask questions of the Director of Community Services, and to explore how alternative models (e.g., Mission Viejo) have worked.

Hopefully this will convince my colleagues that continuing with the County service is not only harmful to the animals and detrimental to the well-being of our citizens, but also more costly than working with our neighboring cities and duplicating the type of service provided by cities like Irvine and Mission Viejo.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. E-mail this article to everyone on your e-mail list who lives in Lake Forest, Laguna Hills, RSM, and Laguna Woods.

2. Share this article on Facebook or Twitter or Google +. Use the “share” icons in the upper right hand of this page.

3. If you are a resident of Lake Forest, you should e-mail each of the Council members with your concerns. Here are their e-mail addresses –

· Mayor Scott Voigts – scottv1@cox.net

· Mayor Pro Tem Andrew Hamilton – djbhamilton@yahoo.com

· Councilman Adam Nick – adamnick1776@gmail.com

· Councilman Dwight Robinson – dwightrobinson@mail.com

· Councilman Dr. Jim Gardner – GardnerForCouncil@gmail.com

4, You should also e-mail the Supervisor for the 5th District and tell her how disappointed you are in her failure to act on behalf of the citizens and the animals. Her e-mail address is

Supervisor Lisa Bartlett – lisa.bartlett@ocgov.com

5. You should comment whenever you can as articles appear in the OC Register, The Voice of OC, the Patch, etc.

6. You should go to our Facebook page, Lake Forest Town Square, and sign up so that you are aware of the next moves at the City Council. Then when we schedule the discussion on the County system, you should come to the Council meeting and share your thoughts with the Council. At this point I believe the issue will be on the agenda for July 21, but you can never be sure. As we get closer to the date, I will be able to give a better estimate.

7. You should consider joining the Facebook group Citizens for Animal Shelter – Orange County. They are an activist group led by Rose Tingle.

8. You should consider joining the League of Humane Voters. This group keeps track of which legislators are pro humane treatment of animals and who are not, and can give you good advice when elections are coming up. You’d be surprised how many politicians pretend that they are something other than what they truly are. The LOHV keeps track of their voting record. You may even want to start a local chapter of LOHV to make a long term impact.

With a little courage and a lot of resolve, we can improve the quality of life for our citizens and their pets.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 3 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a mini town meeting every month. The next meeting will be on August 15 at 2 pm at the El Toro Public Library.