Animal Care in Lake Forest - Making Progress

BACKGROUND

Ever since the first Grand Jury report on animal care came out, several City Council members have been meeting informally to discuss the contents of the report and to explore the options available to us. The second Grand Jury report energized the discussions. Yesterday, Mayor Pro Tem Barbara Kogerman (Laguna Hills) and Councilman Adam Nick joined me and Rose Tingle (Citizens for Animal Shelter Orange County) on a tour of the OC Animal Shelter and a discussion with the staff. We developed the following joint statement –

STATEMENT

“We acknowledge and applaud the hard work and dedication of the staff and volunteers at the Orange County Animal Shelter who do their best under the most difficult conditions, with limited resources and support from the County.

We are embarrassed and ashamed that in 2015 a wealthy community like Orange County operates a shelter in our name that exists under these conditions.

We read the two recent Grand Jury reports and concur with their findings.

We visited the Orange County Animal Shelter ourselves on July 8, 2015 and we found the shelter to be understaffed, with poor physical resources, limited space for the animals, outdated enclosures that belong to another Century, and sparse environments to foster animal well-being.

We are shocked, most of all, by the noise and the stench and especially by the despair in the eyes of most of the animals. It is heart-breaking and several of us could not endure the extended visit without coming to tears.

We do not believe that the County has a viable plan to remedy these situations in the foreseeable future.

We believe that the best way to represent our citizens and to reflect basic decency is to work together to explore the feasibility of locating, building, operating, and maintaining a multi-city shelter to serve South Orange County cities. We believe such a shelter would provide higher quality of care and better service at a lower price.

We will reach out to nearby cities that contract with Orange County Animal Care to explore jointly funding an independent study to determine the feasibility of providing animal shelter and animal care services for the cities of Laguna Hills, Lake Forest, and other participating cities. Said feasibility study will be designed to present a program evaluation, building assessment and cost estimates, considering the complete building needs and cost analysis, assess the current and future needs to accommodate the animal population, as well as assessing existing OC Animal Care facility and services from functional, cost, safety and estimated scheduling aspects.

We hope that other cities will consider participating in the development and funding of such a feasibility study.”

NEXT STEPS

Last night Barbara Kogerman, Rose Tingle and I appeared before the RSM City Council and discussed the situation and shared our concerns. The RSM City Council agreed that the conditions at the County shelter are unacceptable and also agreed that there does not seem to be any foreseeable likelihood that the County will addresses these deficiencies. They instructed their staff to set a future agenda item for them to explore alternatives, which can include a multi-city shelter.

Next week, Mayor Pro Tem Barbara Kogerman will raise these concerns at the City Council meeting in Laguna Hills, hoping to get that city’s endorsement to pursue the alternatives.

On July 21, our City Council will meet to respond to the Grand Jury report, at which time we will also consider exploring alternatives with our neighboring cities.

Tomorrow I’ll share my photos from yesterday’s trip and then we’ll discuss the alternatives in more detail.

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.