Are Residents Satisfied with Animal Care Services?

The picture above shows one of the cages at the County's shelter. The cage is barren. There are no blankets or toys. Outside the door there is a canal where feces and urine accumulate. The chances of being killed are nearly 40%. The chances of dying in an animal control truck on the way to this cage are greater than 20%.

At a recent City Council meeting, Councilman Robinson made the point that we shouldn’t leave the County because people are happy with animal care services. Now look at the picture above and ask yourself how happy you are.

Robinson then asked the City Manager how well animal care services did on the City’s “satisfaction” survey, and by sheer chance the staff were ready to reply that 92% of the people in Lake Forest were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied”.

You’re wondering how could people be satisfied with a County shelter that …

• · Has 20% of the animals dying before they even reach the shelter
• · Kills nearly 40% of the animals who come in live
• · Kills over 1,000 puppies and kittens each year
• · Has been investigated by the Grand Jury 5 times

The answer lies in the question itself. For some unknown reason, the City continues to ask the question about how satisfied people are with the City’s efforts “to provide animal control services”. They say nothing about the shelter, nothing about the location, and nothing about animal “care”, only “animal control”. Even worse, they put this item under Police Services as if animal control was a police service, which it isn’t.

By falsely pretending that animal care services falls under Police, and by falsely labeling animal care as “animal control”, the answers to the question cannot be deciphered.

For years I have been objecting to this question, but for whatever reason he has, the City Manager continues to have the question asked in this manner. And now Councilman Robinson tries to use this answer as part of his desire to stay with the County.

With the Pet Expo coming up I decided to develop my own questionnaire which would give people the information they lacked and then ask how satisfied they were with animal care services. Then I realized that if I only asked the questions of people at the Pet Expo I’d get a biased sample, so I asked 25 people at the Pet Expo and 25 people not at the Pet Expo. Then I posted the question on Lake Forest Town Square to get some more opinions.

This isn’t a scientific survey, but then again, the taxpayers aren’t paying $35,000 for it.

Here are the overall results –

Generally speaking more than 90% of the people are “dissatisfied” or “very dis-satisfied” with the kill rate, the location, and the service.

· People at the Town Square were more dis-satisfied.

· People were more dis-satisfied with the kill rate

Here are the questions and the answers-

The kill rate at the County is 38%. At MV and Irvine it is less than 10%. Are you satisfied with the County’s care?

• · Expo – 88% very dis-satisfied, 12% not satisfied
• · Non-Expo – 80% very dis-satisfied, 20% not satisfied
• · Town Square – 91% very dis-satisfied, 3% not satisfied

It takes only a few minutes for our neighbors to visit their local shelter. If you lose a pet, the Shelter is 17 miles and 30 or more minutes away. Are you satisfied with the location of the County shelter?

• · Expo – 80% very dis-satisfied, 20% not satisfied
• · Non-Expo – 80% very dis-satisfied, 16% not satisfied
• · Town Square - 91% very dis-satisfied, 3% not satisfied

The County has only 1 Animal Control Officer assigned to all of South County. It can take a week or more for them to pick up a dead animal. 30% of the injured animals picked up die before they reach the Shelter in Orange. Are you happy with their service?

• · Expo – 76% very dis-satisfied, 20% not satisfied
• · Non-Expo – 60% very dis-satisfied, 24% not satisfied

Are Lake Forest residents happy with animal care services?

My unscientific survey suggests they are not. Tomorrow we’ll discuss the implications.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out onLinkedIn 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 April 9 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.