The subject of the no-kill animal shelter came up at the last Council meeting, but by the time we got around to the topic, it was already 10 pm and the Council had been in session from 5:30 with lengthy and detailed discussions about the Council procedures, campaign finance reform, and ethics committee (Click Here). Hence the discussion was postponed until Feb 20.
THE OC SHELTER
As everyone knows, the OC Shelter has been the subject of many Grand Jury investigations, all of which identified glaring deficiencies in the management, operation, and physical environment. The County is building a new shelter for which they extorted $611,000 from the City to assist with the building, which was approved last year by Councilmen Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton. This should solve those problems associated with the physical environment. In addition, Jennifer Hawkins left her management role, although she will continue as Head Veterinarian. Hopefully this will improve the management problems highlighted in the Grand Jury reports. But nothing as yet has been proposed about changing the way the shelter operates.
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Shelters such as the OC Shelter have the distinct disadvantage of being too large to provide good care. They also have the problem of providing poor service, as the shelter is far away from most cities. Compounding these problems is the fact that getting volunteers for high-kill large shelters is very difficult.
You may recall that cities have been jumping ship from the County shelter. In all of South Orange County, Lake Forest is one of only two cities that remains tied to the County. Recently, Laguna Hills and RSM left the County and partnered with Mission Viejo.
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(By my calculations, looking at the County spreadsheet, in 2017 the City had about 400 live animals go to the County, among whom were 154 dogs and 97 cats. Among these numbers 20 dogs and 37 cats were euthanized, some of whom were “owner requested euthanasia” (15 dogs, 5 cats) and some of whom arrived severely injured (4 dogs, 3 cats). Five of the dogs were euthanized for behavior reasons and 17 of the cats were euthanized because they were “too young”.)
OPTIONS
Staff has identified several ways in which we can proceed.
- Partner with one of the existing shelters (e.g., Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Beach).
- Establish a joint venture with cities looking to establish a no-kill animal shelter (e.g., Costa Mesa, San Juan Capistrano).
- Establish our own local shelter, using the County for some services (e.g., animal control).
- Establish our own local shelter without using any County services.
The Council may select none, a few, or all of these alternatives.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest where he serves as Mayor. 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 Twitter handle is @DrJimGardner. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.
Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a town hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be May 17 at the Lake 1 Clubhouse (Ridge Route) at 7 pm.
