Council Rejects Any Search for Animal Care Alternatives

Lake Forest’s reactionary majority coalition (Voigts, Robinson, Hamilton) surprised even their harshest critics last night by voting to suspend all efforts to find an alternative to using the Orange County animal care service (OCAC). Ignoring the needs and pleas of their own residents, the “Gang of 3” as they are called by the residents trying to recall them, voted to spend upwards of $1,000,000 to stay with the County and continue to get poor service, bad care, and a kill rate at nearly 40%. Almost every one of our neighboring cities (Mission Viejo, Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, San Clemente, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, etc.) left OCAC and use alternative shelters, and the few remaining cities (RSM, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Hills) are actively seeking alternatives. Lake Forest stands alone in its commitment to OCAC, a fact that should shame us all.

OCAC has been the subject of several Grand Jury investigations, two in 2015, which is unprecedented. The criticisms boil down to –

• · Lack of leadership at the top
• · Lack of management
• · Manpower shortages and under-staffing
• · Poor training
• · Hill kill rates
• · Violating state law
• · Concentration camp like conditions

Only the concentration camp like conditions will be impacted by the possible new shelter that OCAC promises, and for which they may extort nearly $1,000,000 as our fee to continue with them. Bear in mind that for 40 years OCAC has been promising a new shelter. But even if they built a new shelter, the major problems that exist in OCAC will continue, especially the high kill rate.

In an incredible series of comments, Robinson and Hamilton argued that Lake Forest should stay with the County to help the County do a better job, even if it meant dis-advantaging the citizens of Lake Forest. Robinson claimed that since Lake Forest has relatively few animals (he didn’t know how many, but the number in 2014 was 496) we would only be helping those owners and pets who lived in Lake Forest. By staying with the County and applying pressure on the County, our City had the potential to have an impact on more people and their pets.

The flaws in their thinking are many, but the two most obvious ones are

· Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton were elected to represent the people of Lake Forest, not the 2,900,000 other people who live in OC.

· OCAC has been impervious to any influence on them to remedy their well-known and long standing terrible performance.

As witness to this second issue, OCAC was sued recently for violating state law with regard to their killing policies. In the settlement agreement, they swore to stop offending and to put into place conditions that would prevent this in the future. The plaintiff in the case (Sharon Logan) has already identified two more egregious violations of the law since they settled only a few months ago. IOW, under threat of legal action, and following a successful law suit against them, OCAC is unable to change their errant ways. How successful will an e-mail from Lake Forest be when OCAC is not influenced by the ruling and oversight of the Courts?

OCAC has a kill rate of nearly 40%. Our two closest local shelters (Irvine and Mission Viejo) have kill rates less than 10%. By choosing the County over Lake Forest, my colleagues doom us to a high kill rate?

OCAC has poor service because they have a single shelter serving 1000 square miles. Local shelters have better service because they serve areas of less than 100 square miles. By choosing the County over Lake Forest, my colleagues doom us to continued poor service?

Why would Voigts, Robinson, and Hamilton turn their backs on their own residents to support a system that has become the poster child for bad care?

What, if anything, can be done now?

Tomorrow I’ll continue my discussion.

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 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on Dec 12 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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