Gardner vs. Hawkins on OC Animal Care

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. Dr. Jennifer Hawkins is the Director of OC Animal Care. Dr. Gardner asked her some questions at the April 19, 2016 meeting of the Lake Forest City Council. This is a non-literal (but in essence) transcription. The session can be viewed on the City’s website.

QUALITY OF CARE

Gardner: Is it true that the main way to leave the OC shelter is by death. IOW, according to the most recent data, more animals are killed at the shelter than are adopted?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

(In 2014 OCAC reports 8,133 animals euthanized and only 7,951 adopted. Click Here)

Gardner: Is it true that, according to the most recent data, every year thousands of puppies and kittens are killed?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

(In 2014 OCAC reports 3,498 animals killed because they were “too young”. Click Here)

Gardner: Is it true that the farther away your City is from the OC shelter, the more likely you are to have animals arrive dead?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

(In 2014 if you were among the 9 cities farthest away from the OCAC shelter, your chances were more than twice as high that your animals would arrive dead. Click Here)

Gardner: Is it true that you produced inaccurate statistics on the euthanasia rate and after I confronted you and published the results, you changed your system?

Hawkins: Yes.

(In 2015 data indicates that OCAC was under-reporting their euthanasia rate by a factor of 300%. Click Here).

Gardner: Is it true that you produced inaccurate statistics on the licensing compliance rate for cities and after I confronted you and published the results, you agreed to change your system but to date have not?

Hawkins: Yes.

(In 2016 OCAC reports licensing compliance data that exaggerates their rate by 10% but still they fail to correct this error. Click Here)

Gardner: If a City had its own Veterinary services and shelter, would OCAC agree to handle the Animal Control element?

Hawkins: We will work with cities to do whatever is best for the animals. That’s our priority. But in this case the answer is “No” even if that’s not what’s best for the animals because we don’t think that’s what’s best for the County.

COSTS

Gardner: Can you tell us how much Lake Forest will have to pay for construction?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

Gardner: Has any other County ever asked their cities to pay for construction of their County shelter?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

Gardner: Given that the cities pay for the shelter, do we have any equity position?

Hawkins: No.

Gardner: Can you tell us how much Lake Forest will have to pay for operating expenses?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

Gardner: Can you tell us why in the past 5 years costs of care have gone up by 2.5% per year for Lake Forest but our admissions have been going down 10% per year and our field services down 7% a year?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

Gardner: Wouldn’t you expect that if admissions and field services are steadily going down, charges to the City should also be going down, and certainly not steadily going up?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

Gardner: Is this “cost inelasticity” going to continue?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

Gardner: If the County actually follows through on their promise to increase staffing, improve training, etc., how will this impact our costs going forward? Could we be spending $1,000,000 a year?

Hawkins: I don’t know.

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 August 13 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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