County on the Defensive About Animal Shelter Conditions

Orange County supervisors today took issue with a stinging grand jury report on conditions at the Orange County Animal Shelter in Orange and assured activists that they were making progress on establishing a new facility for strays.

“I know things at the animal shelter are not perfect, but we’ve made great strides,” Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said.

Bartlett said the grand jury’s two reports, which were issued in June, contained “glaring inaccuracies.”

Bartlett noted the board has authorized hiring of more employees and increased the salaries of veterinarians.

“We’re doing everything we can,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett noted the county had a pet adoption event recently with the goal of finding homes for 100 animals, but ended up finding homes for 147 animals.

Activists stood outside the County Hall of Administration with signs bearing photos of dogs and cats they say were killed at the shelter. Several addressed the board, pushing them to make it a no-kill shelter.

Orange County Animal Care Director Jennifer Hawkins said less than 6 percent of animals are euthanized at the shelter.

The county, in its response to the grand jury, blamed the U.S. Navy for hold ups in negotiations to acquire property for the new shelter at the former U.S. Marine Corps Air Station in Tustin.

County officials have met with Navy leaders multiple times to try to accelerate the process, the county reported.

Orange County Board Chairman Todd Spitzer asked county officials to research alternative sites so they can have a backup plan should negotiations with the Navy continue languishing.

The grand jury claimed the shelter was poorly managed and plagued with slumping morale.

The grand jury declared the shelter “has serious problems that have needed attention for many years.”

The panel went on to say in the report, “there have been complaints and allegations from a number of sources inside and outside the animal shelter that have focused on the lack of leadership throughout the Orange County Community Resources and Animal Care chain of command. This alleged void in leadership has resulted in either the inability of management to define the problems at hand or, if defined, an unwillingness to correct them.”

The grand jury said some observers have speculated the vacuum of leadership has prompted some mid-management employees to take charge with “little or no oversight from upper management.”

The grand jury also claimed “there are potential problems with preventing zoonotic diseases that can be passed between animals and humans.”

Zoonotic diseases include rabies and endemic typhus. The grand jury said a sheriff’s employee who worked near the animal shelter was diagnosed in June 2012 with endemic typhus and required hospitalization.

The grand jury also raised concerns about the shelter’s Feral Free Program, claiming county officials have ignored warnings from Orange County Vector Control about housing the wild cats.

City News Service; Patch Archive