Monica Schmidt - Inept Director of OC Animal Care

Monica Schmidt’s tenure in the OC animal shelter has been marked by a troubling pattern of false statements. Her grasp of animal sheltering is superficial and her numbers are often wrong. She jeopardizes the well-being of animals and hardworking shelter staff.

New published research shows that Schmidt was never qualified for the high-ranking positions the county handed to her. She lied on her job application. Her experience is mostly in public relations. Schmidt has no interest in animal welfare. Her attention is centered on political maneuvering and slick PR.

In the upper echelons of the county, these are the culprits in the Schmidt scandal:

- Katrina Foley (County Supervisor, 5th District) fawned over Schmidt and parroted her lies.

- Dylan Wright (Director of OC Community Resources) rigged the hiring process to sneak Schmidt into the top job. He allocated taxpayer money to Schmidt’s exorbitant salary rather than hire badly needed Animal Care Attendants. Wright is also implicated in the Andrew Do scandal, where millions of dollars vanished.

- Cymantha Atkinson, Dylan Wright’s deputy and right hand in all of the above, deployed a disinformation campaign to hide the shelter’s problems.

For more information on the history of this beleaguered shelter and forthcoming updates please go to http://ocshelter.com/

Please urge your local representatives to take positive action implementing the existing strategic plan and let them know that we expect them to provide these animals the care they need, and opportunities to live and thrive in a new home. That is the role that OC Animal Care is paid to serve. Animal welfare advocates note that when adoptions are down, dog population increases which leads to behavior problems causing more killing of adoptable dogs.

• Board of Supervisors (use link for phone numbers, email address for supervisors are [First Name].[Last Name]@ocgov.com)
• 14 cities who have government contracts with OCAC
• Interim OC CEO Michelle.Aquirre@OCGov.com