The Chapel Hill News August 6, 2003 Dogs invited to swim at SportsPlex On Aug, 17 from 5 to 7 p.m., the Triangle SportsPlex will host a "Dog Swim & Adoption Fair" to benefit the Animal Protection Society of Orange County. For $5, owners can bring a pet dog out to take a dip in the pool -- and can even join them in the water if they wish. APS is excited about the event and the benefits it will bring to the APS and pet owners. "It will also expose us to different people and different kinds of dogs," said Paula Alford, aquatics director for the SportsPlex. "It will just be fun for the dogs and the dog owners." APS Executive Director Laura Walters also said she is looking forward to seeing the dogs get their paws wet. "I really appreciate the effort that the Triangle SportsPlex is making," Walters said. "They are really helping the dogs, and that is what this event is really about -- helping the animals." Dogs will do laps in the SportPlex's large competition pool. Owners are encouraged to bring their own snacks for the dogs. Dogs also will be available on site for adoption during the fair. All dogs participating in the fair must meet three requirements: They must be able to tolerate other dogs, obey owner commands and be current in all shots and vaccinations. Triangle SportsPlex is located at One Dan Kidd Drive in Hillsborough. For more information, call Alford at 644-0339, extension 229. ________________________________________________________________ Chapel Hill Herald Monday, August 11, 2003 This is a fine thing for APS to be doing but HOW DOES THIS SAVE the LIVES of ANIMALS. 2232 animals were euthanized last year while 2067 were adopted. The problem is not space; the problem is that too many animals are coming in and there are simply not enough people to adopt them. John Sauls and Laura Walters said as much in 'Animal Shelter FAQs' where they wrote "Why can't all the adoptable sheltered animals be adopted? There are more "surplus" animals than people wanting to adopt them." The naive solution is for APS to expend its resources treating animals that are likely to be euthanized anyway. The real solution is to cut down on intake by spending that money on spaying and neutering. --- APS needs volunteers The foster care program managed by the Animal Protection Society has been an extremely important means of finding homes for and saving the lives of adoptable animals. In the wake of the recent preliminary report from the Humane Society of the United States, the foster care program is more important than ever. One recommendation required us to reduce the amount of space for housing adoptable animals. With housing space cut, we are appealing to animal lovers in the community to consider participating in our foster-care program. The goal is to avoid unnecessary euthanasia of animals by providing for their special needs in temporary homes. Ill or injured animals can get their special needs met and recover more rapidly than they might in a shelter. In a caring foster home, puppies and kittens are allowed time to be completely weaned. They grow old enough to be spayed or neutered, and reach a suitable level of maturity before being placed for adoption. Foster care for animal families also allows the babies to mature in a nurturing environment. Moms who need extra medical care can be carefully watched, and this contributes to the health of the whole family. Fostering involves a commitment of two to eight weeks. Orphaned puppies and kittens, who require the most time and commitment, may need hand feeding every few hours. The most commonly fostered animals are kittens and adult cats with upper respiratory infections. This usually requires a two- to three-week commitment. All medications and veterinary care is provided by APS. Generally, foster parents provide cat litter, food and bedding materials. An APS foster-care coordinator is available for advice. Prospective foster parents must fill out an application, have a home check, and be interviewed. Once accepted, an APS foster-care coordinator will contact you when an animal becomes a candidate for placement. Please join our effort to save animals by participating in our foster care program. Lisa Smith APS Foster Care Coordinator Chapel Hill ________________________________________________________________ Chapel Hill News August 18, 2003 Residents must do their part to help animals My view By KENDALL H. PAGE ------ Also published as Creating a better animal shelter Chapel Hill Herald Thursday, August 21, 2003 --- also published in News or Orange. --- See discussion of the MANY factual errors in Guest Editorial Chapel Hill Herald and Chapel Hill News August 31 --- The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has issued the first part of the evaluation of the Orange County Animal Shelter and the Animal Protection Society. This was contracted by the Orange County Board of Commissioners and will be used by the APS as a guidance tool in updating procedures and the facility itself. The APS board and staff will review the final report in detail and look at the recommendations. The Animal Protection Society also will work with Orange County to implement physical improvements to the animal shelter. The Orange County APS has been in operation for more than 40 years and is committed to rescuing lost, abandoned, abused and injured animals as well as finding homes for them. The current animal shelter run by APS was built more than 25 years ago at a time when Orange County had a population of 57,567. The building now houses a greater number of animals because the number of residents in this county has doubled to more than 116,204. In addition, the funds that the Orange County Board of Commissioners budgets for APS has not increased in recent years to compensate for reasonable salaries or the high costs of day-to-day operating expenses. Despite the limited funding provided by Orange County, the APS has continued to do the best it can under such restricted housing-space and financial constraints. Last year alone, the APS subsidized the county to the tune of $87,000. Unfortunately, the limitations of the building along with the recommendation by HSUS to reduce the number of animals housed in the facility has and will cause more adoptable animals to die. The APS cannot operate as a modern day shelter with a 1970s facility. When the final report from HSUS is released this month, the APS board and staff will study it carefully and determine what changes can be made to improve the situation for the short term. However, a new facility is absolutely necessary to provide for the animals that our growing community now has. Orange County and the citizens of this community need to determine what level of commitment they have to our animals, what kind of facility they want, what programs they want and what they are willing to pay for. The Orange County Board of Commissioners needs to do the same. In the meantime, the animals need your help. APS needs permanent homes for the animals. We also need temporary foster homes for our animals. Volunteers are needed to help at the shelter and donations are lacking to care for the animals. Currently, the APS is working toward the creation of a new adoption center for those animals that have been adopted and are waiting for their spay-neuter surgery before going home. This facility will complement the Orange County Animal Shelter by freeing up space so that other animals at the animal shelter will have more time to be adopted. This new modern facility called the "Halfway Home" will be at the APS Felicite Latane Animal Sanctuary in Orange County. It will save animals from euthanasia and buy more time for each of them to be adopted. The project is in desperate need of funding, and APS is asking the community for its help in donating to our Halfway Home for animals. The APS has provided many services to the county over the years that reach far beyond housing, abandoned, sick and injured animals. Services such as low cost spay-neutering, a training facility for pet owners, a pet behavior hotline, a lost and found database, a strong foster care program, a cruelty investigation program, and a veterinary care program. This represents only a fraction of the 33 programs offered and paid for by the APS independent of the county. Orange County provides funding for only four programs (e.g., rabies clinic) and such funding represents only a third of the total APS operating budget. The Emergency Animal Rescue Service is a vital APS program and one that residents of Orange County have come to rely upon. This is a 24-hour rescue service for animals that have been hit by cars, animals suffering by the side of the road and wildlife that have been injured late at night. Currently, the APS foots the bill for this program in the County but it operates in the red annually. If this program cannot continue then not only will the police, sheriff and fire departments receive these calls but many animals will suffer and die. The APS staff and board are dedicated individuals working hard to care for the lost, abandoned and abused animals in our community. We continue to give our hearts to save each and every adoptable animal and have done so under constant distracting criticism by a few members of the public who don't understand animal shelter operations. While the APS board considers the HSUS evaluation and recommendations to determine what can be done to help the animals in the short run, the animals need the help of this community now and in the future. The HSUS evaluation will guide the APS and the county to improve the facility; however, they alone cannot make advancements. The community needs to support APS and help both APS and the county provide the kind of facility and adoption program that the citizens will be proud of. Please help us by donating your time to the shelter, foster an animal, donate to provide for medical supplies, additional cages, blankets, food and to build the Halfway Home which will spare many animals' life. It is a community need for everyone especially our four-legged friends. Kendall H. Page is an APS board member and a lifetime resident of Orange County. ________________________________________________________________ Chapel Hill Herald Tuesday, August 19, 2003 Hearing on APS case postponed HILLSBOROUGH -- A hearing for pretrial motions in a lawsuit filed against the Animal Protection Society was postponed Monday until Aug. 26 Superior Court Judge John Jolly said he hadn't had time to read the 3-inch stack of paperwork from the case. Elliot Cramer and Judith Reitman sued the agency in February, claiming the group failed to allow members access to its records and improperly changed its bylaws. The APS and its director, Laura Walters, filed a counterclaim, saying Cramer and Reitman defamed Walters and the APS. ________________________________________________________________ The Chapel Hill News August 20, 2003 Swimming with dogs HILLSBOROUGH -- There was water and fur everywhere. The shrill yelps of the small dogs were somewhat muffled by the solid, authoritative barks of the larger ones. Both reverberated off the high ceilings and the concrete walls that house the Triangle SportsPlex's indoor pools. The dank stench of wet dog permeated the moist, warm air and mingled with the caustic smell of chlorine. The sights, sounds and smells that greeted visitors at the first-ever dog and owner swim event created quite a spectacle. Yet in spite of the noise and the heat and the slimy puddles collecting poolside, most of the humans at Sunday's event seemed to be having a grand old time. Owners swam happily in the pool with their pets, and children shrieked with joy as they were caught unsuspectingly in the spray of a nearby dog shaking itself of excess water. While some dogs shared their owners' enthusiasm, others -- like "Maggie" -- wanted no part of the pool activity. The tiny 5-year-old Maltese sat quivering in the arms of her owner, Jan McColl. "Maggie's not happy," said McColl, a Hillsborough resident who works at the SportsPlex. "She doesn't swim. Maggie's just a lap dog." McColl said she brought Maggie in order to see her reaction to the event, but the dog immediately shied away from the water. She insisted that it was the pool, rather than the hordes of much larger dogs, that frightened Maggie. "She thinks she's a Rottweiler," McColl said. The event, which was jointly sponsored by the SportsPlex and the Animal Protection Society of Orange County, also served as a fund-raiser and an adoption event for the APS. With more than 75 dog participants and only minor mishaps, organizers deemed the effort a success. They raised $700 and, although no dogs were adopted, visitors expressed interest in four of the dogs. Some drove great distances so that they and their dogs could take a dip in a pool. Jessica Barnes drove an hour and 45 minutes from South Boston, Va., so that her 2-year-old Husky, Ayden, could participate in the event. Barnes, who travels to Raleigh almost every weekend to take Ayden for a jaunt in the city's dog park, said she and her dog both were enjoying the pool and the long drive was well worth it. "They don't have anything like this up where we're from," Barnes said "I hope they do this again." SportsPlex Aquatics Director Paula Alford said an aquatics center in Burlington recently hosted a dog-owner swim, giving her the idea to organize one at the SportsPlex. "This is a first-time deal, so we are learning as we go," Alford said. She said the timing worked out well because the SportsPlex drains its indoor pool each year at the end of the summer. The pool would be drained and cleaned, she said, soon after the dogs were done swimming in it. Alford was interrupted by a runaway dog that had scrambled beyond a makeshift barricade and was headed for the recreation and kiddie pools on the other side. "Whoo! Grab that dog," Alford yelled, as the dog's owner and several others chased after it. A few moments later, Chapel Hill resident Wheeler Vivian, smiled sheepishly as he led Irie, his 2-year-old chocolate lab, back to the lap pool area where the dogs were permitted. "I let him loose thinking he would jump in the water, and he went the other way," Vivian explained. Meanwhile, Ingrid Ihle sat on nearby bleachers holding the leashes of two greyhounds, Miss Kitty and Green Pea. Miss Kitty wore a bright orange life vest, Green Pea a bright yellow one. Ihle said the greyhounds' lean, muscular frames made the floatation devices necessary. Neither dog had ever been swimming in deep water. "Greyhounds don't float, but they love water," she said. "So we're going to see if they can handle it." On the other hand, Carla, a 10-year-old hound mix, used to swim in the water frequently in her younger days. But on Sunday, her owner, Chapel Hill resident Matt Carroll, had to coax her into the water with a tennis ball. Carla initially refused to follow the ball into the water and spent several minutes pacing and sniffing around the edge of the pool before Carroll lifted her hind legs and eased her into the water. Carla swam straight for the tennis ball and returned to shore. "She's scared of her arthritis," Carroll said. "We call her 'Cautious Carla.'" Tracy, Carroll's wife, volunteers with the APS and spent time Saturday swimming with Sadie, a dog that is up for adoption at the Orange County Animal Shelter. Tracy said the event was beneficial on several fronts -- it gave dogs and their owners a chance to swim together, it raised money for the APS, and it allowed APS volunteers to showcase some of the dogs it has up for adoption. "It's very neat," she said. "It's a great opportunity in the summer to get the dogs to swim." Caption: Lily, a 1-year-old Pomeranian beagle mix, 'tows' her owner Courtney Hargrove back to dry land during a doggie swim fund-raiser for the APS at the Triangle SportsPlex in Hillsborough. ________________________________________________________________ The Chapel Hill News August 20, 2003 Comment: Unfortunately the shelter is NOT fostering a "a humane, healthy refuge for lost or surrendered animals. " --- Shelter provides humane refuge I have lived in Chapel Hill for a dozen years and volunteered at the APS of Orange County for more than half that time. I have watched with admiration shelter workers' efforts to assure arriving animals the best possible conditions in the small facilities available in this region's ever-growing population. I have seen their grief at the injuries or loss of animals, such as pit bulls housed at the shelter as trial evidence, kittens thrown from a bridge onto a highway, animals caught in traps or victims of cruelty. Their efforts to make these animals' lives as comfortable as possible seem lost or ignored in the current controversy. During our family's time volunteering at the shelter, we have seen the euthanasia rate much diminished. Petsmart and Dubey's of Chapel Hill show APS cats to the public. A Web site gives information and pictures about available animals. The APS foster program sends puppies and kittens to families which raise them to adoptable size, health, and appropriate behavior. It is difficult to find an employee who has not fostered a litter of kittens, puppies, or some needy animal, giving them more time to grow and thrive. Professional dog trainers assess the behavior of dogs, trying to assure their suitability for adoption. A low-cost spay-neuter program encourages pet owners to help curb the number of unwanted animals that enter the shelter each year. A veterinarian assesses the health of all entering animals and makes daily rounds. All healthy animals receive prophylactic medications and injections, as their age allows. The spread of some diseases, thus, has been reduced. But some of the recommendations of the Humane Society of the United States surely must shock both sides of the controversy surrounding our local APS. The recommendation that all sick animals be euthanized at once may prevent the spread of disease, but many very treatable animals lose their chance for a new and loving home. Other recommendations require space and a budget currently unavailable to our APS and many others. Larger facilities should be open in three and a half years, but in that time our growing population will surrender more animals to the shelter, requiring more trained workers to serve them. I do not believe that turning over the management of the shelter, as some have suggested, from the experienced corps that runs it now will benefit the animals we all wish to help. The people who work at the APS have made many changes over the years, adopting policies which benefit animal welfare. No world is perfect, but the shelter certainly tries to foster a humane, healthy refuge for lost or surrendered animals. Sara Clay Chapel Hill ________________________________________________________________ The Daily Tarheel August 28, 2003 Society to reveal review of animal shelter tonight Months after the Orange County animal shelter came under attack, the Humane Society of the United States will release its full evaluation of the shelter at tonight's Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting. The board requested the report in September after citizens protested administrative actions by the staff of the Animal Protection Society of Orange County. The board plans to use the results of the report to determine whether to allow the APS to continue to run the shelter. The final report will evaluate the shelter's facilities and operations, its animal control and field services, and the organization of its management and administration, said Krista Hughes, coordinator of HSUS's Animal Services Consultations. The report will offer suggestions as to how the shelter might be run more efficiently and effectively. "It doesn't mean there's necessarily a right or wrong way," Hughes said. "It's a tool for positive change." The report will be referred to the county manager and staff for evaluation before the board takes action, said board Chairwoman Margaret Brown. "There was a great deal of criticism, so we decided to call in a neutral party," she said. APS renews its contract with the county for use of the shelter site annually. Board members said they might consider contracting the shelter's operation to an outside nonprofit entity or revising APS's contract with the county. Concern over the shelter's operations arose again in February when area residents Elliot Cramer and Judith Reitman began a campaign against APS executive director Laura Walters. Cramer and Reitman, who lead a nonprofit watchdog organization called the Piedmont Animal Welfare Society, criticized Walters for taking voting rights away from members of APS not on the executive board. Cramer, Reitman and Walters will meet with a court-appointed mediator in the next couple of weeks. Last month, the HSUS released part of its report, detailing improvements requiring immediate attention, such as its animal processing and facilities cleaning procedures. Walters said shelter staff have already begun implementing several of the report's suggestions. In 2006, the shelter will be forced out of its location to make way for UNC's development of the Horace Williams tract. No decision has been made as to where the shelter will move. Tonight's meeting will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center at 2501 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill. Although they will not be solicited for feedback at the meeting, the public is invited to attend. The board is scheduled to hold two public hearings on the matter on Sept. 15 and 18. ________________________________________________________________ The Daily Tarheel August 29, 2003 Report critical of APS shelter After months under a microscope, the local chapter of the Animal Protection Society was served sobering news Thursday: Its control over Orange County's animal shelter might come to an end within months. The Humane Society of the United States released its sensitive report on the shelter's operations after the Orange County Board of Commissioners work session adjourned late Thursday night. "We look at this report as a tool to improve and not use as a weapon. ... To do that is detrimental to the entire community," said Kate Pullen, the Humane Society's consultation services director. "The situation here in Orange County is a lot of people who are looking to this report for validation of their own feelings," she said. The release of the evaluation was preceded by a round-table discussion among the commissioners, the Orange County Board of Health and the APS. County officials asked the Humane Society in September for an assessment of the animal shelter in response to public criticism of its administration. The outcry reached its zenith in February when area animal rights activists Judith Reitman and Elliot Cramer filed suit against the shelter's director, Laura Walters, and the APS board of directors. Cramer and Reitman accused Walters and the APS board of financial mismanagement and animal cruelty, among other charges. The parties are scheduled to meet with a court-appointed mediator within a month. Gwen Harvey, assistant county manager, said the role that the APS will play in the shelter's operations is "to be determined." If the county assumes control of the shelter, which all indications suggest, the APS will lose all its administrative powers. Harvey presented a preliminary staff report to the commissioners that outlined measures the county might take if it assumes control of the shelter. APS renews its contract to run the shelter on a yearly basis, but starting Tuesday it will be subject to monthly renewals. Pullen repeatedly urged her audience to avoid overreacting to the Humane Society's findings. "The preliminary report had nothing positive to say about APS, that's true," she said. "But when the recommendations are taken out of context, they can be damaging and hinder progress." Pullen admitted that many of the APS's shortcomings were due to the organization's futile attempts to run a modern practice in an outdated facility built in the early 1970s. The building, which sits on land leased from UNC, will be demolished in 2007. Commissioner Stephen Halkiotis praised the society's decision to withhold the report until after the meeting in light of the issue's sensitivity. "We need to ... read this in a calm environment because this is something we all care about," he said. Commissioner Barry Jacobs also complimented the society for its role in mitigating a dispute that aroused "passion and animosity." "There's been a disservice to animals and a lot of humanosity," Jacobs said. ________________________________________________________________ Chapel Hill Herald August 30, 2003 Comment: The Chapel Hill Herald headlines this "Shelter chief 'very pleaed' with report" Laura certainly has a talent for making horse manure smell like Roses. Replies will be forthcoming. --- U.S. Humane Society cites shelter woes CHAPEL HILL -- Inspectors from the Humane Society of the United States have elaborated on the findings of a preliminary report that was sharply critical of the management of the Orange County Animal Shelter. But the 156-page report -- released late Thursday night after being presented to the Orange County Commissioners -- also contained ammunition for the defenders of the nonprofit group the county pays to run the shelter, the Animal Protection Society. Laura Walters, director of the APS and the main target of some of the criticism, said she believes the Humane Society's report validates the way the shelter is being run and offers many suggestions for how it can be improved. "I'm very pleased with the report, and I thought it was very, very fair," she said. Humane Society inspectors addressed everything from the condition of the shelter's parking lot and the type of signs used around the building to the way cages are cleaned. In nearly every section, the report suggested that the shelter should clean up, get rid of clutter and adopt standard operating procedures, though it noted that some people reported that things were better since the former director of the APS, Pat Sanford, left the organization. "At the time of the site visit, there had been a fairly recent change in leadership on APS staff," the report said. "A long-time executive director left and was replaced by a new executive director. In the collective opinion of the current staff and board members interviewed by the [Humane Society's] team, many positive changes had occurred since the change in upper management." One of the changes was that the facility had been cleaned up and contained significantly less clutter, the report said. But the report noted in detail every cobweb, spot on the wall and unnecessary piece of clutter that was there when inspectors visited late in April. It also offered advice on how to store cleaning equipment and how to make animals more comfortable while they stay at the shelter. One suggestion was that the shelter staff should provide silky flowers in the cage where a gecko lizard was being held. "They spent a whole page of recommendations on the gecko, and he was only here for two days," Walters said with a laugh. Other recommendations by the team were more pressing. For instance, the report said the APS' effort to keep track of lost and found pets is disorganized. The lost-and-found reports relied mostly on an informal system that relied heavily on the memory of the staff and identification by breed. Inspectors suggested that the shelter implement a system to keep track of check animals that doesn't rely so heavily on people remembering what they look like. It should document the size, color and hair length of hair of the pet, because many people aren't good at guessing the breed of an animal. The report also said that the flow of animals through the facility, from arrival to departure, is disorganized and unstructured. Staff members "lacked the proper training for many of the daily tasks that they were responsible for and a general lack of standard operating procedures was apparent," inspectors said. Sometimes when an animal arrived at the shelter, the shelter staff did even not scan the animal to determine if it had a microchip identification implant, the report said. The Humane Society suggested that each animal be given a special identification collar when it enters the shelter. "Shelter agency complaints that identification collars cost too much or the animals sometimes take them off cannot be accepted in an environment where a mistake in euthanasia can bring legal action against a county and organizational embarrassment that may never be overcome," the report said. Representatives from the Humane Society spent two days at the shelter observing and examining how things are done at the shelter, including how the board of directors conducts its business. Walters responded to the criticisms and accepted them, saying that APS was trying to run a modern program in an outdated facility. She also said that some of the disorganized procedures would be corrected once a new software program made especially for animal shelters is installed and the employees are properly trained. "Everything will be streamlined," she said. "We're really excited about it. It can generate all kinds of reports." Walters was especially pleased that the Humane Society report said it was a common practice for nonprofit organizations to restrict who can vote for members of their boards of directors. The point touched on one of the issues involved in a lawsuit against the APS filed by two of the group's critics, Elliot Cramer and animal activist Judith Reitman. The pair claims the APS board illegally changed the group's bylaws to allow only members of the board to vote for new board members. But "the decision of the board to suspend the voting privileges of members is consistent with the model followed by many not-for-profit organizations," the Humane Society said. "Many other humane societies have adopted similar policies due to the lack of participation by general members. "And in many organizations, voting for board members is no longer offered as a benefit of membership. A carefully selected and trained board of directors following well thought out by-laws and laws relating to nonprofits should be the most well-informed body to make critical decisions in the governance of the organization," the report said. "The timing of this policy change at APS, in the midst of public criticism and increased scrutiny, was unfortunate," the report said. "Fundamentally, a board-governed system is an appropriate model to follow." The Humane Society team also cautioned that one remedy urged by critics of the APS -- a county takeover of day-to-day management -- won't necessarily solve the shelter's problems. Orange County's animal control office has problems of its own, some similar to those of the APS, the report said. Animal control workers are buried in paperwork and the operation is "not as progressive as [it] could be in the delivery of [its] services," the inspectors said. If the commissioners decide to fire APS, they'll have to beef up the animal control office beforehand, lest it end up "facing the same issues APS has been struggling with," the report said. An immediate response to those points wasn't forthcoming on Friday from the shelter's critics. Cramer was critical of a separate report from county administrators that outlined possible takeover scenarios, but he hadn't read the Humane Society's newest findings. The Humane Society urged the county to appoint seven unbiased people to a task force that would spend four months tackling the recommendations made by Thursday night's report. The task force should include a professional facilitator, a shelter staff representative, a member of the APS board and a veterinarian with strong shelter knowledge. The task force could also include someone with a legal background, a public health official, a county budget officer and should be limited to those people with an interest in animals who do not have personal agendas, the report said. The Humane Society's full report is available on the Web at http://www.co.orange.nc.us/reports/HSUSreport.htm. Related Articles cited by Herald Euthanasia policy ?not in stone': Humane Society clarifies its recommendation to APS (July 10, 2003) Letters to the editor (July 6, 2003) Animal shelter adopting changes : Humane Society finds problems, offers guidelines (July 3, 2003) Shelter report finds unacceptable problems (July 1, 2003) Humane Society report critical of APS Lack of records, dirty conditions cited by group (June 28, 2003) Written comments sought on animal shelter (March 17, 2003) APS critic asked not to come onto shelter property: Elliot Cramer accuses group of retaliation (February 13, 2003) ________________________________________________________________ Chapel Hill News August 31, 2003 Editorial Humane Society points way to change Anyone looking to the Humane Society to exonerate the animal shelter operations of the Orange County Animal Protection Society would have been disappointed by the long-awaited Humane Society report released last week. The report to the Orange County commissioners set out a long litany of ills at the shelter off Airport Road, among them: -- Poor cleaning and sanitation practices. -- Non-existent ventilation and air flow in animal areas. -- A badly designed system for receiving incoming animals and properly managing their health, resulting in excessively long average stays in the shelter. -- Lack of a standardized system for isolating sick or injured animals. -- Cluttered and poorly designed facilities. -- Poor building maintenance: "In general, it appeared as though maintenance issues were routinely ignored." -- A "disorganized and unstructured" animal flow process, lack of proper training for staff and lack of standard procedures for routine operations. The Humane Society didn't say so, but the general impression presented by the report is of an animal shelter that is dirty, poorly managed and unhealthy for animals. Clearly, there is a lot of room for improvement. The question is, should the county scrap its contract with the APS and run the animal shelter itself? The Humane Society report doesn't address that question, but a separate report by the county staff outlines what it would take for the county to take over the shelter. That would include hiring a staff of 19 people, compared to 16 now employed by APS, and changes in services from the current APS operation. Among the changes not providing -- low-cost spay-neuter services for the public, as provided now by APS, and reduction in hours for emergency animal rescue services. The cost to the county of operating a shelter itself, according to the report, would be $1.1 million in the first year (including start-up expenses) and $964,943 the second year. By comparison, the county now pays APS $428,818 annually to operate the shelter. Given those numbers, we think the county commissioners should look long and hard before getting into the animal shelter business. The county would be paying twice what it does now for the service. It would be getting into an area about which it knows very little, when an infrastructure already exists to provide that service. And there are unknowns, such as a projected reduction in volunteer involvement, that could end up reducing the quality of service to citizens (and animals). While the Humane Society assessment of APS was critical, it was not entirely negative. It credited the organization for positive adoption procedures, such as counseling sessions with pet-adopters, and cited positive feedback from people who had adopted pets. The most serious shortcomings had to do with animal health and sanitation issues, which APS has begun addressing. Many of the concerns had to do with policies and procedures, which we daresay the Humane Society would find at many animal shelters around the state. Society officials cautioned that the report should be regarded as a tool for change, not a weapon for attack. The report recommends creating a task force to review its recommendations and set priorities for improvements. That's probably a good idea, although the recommended study period of four months is too long. The shelter already has been studied for a year. There are a lot of entities with a stake in this issue -- APS, its many critics, the town of Chapel Hill, which contracts with APS for animal control. But most of all, for the sake of the animals, the commissioners need to get on with making decisions about the future of animal care and protection in the community. ________________________________________________________________ Chapel Hill Herald Sunday, August 31, 2003 APS lawsuit about improving shelter Guest Editorial ELLIOT CRAMER Guest columnist Kendall Page, a new Animal Protection Society board member and "lifetime resident of Orange County," has written a guest column, "Creating a better animal shelter" (Chapel Hill Herald, Aug. 21). I support this goal and joined aps for this very reason. My lawsuit against aps has nothing to do with the shelter or the county, but with internal aps policies involving the rights of aps members. Page's column is replete with false statements and continues the pattern of misrepresentations by aps staff, board members and friends. Ms. Page notes that "The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has issued the first part of the evaluation of the Orange County Animal Shelter." She neglects to mention (as has been reported in the Herald) that the June report was a devastating critique of the current management. It criticized virtually every aspect of the aps operation from poor disease management and failure to vaccinate to dead roaches on the floor on the very day HSUS did its announced evaluation. Ms. Page states that "the current animal shelter run by aps was built more than 25 years ago," neglecting to mention that it was enlarged in 1986 and 1991 from 2,926 to 7,488 square feet. In 1992 it received the American Humane Association's Standards of Excellence award for facilities and staff -- one of 63 shelters recognized in the United States, indicating that it was one of the best facilities in the state. It is not true that "the building now houses a greater number of animals because the number of residents in this county has doubled." The number of animals (5,088) is actually down 14 percent from 1990 (5,919) due to a strong spay/neuter program instituted by the previous administration. Likewise it is incorrect that "the funds that the (Orange County) budgets for aps has not increased in recent years." Funding has increased every year and is now $428,818, double the 1990 figure of $208,980. The number of funded staff members has increased from 5.5 in 1984 to 15.5. It is untrue that "the aps has continued to do the best it can under such restricted housing-space and financial constraints." The county shelter is currently one of the two best-funded shelters in the state, and the county is committed to building a new shelter within three years costing nearly $3 million dollars. The low cost spay-neuter program, started in 1997, is fully funded by adoption and spay/neuter fees and it made sufficient profit to fund the now-abandoned aps wildlife program. aps does not "provide a 24-hour rescue service for animals" or "foot the bill for this program in the County." The emergency rescue service is fully funded by the county and is operated by the county, not aps, during daytime hours. aps contributed $87,000 to shelter operation last year, only 14 percent of the shelter budget, and aps was committed to contributing up to $100,000 if it was needed. Evidently it was not needed. In exchange, the county provided the principal aps office and funded the entire salaries of the aps executive director and associate director. Ms. Page says "the aps cannot operate as a modern-day shelter with a 1970s facility." It is apparent that aps, under the current management and board, cannot adequately operate the shelter at all. Oversight of the aps contract has been delegated by Health Director Rosemary Summers to Animal Control Director John Sauls. This oversight has been grossly inadequate, as blatantly false monthly reports and other inadequacies by Laura Walters have been excused or overlooked by him. It has been a case of the fox guarding the hen house. It is unfortunate that aps, with its distinguished record of service to the public, has descended to its current level and resorts to misrepresentation in a desperate attempt to hold onto the county contract and to raise funds. At the August 11, 2003, aps board meeting, former board member and secretary Virginia Ellington asked aps President Pat Beyle what had become of $369,000 the Board had committed to construction of its adoption center two years ago; no one on the aps Board was able to provide an answer, but Ms. Page pleads for more funds for that project. Ellington wrote to HSUS, "The board has little understanding of the financial records ... and other aspects of the shelter's overall operation." Page's editorial is testimony to the validity of her statement. Many of aps's other false and contradictory statements are found on the PAWS Web site, www.ourpaws.org. I believe that Orange County can and should operate a shelter of which the citizens of Orange County can again be proud. Unfortunately aps, under its current management and board of directors, appears to be unwilling and unable to do that. The county should promptly take it over. Elliot Cramer is president of the Piedmont Animal Welfare Society. He is involved in litigation with the Animal Protection Society of Orange County. ________________________________________________________________ Chapel Hill News August 31, 2003 APS board member neglected some facts Kendall Page's guest editorial criticizing Orange County and its animal shelter is outrageous. This new APS board member neglects to say that the "25 years old animal shelter" was modified in 1986 and 1991 to two and one half times its original size. While county population has doubled, the animals housed is down 15 percent from 1990 due to a spay-neuter program instituted by the previous APS administration. Page states that Orange County funding "has not increased in recent years." Nonsense. It has increased each and every year and is now double the 1990 amount while staff has increased from 5.5 in 1984 to 15.5. The county shelter is currently one of the two best-funded shelters in the state, and a new $3 million shelter is in the works. In 1992, the shelter received the American Humane Association Standards of Excellence Award for facilities and staff, one of only 63 in the United States. The low-cost spay-neuter program, fully funded by adoption and spay-neuter fees, made sufficient profit to fund the now-abandoned wildlife program. The county-funded Emergency Rescue Service, county operated during daytime hours, will continue under any management. APS contributed only $87,000 to shelter operation last year, 14 percent of the budget, with a commitment of $100,000 if it were needed; evidently, it was not needed. In exchange, the county provided the APS principal office and funded APS's executive director and associate director. Page says that "the APS cannot operate as a modern-day shelter with a 1970s facility." It is apparent that APS's current management and board cannot adequately operate the shelter at all. It is unfortunate that APS, with its distinguished record of public service, resorts to misrepresentation in a desperate attempt to raise funds and keep the county contract. The HSUS report on APS is a devastating critique of the current management, criticizing virtually every aspect of the APS operation from poor disease management and failure to vaccinate to dead roaches on the floor. I believe that Orange County can and should operate a shelter of which the citizens of Orange County can again be proud. Unfortunately, APS, under its current management and board of directors, appears to be unwilling and unable to do that. The county should promptly take it over. -- Elliot M. Cramer, Chapel Hill ________________________________________________________________ Chapel Hill News August 31, 2003 Comment: some people are easily pleased; one would think that Laura would be hiding in a hole rather than hiding in her office with the door closed. Humane Society says APS must define mission APS director says the staff will use the report to improve the operation. CHAPEL HILL -- After almost a year of controversy surrounding the operation of the Orange County Animal Shelter, shelter director Laura Walters says she feels vindicated by the recently released results of an evaluation conducted by the Humane Society of the United States. The report offered a good deal of criticism of the policies of the Animal Protection Society of Orange County, the nonprofit agency with which the county contracts to run the shelter. But the criticism was largely constructive in tone and was counterbalanced by a significant amount of praise for the APS's practices. Walters said she was "extremely pleased" with the results of the report. "The APS board and staff are committed to using that report to help us improve our operation here," she said. A Humane Society representative spent more than an hour Thursday night presenting the society's report to the Orange County Board of Commissioners, the Orange County Board of Health and the APS Board of Directors. Kate Pullen, consultation services director for the Humane Society, stressed the difficulties associated with running a shelter and called on the community as a whole to take responsibility for its animals. "This is not an APS animal problem," Pullen said. "It's a community animal problem." The report recommends the formation of a task force that would craft a clear mission statement and a strategic plan for the shelter. "We in shelters want to be everything to everyone," Pullen said, adding that interested parties needed to sit down and identify the shelter's priorities. The report also noted that the shelter's handbook of standard operating procedures needed to be updated to reflect the new mission and strategic plan once they are crafted. APS staff received high praise in the report. The report also notes that APS board and staff members interviewed by the Humane Society spoke highly of Walters, who has been the subject of a number of personal attacks from critics. Commissioner Margaret Brown said she believes the report will provide a solid framework for a discussion of the future of animal care in the county. "It's going to set the stage for a very fine working environment," Brown said. Although she did not want to commit to anything before she had had a chance to read and fully digest the report, Brown said she was open to the idea of setting up a task force to decide how to proceed. County study provides added dimension Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey and County Health Director Rosemary Summers also presented the results of a study county staff conducted over the summer about the factors that would be involved if the county were to take over operation of the shelter. According to the county study, the cost to the county of operating the shelter would total about $1.1 million for the first year and about $965,000 for each subsequent year. The county now pays about $429,000 a year to APS to operate the shelter. In either case, the county would need to build a new shelter and because its lease with the university for the property that now houses the shelter is set to expire in 2006. The report states that planning for the new shelter should begin in January. The county report also included three possible scenarios that could govern how the county might take control of the shelter. They would take four to 10 months to implement. Late last year, commissioners contracted with the Humane Society to conduct the independent assessment of the shelter's operations after a firestorm of criticism of the APS emerged last summer. A preliminary report released in June that focused on disease management policies at the shelter was much more critical of the APS than the final report released last week. The controversy has moved into the legal arena as well. Two APS critics filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court in February alleging that the APS board illegally refused to disclose information and records, removed members' voting rights and obstructed members' efforts to nominate candidates to the APS board of directors. The APS has responded with a counter suit claiming that the critics have defamed APS's reputation. A judge ruled this week that the court would hear oral arguments before ruling whether to dismiss the APS's claim. In June, county commissioners voted 3-2 not to extend the county's contract with APS through the end of the calendar year, as County Manager John Link had recommended. Instead, they opted to extend the contract until Sept. 30, after which it will come up for renewal each month through Dec. 31. Commissioners are to decide on Tuesday whether to extend the county's contract with APS until Oct. 31. ________________________________________________________________