Statement to the Orange County Board of Health Elliot Cramer President: Piedmont Animal Welfare Society July 24, 2003 (Note: three attachments have been faxed to the Health Department and the County Manager's office and are available from me by fax) Dr. Klein has asked for my suggestions for operating the Orange County shelter and for my thoughts on a budget for a County operation. I am not an expert on animal shelters but then, neither is anyone at APS or in the County. I've learned a lot since October and I've probably spent more time evaluating the problems at APS than anyone else. At this point I believe that it is essential that Laura Walters, Dara Das, and Nicole Carper be removed from their managerial positions; it is clear that the APS Board has not exercised adequate oversight and will not do so. Given the current litiga- tion, the future of APS is much in doubt and I believe that it is essential that the County take over shelter operations as soon as possible. The Orange County Animal Shelter should be a model for the rest of the state. The residents of the County want a shelt- er that works strongly toward solving the pet overpopulation problem, cutting down necessary euthanasia, caring for Orange County animals humanely, and offering animal-related services to Orange County residents and animals when needed. The shelter has been a model in the past; this is the only shelter in the area that has never been shut down because of disease management problems, although this may yet happen. I have found four unan- nounced cases of parvo in June. It can be a model again within the present budget. NC House Speaker Jim Black is putting in place a legislative committee to study animal needs in North Carolina. Let's help him and the animals by providing a shelter that can again be used as a both training facility and model. Two years ago Orange County had what was believed by many to be the best animal shelter operation in the State with the highest adoption rate and lowest euthanasia rate. The recent HSUS report makes clear that what we have now is a disaster. Former Execu- tive Director said of Walters to the BOCC "There have been so many reasons why Laura Walters has not been able to do her job- and it is always someone else's fault." Following public misrep- resentations by Walter to the press, HSUS was forced to issue a clarification stating: "The HSUS did not recommend or imply that stray or owner surren- dered animals should immediately be euthanized after a specific length of time. ... The HSUS does not believe it is a kindness to animals to keep them in a shelter environment indefinitely where they may be stressed and possibly exposed to disease with little hope for adoption." After further misrepresentations, Krista Hughes of HSUS felt compelled to say "Thank you for the information. We appreciate your concern; however, we feel that responding to every false allegation and misrepresentation would be fruitless." Contrary to what Laura Walters has said, the shelter facility is considered to be among the best in North Carolina. The shelter was built in 1979 with two extensions since, the last about ten years ago in which the architect took into account disease man- agement and adoptability of animals. This doubled the size of the facility. The new shelter will be even larger, but shelter size can only marginally affect adoption rates since, as John Sauls has said, all the adoptable animals are not adopted because "there are more 'surplus animals' than people wanting to adopt them." Although the current shelter has an air-exchange in the isolation area for disease management, it has none in the main kennel and cat room. This will be included in the new shelter to be built within three years. Contrary to what Walters has publicly claimed HSUS did not find fault with the facility itself except for ventilation. The main problem was that APS had NEVER contacted Public Works about repairing the nine exhaust fans (out of fourteen) which were inoperative and had turned off an additional one. The new shelt- er which must be built by the County regardless of who runs it is already planned to have a more adequate ventilation system. You will recall that the BOCC twice voted to renew the APS con- tract for only three months with a month to month extension thereafter. Two voted against even three months. This was BEFORE the devastating HSUS report which cited the horrible conditions at the shelter. I regret that you chose to listen to Walters and John Sauls rather than to many of us who had advised you of these conditions for the past year. Contrary to what you may believe there is NOT a well-trained staff at APS and it will not be financially difficult for the County to run a superior shelter. Six of eight kennel techs at APS have left since June and the two Health techs who remain are poorly trained. The records manager (who didn't keep adequate records) has left and all three devel- opment directors since Walters have resigned since January 2002. Other than Executive Director Laura Walters (formerly the Devel- opment Director), Associate Director Dara Das (formerly the book- keeper), and Animal Care Manager Nicole Carper (formerly a Health tech)only three of the remaining thirteen current employees were employed when Pat Sanford left APS in January 2002. Walters supervised a poorly trained staff in Arkansas while the other two had no supervisory experience at all. All three of these have amply demonstrated their incompetence. This is NOT an operation where there is a staff with longevity and experience. The key employee is the Executive Director; the former APS Associate Director is available as an interim Director and he is far more experienced than Laura Walters. He obviously would be a can- didate for a permanent position, but a national search should be made. Given the salaries and benefits paid by the County, the County should have no difficulty in filling any vacant positions when it takes over shelter operation. You probably are unaware of just how much it costs to run the shelter. The Animal Shelter FAQS printed by the County which I obtained in March was written by John Sauls and Laura Walters. It states "the total estimated operating cost for FY 2001-2002 were $1,272,232. Of that the county paid about $430,000." I told Sauls then that this was incorrect but he insisted that Laura Walters stands by it and he continued to distribute it to the public for several months. Actually the budget was $618,136 and the most significant fact is that APS claims in their finan- cial report to have contributed only $74,487 towards shelter operation. Evidently John Sauls believes everything Laura Walt- ers tells him he has complained in the letter he wrote to PETA that four of us have lied about APS. Sauls himself has covered and lied for Walters and I petition that you direct Dr. Summers to investigate this letter and to offer us an apology if she finds his claims unfounded. The salary list was obtained from John Sauls and was provided by APS. I have added FICA and workers' comp which were omitted. Note that salaries are down from the previous year and that the full salaries of the APS Executive Director, the Associate Di- rector, and the bookkeeper are charged to the shelter contract although their services are required for the operation of APS itself. The budget for the remaining operations of APS is about equal to the shelter budget. so least 25% of their salaries ($34,000) should be deducted from shelter costs. Other expenses such as CPA and legal fees would be unnecessary if the County were running the shelter. The County provides the principal office of APS rent free, including the APS meeting room. Thus the "APS contribution" is really a fictitious contribution. APS receives at least fair market value for the "contribution". The maximum obligation of APS is $100,000 but for the last three years the "contribution "has been 1999-2000 $83,472 2000-2001 $74,487 2001-2002 $65,280 (estimated) I do not mean to imply that the County can operate the shelter for an amount equal to its current expenditure but that no con- siderable additional expenditure would be required, certainly no more than an additional $75,000 per year. I believe that for this amount the County could again be operating a model shelter. The County income for animal control could and should be in- creased; Durham County has just increased their fee for unneu- tered animals from $25 to $75. I believe that the current Orange fees of $5 and $10 should be increased to $10 and $20 to provide additional funds for the shelter and to provide a incentive to neuter animals and reduce the large number of animals (5165 in 2002) that are brought into the shelter each year and that are euthanized (2232 in 2002) each year. I have not been able to obtain the figures for the numbers of licensed animals, but I believe that this could amount to hundreds of thousands of dol- lars. It could for example, fund a mobile low-cost spay-neuter program as is successfully operated in other localities. Note that the EARS operation is fully funded by the County, contrary to what APS has said; the County loses NOTHING by taking over the shelter operation. The shelter contract has been a very good deal for APS and, when it was run well, it was a very good deal for the County. Unfortunately, for the last 20 months it has not been run well and it is time for a change. ________________________________________________________________ Staffing at APS as of July 24, 2003 left APS since June 1. Paul kennel tech 2. Daphne kennel tech 3. Shannon kennel tech 4. Maggie kennel tech 5. Bryan kennel tech 6. Kenny kennel tech 7. Collin Records Manager still there since June 8. April kennel tech 9. *Zandra Kennel tech 10. *Ryan health tech untrained (formerly kennel tech) 11. Kathy health tech untrained 12. Sue bookkeeper 13. *Laura Executive Director 14. *Dara Associate Director formerly bookkeeper 15. *Nicole Animal Care Manager formerly Health tech 16. *Lisa Admin Manager Laura was previously Development Director and before that ran an Arkansas shelter which was a disaster Dara was the book-keeper and has no previous managerial experi- ence. Nicole was a health-tech and has no previous managerial experi- ence. When the County takes over the shelter, none of these should be retained in their current positions.