Status quo at O.C. animal shelter ‘unacceptable’ as euthanasia rates rise, report says
Orange County Animal Care’s shelter is too understaffed to provide adequate care for its pets, its adoption process limits people’s ability to connect with potential companions and its euthanasia rates for stray cats and dogs are rising, according to a report released Wednesday.
The roughly 21 animal care attendants working at the Tustin shelter handle an average of 48 critters per shift, and in some cases as many as 90, according to the Orange County Grand Jury report. That allows staff roughly six minutes to clean and feed each of the 350 to 400 cats and dogs housed at the facility on any given day, just over a third of the 15 minutes recommended by the Assn. of Shelter Veterinarians’ guidelines of care.
Meanwhile, the number of animals that wind up euthanized instead of getting adopted is climbing, the report said. The likelihood of a shelter dog getting euthanized appears to have doubled since 2018, according to data compiled by Michael Mavrovouniotis, a former O.C. Animal Care volunteer.
“Status quo at the shelter is unacceptable,” the grand jury wrote. “Appropriate remedial steps must be taken as animal welfare is paramount!”
O.C. Animal Care officials declined to comment on the report. They were reviewing the grand jury’s recommendations and must submit a formal response within 90 days, agency spokeswoman Jackie Tran said.
The grand jury suggested that O.C. Animal Care’s adoption procedure may be making it harder for families to bond with dogs at the shelter, and less likely to take them home.
Cat and dog kennels used to be open to the public without prior notice, but the shelter moved to an appointment-only system to minimize contact during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the process has become somewhat less restrictive since then, walk-ins are limited and kennels remain off limits to visitors.
Trish Bauer and her family officially adopted a 12-year-old German shepherd named Cooper exactly a year after she lost her baby, Millie, to a stillborn birth.
A petition that began in July asking O.C. Animal Care to return to pre-pandemic practices had garnered more than 22,000 signatures as of Wednesday.
“For many of the people I talk to, it’s, what happens when a person is at the shelter?” Mavrovouniotis said. “Can they go to the kennel buildings and look at a large number of the available dogs so they can connect with an animal, which may be based on the way that animal is looking back at them or the way it’s wagging its tail? Ya know, that whole impression one gets from an animal. That’s the crux of the matter.”
He suggested that the current adoption procedure may be contributing to more dogs getting killed. Mavrovouniotis said the more time animals spend at a shelter without getting adopted, the more likely they become to develop problematic behaviors. The grand jury’s report indicated that behavioral issues accounted for a significant portion of the increase in euthanized canines.
“It raises the question of whether the behavioral issues are a side effect of stays that are too long and the inadequate socialization,” he said.
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Cat euthanization has also been growing, according to the report. The investigation found that the rise coincides with O.C. Animal Care’s decision in early 2020 to end the practice of trap, neuter and return, known as TNR, in which animal control officials pick up stray cats for sterilization before returning them to where they had been living.
The decision was made after O.C. Animal Care received a cease-and-desist notice stating that TNR may violate laws prohibiting the abandonment of animals, according to the grand jury’s report. However, the oversight body noted that the relevant law “has never been adjudicated in a reported California court decision.”
The grand jury said O.C. Animal Care resisted its efforts to learn more about the rationale to stop TNR. So far, it has not been able “to confirm the logic, reasoning or basis,” to end preventive efforts to sterilize stray cats.
“The performance of the shelter has been getting worse because bad policies have this feedback loop effect,” Mavrovouniotis said. “They don’t just lead to one-step deterioration in performance, but they lead to ongoing deterioration in performance. And that’s what we’re seeing.”
Fostering puppies helps bring the ‘no kill’ philosophy of animal rescue closer to reality. Besides, is there anything sweeter than being loved by a puppy?
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