This interesting little story arrived in my e-mail earlier today, forwarded by a blog reader.
Some background first: There is a Web site called examiner.com that publishes a collection of news sites based in major cities. Rebecca Poling - a member of the Animal Shelter Commission - is editor of the Dallas Examiner's Animal Rescue section. I don't know if this is something she's paid for, but I took a look and she seems to post quite a bit.
She recently published an article about no-kill shelters, and ended it by erroneously claiming that Dallas only had two.
"Dog & Kitty City and Operation Kindness are the only "No-Kill" shelters in Dallas."
If you scroll down, there are a few comments. One commenter pointed out that there were more than two no-kill shelters in the DFW area, and mentioned a few of them, including Texas Pawprints. (New readers unfamiliar with Pawprints may want to check out my March postings.)
Seems Rebecca knows - or thinks she knows - all about the shelter. This is her reply, copied and pasted from the Comments section:
Regarding your comment about the Texas Pawprints shelter: I did not mention Texas Pawprints because I saw an article online earlier this week that says the City "effectively closed the shelter building maintained by Texas Pawprints". It explains the "Pawprints shelter building is zoned commercial." Animal shelters are only allowed in areas zoned AA (Agricultural) without a special permit which requires Residential Adjacency Review.
Goodness! If you click on the entry posted here on March 1st, you'll see that the online article she's referring to is ... the March 1st posting of this blog.
It gets better.
Since I deal with zoning now and again at work - although not nearly as much as I used to - I decided to look up the DFW Humane Society of Irving shelter at dallascad.org, which is the Dallas Central Appraisal District Web site . Guess what - the shelter is zoned Commercial. I then searched for Dallas Animal Services and it's zoned Commercial as well. Furthermore, you won't find anything about Agricultural zoning at dallascad.org.
To top it all off, keep in mind that Dallas Animal Services found the Pawprints shelter irresistible - that is, when they could remember where it was. They dropped by at least seven times in two years, but it never once occurred to them to raise any zoning issues.
Only when they failed to manage to issue a single cruelty citation did they pass the buck to Code Compliance, who finally dropped by to scream "Zoned Residential! Off with their heads!"
And they couldn't even get that right.
I wonder who put Code Compliance up to this? I really can't see anyone in that department coming into work and thinking "Hey, let's go hassle a shelter that we've never received a legitimate complaint about." They have more fun hassling builders, anyway. It pays better.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Legal opinions needed
One quickie before I leave...I received this link over the weekend. It's verbose but still suggests that the current searches and seizures carried out by various animal control facilities, humane societies and SPCA chapters are illegal.
Clicking on the additional links on the left-hand side of the site takes you to more cases where animal owners lose their animals for no valid reason - and often lose much more. It's scary, police-state stuff.
I have not had time to investigate the legal implications, so comments regarding possible violations of the US Constitution (due process and other sections) are espeically welcome.
One particular irony is that some rescuers who rescued sick animals from local animal control facilities were promptly accused by the same AC facility of cruelty as they were found with sick animals in their possession. Since a sick animal generally does not recover overnight, this sort of ridiculous harassment will discourage any rescue who is willing to work with them. And more of them will die.
It reminds me of how many animal control facilities will euthanize animals with ringworm, even though it's more unsightly than anything else. It's a skin condition that causes temporary hair loss and it's not caused by a worm. It's caused by a fungus that's almost identical to the fungus that causes athlete's foot. So it's like getting the death penalty for athlete's foot.
My ex-girlfriend fostered several cats and kittens with ringworm and she's still walking around unscarred. She swore by tea tree soap, as seems this keeps the fungus from spreading to people.
Clicking on the additional links on the left-hand side of the site takes you to more cases where animal owners lose their animals for no valid reason - and often lose much more. It's scary, police-state stuff.
I have not had time to investigate the legal implications, so comments regarding possible violations of the US Constitution (due process and other sections) are espeically welcome.
One particular irony is that some rescuers who rescued sick animals from local animal control facilities were promptly accused by the same AC facility of cruelty as they were found with sick animals in their possession. Since a sick animal generally does not recover overnight, this sort of ridiculous harassment will discourage any rescue who is willing to work with them. And more of them will die.
It reminds me of how many animal control facilities will euthanize animals with ringworm, even though it's more unsightly than anything else. It's a skin condition that causes temporary hair loss and it's not caused by a worm. It's caused by a fungus that's almost identical to the fungus that causes athlete's foot. So it's like getting the death penalty for athlete's foot.
My ex-girlfriend fostered several cats and kittens with ringworm and she's still walking around unscarred. She swore by tea tree soap, as seems this keeps the fungus from spreading to people.
FP is traveling...
... it's partly business and partly vacation. So I may not be able to update and answer emails for the next 2-4 days.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Animal Shelter Commission minutes for 2009
To read and/or download a PDF of the Animal Shelter Commission minutes for 2009, click here.
I'm afraid it's not much of an improvement over the 2008 minutes. There seems to be a lot of discussions about trivialities, and little discussion of important stuff. One member seems absolutely obsessed with Intact Animal Permits-a miniscule number.
This particuarly bothered me: the Commission admitted that one local judge automatically rules that all animals seized in cruelty cases be "humanely destroyed". (See Page 24.) This happens before the person or persons accused of cruelty are found guilty or innocent. But this barely earned more than a suggestion that the judge be educated about animal cruelty and options.
Also, although the director of Texas Pawprints was acquitted of misdemeanor animal cruelty charges in 2008 - the jury came back with an acquittal in literally nine minutes - she is still on the Shelter Commission Agenda over a year later (Page 65 of this PDF). How many members of this commission are in on this vendetta?
Other factors are equally disturbing. For example, there isn't a single useful discussion about lowering the euthanasia rate at Dallas Animal Services (DAS), which is still hovering around 80%. There's also a discussion about a member of the public who went to DAS in the hopes of adopting a dog, yet left without adopting as she and her friends found the "overall condition of the shelter and the lack of staff to be very disturbing".
Other local shelters - Carrollton and Plano - have made some impressive reductions in their euthanasia numbers. Why can't they manage this at DAS? Barely 20% of the animals who end up at DAS survive.
One suggestion: The members of the Animal Shelter Commission should be required to spend a minimum number of hours per month at the DAS as volunteers. Perhaps if they had to assist with daily euthanasia, their thoughts would be more sharply focused on reducing the numbers of animals killed.
I'm afraid it's not much of an improvement over the 2008 minutes. There seems to be a lot of discussions about trivialities, and little discussion of important stuff. One member seems absolutely obsessed with Intact Animal Permits-a miniscule number.
This particuarly bothered me: the Commission admitted that one local judge automatically rules that all animals seized in cruelty cases be "humanely destroyed". (See Page 24.) This happens before the person or persons accused of cruelty are found guilty or innocent. But this barely earned more than a suggestion that the judge be educated about animal cruelty and options.
Also, although the director of Texas Pawprints was acquitted of misdemeanor animal cruelty charges in 2008 - the jury came back with an acquittal in literally nine minutes - she is still on the Shelter Commission Agenda over a year later (Page 65 of this PDF). How many members of this commission are in on this vendetta?
Other factors are equally disturbing. For example, there isn't a single useful discussion about lowering the euthanasia rate at Dallas Animal Services (DAS), which is still hovering around 80%. There's also a discussion about a member of the public who went to DAS in the hopes of adopting a dog, yet left without adopting as she and her friends found the "overall condition of the shelter and the lack of staff to be very disturbing".
Other local shelters - Carrollton and Plano - have made some impressive reductions in their euthanasia numbers. Why can't they manage this at DAS? Barely 20% of the animals who end up at DAS survive.
One suggestion: The members of the Animal Shelter Commission should be required to spend a minimum number of hours per month at the DAS as volunteers. Perhaps if they had to assist with daily euthanasia, their thoughts would be more sharply focused on reducing the numbers of animals killed.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
props to Joe Skenesky and the staff at Carrollton Animal Services
From readlarrypowell.com, some good news for a change:
THIRD WEEK OF NO EUTHANASIA IN CARROLLTON: All week Joe Skenesky and the folks at the Carrollton Animal Services shelter have been dispatching e-mails updating the progress of adoptions and rescues. Yesterday, Joe sent this note: “Another great week, all of the animals have been either adopted or rescued. This makes 3 weeks in a row we have not had to euthanize. I thank you and the animals thank you for all of the hard work everyone has done to help these animals. We could not be as successful as we are without each and every one of you.”
Now, from Joe’s note we can glean this: The Carrollton shelter is working hard and keeps saving the lives of strays and surrenders who wind up in its care.
Perhaps the Metroplex Animal Commission could learn some lessons from the Carrollton shelter instead of wasting $25K with the HSUS - an organization that does not run a single cat/dog shelter. One factor, according to local rescuers, is that Joe and his staff work with as many local rescues and shelters as possible - not just as select few blessed by the Animal Shelter Commission, as DAS does.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Nice work keeping up, Skip - you're only three years behind.
Recently your correspondent received the PDFs of the Animal Shelter Commission's minutes for the year 2008. It's a 61-page document and most makes depressing reading.
Some of it, however, makes outrageous reading.
Let's see: on Page 12, within the minutes for the January 2008 meeting, the address 5210 Bonita is mentioned - the first Texas Pawprints shelter. However, Pawprints moved out in May 2005 because a more suitable property was found.
5210 Bonita was eventually turned into a boarding facility by the veterinary clinic around the corner on Henderson.
However, the folks at DAS and Skip Trimble never noticed this. Here's a verbatim excerpt from the Animal Shelter Commission minutes:
Officer Chavez provided a Cruelty Report of five current cruelty cases. Mr. McDaniel agreed to revisit the 5210 Bonita case that involves over one hundred cats in a residence. Mr. Trimble suggested the civil seizure of those cats since they are being cruelly confined. Mr. Curington said he would look into it with Dr. Thorne next week.
Let's look at this excerpt closely:
Some of it, however, makes outrageous reading.
Let's see: on Page 12, within the minutes for the January 2008 meeting, the address 5210 Bonita is mentioned - the first Texas Pawprints shelter. However, Pawprints moved out in May 2005 because a more suitable property was found.
5210 Bonita was eventually turned into a boarding facility by the veterinary clinic around the corner on Henderson.
However, the folks at DAS and Skip Trimble never noticed this. Here's a verbatim excerpt from the Animal Shelter Commission minutes:
Officer Chavez provided a Cruelty Report of five current cruelty cases. Mr. McDaniel agreed to revisit the 5210 Bonita case that involves over one hundred cats in a residence. Mr. Trimble suggested the civil seizure of those cats since they are being cruelly confined. Mr. Curington said he would look into it with Dr. Thorne next week.
Let's look at this excerpt closely:
- 5210 Bonita was NEVER classified as a residence. Before moving in, Texas Pawprints went through the usual City inspection. After moving out, Vickery Place Animal Hospital turned it into The Cat Cottage, a feline boarding facility. This facility is still in business today.
- Texas Pawprints moved out of 5210 Bonita in 2005 - yet Mr. Trimble thinks that the group is still there in 2008. Wakey wakey, Skip! I can only guess that whoever showed up to do a civil seizure was pretty freakin' embarrassed.
I'll be publishing more excerpts later - including the decision that, although the Pawprints shelter director was acquitted of misdemeanor animal cruelty charges in 2008, that the Animal Shelter Commission would continue to harass her and the group. That pearler is in another month's minutes.
If you'd like an emailed copy of the 2008 minutes, drop me a line. I can't offer it for upload here as this blog template doesn't have that functionality. (Actually it does now - check out the blog entry above this one.)
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