How not to lower your city's euthanasia rate

Perhaps I am being old-fashioned, but I was always led to believe that people who are members of various city and state committees and commissions are in charge of improving a certain situation.

This is why reading the past two years of Animal Shelter Commission notes bothered me so much - the members of the Commission don't seem interested in lowering our fair city's euthanasia rate, and getting the DAS spay/neuter clinic going. Instead, they obsess about:

Enforcing the unenforceable laws. The Intact Animal Permits are a good example. Why don't these people realize that running a city in police-state fashion is not going to work? There are two types of people who own intact animals: breeders of purebred animals, and people who can't be arsed to have their animals fixed. Both types are going to either ignore, or be resentful, of this law - especially when they find out that they're required to attend a "responsible pet ownership" class. Sort of like the blind leading the not so blind...

Pursuing personal vendettas. Thankfully, some of the most recent ones - like the Gideons, Texas Pawprints, and Companion Animal Network - seem to have ground to a halt after some spectators stood up at recent Commission meetings and complained about them. Bullies are generally cowards at heart, and can often be stopped by a single confrontation.

Administrative, paper-pushing stuff. This came up at this month's meeting, when a Commission member decided that she still didn't have enough committees to run. (But then thinking up new sub-committes beats doing REAL volunteer work - the kind that gets your hands dirty.)

Although the new sub-committees are supposed to improve things at DAS, and the sub-committee members were supposed to "get with Kent" regarding their suggestions for improvement, Kent Robertson's facial expression during this discussion suggested that he'd just learned that he needed a couple of root canals.

Add on stuff like the endless discussion of the Jumbotron (some big sign at the new animal shelter). I don't know why this makes me snigger, but it just does.

Just in case any of the Commission members are not familiar with how other cities have drastically lowered their euthanasia rates, I will be posting details of some of the more encouraging success stories in the next few days. Some of them DO read this blog.

Here is a link to a PDF brochure with details of Washoe County, Nevada's success in going no-kill. One of the most impressive figures is the increase of volunteers - from 30 to 1,300 - and the understanding that volunteers play a vital role in decreasing euthanasia and pet surrender rates. For one reason or another, DAS has an abysmal record of recruiting/keeping volunteers, but show no interest in recruiting more - or finding out why they don't stay.

Most cities worked with the No Kill Advocacy Center, Nathan Winograd, and/or others who realized that the old modus operandi needed to be discarded.

The case of the disappearing agenda

Even though it was pretty dull, the Animal Shelter Commission finally published an agenda for their HSUS meeting on Tuesday. I don't have a clue how this meeting went, as nobody wants to talk about it, even Commission members who update their Facebook/Twitter pages on a daily basis. (Was it that bad?)

Problem is, when I visited the City Secretary's web site to snag a copy of the agenda for posteriority, I found that it was gone:

http://www.ci.dallas.tx.us/cso/meetings/Animal_0427.pdf

Also, the minutes for the Animal Shelter Commission's February meeting still haven't been posted, although they were finalized during their recent meeting. Considering that there is usually no difference between the draft and final versions, I can only assume that City Hall is having more of those darn scanner problems.

Update!

Found a copy I'd printed out, so I scanned it for posteriority. To enlarge it, click on it once - depending on your browser you may be able to click on it again to make it life-size:

tonight's date with HSUS

I will not be able to make to DAS tonight, but if anyone else does, feel free to send a report/your opinions to:

felineprovocateur@gmail.com

Skippy's on the ball again

I admit that, after reading up on the HSUS' current management and agenda, I am convinced that spending $25K for an HSUS rep's advice on running Dallas Animal Services is a waste of time for DAS, and a waste of money for the anonymous donor who coughed up. (I've been told that the Party Line about collecting the $25K fee from many donors is crap - a single person paid the $25K HSUS fee.)

During the Thursday Animal Shelter Commission meeting, there was talk about the HSUS/DAS meetings being confidential. When Skip Trimble, the Commission's Chair, questioned this requirement, get this:

He admitted that he hadn't read the HSUS' contract with DAS.

An attorney who doesn't read contracts?

Just about everyone in the smallish public gallery looked aghast.

Then there's that pesky state code called the Texas Open Meetings Act that the Commission thinks does not apply to them. See previous post.

The HSUS plans to meet with DAS next Tuesday at 7:00pm at the shelter on Westmoreland. If you're feeling brave, might as well try to crash the party - but get some legal advice first. Seems that, even if you're a local taxpayer who paid for the multi-million dollar bond that built the new shelter on Westmoreland, you have no say in how it's run.

Does something about this not ring true - legally or ethically?

Some Notes from yesterday's Shelter Commission meeting

Since this meeting was not posted ahead of time, I wasn't able to attend. But I've received some intelligence about the topics discussed.

Not much new, really - there was the same amount of obsessing over non-essentials.

One member, who is already sitting in a whole shitpot of committees, thought up a bunch of sub-committees for committee members to join. The public was not treated to the names or responsibilities of the sub-committees.

The most disturbing subject was the HSUS visit. Seems that even though they are being paid$25k to show up and tell DAS what they're doing wrong, the HSUS rep is demanding that their meetings with Animal Services be confidential. In other words, no public may attend.

This appears to be in violation of certain state codes, but instead, members of the Commission discussed how they could get away with keeping the meeting confidential. Remember, we have lawyers and judges in the Commission.

The only hopeful element was a new Commission member, Gloria Blum. She had no problems pointing out the shortcomings at the animal shelter, including a Yorkie with newborn puppies in the Lost and Found section that had not been provided with any sort of shelter or proper bed. She said "they were just on plastic, or on the cement floor". When she discovered the scene, most of the dog's puppies were already dead, and the two survivors were obviously suffering. Kent Robertson's explanation? It was a "training issue". Yeah, right.

More Commission highlights coming up as I receive them.

Agenda for tomorrow's Shelter Commission Meeting

I think they're playing it safe.

Click here to view the Agenda for the April 22 Animal Shelter Commission meeting.

Animal Shelter Commission meets tomorrow - but it wasn't posted

Having received two e-mails asking me if I were attending the April 22 meeting, but being unable to find a single mention of it at the Dallas City Hall web site, I finally called the City Secretary's office.

Seems that the Animal Shelter Commission IS meeting tomorrow - 1:30 pm in room 6E South - but it was not posted online because of "scanning problems".

However, according to the Texas Open Meetings Act, notice of this the meeting has to be posted 72 hours prior to the start.

Who is buying into the "scanning problems" excuse?

Anyone who shares my concern about the Commission should attend if at all possible. There is a growing contingent of citizens - and rescuers - who believe that the Commission is not acting in the best interests of Dallas County's animals, or their owners. Showing up in person is an excellent way of letting them know.