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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Animal Care Advisory Committee - 05/18/2006 lry q,ds v, , h�I, maw care Srwc,,, N @.: 1n- CIty of R E C E I Corpus ' �� M' SEICREI Chnsti �•►+•+� `^N 61 � o°" City of orpus Christi MINUTES OF THE CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI ANIMAL CONTROL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Nueces County Public Health District Education Room,2626 Holly Rd May 18th, 2006 Members Present: Susan Thlem, Dr John Buckley, Sharon Massad, Pam Rhyner and Dr.Watson Members Absent: Kendal Keyes and Paul Reynolds Staff Present: Angel Hernandez,Jaime Luna,Annette Rodriguez, Dr. Bergin and Margie Rose Staff Absent: none Guests: Sherry Dunlap, Becki Jones, Sheila Cudd, o Cudd and Liane Lorenz i o, Call to Order-11 Susan Theim, Chairperson, 1 :30 2. Approval of March 16th,200 Ms. Thiem amended the minutes to show that Dr.Buckley was absent,: and not present. The motion to adjourn should read: Dr, Watson made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Ms. Thiem 2nd the motion; all were in favor to adjourn the meeting. 1,32p m. Ms. Rhyner made a motion to approve the minutes, Dr, Buckley 2nd the motion and all were in favor, motion passed. Approval of Absences Dr. Buckley made a motion to approve the absences, Ms. Rhyner 2nd the motion and all were in vor, motion passed. . Zoonosis Report The Zoonosis report was attached for viewing. Dr. Buckley said rabies were more prevalent in bats than any other species and he opinioned that this needed to be addressed at the state level. He also said since he had been on the committee, he had no instances on the report of rabies in foxes, Mr. Hemandez said he was not aware of foxes testing positive for rabies. Dr. Buckley said there was a case several years ago in Nueces County near the border of Mexico. Dr.. Buckley said there were issues with turtles in the county,; and turtles potentially carry salmonella,especially those that come from drainage ditches. This is something that the Animal Contraf Advisoo,Committee Alev ng o,f Afay/?,2006 1 public needs to be aware of. The Zoonosis Report for March did not address salmonella as far as chickens and bunnies. 4. Staff e o Ms. Thiem introduced Mr. Hernandez as Acting Director since Ms. Stunz's leave of absence. Facility a o Field services had been extremely busy, for the month of April with approximately 2,900 plus calls. Field was also short on staff and he hoped to fill the empty slots soon. An upcoming AO Basic certification course again was coming up on July 1 -21s1. The course is designed to help different agencies throughout Texas. A place is being sort for officers to attend Euthanasia training for certification. Kennel Report Mr. Luna reported that the Kennels were also short handed. He said low occupancy was being maintained for many reasons,one of which was staffing; the other was maintaining the animals for 14 days because that was the amount of time it took to revisit a building for euthanasia. Mr. Luna said he had a total of 178 animals for adoption,of which 124 were dogs. Ms. Thiem wanted to know if Mr. Luna was saying that he was euthanizing because he did not have enough staff—Mr. Luna said it was partly so. Ms. Rodriguez wanted to know if the animals were being kept according to the government regulations. Mr. Luna said the government required them to be kept for 3 days only. Ms, Thiem said the grant application to Council would alleviate the situation. Ms. Massad wanted to know when Ms. Stunz was due back. Mr. Rodriguez informed the committee that Ms. Stunz's absence was a personal matter and the City does not disclose such information in open places. She also stressed that Ms. Stunz had requested that Ms. Rodriguez should not give that information to anyone, although Ms. Stunz said she herself might talk to some individuals about it. Ms. Rodriguez apologized to Ms.Thiem saying she had done a wonderful job as Chair of the committee. Dr. Buckley made comments regarding personnel matters at ACS. At this point, Ms. Rose confirmed to the committee that the chair of the committee did indeed visit her, bringing concerns about Ms. Stunz's administrative leave. Mr. Rose apologized on behalf of the City that such information was not made public because an investigation was taking place. Ms. Massad informed Ms. Rose of how much the committee supported Ms. Stunz and how much she had done and how many animals she saved. Dr. Buckley said the committee wanted for more animals to be adopted out of the facility, although he understood there were budgetary issues, but if the facility was not able to hire people to get on the field and pick up the strays, then the public will get upset with ACS. He was concerned that officers were being issued speeding tickets for hurrying to get from call to call because ACS is short staffed, as there was no money being released for new hires. Animal Control Advi5ory CoinminceAfeefing ofMay IY4,-7006 2 Ms. Massad wanted to know the amount of the grant from the foundation. Ms. Thiem said it was for$250k. Ms, Thiem said she was very hesitant to say whether the foundation would do anything with the City; however Ms. Thiem pointed out that she could not speak for the foundation. Ms. Thiem asked Dr. Watson to look into Lady's situation and update the committee, Dr. Buckley said in future, the committee will be setting the agenda and not the Staff Secretary. 5. Old Business Ms. Thiem informed the committee on the subject of sub-committee's and unfortunately the committee that Ms. Thiem was on never met. Ms. Thiem was in charge of preparing emergency evacuation plan for June 1st, but the committee for emergency evacuation plan never met as well. Mr. Luna said he had met with Ms. ynon in reference to the emergency planning, many good ideas will be implemented but most of the stuff Ms. Beynon and Mr. Luna discussed needed to be worked out with the Health Department. Ms. Thiem pointed out that the other sub-committee's had not met again that all the other sub committees had not met. 6. New Business Ms. Thiem announced the reappointment of members. She introduced the newest committee member,William Schroeder. Ms. Thiem also said Ms, ssad had been reappointed for her new to Ms. Thiem said the committee had been successful and will continue that way. She said the committee had no proper agenda for the current month. She dedicated the meeting to Lady. Ms.Thiem,said she had met with Ms, Rose on April 20th and had offered the financial support for Lady, to be placed back in the facility, and also offered to keep Lady comfortable while she was old. Ms. Thiem said she was upset to find that after her letter to the editor, asking questions about Lady, the same evening she was gone. Ms. Thiem said she will pursue the matter further as a private citizen. She felt that whatever the health issues Lady had, Dr. Watson on the committee would have taken care it and she had offered to sponsor Lady for whatever she needed, Ms. Thiem fell that as a committee that acted in liaison between the public and ACS, whatever the problems at ACS, the committee should know about it and as well know that they are being addressed. 7. Public Comments Ms. Beck!Jones informed the committee that the minutes had stated that Ms.Jones of C-Care was privileged to work and learn with the American Humane Association of a program called the Bingo Pet Package, She wanted it revised leaving out American Humane Association, The program is called ALFA created under C-Care, and spays or neuters 2 animals per household for those who ask for help, which includes shots. She said C-Care/ALFA had spayed and neutered 300 cats and dogs—spending about$75k. Animal Coalml Advisaty Committee Aferting ofAlay Iff4,7006 3 Ms. Dunlap of C-Care said she receives concerns from rescuers on Pet Harbor wondering if Mr. Luna and Hernandez were aware of policies implemented, which deter adoption. Rescuers, fosters and animal shelters looking through Pet Harbor and wanting to transfer animals are given a hard time; she cited this as one of the reasons why adoptions are down. She wanted this addressed whether by the committee or the Health Department administration. She felt the criteria for getting animals fostered or rescued should be friendlier than what it presently was. She said if being a member of TARPA—which is a Houston organization is a criteria, then it needs to be publicly known. Mr. Luna replied that he does agree with Ms. Dunlap and was in the process of taking care of the matter. He said the organizations. These organizations should be able to transfer as long as they stay within the six animals limitation. The problem was determining whether their activity was commercial or not. He added that it use to be easier to transfer just by signature. The problem started occurring when we started confiscating animals from 501C(nonprofit organization) for cruelty. When everything was looked into,we agreed we may have gotten too strict too soon and since Tarpa approval did not talk about the conditions of the animals and the facility. The criteria we had only said the organization had to be a 501 C. It was with Ms. Dunlap that we found out that Tarpa doesn't do inspections. Ms, Dunlap said the Foster Criteria, and the Shelter criteria needs to be better outlined. Mr. Luna said if fosters stayed within the 6 animal limit they are they shouldn't be held to Shelter standards, and this will be resolved. Dr. Buckley wanted to know what operating a shelter with the City meant—a kill or safe. ACS Corpus Christi has always been a kill facility and efforts are on the pipeline to adopt as many animals as possible and transfer as well. Ms.Thiem said she had written to the mayor concerning the situation at ACS and the mayor told her that the committee and ACS was doing an excellent job. Ms. Dunlap asked Mr. Hernandez where the employees had gone since field services was recently fully staff, and now he field services is short staffed. Ms. Dunlap also said the number of community service workers to the facility had had tripled. Ms. Thiem responded to Ms. Dunlap that ACS personnel business should not be discussed in the meeting, but can be discussed after the meeting... Ms. Sheila Cudd said she wanted to remind the committee about the State requirement for 3 years rabies vaccine and the City of Corpus Christi requiring a yearly. Ms. Cudd encouraged for this item to be placed for discussion. She said she would like to see the report from the veterinarians next month. She said she had heard from the committee of intended resignations if the management issues were not resolved. She said in her opinion anyone can resign if they want, but she felt if was better to stay for what was right. Ms. Cudd said she was sad about Lady and wants know what happened. Mr. Don Cudd reminded the committee about his registered concerns on the committees agenda. He said he saw improvements in the minutes itemized under New and Old Business. He said it was a State requirement although if it's not an open records requirement it should be done for communication reasons. He said all items should be placed on the agenda. Today he said,the topic of Lady came up at the last minutes and the matter of personnel was not listed as an item. Mr. Cudd encouraged the committee not to resign but to take a more pro-active approach like having their meetings when they want or having the rabies issue go up to City Council. He said right now, it was hard getting the committee to talk about it. Ms, Liane Lorenz wanted to know if animals that have been hereafter 3 days were euthanized. She wanted to know who decided Lady was to be put to sleep, and wanted to know if she was put to sleep because of her health. Ms. Rodriguez replied that when she spoke with Gulf Coast, they replied that she was extremely ill on Sunday when the decision was made to put her down. Ms. Rhyner wanted to know why lady was not returned to the kennels for adoption, if she was not allowed to roam around the facility. She wanted to know why she was here why was she not returned to the kennels for adoption or Animal Control Advism) Committee Aleeting ofUgy 1,8'" 2006 4 for 3 days. Ms. Rodriguez replied saying she had asked Mr. Hernandez about looking into moving Lady from the facility and putting her for adoption amongst staff who wanted her, starting with Ms. Stunz. Some other staff members had concerns about what point it was considered cruelty to have an animal here that does not have proper medical attention and had blood in her stools. There were other staff issues. Mr, Hernandez had stated that he knew some staff at Gulf Coast that would be willing to do this for him. Ms. Rodriguez said she did speak with Ms. Cindy Mendieta who told her that Lady was in the office at Gulf Coast and adoptable to the public. She said she called again a week later to check on Lady and Ms. Mendieta told her that Lady's health had worsened. Lady was about 15 yrs old. Ms. Rhyner said the issues on transfers had to be worked on because she was on the other side of small breed rescues. A policy needed to be created and put in place concerning transfers involving divorce settlements, 3 way fights etc. She suggest sub-committee to talk about this policy. Ms. Thiem said that the committee had worked thru ordinances recently passed. These ordinances will be enforceable with the clinic. There are many issues that even if the clinic opens it is not going to be what we expected. It will be a very long time before it gets where it needs to be. Now there is nothing but hurt and fear; many times Ms. Stunz and I discussed when Lady did pass on a funeral would be done.There is no closure and bad for morale, when the clinic opens it is not going to be what we hoped would be. Ms. Rodriguez informed the committee that Gulf Coast has agreed that Lady would be cremated and her remains given back to ACS. Ms. Rodriguez also added that she wanted to apologize to the committee for not informing them of Ms, Stunzs administrative leave, but it was because she had given Ms. Stunz her word. Ms. Lorenz inquired if the Clinic was going to be built and whether Ms. Stunz if not coming back means all animals will be euthanized after 3 days, and nothing left for adoption. The Buckley added that up until the time Ms. Stunz left on maternity leave work was going on concerning adoptions and he was now hearing about euthanizing. At this point, Ms. Rose came in with a correction that when the grant was accepted by council it was to the City of Corpus Christi and not to a particular individual Ms, Lorenz said ACS was run by one particular woman. Ms. Rose said however and when the grant was approved, it was not because of individuals being in the facility. Ms. Dunlap said the situation with Ms. Stunz did not just come up. There are still thousands of animals on the streets and the problems are worse even with all the programs that have been put in place. She said the situation had been escalating over years out of control and ACS didn't go from adopting out all the animals back to euthanizing them. She said if a call was made to any shelter right now, there is no room and people will leave animals at the door with no one there. Ms. Lorenz said there were people who advertised free pets in the paper, and needed to be educated. Ms, Thiem adds that even though we have not solved the problem, it is being worked on but right now, adoptions are very low and disappointing. She hoped that the committee will work hard to bring the facility back to where it was and every adoption will be a victory. She welcomed new members to the committee. Ms. Taube said there were approximately 350 adoptions since January, not including transfers. She said it was a day by day process, one day we may not have an adoption and the next we have adopted out a dozen. 8. Adjournment Ms. Rhyner made a motion to adjourn, Dr. Buckley 2nd the motion. All were in favor, motion passed. 1:40pm Animal Control Advisory Committee Afeetiaag ofMay f 6'A,2006