ANIMAL SHELTER REFORM ACCROSS THE COUNTRY

Monday, May 31, 2004

Easing the burden for beasts


Activist wins fight to reform animal-shelter policies

By Karen Gutierrez
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A government employee is secretly videotaped shooting stray dogs and tossing them in a pile. Some twitch and whine, not yet dead. He ignores them.

The tape makes national news. Kentucky is embarrassed. Outraged animal lovers demand change.

And a Boone County woman named Beckey Reiter vows to make it happen.


Beckey Reiter, director of the Boone County Animal Shelter, in the shelter with mixed breed puppies. She was instrumental in getting a law passed that outlaws routine euthanisation of dogs by shooting them.
(Patrick Reddy photo)

In the two years since that tape surfaced, Reiter has worked to ban gunshot as a routine method of euthanasia in Kentucky, one of few states where it still occurs. Ohio law doesn't specifically forbid euthanization by gunshot.

She strategized with legislators, called allies late at night and fired off e-mail to a network of animal advocates.

This spring, Reiter got her way. On the last day of the legislative session, the General Assembly passed a law that brings Kentucky out of the dark ages of animal control.

No more euthanasia by bullet. No more glorified crates passing as shelters. And no more national reputation as one of the worst states for humane treatment of animals.

"I was ecstatic," Reiter says. "This bill, in essence, has rectified 50 years of neglect."

Says Eric Blow, director of metro animal services in
Louisville: "She and the bill's sponsor are absolutely responsible for getting it passed."

As director of Boone County's animal shelter, Reiter didn't have to get involved. Hers is a modern facility with adequate funding, many adoptions and a long-time practice of euthanasia by injection.

The legislation wasn't going to help her directly. But she knew it would mean a lot to her brethren around the state. And she was angry about the consequences of Kentucky's backwardness: the serious bite injuries, the property damage caused by roaming strays, the suffering of so many abandoned animals.

The videotape was especially disturbing. For years, some Kentuckians had defended gunshot as a painless death, as well as a cheap and easy one for rural counties.

Then came the tape, made by a concerned citizen who dressed in camouflage and hid behind the dog pound in Henry County, about an hour southwest of Cincinnati. The tape showed the caretaker methodically shooting dogs in the head, tossing them in a backhoe and grabbing more.

Some kept whining after they were shot. The footage made national TV.

"It was extremely stressful to even hear, look at, consider," says Reiter, who has worked in animal control for 17 years. "It just changed everything."

The year before, Rep. Roger Thomas, D-Smiths Grove, had introduced a bill to ban gunshot except where public safety was threatened or suffering animals couldn't wait for lethal drugs.

The measure went nowhere. Thomas tried again last year, but again the bill died in the Senate, despite lobbying by the Kentucky Animal Control Advisory Board. Reiter is chairwoman of the group, which includes hunters, farmers, county officials and veterinarians.

This spring, Thomas kept Reiter apprised as the bill again passed the House. Then it got stuck in a Senate committee led by Al Robinson, R-London, who said it would be too much trouble for rural counties.

In a last-ditch effort, Thomas tacked the measure onto a Senate bill dealing with veterinary licenses.

It passed. Reiter rejoiced. Robinson lost re-election this month.

And in Henry County, the dark days of 2002 are long past.

When the dog-shooting tape became public, county magistrate Wayne Gunnell called Reiter for help.

He and several other elected officials had been horrified by the images. They wanted permanent change. But others in Henry County had gotten defensive, criticizing news reports as sensational and the man who made the tape as a disreputable meddler.

Gunnell was so skittish that he arranged to meet Reiter for dinner in another county. He wanted to avoid talking in front of "everyone and their grandma, who all have ears and telephones," he says.

Reiter told him how to get grants through the Animal Control Advisory Board. Then the Kentucky Humane Society offered to run a shelter for the county, and Reiter gave advice on what to include in the contract.

"She was just a wealth of information," Gunnell says. "I don't know if Boone County realizes what they've got up there."

Today, Henry County pays about $55,000 a year for animal control.
That's $15,000 more than before, but it's well worth it, Judge- executive John Brent says.

People can actually adopt stray animals in the county now. There are spay-neuter clinics. And lethal injection is the norm.

Someday, Reiter predicts, even gentle deaths won't be necessary.

"I know there's an end to it," she says. "We just have to get there."

New law's provisions

Provisions of Kentucky's new animal-control law include:

• Gunshot shall not be used as a routine method of euthanasia. It is permitted only when animals threaten the safety of people at the shelter or in the community, or when animals cannot be seized or have an injury causing them to suffer.

• Cats and ferrets must be vaccinated against rabies. (Previously, this applied only to dogs.)

• Animal shelters must be free of debris or standing water. They must provide adequate lighting, ventilation and sanitary conditions.
Animals must have adequate space to stand at full height, sit, turn and lie down. They must have daily access to uncontaminated, edible food and water.

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E-mail kgutierrez@enquirer.com

Want to help shelters and shelter animals:

From the January-February 2001 Issue of Animal Sheltering Magazine:

Terms of Endearment:
12 Ways to Become a Responsible Breed-Placement Partner

1. Go where you're needed. Maybe the shelters in your area already have a high adoption rate for purebreds, or perhaps they have a policy of not releasing animals to external groups. That doesn't mean you can't help in other ways. "You might have to establish yourself first as a volunteer,"says Pat Tetrault, who operates a breed-placement group for Siberian huskies in upstate New York.
Tetrault suggests that interested individuals go to their shelters and offer to take photos of animals for promotions to the community.
They can also offer to walk, groom, or train dogs, and to help pay for spaying and neutering or routine medical treatments.

2. Educate yourself. Shelter policies vary from region to region, state to state, even community to community. They are usually a long time in the making, and are most often based on community demographics, resource limitations, and animal intake statistics. If a shelter tells you it has a policy against releasing animals to groups, don't take offense; there may be a very good reason for it.
Similarly, if a shelter director says that space and funding restrictions and a fear of disease outbreaks make euthanasia the only option for animals with kennel cough or URI, you have to respect that policy. Unlike groups that can pick and choose the animals they decide to take in, open-admission shelters must provide refuge for all animals who come through their doors; many of these animals are of unknown origin and may have illnesses that aren't immediately apparent. Additionally, maybe the design of the facility is outdated and conducive to the spreading of infection, or maybe staffing and funding limitations prevent the shelter from administering medical treatments for such conditions. In these cases, your services may be put to best use if you become the shelter's advocate, lobbying for more funding for a better kennel system or more staff members. But you never know until you ask, and you should always operate under the premise that all parties want to help as many animals as possible.

3. Assume nothing. When you enter a shelter, you are in someone else's "house."It is not only common courtesy to treat the shelter and its employees with respect; it behooves you to do so. Very few people respond well to unconstructive criticism or ridicule. How you approach shelter employees and directors sets the stage for how productive your relationship will be. The failure to understand this concept is often the biggest mistake an external adoption group can make. Shelters are already safe havens for animals; the dogs, cats, and other creatures in the care of a shelter have already been "rescued"—from uncaring owners, from the streets, or from just plain ignorance. Of all the things you need to know about shelters, this concept is by far the most important.

4. If at first you don't succeed, change your approach. If the shelters you approach are less than amenable to your offers to assist, try to understand why. And by all means, if you want to do right by both the shelter and its animals, don't badmouth its operations. Perhaps the shelter wants to retain autonomy over its adoption processes, but that doesn't mean you can't help in other ways. In an age when so many people still obtain their pets from backyard breeders and pet stores fed by puppy mills, shelters need all the help they can get in promoting their wonderful but often misrepresented animals to the public. If a shelter does not receive your offers for help kindly, consider that other groups may have set a bad precedent. The shelter may just be trying to protect its animals from potential animal hoarders, buyers of animals for research purposes, or breeders who disguise themselves as "rescues."Be persistent but never pushy; continue to send the shelter information about who you are and what you do. Put together packets with information about the temperament, health issues, and special needs of your breed of choice; include in the packet your contact information and details on your experience with animals.

5. Remember that a dog is a dog is a dog. Whether it's the romping rottweiler or the gentlemanly Scottish terrier who steals your heart, chances are you hold out a good deal of affection for dogs of all flavors. Make that clear when you are trying to develop a relationship with a shelter. There's nothing more aggravating to shelter employees than canine social stratification. Shelters see thousands of beautiful, happy, smart, loving dogs come through their doors year after year, and, on average, 70 to 75 percent of them are mixed breeds. It's okay if you want to help with the breeds you know and love, because in the end this can free up time for employees and make more space for other animals. But never promote your own breed at the expense of all the other dogs out there who just happen to have a little bit of the best of everything in their genetic makeup.

6. Understand the need for euthanasia. No shelter wants to euthanize animals. The fact is, there are not enough homes for the millions of animals left homeless each year. Each person can play a part in changing the statistics. But if you build a Web site or create promotional materials that portray your group as the savior of animals from "death row,"you are actually hurting more animals than you are saving. For the last hundred years, shelters have worked steadily to improve conditions for animals and to create innovative outreach and adoption programs. If you one day jump in the middle of all that progress and scream to an unknowing public that animals at the local shelter are all under a "death sentence,"you are not only painting a highly inaccurate picture but also deterring many potential adopters away from the best resource for pets. Euthanasia is still a fact of life in the animal protection world, and the best way you can help change that is by promoting homeless shelter animals, educating adopters about the realities of pet care, and discouraging purchases of pets from stores and irresponsible breeders.

7. Formalize and standardize.If you're really interested in helping as many animals as possible, you need to establish your legitimacy and show shelters that you're serious about what you're doing.
Develop a code of ethics such as that of the Michigan Purebred Dog Rescue Alliance, Inc.; the document outlines standards for foster care, adoption procedures, and general operations. (For a copy of this document, visit the July-August 1999 issue of Animal
Sheltering.) Create bylaws and grievance procedures, and require group members to embrace them. Include in these documents information about such issues as remuneration for "rescue"work, maximum number of breeds a placement organization may represent, the volunteer nature of the work, the required training of volunteers, the maintenance of waiting lists, and the educational and referral services provided by group members. Fostering guidelines should detail the required care of animals in foster homes, outlining sanitation protocols, routine veterinary care procedures, temperament evaluations, and humane, professional euthanasia of animals deemed unadoptable. Address standard adoption procedures such as interview methods, sterilization requirements, acquisition of veterinary and landlord referrals, the nature of the adoption contract, and the handling of dogs who are returned.

8. Emphasize quality over quantity. If you are fostering shelter animals and then rehoming them yourself, it's your responsibility to ensure those animals end up with a loving family. Just as most shelters do, you should focus mainly on the quality of the homes you're sending animals into—not the number of animals you place. Use a written adoption application and contract, and interview all prospective adopters. Check references, including those from landlords, veterinarians, and groomers. Before the adoption is approved, you should ideally conduct a home visit. Help animals remain in lifelong homes by providing follow-up guidance and assistance to new adopters as questions arise. Require that animals be returned to you if an adopter must give up the pet for any reason. When the adoption process is completed, forward copies of the paperwork to the shelter you're working with. Also, make sure you comply with all state and local laws regarding licensing and vaccination.

9. Help stop the breeding cycle. Just as a shelter must ensure that no animal leaving its facility will further contribute to the problem of pet homelessness by reproducing, breed-placement groups are charged with the same mission. If an unsterilized animal comes into your possession, you need to make sure that animal is spayed or neutered before placing her in a new home.

10. Get a referral, make a referral. Some shelter employees would rather place all animals directly from their facilities—maybe because they have no trouble finding homes for purebreds, or because they prefer to retain control over the adoption process. And many breed-placement groups do not have the time, space, or appropriate setups to take in released animals. For these reasons, a referral system is often the ideal solution; you can keep a waiting list of potential adopters, referring those adopters to shelters that may be housing the breed being sought. (See page 3 of the feature article in this issue to read about the effective referral system established by Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue.) Shelters likewise can refer adopters to you when specific breeds are not available.

11. Know your limits. In this field, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Once you've helped one animal, there are three more waiting at your door. Shelters are all too familiar with this phenomenon. When Kenton County, Kentucky, became strangely overrun with Afghans several years ago, an Afghan adoption group took in as many dogs as it could. But eventually the animals' neediness, grooming requirements, and high-strung mannerisms made them harder and harder to place. The group told Kenton County Animal Shelter Director Aline Summe they could no longer take in any more. "I know it was real hard for them to have to do that,"says Summe, "but they realized they couldn't handle it."By setting limits on how many animals you can realistically help at one time, you can avoid becoming too overwhelmed—and you can provide better care to those animals you are able to help.

12. Don't forget—timing is everything. For animal shelters, time is always of the essence. Too many shelters have had bad experiences with breed-placement groups that say one thing and do another; the groups often hope to buy more time for an animal but really have no means of following through on their promises to pick him up. This will not only be of no help to the animal in question but will also likely destroy a potential relationship with a shelter. Also, if you're planning to send someone from your group out to possibly pick up a dog, be sure to alert the shelter that you'd like to do so, says Jennifer Davis-Yates, volunteer coordinator for Wayside Waifs Humane Society in Kansas City, Missouri. "If for some reason we've had a dog here for 10 weeks, say, and let's say the local Shepherd gal doesn't call me [to tell me she] wants to send somebody out the next day [to pick up the animal],"says Davis-Yates. "What if we need that cage and that animal is euthanized the night before [the group arrives to take him]? I would hate for something like that to happen. So I have them call me and let me know."

—Nancy Lawson and Julie Shellenberger


Animal Sheltering, Jan-Feb 2001 Issue

Copyright © 2001 The Humane Society of the United States. All rights reserved.











 

Lake County Humane Society dumps euthanized animals in landfill POSTED: Thursday, May 13, 2004 11:16:17 AM UPDATED: Thursday, May 13, 2004 6:37:15 PM LAKE COUNTY -- If you think the humane society is the one place that will go the extra mile for an unwanted animal, you might be disappointed with what we found happening with the animals of Lake County. Video: Camera catches dumping We watched as, behind closed doors, employees load an unmarked white van on trash day at the Lake County Humane Society. They drive to the Lake County Landfill, once in position, heavy trash bag after heavy trash bag is dumped into the bucket of a front loader nicknamed "yard dog." Then, perhaps ceremoniously or to hide them, the bags are draped in sheets. This isn't your ordinary household trash, but it may be your household pet. One load we photographed had 10 to 15 animals, cats and dogs, the breeds hard to determine. Back at the humane society, another animal is surrendered. If no good home is available, the animal may be euthanized. "We would take them to where a common burial ground," one worker told our cameras. Don't expect a straight answer up front even if you press the issue. "I don't know exactly where it ends up, that's just what they told me to say," the worker continued. "Those that ask, we say they are taken to a common burial ground because it's kinder." Humane Society director Patricia Hennings may be reluctant to say it but not to do it. The common burial ground that the humane society is talking about -- common to about half the animals it received last year, common to last nights dinner and soiled diapers -- is the landfill. This year receipts indicate it received 6,000 pounds of animals from the humane society, that's about a ton a month.   Humane Society used pet cemetery briefly When shown tape of the landfill burial, former employee Brenda Boone says: "No, I never saw that before, but I was aware that's what was happening." The very thing we caught on tape caused the former Humane Society volunteer and employee to quit. Boone complained in a letter dated January 17th 2002, about euthanasia and disposal practices the humane society board. "I would like to think that maybe my letter made a difference, even if it was temporary," Boone says. It seemed to do just that. One month later, the animals were no longer thrown into the landfill. They were cremated at Western Farm Pet Cemetery in Grafton. Northeast Ohio is home to one of the largest pet crematoriums in the country, Western Farm has contracted with a number of municipalities as well as humane societies to help process the remains of euthanized animals in a more dignified fashion. "There is no explanation for that [the landfill dumping]," Western Farm owner Brian West says. "It's a landfill. It's with last night's garbage." West showed Channel 3 News the Lake County Humane Society's account records. After one month, the contract was cancelled. Hennings says it cost too much. She says "landfilling" is cost effective. It is not certain if "landfilling" the animals is a policy of the humane society or of its director. Hennings says she does not make policy. Yet board president David Boker, in a letter responding to a complaint, indicates that the board does not make day-to-day operations policies. The Humane Society asks for a donation from every person surrendering a pet. If you request that the animal be euthanized, "We do ask that you give a donation, like 20 to 25 dollars for that," one employee told Channel 3 cameras. "That's about how much it costs us to do it. But it's kind of whatever you can give." The landfill only charges $30 per ton to bury the animals, not $30 per pet. If the Humane Society disposes of one ton of animals per month, that's $360 per year. So how much is donated? "We brought in $33,700 from persons who surrendered their animal," Henning says. This is a touchy subject with the director. When asked how long the "landfilling" was practiced: "[From] Day one with the exception of six weeks," she says. So where does all the money go? "I spend our money on programs that benefit healthy animals," Henning says.   Following this story Despite Hennings' insistence, there are those that worked for the director who disagree. Thursday night on Channel 3 News at 11, we'll explore accusations of euthanasia policies out of control. Plus a Florida attorney general's report that ultimately lead to Hennings' leaving the Greater Miami Humane Society before coming here.   E-mail this | Print this | Submit your news photo   © 2004 WKYC-TV. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. LAKE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY 7564 TYLER BLVD; BLDG E MENTOR, OHIO  44060 PHONE 440-951-6122   EMAIL:  lake_county_humane_society@juno.com

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Two top administrators at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter were removed after an independent evaluation of the shelter criticized its operations — including making injured animals wait too long for veterinary care, keeping animals in broken cages, and using carbon monoxide instead of lethal injection to euthanize more than the recommended number of animals.

 

The evaluation also said the shelter was understaffed and that staff members were poorly trained, resulting in poor care for animals.

In response to the evaluation, Stephanie Smith, shelter director since 1988, was reassigned to the Sanitary Engineering Department, where she works as a training and community manager. Donna Wilson, shelter supervisor, was moved to a job in county public works.

County administrators asked American Humane, a Colorado-based nonprofit animal-rights agency, to do the review. It sent a three-member team to the shelter for three days in mid-January, where they observed operations and interviewed present and former shelter workers. A Jan. 28 preliminary report identified several areas of critical concern at the shelter, including:

• Problems with procedures for screening and selecting animals for euthanasia: Any staff member could identify an animal as unadoptable, thus sentencing the animal to death.

• Use of the carbon-monoxide chamber rather than lethal injection for euthanasia in more cases than appeared warranted. American Humane recognizes lethal injection as the only acceptable method for dog and cat euthanasia. The shelter's policy was to use the chamber for a small percentage animals who were fractious, for staff safety. American Humane said the CO chamber seemed to be used more often than staff members reported.

• Personnel problems that resulted in a lack of basic care for animals, including water, diet and housing.

• Problems with the assessment and treatment of sick and injured animals. Injured animals were, for example, left in cages without medical intervention until a veterinarian was available (vets came Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings).

The report also contained recommendations, including filling all open positions; hiring a veterinary technician, using foster homes and transfers to cooperative shelters to ease crowding; and transporting all sick or injured animals to a vet for immediate treatment.

County Administrator Deborah Feldman said Tuesday the country ordered the independent evaluation because it had received complaints and heard concerns from residents.

She also said shelter operations are scheduled to move into a new $5.3 million Animal Resource Center at the end of June, making this a logical time for a look at how services and operations can be improved.

Feldman acknowledged that complaints about public animal shelters are not unusual, and that before the American Humane report, the county "had no reason to believe (the shelter) was not operating as it should."

Smith, however, said the county requested an independent evaluation on her recommendation. Smith referred administrators to American Humane, the only national organization qualified for such work with which she has no prior relationship.

"I was excited about them coming," Smith said. "I knew we did a lot of things real well — and I knew there were problems, but I had nothing to hide. I thought that before we moved into the new building would be a good time to hear some recommendations. I knew we were short-staffed.

"I was honestly hoping for more money, and more resources."

Instead, Smith and Wilson were shifted to other positions within county operations in lateral moves that maintain their salary and seniority. The county, Feldman said, had determined shelter problems to be "operational in nature, all having to do with the sheltering aspect of the kennel" as opposed to the Animal Control Officers, the law-enforcement wing of shelter operations.

Warren Cox was brought in from Texas to act as interim director at the shelter: Cox recently retired after 50 years working with animal-welfare agencies across the country. A search for a permanent shelter director is now under way, while Cox works with the county to carry out American Humane's recommendations.

Cox said many problems at the shelter stem from its building, which "was not designed for the care of animals." There will, for example, be no carbon monoxide chamber in the new building.

"I can't make judgments," Cox said of the county's decision to reassign Smith and Wilson, "but I believe the county is to be commended for taking swift action when problems were brought to their attention. Most of the recommendations have been fairly easy to accomplish, but we've got a lot of other things on the plate to do."

According to Feldman, staff openings have been filled, new cages and fencing have been purchased, and a full-time veterinary technician has been hired.

"We've basically implemented every one of the recommendations in that report," Feldman said.

Contact Laura Dempsey at 225-2403.

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SACRAMENTO ANIMAL SHELTER IN CALIFORNIA NEEDS HELP

We should have the San Diego Humane Society, Helen Woodward Animal Shelter, and the SF ASPCA and Humane Society help the officials in Sacramento make sure they provide proper and humane care for their animals and set up a good relationship of support with all rescues that can help them.

http://www.petitiononline.com/26622/petition.html
 

Sacramento County Animal Shelter Illegally Killing Animals




View Current Signatures - Sign the Petition


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


To: Sacramento County's Board of Supervisors

700 H Street, Suite 2450
Sacramento CA 95814
(916) 874-7593 FAX

Roger Dickinson - District 1
dickinsonr@saccounty.net
(916) 874-5485

Illa Collin - District 2
Collini@saccounty.net
(916) 874-5481

Muriel Johnson - District 3istrict District 3
johnsonmu@saccounty.net
(916) 874-5471

Roger Niello - District 4
niellor@saccounty.net
(916) 874-5491

Don Nottoli - District 5 District 5
nottolid@saccounty.net
(916) 874-5465


Animal Welfare Activists and Rescuers Demand:

1. Immediately ending animal neglect, cruelty and illegal killings at the Sacramento County Animal Shelter;

2. Firing Pat Claerbout, Shelter Director, who demanded animal slaughters before animals were available for reclaiming or adoption in clear violation of California and Federal Animal Welfare Law;

3. Criminally investigating and prosecuting Pat Claerbout, for felony animal abuse and the ordered killings of animals at the shelter;

4. Reinstating longstanding policy allowing not-for-profit independent animal rescuers and organizations to save from death and adopt out the shelter’s animals. (This policy was unreasonably and appallingly terminated by Pat Claerbot despite the approximately 90% kill rate, displaying a clear disregard for the value of these hapless creatures’ lives;)

5. Ending pound seizures, selling up to 7% of the County’s shelter animals to research facilities. (The county shelter is the ONLY facility in the state that allows this despite massive outpourings of local and national protest.)


The following is excerpted from:

"Shelter Sued by Animals' Friends
County Accused of Untimely Killing of Dogs and Cats"
written by Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, March 25, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle


The Sacramento County Animal Shelter is illegally killing dogs and cats before they can be adopted or recovered by their owners and has not kept records on thousands of others sold for medical research, animal welfare groups assert in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Sacramento.

The suit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, also alleges that the shelter has failed to review protocols showing how the animals are used in research under a county agreement with UC Davis and Sutter Hospital.

The agreement, approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1986, allows the sale and transfer of animals from the shelter to the research facilities but requires the county to keep an eye on how the dogs and cats are treated and used by UC Davis' veterinary school and the medical research wing at Sutter Hospital in Sacramento.

"With the exception of records we did a public records request for in 2002, UC Davis failed to turn in any required records since the inception of the memorandum of understanding in 1986, and Sutter provided only sporadic records,'' said Teri Barnato, national director of the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights. AVAR was joined in the suit by the Animal Protection Institute and In Defense of Animals.

The suit asks for attorneys fees and an end to the agreement.

Sacramento County Supervisor Illa Collin acknowledged Wednesday that "we should have been asking for yearly reports."

The Sacramento animal shelter, which takes in more than 20,000 animals a year and euthanizes more than half of them, is the only shelter in the state known to sell cats and dogs for medical research. The lawsuit is the latest attempt by animal welfare groups to end the practice called "pound seizure" and shed light on conditions at the Sacramento facility, detailed last year in a series of articles in The Chronicle.

The suit says records obtained by the plaintiffs suggest that there are problems of animal neglect and what appears to be a failure to follow federal animal welfare laws, which require dogs and cats to be held for a minimum of four business days to allow for recovery by the owner or adoption by a new owner.

The suit says records show: A domestic shorthaired cat was euthanized two days after arriving, with no explanation given; two other shorthaired cats were euthanized the day after arriving; a Labrador retriever mix was euthanized for coughing; a poodle mix named Mickey was euthanized two days after arriving.

The lawsuit is not the only bad news the shelter has gotten in recent days.

At a hearing Tuesday before the Board of Supervisors, animal rights activists presented other examples raising questions about the operation of the shelter.

They presented an e-mail from the shelter's veterinarian, Cynthia Delany, who detailed an incident involving approximately 30 cats surrendered to the shelter. The e-mail, dated Aug. 15, 2003, was sent to a county administrator who oversees the shelter.

"Approximately 15 of these cats were severely ill,'' wrote Delany, seeking advice from the administrator. "The remaining 15 cats appear to be healthy and should be offered for adoption immediately. I am now being summarily ordered by Pat Claerbout to euthanize these animals without holding them the legally required holding period.'' She continued, "As a licensed veterinarian, I refuse to break the law.''

Claerbout said. "The public at large should not be getting away with turning in their animals if they don't like it that a dog barks or a puppy isn't housebroken."

Lisa Hockins, shelter director of Pets Unlimited in San Francisco, visited the Sacramento shelter Wednesday to look for dogs to be adopted in San Francisco. She has visited the shelter twice a month for a year and a half, taking many dogs that had failed "temperament tests" and were scheduled to be euthanized.

"I've been to a lot of shelters," Hockins said. "This one is filthy. There's frequently only one bowl of food and several dogs. The dogs are usually covered in feces and urine. It's a difficult place to walk through."

She added, "Today I took out a female Labrador retriever who had failed a temperament test for being shy. When I saw her, she was backed into a corner by a pit bull. She was terrified. She was supposed to be euthanized this morning. When we got her out of there, she turned into a doll."

(END OF CHRONICLE ARTICLE.)

Furthermore, Pat Claerbot has taken the unprecedented step of changing the longstanding policy allowing not-for-profit independent rescuers and rescue groups to save animals from the shelter. This indicates a clear disregard for these animals’ lives or welfare.

In conclusion, we demand the termination of Pat Claerbout’s contract with the Sacramento County Animal Shelter, renewed in 2004 by the Board of Supervisors despite overwhelming protest by the animal welfare and rescue community, the criminal investigation of Pat Claerbout for the illegal killings she ordered, the end to pound seizure of any Sacramento County shelter animals, the cessation of any and all animal neglect and cruelty at the county shelter, and the immediate reinstatement of policy allowing independent not-for-profit rescuers and organizations to save and adopt out shelter animals.