Mendocino County Grand Jury • 2013-2014 • Agency Response

6.3 County Delivery of Animal Control Services*

Published: June 09, 2014 8 pages
Ver PDF original

Findings and Recommendations 24 findings

F1
"Manual re-entry of data is costly, inefficient, and introduces the possibility of transcription errors." Disagree wholly. Animal Control Officers use the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office computer program (Aegis) to write reports, locate subject information, and document calls for service. The Chameleon program is used by Mendocino County Animal Care for kennel management, clinic management, and running the licensing program. The two programs serve separate functions and thus no information is unnecessarily duplicated.
No recommendations for this finding
F2
"Animal Control Officers often have difficulty making contact with Animal Care while in the field." Disagree in part. Due to the rural nature of the County, cell phones, which are provided to Animal Control Officers by the Sheriff's Office, are unreliable in certain areas of the County. In addition Animal Care has recently had a telephone line dedicated for use by Animal Control Officers.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
"Information access limitations restrict efficient handling of loose and stray animals because no background information is available to officers in the field." Agree. Animal Control Officers have no other choice then to take animals without identification (tags and /or licenses) to the Animal Wellness Center.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
"Not being able to return stray animals directly to their owners leads to a more costly process for both the public and the Animal Control/Care system." Agree.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
"Not all data about an individual case is necessary to proceed on most licensing (small animal) cases. Large animal abuse or neglect cases require more extensive information from both Aegis and Chameleon to proceed." Disagree in part. While all known information must be entered into the Aegis system by the Animal Control Officer before any case (licensing, stray animals, abuse) whether large or small animals are involved, no information is needed from Chameleon for an abuse or neglect case to proceed. "Animal Control does not have adequate policy and procedures to meet the best
No recommendations for this finding
F6
practices criteria for handling large animal abuse or neglect cases." Disagree wholly. Animal Control Policy is adequate for the handling of large animal abuse neglect cases.
No recommendations for this finding
F7
"There are no mutually agreed upon written procedures that cover responsibilities, contacts, logistics, and other items for large animal integrated operations involving the community and multiple agencies of the County." Disagree. Mendocino County has a both a large (LAEP) and small (SAEP) emergency plan that cover roles, responsibilities, contacts, and logistics involving the community and multiple agencies of the County.
No recommendations for this finding
F8
"The Sheriff's Office Animal Control unit logs an extensive number of calls beyond the capacity of current staffing level." Agree.
No recommendations for this finding
F9
"The absence of an Animal Control Officer stationed on the coast represents a serious risk to public health and safety." Disagree in part. Animal Control Services within the Fort Bragg city limits are provided by the Fort Bragg Police Department. The unincorporated areas of the coast are handled by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. An animal related call which threatens public safety, will be handled by a Patrol Deputy in the event that an Animal Control Officer is not in the area or has an extended response time.
No recommendations for this finding
F10
"Coastal calls require at least two extra hours of officer time." Disagree in part. see F9.
No recommendations for this finding
F11
"There is an egregious degradation of coverage on the coast." Disagree in part. While staffing levels have diminished, resulting in extended response times, the Sheriff's Office Animal Control continues to responds to all animal calls for service.
No recommendations for this finding
F12
"Staffing levels directly impact available and timely service." Agree. "The absence of a County Animal Care Shelter on the Coast requires extensive
No recommendations for this finding
F13
transportation costs." Agree. "The closing of the County's Fort Bragg Animal Care Shelter has added to the
No recommendations for this finding
F14
overload at the County Animal Care Shelter in Ukiah." Agree. "The impact of budget decreases has degraded services for the entire County."
No recommendations for this finding
F15
Agree. "Animal Control Officers are a visible presence of County Government."
No recommendations for this finding
F16
Agree. "Animal Control Officers are more than dog catchers. They are underpaid for the
No recommendations for this finding
F17
level of training they are required to have and the responsibilities they perform." Agree in part. Animal Control Officers perform a job requiring extensive training, skill, and knowledge making them more then dog catchers. A survey of surrounding Counties (Trinity, Humboldt, Sonoma, Del Norte, and Lake) found salaries, required training, and job duties, for Animal Control Officers in Mendocino County to be comparable. "Animal Control Officers do not have safety officer retirement benefits equal to
No recommendations for this finding
F18
those of a Probation Officer I." Agree. "A comparison of job descriptions reveals a higher level of responsibility of the
No recommendations for this finding
F19
Animal Control Officer than that of the Deputy Probation Officer I. (Appendices A and B)" Agree partially. Job descriptions are not equal in either scope or duties and thus can not be compared. However, Mendocino County Animal Control Officers often assist law enforcement officers with duties outside their regular scope of responsibilities.
No recommendations for this finding
F20
"Veterinarians are not paid in a timely fashion when providing services to the County." Neither Agree or Disagree. Veterinarians are paid in accordance with County policy and procedures. The County Auditor should be the respondent to this finding. "There is a disagreement between veterinarians and Animal Control over
No recommendations for this finding
F21
interpretation of what Animal Control can and cannot do." Disagree wholly. Veterinarians are frequently consulted by Animal Control, often acting as the final authority and expert witnesses, in cases of abuse and neglect. "Veterinarians and Animal Control Officers are concerned about the District
No recommendations for this finding
F22
Attorney's lack of prosecution of animal abuse or neglect cases." Disagree wholly. The District Attorney Office continues to vigorously prosecute cases of animal abuse or neglect in the County. "The District Attorney's reluctance to prosecute animal abuse cases, for whatever
No recommendations for this finding
F23
reason, has led to abusive owners keeping the abused animals longer." Disagree wholly. Abused or neglected animals are removed by Animal Control prior to cases being filed with the District Attorney and their decisions have no standings on our investigations. "Lack of prosecution leads to Animal Control putting more emphasis on working
No recommendations for this finding
F24
with abusive owners longer in an attempt to alter owner behavior before proceeding with removal of the animals." Disagree wholly: Abused or neglected animals are removed by Animal Control by the facts of our investigations and at times consultations with veterinarians, specialists and the District Attorney's Office.
No recommendations for this finding

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.