Orange County Grand Jury
• 2014-2015
Uifor Grand Jury 2014-2015 If Animals Could Talk About the Orange County Animal Shelter*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings 10 findings
F1
There are serious morale issues among Animal Shelter staff, many of which can be attributed to poor management practices and lack of effective leadership.
F2
The trap, neuter, and return practice is reportedly delaying the spaying, neutering, and treatment of domestic dogs and cats awaiting adoption and is evidence that the domestic animals have been assigned a lower priority for surgery than the spaying, neutering, and micro-chipping of the feral cats.
F3
Feral cats have been allowed to roam freely in and around the Animal Shelter and have been fed by Animal Shelter staff, possibly contributing to human and animal exposure to zoonotic diseases.
F4
Animal Control Officers do not have effective equipment or appropriate procedural options to deal with unique, emergency circumstances that may require special procedures such as tranquilizing and euthanizing in the field.
F5
OC Animal Care is currently operating with a shortage of personnel, including Animal Control Officers (ACOs), thereby making it much more difficult for them to respond to calls in a timely manner throughout such a large county, especially since there is only one shelter to serve all of Orange County.
F6
There is little evidence that the Feral Free Program has been successful in reducing the feral cat population, which could be a contributing factor to the spread of zoonotic diseases.
F7
Kennels are hosed down with dogs still present in the kennels, resulting in the dogs getting soaked and becoming more susceptible to disease. If Animals Could Talk About the Orange County Animal Shelter
F8
Kennel attendants were observed leaving the large water hoses running when not being used for cleaning purposes, thereby wasting large quantities of water.
F9
There is limited airflow and no air conditioning in the cat trailers. The conditions in these trailers increase the vulnerability to disease.
F10
There is a rodent problem, creating additional risk of humans and animals contracting zoonotic diseases. RECOMMENDATIONS In accordance with California Penal Code sections 933 and 933.05, the 2014- 2015 Grand Jury requires (or, as noted, requests) responses from each agency affected by the recommendations presented in this section. The responses are to be submitted to the Presiding Judge of the Superior Court. Based on its investigation titled "If Animals Could Talk About the Orange County Animal Shelter," the 2014-2015 Orange County Grand Jury makes the following ten recommendations: Consider a change of leadership within the Orange County Community
Recommendations 10
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R1Resources Department and arrange for mandatory leadership training for all managers and supervisors that includes a curriculum of leadership skills, people skills, and diversity (F.1.).
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R2Discontinue the practice of giving feral cats priority for surgery over the domestic dogs and cats awaiting adoption (F.2.).
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R3Discontinue feeding feral cats and allowing feral cats to roam freely in and around the Animal Shelter (F.3.).
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R4Develop proper protocols for Animal Control Officers to follow when confronted with unique circumstances in the field that require tranquilizing or euthanizing animals and take all measures necessary to ensure that the Animal Control Officers can be given the proper equipment and training in that regard (F.4.).
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R5Establish a more aggressive approach in hiring qualified personnel on a timely basis, especially with the position of Animal Control Officer (F.5.). Conduct an evaluation of the Feral Free Program to determine its effectiveness
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R6in the reduction of zoonotic diseases. (F.6.).
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R7Utilize the "move-one-down" method for cleaning kennels to avoid soaking the animals. (F.7.).
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R8Place nozzles on all water hoses and direct kennel attendants to turn off the water when not being used. (F.8.).
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R9Improve the ventilation system in all cat trailers for the health and survival of the cats (F.9.). If Animals Could Talk About the Orange County Animal Shelter
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R10Promptly control the rodent population in order to reduce the possibility of spreading diseases to human beings and animals (F.10.).
Agency Responses 1
Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.
* 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.