Hold Cook County Animal Control Responsible for its Handling of Stray Pets
- by: Sarah Hanneken
- recipient: Toni Preckwinkle and the Cook County Board of Commissioners
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If your dog or cat gets loose and is picked up by Cook County Animal Control, it is quite likely you will never see him or her again. There is no way for you to determine where s/he was taken. Frightened and alone, your pet will be locked up in an undisclosed location, where s/he may be euthanized—or worse.
Think that's bad? Well, if you are a pet owner in Cook County, it is YOUR MONEY that is funding this woefully derelict system. We must DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY from Cook County Animal Control.
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This is a petition demanding the Cook County Board of Commissioners take a very careful look into the financial efficiency and overall effectiveness of the Department of Animal & Rabies Control, particularly with regard to its handling of stray animals.
In its mission statement, the Cook County Department of Animal & Rabies Control lists "stray animal control" as one of the its four functions, and part of its $3.5 million annual budget is allocated specifically for this purpose. Yet Cook County does not even have its own animal-control facility. In fact, it is the only county in the entire state of Illinois that does not have a facility to house stray animals. So, this begs the question: Where do our stray animals go?
A recent tragedy in the Village of Dolton sheds some light on this burning question. On September 21, 2014, a Dolton Village police officer was transporting a stray dog to Dolton Animal Hospital, a private veterinary establishment the Village had contracted to house its strays. Upon entering the veterinary facility to drop off the dog, the officer found a most gruesome scene: 4 dead dogs and 9 grievously emaciated, on the verge of starvation. The employees at Dolton Animal Hospital had been severely neglecting the stray animals in their care. There was simply no oversight, no accountability. Had the Dolton police officer not happened upon this atrocious scene, countless more Cook County strays unlucky enough to end up at Dolton Animal Hospital would have been left to starve.
Clearly, this system isn't working. If Cook County Animal Control had its own facility, municipalities like Dolton would not need to resort to placing animals in contracted facilities where they are out of sight and out of mind. There are 135 incorporated municipalities partially or wholly within Cook County. Despite its annual budget of nearly $3.5 million, the Cook County Department of Animal & Rabies Control requires every one of these municipalities to provide for itself when it comes to dealing with stray pets.
And housing strays isn't the only problem. The Department also fails utterly when it comes stray patrol and pickup. The Department employs just six animal control officers for the entire County of Cook—that's a mere six individuals for a geographic area of over 1,600 square miles and a population of 5.2 million people, a high percentage of whom own pets that might get loose. Consequently, municipal police often bear the burden of handling strays, as was the case in Dolton.
In fact, the entire Cook County Department of Animal & Rabies Control employs just 24 people, nearly half of whom are clerks. Also sitting behind desks are a myriad of "administrative assistants," a "deputy director" (whose $100K job is entirely inexplicable), and the almighty Animal Control Director, who, as far as the public can tell, is also paid over $100,000 a year to do virtually nothing.
A look at the Department's budget raises even more eyebrows and red flags. For instance, for a staff of just 24 people, the Department is allotted $9,000 for "seminars," $18,000 for "training programs," and $5,000 for transportation. The six animal control officers are allotted $9,000 of "wearing apparel." (Are they wearing Versace??) $1 million of pet owners’ money goes toward "contractual services," such as the esoterically categorized "professional and managerial services" and "special or cooperative programs." For a Department that doesn't even have its own facility, each year it receives $130K for "institutional and office supplies," books, periodicals, and "computer operation supplies"; nearly $80,000 for "operations and maintenance," and $120K for "capital equipment and improvements." In 2013 it received a $152,000 "reimbursement to designated fund." What fund is that? And $480,000 labeled "Cook County administration."
All of this adds up to quite a lot of money that could be used to help reunite lost pets with their owners, help stray animals find new homes, administer veterinary treatment, and other basic services.
In light of this, we ask the Cook County Board of Commissioners to conduct a thorough investigation into the operations and finances of the Department of Animal & Rabies Control. If the Board determines that funds are not being used in the most efficient way possible—which we strongly suspect they are not—we demand that the Department's funds be reallocated in a manner that truly provides accountability for the Department and care for the stray animals in Cook County. Alternatively, we encourage the Board to consider handing over animal-control responsibilities to the Cook County Sheriff's Office, as they already play a tangential role in the administration of these services and could streamline their effectiveness.
We want what's best for the stray animals of Cook County, and we want you to help us achieve this.
WE DEMAND ANSWERS.
Do not rubber-stamp the Department’s budget until the public receives satisfactory answers to every single one these questions:
1. When a stray animal is picked up by a Cook County Animal Control Warden, where is that animal taken? How is the owner supposed to locate their lost animal? Why doesn’t the Department allocate part of its budget to maintaining a proper website that would allow owners to search for their lost pets?
2. The Department only operates from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday… So what happens after hours and on weekends? Who responds to service calls? Who picks up strays? Who cares for those strays? Who is helping owners locate their lost pets?
3. How does the Department collect and report statistics regarding the number of animals taken in, animals returned to their owners, animals adopted out, animals euthanized? What are these actual numbers?
4. Budgetary questions:
a. Contractual Services. The Department’s annual budget for “Contractual Services” is over $1 million and includes such things as “communication services” ($13.7K), “postage” ($20K), “delivery services” ($31.5K), “internal graphics and reproduction services” ($14K), “professional and managerial services” ($80K), and “special or cooperative programs” ($880K). How do these categories further break down? What is included in communication services, delivery services, and ‘internal graphics and reproduction’ services? How does the Department manage to spend $20K/year on postage? What are “professional and managerial services” and “special or cooperative programs”? How do these services/programs add up to $80K and $880K, respectively, each year?
b. Automotive Expenses. Each year, the Department spends $80,000 on automotive equipment and $70,000 on automotive maintenance and repair. For how many vehicles are these funds expended?
c. Contingency and Special Purposes. In 2013, $152K was appropriated to the Department as “reimbursement to designated fund.” What is/are the “designated fund(s)”? The Department also received over $480K for “Cook County administration”—what does this even mean?
d. Deputy Director. The Department’s Deputy Director is makes over $100,000. Is there really a need for this position? How do the Deputy Director’s responsibilities and accomplishments justify the existence of this position and of such a high salary?
WE DEMAND ACTION.
We demand the Cook County Board of Commissioners implement one of three solutions, or some combination thereof, to remedy the Department’s woefully inadequate provision of stray animal control services:
1. Complete Overhaul of the Department. Eliminate superfluous positions, and hire more field officers (“animal control wardens”). Some of these additional officers could be hired on a part-time basis, e.g. to provide assistance during busy seasons and on weekends. Furthermore, we demand that the Animal Control Director be held more accountable for her Department and given greater responsibilities; she is a certified veterinarian and ought to be directly involved in inspections, necropsies, and responding to serious violations (like the Dolton incident—why wasn’t she there to observe the premises and speak to reporters?). Finally, the Department needs to establish its own impoundment facilities (as is required by section 10-9 of the Cook County Code of Ordinances), or at the very least must perform regular inspections of the private facilities contracted to hold strays. The location of these impoundment facilities must be made abundantly clear to the public so that pet owners who have lost their animals know where to look for them. As part of this effort, the Department must be required to maintain a website, updated multiple times a day, with photographs of impounded strays and the location at which they are being held. Pet owners must be able to access and rely upon this website to find their impounded animals. The aforementioned changes will transform the Department’s currently ineffective stray-animal control service into a well-oiled system of reunification and adoption.
2. Eliminate Department and Reallocate Funds to Municipalities. If the Department is simply unable to provide the stray-control services that the public demands, all or part of its $3.5-million budget should be distributed to the individual municipalities so that they may more effectively perform these services. If this option is pursued, the municipalities must be held to the same standards as detailed in Option 1 above (i.e. adequate number of animal-control officers, clearly identified and accessible impoundment facilities, regular inspections of said facilities, and a functioning website featuring up-to-date photos of impounded strays.)
3. Place Department Under the Auspices of the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. The tiny 24-person Department could be easily incorporated into the Office of the Sheriff. Sheriff Tom Dart runs a highly effective office and has been recognized for his adroit handling of animal incidents and animal crimes in the past. Section 10-6 of the Cook County Code of Ordinances already contemplates cooperation between the Department of Animal & Rabies Control and the Sheriff’s Office; by fully incorporating the Department into the Sheriff’s Office, the County could allow for streamlined, 24-hour service (for example, in incidents such as evictions involving abandoned animals; arrests resulting in animals that need to be impounded; animal neglect and abuse cases that require emergency veterinary treatments and/or euthanasia; etc.). As it currently stands, the Sheriff’s Office has repeatedly expressed frustration with the Department’s non-involvement in these types of animal-related incidents, especially when they arise after hours or on weekends. By turning over the County’s animal-control responsibilities to the Sheriff’s Office, the Board of Commissioners could create highly desirable economies of scale and give the public the level of service it deserves and demands.
The bottom line is this: Cook County’s animal control operation is currently in a state of dire inadequacy and disrepair. The Board of Commissioners must take steps to remedy the County’s stray-animal services in order to make Cook County a safe, humane, and respectable locality.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
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