Orange County Animal Shelter Needs to Stop Killing Animals When They Have Open Kennels

Orange County’s main animal shelter is putting down more than a third of the animals that come through its doors, a death rate that has animal advocates sounding alarms.
Of the 2,050 animals entering the county government’s sole shelter in October, 725 were euthanized, according to data from shelter officials. Please note that, we received additional information from OC Animal Care that 169 un-weaned puppies and kittens were also killed and their deaths NOT reflected in the numbers given. That makes for a euthanasia rate of 35 percent, compared with 22 percent in San Jose or as low as 3 to 5 percent in so-called "no-kill" communities like Austin and Kansas City.
INVESTIGATION AND ANALYSIS by the Grand Jury
During an initial visit, the 2014-2015 OCGJ immediately noted that the Animal
Shelter was rundown and in dire need of major repair or replacement. During the
ensuing investigation, the OCGJ looked into several areas of concern. Among these were the following: health risks, environmental concerns, inhumane treatment of animals, staff training, alleged criminal behavior, and personnel issues. http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/2014_2015_GJreport/Shelter_Performance_V8R2_web.pdf
REASON FOR STUDY
The 2014-2015 OCGJ received written and verbal complaints from current and
former employees, including veterinarians, and from various humane organizations.

Many of these alleged problems were the same as those discussed in the 1999-2000, 2003-2004, and 2007-2008 OCGJ reports: organizational malfunctions relative to poor morale, unfair hiring and promotion practices; and, mistreatment and mishandling of the animals. As a result of these complaints and allegations, the 2014-2015 OCGJ launched an investigation to determine whether the various claims were valid and whether prior OCGJ recommendations had been implemented.
The Board of Supervisors did not meet the deadline for filing their responses to the Grand Jury's report and refused most of their recommendations:
REFUSALS
The Grand Jury recommended “consider a change in leadership” but the County says “no way” and says they are already in transition as of April 15, 2015 with the appointment of Dr. Jennifer Hawkins. (The one who was adament about killing Husky named Karma for supposedly killing a cat and saying she was a danger to the public? She is a sweet DOG - which was overturned by a Orange County Judge and Karma is still thankfully alive)
The Grand Jury recommended changes to the feral cat program, but the County denies the Grand Jury’s claims, and hence refuses to improve their program.
The Grand Jury asked that the inhumane practice of cleaning cages with animals still inside be changed, but the County refuses, claiming it will mix up their identification system. (SO OCAC doesn't care about hosing down cages with scared defenseless animals in them? OBVIOUSLY!!! )

The Grand Jury asked that the ventilation systems in the cat trailers be updated to prevent the spread of disease. The County refused and hopes that the new ventilation at the new shelter whenever it is built will be sufficient. The new shelter that they had $5 million dollars back in 1995 to build?
The animal community constantly offers solutions to OC's issues, see this "Save More Lives" presentation delivered to Orange County Supervisor Bartlett & Staff* plus Frank Kim, Dr. Jennifer Hawkins (OCAC) on Jan 28, 2016:http://www.slideshare.net/NoKillShelterCA/presentation-to-ocac-12816
These solutions were also presented to them on November 30, 2015 - Meeting w/ Staff* of Orange County Supervisor Bartlett, Nov 30, 2015 Topic: Improving Animal Welfare @OCAnimalCare Orange County Animal Care, California * Paul Walters, Chief of Staff, 5th District | Tanya Flink, Office Manager/Scheduler http://www.slideshare.net/NoKillShelterCA/improving-animal-welfare-ocanimalcare-orange-county-animal-care-california
OCAC also gets extra funding for the "Return to Field Program" and they have no records to reflect how the money is being used, the get $150,000 per year for this. They cannot account for how many cats they are actually returning back and they do not want to reflect this in their reports...and there have been grand jury reporting discrepancies twice...
Newport Beach Headlines in November 2015:
Newport Beach may switch animal shelters after concerns about humane treatment: The City Council will discuss Tuesday whether to end the city’s contract with the Orange County Humane Society in Huntington Beach over concerns about sanitation and treatment of the animals.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-693547-shelter-animal.html
After an adoption event in early February of 2016 the kennels were almost empty and they still had to euthanize animals that weekend. There is NO REASON to kill dogs, cats, or other animals when there are EMPTY kennels, NO VALID REASON. These dogs were highly adoptable and had rescues working on finding them homes.
We, the people that have signed this petition, want and DEMAND CHANGES at OCAC. Orange County is one of the richest counties in California and this should NOT be HAPPENING! There are many people that want to help and have given great solutions to start making changes. They have had the money to build a new shelter since 1995 and have done nothing!

CHANGE needs to happen and it NEEDS to happen NOW!
Please sign this petition to institute CHANGE at OCAC so that we can SAVE MORE ANIMALS and KILL LESS!

There are TONS of rescues in California to SAVE dogs and cats but they NEED time to put rescues together and OCAC can help them Save ANIMALS together!!!