Six months after scathing audit of San Jose shelter, animal advocates fume over unresolved problems

Six months after a scathing audit rebuked the San Jose Animal Care and Services Center for squalid conditions and overcrowding animal advocates and assistants remain at odds with the city over the progress its making at the shelter accusing administrators again of mismanagement and failing to adequately serve the society Related Articles Take a pet-friendly foodie day trip to Bodega Bay Check out these Bay Area events on Mother s Day weekend and beyond How Valerie the dachshund was absolutely nabbed after days on Kangaroo Island May the Fourth and rest of month be with you at these Bay Area events Bay Area events calendar for April weekly editions A document from the city auditor in December established the legitimacy of a multitude of concerns contributors and advocates had raised for years about the troubling conditions at the shelter triggering recommendations and leading elected leaders to demand improvements While the shelter has managed to lower its population below threshold advocates argue that a few of the underlying issues that led to the shelter s decline persist forcing the region to fend more often for itself when animal issues arise The biggest issue is mismanagement and I ll just say I think it s incompetence explained Lyne Lamoureux a longtime volunteer at the shelter They should prioritize local spay and neuter to stop the onslaught of animals coming in and it s horrible because they haven t been doing it for five years At the same time they re not working with rescues to the point that they have basically broken all the relationships The animal shelter which did not challenge any of the recommendations made by the auditor has begun implementing certain of the changes and has been tasked with phasing them in at various points over the calendar year It came under heavy scrutiny after facing a barrage of complaints and an uptick in deaths that led the City Council to ask for an objective review of its operations One of the main noticeable areas of concern was the number of animals sitting in the shelter nearly compared to the facility s threshold of resulting in substandard conditions and an increased jeopardy of illness Among the other findings in the audit were that the shelter had taken in fewer animals despite a sizable increase in budget and had not expanded curative care including trap-neuter-return services to help stem the expanding pet population It also located that the organization had a decrease in engagement with rescue groups various of whom revealed they did not have a positive relationship with the shelter As of Wednesday Society Works Director Matt Loesch noted the shelter s population was animals and though the figures could expeditiously fluctuate he recognized that past levels were unsustainable as the audit called for the shelter to address its threshold issues We are trying to figure out how to exactly meter in the number of animals so that we stay under a healthy population and so we can maintain the strength and care of the animals and also the staff Loesch disclosed Clinical Director Dr Elizabeth Kather also noted that the shelter saw lengths of stay decrease from to days for cats and fewer infections and less stress on the animals They can decisively stretch out from tail to nose they re more relaxed and healthier and that way we can remove them faster and on the flip side then you re able to help more cats Kather noted I know it s a struggle for particular people to accept that but we re invariably going to go with what our industry standards with experts in shelter medicine fields say Everybody has opinions but we re going to follow the industry standards of professionals Despite the shelter solving its overcrowding issues advocates say it has come at the expense of the region and that plenty of of the concerns that prompted the audit still exist Along with noting the number of complaints from residents who were turned away when bringing an animal into the shelter advocates recounted a story from Diane Cascia an experienced trapper with a longstanding relationship with particular of the shelter s employees Cascia claimed she witnessed a woman attempting to turn in three kittens before an employee allegedly turned her down and explained her to go down the street to PetSmart to try and give them away outside the store The shelter has denied those charges Nobody on our staff has announced Take it down to PetSmart and we absolutely would not do that division manager Kiska Icard declared We give information and if somebody noted we absolutely can t that s why we buffer a little bit of space for truly the ones that need it the greater part Questions about healthcare management have also surfaced in response to animal deaths Drawing the particular ire of assistants and society members was the death late last year of Rufus a pitbull who had been at the shelter for several months after going in for neutering surgery The dog had been placed back in his kennel and left unmonitored while still anesthetized Despite shelter authorities previously asserting in December that there was no neglect and characterizing it as a freak accident they drafted a new framework to use a ward near the medicinal clinic that had been unavailable due to overcrowding issues so that staff could closely monitor the animals One month prior an internal email revealed that particular cats that were still anesthetized had also passed away following surgery due to suspected airway obstruction prompting staff to be reminded of proper protocols Mike Wagner an advocate heavily engaged with the city also noted that in April the number of cats euthanized surpassed the number of adoptions the first time he could remember seeing the numbers inverted in the three years he had tracked the records Advocates have also called into question the shelter s level of services despite the City Council s direction to restore relationships with rescues and expand trap-neuter-return and low-cost spay-and-neuter offerings The audit implementation status statement highlights incremental outreach and internal protocols that fail to meaningfully address the the greater part urgent issues facing our city which is access to spay and neuter advocate Dinah Hayse announced We cannot solve the ongoing cat and kitten situation by turning away animals and pushing the burden onto residents especially when you are not offering them timely and adequate access to spay and neuter or more meaningful aid That is not a strategy It is avoidance and denial and it has consequences Facts Loesch provided presented that spay and neuter services increased in the first four months of over the same period last year And while the Humane Society Silicon Valley and Animal Care Center vets use the facility for those services twice a week the city plans to bring in a part-time veterinarian in June to offer low-cost neutering starting with five appointments per week and progressing up to in August Loesch acknowledged it was not enough to satisfy the region s necessities but mentioned it was a starting point for a more sustainable model that the shelter could continue He added that while the audit recommendations posed a gargantuan task the shelter remained committed to implementing the improvements Should we achieve all these things and get all recommendations done there has not been an audit of this volume that s been achieved in a year that I m aware of that the auditors ever produced Loesch noted This is a massive focus by us in addition to caring for the animals that we have