General (10)You don't often get email from Learn why this is important
Date:2/3/2025 11:44:51 AM
From:"Michael M"
To:"Public Comment" publiccomment@anaheim.net
Subject:[EXTERNAL] CITY COUNCIL, GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT
Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open attachme nts unle ss you recognize the
sender and are expecting the message.
(a) Cities pay f or the county animal shelter. Why are they putting up with its low standards?
From Patch Orange County, February 2:
Tell the OC Animal Shelter to Fix Its Problems - At No Cost!
https://patc h.c om/california/orange-c ounty/tell-oc-animal-shelter-fix-its-problems-no-c ost-nodx
The "no cost" solution is a non-profit w illing to assist the shelter, the previous Strategic Plan at a c os t of 400K+ w as never implemented.
Excerpt:
OC Animal Care has a Strategic Plan developed in 2018 by the best experts on animal shelters (at a cost to taxpayers of 400K+ in 2018). But the county is
ignoring its own plan.
The county bureaucracy wants to hire some random consultant to “update” the plan. They managed to craf t the process to their lik ing… so that they hav e
only one bidder. (Their f avorite?)
They want OC cities to pay this consultant… so the bureaucracy can craf t an excuse to lower the shelter’s standards – at the expense of OC animals and
OC taxpayers.
(b) For nearly two years, I’v e been telling OC Animal Care to allow adopters to visit the k ennel areas. I published a research paper prov ing that kennel
access generates more adoptions: https://jsmcah.org/index.php/jasv/article/view/85
The county is reluctantly f ollowing my recommendation, but the delay cost city taxpayers AND the shelter's animals dearly. The only way to avoid more
waste and mismanagement is to fully implement the Strategic Plan.
From Voic e of OC, January 24:
OC Animal Shelter Expands Weekend Visiting Hours
https://voic eofoc .org/2025/01/oc-animal-shelter-expands-weekend-visiting-hours/
Excerpt:
The shelter has f aced harsh criticism f or years about its accessibility to the public af ter the COVID-19 pandemic.
When businesses and municipalities began reopening af ter pandemic-related closures, the shelter was slow to return to standard operations.
Instead of f ully reopening to the public, OC Animal Care implemented an appointment-based operation that prohibited v isitors f rom walk ing through the
k ennel areas, prompting protests, petitions, a lawsuit and f ear that the closed-of f shelter was preventing adoptions and causing more euthanized pets.
In July 2023, shelter staf f launched a program that opened up some k ennels f or f iv e hours each week . It was the f irst time the k ennels were opened to
public access since bef ore the pandemic.
Then in January 2024, the shelter established its current viewing hours f rom 2 to 5 p.m. [Starting January 25, 2025, v iewing hours on Saturdays and
Sundays will begin at 12 p.m and last until 5 p.m.]
According to the shelter’s 2024 statistics, 256 adult dogs were euthanized during the calendar year — about 6% of all adult dogs.
The kill rate f or adult dogs has tripled since the current shelter location opened in 2018, according to the shelter’s data sheets published quarterly on its
website. In 2018, the k ill rate was right around 2%.