Item 13 - OC Grand Jury's Investigative Report, Findings, and Recommendations Regarding Group Homes and the Orange County Animal Care Shelter

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Gimme Shelter and a Pound of Advice contract cities have a combined population of approximately 1.8 million residents, greater than half of the total population of Orange County. In March 2018, a new shelter was opened on a 10-acre site at a cost of $35 million. The shelter includes a two-story, approximately 30,000 square -foot main building, six stand- alone kennel buildings, multiple dog play yards, a barnyard, and a rabbit housing area. OCAC can shelter up to 600 animals and is the single largest municipal animal facility in the western United States serving residents in one location. OCAC has 137 authorized staff positions. Approximately 21 staff are animal care attendants who are represented by the Teamsters Union. All other staff are represented by the Orange County Employees Association. Labor relations and contract terms must be taken into consideration while operating the shelter. OCAC, like most municipal shelters, relies upon a variety of rescue support groups and citizen volunteers to enhance animal welfare and outcomes. The relationship between shelter management, rescue groups, and volunteers has deteriorated in the last three years.- The historical partnership between the shelter and rescue groups has become stressed due to a variety of reasons. The breakdown in communication, engagement, and trust between parties has negatively affected shelter operations. Most large municipal shelters are "kill' shelters, which are shelters where animals may be euthanized for any of a variety of reasons. Privately operated shelters and smaller municipal shelters tend to be non -kill shelters. Non -kill shelters may euthanize some animals in special cases, but generally do not euthanize animals. Large municipal shelters, owing to their size, capacity, public responsibility, operational mandates, and their positioning as "shelters of last resort," euthanize animals as a matter of course. Animals are euthanized for a variety of reasons, such as: • they suffer from irredeemable disease or injury, -they are of a species that represent a danger to the community, or • they are behaviorally unfit for adoption. Many shelters have Trap, Neuter and. Return (TNR) programs. In accordance with these programs, feral and community cats are captured from their outdoor environment, taken to a shelter or veterinarian where they are neutered, and then returned to the location from where they were trapped. TNR programs serve to reduce colonies of feral and community cats in a humane manner and serve to manage and reduce this cat population. OCAC had a TNR program beginning in 2013 until early 2020 when it was discontinued. ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY 2022 12023 PAGE 6 OF 51