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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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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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3/5/2024 3:40:01 PM
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8/9/2023 4:32:39 PM
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City Clerk
Doc Type
Agenda Packet
Agency
Planning & Building
Item #
13
Date
8/15/2023
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Gimme Shelter and a Pound of Advice <br />a <br />Volunteer and Rescue Relations <br />Most animal shelters rely on a host of shelter volunteers to help with the care and <br />enrichment of the animals under supervision, and they also rely on private rescue <br />organizations (rescues) to help with the adoption process and fostering. OCAC is no <br />exception. <br />Shelter volunteers help by assisting shelter staff with animal care, socialization, and <br />enrichment; community outreach and events; conducting tours; greeting shelter visitors; <br />and assisting with shelter adoptions. Volunteers are often the ones who walk the dogs, <br />work with their socialization, and foster kittens without mothers. The volunteer program is <br />vital. <br />Rescue organizations help by accepting animals from the shelter and facilitating <br />adoptions or placing animals in foster care for eventual adoption. Rescues help relieve <br />the shelter of overcrowding. These organizations benefit animals by facilitating adoptions <br />or placing them in -foster homes with enriched social environments greater than the <br />shelter can reasonably provide. <br />The coordinated efforts of shelter staff, volunteers, and rescue organizations are vital to <br />OCAC's success and the welfare of animals under its care. OCAC has been challenged <br />by both inadequate staffing and strained collaboration between the shelter, volunteers, <br />and rescues; Some challenges are the result of the recent COVID-19 crisis, when the <br />volunteer program was shut down in response to County health mandates. Other <br />challenges are due to some rescue organizations' responses to changes in shelter <br />organization, operation; and procedures within the last 2 to 3 years. Moreover, some <br />organizations report recent funding challenges that limit their ability to fully assist the <br />shelter with its animal welfare mandate. Funding has been especially challenging for. <br />rescues since COVID-19. <br />The shelter's volunteer program was not restarted until late 2022, although state COVID- <br />19 restrictions were lifted June 15, 2021. Unfortunately, restarting the program required <br />- - more than calling all volunteers back from COVID-19 isolation. Some former volunteers <br />have not returned because they have moved on with their lives. Some volunteers have <br />-- not returned because of their dissatisfaction with recent changes in organization, <br />operation, and procedures at the shelter. However, some volunteers have returned, and <br />----- - more are being recruited to form the foundation for a re -energized volunteer program. <br />-Relationships between the shelter and some rescues remain strained. Leadership <br />changes within the past three years, changes in circumstances at the shelter, and the <br />shelter's response to COVID-19 resulted in changes to shelter priorities and practices to <br />which some rescues object. Some changes were precipitated by differences in priorities <br />and concerns that came with the change in shelter leadership, some changes were in <br />response to COVID-19 restrictions and concerns, and one change came as the result of <br />the shelter's response to a threat of litigation by a lone animal activist from outside <br />Orange County challenging the shelter's TNR program. <br />Strained relations between OCAC and rescue organizations are detrimental to the <br />operations of the shelter and ultimately to the welfare of animals under the shelter's care. <br />ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY 2022 12023 PAGE 12 OF 51 <br />
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