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 As a unionized organization, limitations exist which impact the assignment of human resources within the shelter's organization and daily operations. Staff are siloed into operational categories and job functions, which limits managerial flexibility in their ability to respond to special operational needs. An inflexibility in management's ability to respond to vacancies in Animal Care Attendant staffing is one such example. Staffing limitations and operational inflexibility has resulted in instances of inefficient allocation of shelter human resources. Moreover, labor rules limit shelter volunteers from performing certain duties that must be performed by shelter employees. Volunteers are drawn to the shelter out of a desire to work and care for the animals. Restricting volunteers from lending a hand when they see the need is disheartening to the volunteers. Animal Care Attendants Animal care attendants at OCAC provide the direct, daily care of the animals. They attend to several areas of responsibilities: • Intaking animals brought to the shelter by the public or impounded by animal control or the cities, entering information about the animal into the shelter's data base, and taking pictures of the animals. • Feeding and watering of all the shelter's animals — domestic, exotic, and wild. • Cleaning and disinfecting kennels, cages, corrals, and equipment and maintaining the general cleanliness of the shelter's kennel facilities. • Monitoring, documenting, and reporting on the health and well-being of sick, exotic, and quarantined animals; reporting any abnormalities or changes in condition to veterinary staff. • Assisting with animal adoptions, including providing counseling on breed characteristics, matching and introducing the appropriate animal to the potential adopter, and instructing adopters in basic animal care. • Grooming the animals for the health and comfort of the animals. • Responding to public inquiries about legal retention, adoption procedures, basic animal care, and behavior. Animal Care Attendants may be assigned into any one of three areas of responsibility: Intake, Cat Team, or Dog Team. Usually, Intake has two Animal Care Attendants assigned to -it; they -may -receive 30 to 60 animals per day. The Cat Team is responsible - - for the kennel areas -housing cats, kittens, rabbits, guinea pigs and other animals. Their duties include cleaning and feeding, enrichment, adoption and the other activities discussed above. The Dog Team is responsible for the kennel areas housing dogs. Their duties include cleaning and feeding, enrichment, adoption and the other activities noted above. _ In 2016, OCAC brought in professional consultants to provide recommendations for a --2018 Strategic Plan. One of the consultant's recommendations was for the shelter to increase staffing allocation to 26 Animal Care Attendant positions. OCAC did not implement that recommendation. Additionally, the consultant recommended the shelter follow the Association of Shelter Veterinarians (ASV) Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters. Those practices include National Animal Control Association (NACA) ORANGE COUNTY GRAND JURY 2022 12023 PAGE 14 OF 51