Between October 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012, Lake Co Animal Services in FL took in 13,527 animals. A recent audit revealed that 1609 of them remained unaccounted for. The pound’s recordkeeping is so slipshod that the species isn’t even reliably accurate on any given animal (e.g. cats identified by staff as dogs).
The pound is not air conditioned and in fact the feral cat rooms and isolation areas do not have exterior doors or windows. As such, the doors to these areas are left propped open in an attempt to get air which utterly defeats the purpose of having separate areas for feral cats and sick animals. Iso is kept dark unless a person goes in there and needs light. Every pet in the facility is caged virtually 24/7.
There was some sort of shady financial activity going on with the pound’s rescue coordinator receiving money personally in the form of “pledges”. Rescue groups have better access to the animals at the pound than the general public does and some of the animals go straight to rescue without ever being offered to the public at all.
During FY 2012, the pound killed 4571 animals. The decision process sounds to me as if it basically involved an individual walking the cages and picking pets for the kill room. The reason for killing an animal is not noted in the animal’s record.
Read the full audit here.
(Thank you Clarice for the link.)
So…people are being fired immediately for this, right? I mean, if I did my job like that, I’d be fired. And my job doesn’t involve actual life and death decisions, you know?
The audit was completed April 15th. The Rescue Coordinator they are speaking of in the audit is still in charge. Not one thing has been changed to rectify the findings in this except a fan was fixed in the cat room to blow the diseases around. There was another audit done in November. Nothing has been done on that audit either!
The shelter director resigned and her boss resigned but the woman who was funneling money into her own account and sending animals off before they were seen by the public is STILL THERE. The county needs to do something about this but as of yet, they have not said she’ll be removed or punished in any way.
I read that the resignations supposedly were unrelated to the audit – something to do with a disagreement over the way a cruelty case was handled. AFAIK, no one has been fired as a result of the audit but I’m sure locals know more and hopefully will advise us if that is incorrect or changes at some point.
“We would like this (shelter) to be as ‘low kill’ as possible.”
Quote from the new director.
http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/article_0b7f7c9d-8736-597d-b8f2-1c003f877167.html
CHANGE IS COMING!! so excited!