Buena
SAFE Volunteer
No horse will ever teach you as much as your first horse.
Posts: 1,929
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Post by Buena on Oct 5, 2009 19:16:20 GMT -5
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Post by schwung on Oct 5, 2009 20:11:42 GMT -5
I am really worried about this. Everyone seems to be focused on the shelter and the dogs and cats, and I agree that's a huge issue. But no one is talking about what will happen to the field officers who cover livestock and horses as well as dog bites and anything non-shelter related. Who will people call when they see a starving horse in King County after November 1st?
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Buena
SAFE Volunteer
No horse will ever teach you as much as your first horse.
Posts: 1,929
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Post by Buena on Oct 5, 2009 20:20:49 GMT -5
Yes, exactly.
Chelsea, you keep us posted if you need us to network for you!
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Post by winterlakesfarm on Oct 5, 2009 21:06:13 GMT -5
There are a great many bad things about the Humane Society option.........number one being they handle 7000 animals a year already. We handle 13000. If Brenda "steps up" to be the "only option" (she recently sent out a 6 page letter trying to force the County to only deal with her) she wants the County to give her millions to do it and she is not subject to ANY of the rules the County placed on us that ultimately hamstrung the ability for us to do our jobs. She has 52 dog cages. Guess how many we have..........yep you guessed it.....52. Sigh. Bless her "fundraising potential in the making" heart but without a new facility(which is all we needed too by the way) she cannot do it any better than we could. Indeed where would the 6000 animals she is caring for go if she takes on the 13000 we handle? Her staff recently voted to be unionized so that they could have a voice- she makes them all sign non-disclosure contracts at the time of hire- they are saying there is no way in hell they can do what she is wanting them to. Of course until their union vote is ratified they dare not say it publically or they lose their jobs. Well over 60 employees have come and gone in her time as leader. Scary number isn't it? They have the same amount of disease that we do and their euthanasia rate is comparable to ours even though we are an open admission shelter and take pit bulls that pulled down granny in the front yard and ripped her ears off(true story) and she gets to pick and chose what she takes(i.e. little fluffy stuff). If you read her letter she is already stating that she is not "legally bound" to meet the County's euthanasia stats. She says she will, but the Tacoma Humane Society recently backed off of their "No Kill" policy because they could not meet their stats without warehousing animals. It is an impossible task - ask them to produce ONE single shelter nationally that is open admission who was able to implement the things the King County Council forced on Animal Control and they cannot do it. There are cities out there who built big new shelters because they bought into the "No Kill" rhetoric and they cannot keep the lights on because of the expense of "warehousing" marginal animals that are not safe to adopt, but god forbid you would euthanize them because your stats would make you out of compliance with the law your misguided politicians passed when the "No Kill" bus came through town. It is offensive to me that Animal Control is the one County agency that is almost completely self funded- and could easily be fully funded if they would give us enough staff to enforce licensing, our deficit is 1.5 million- yet they will close us, and we will lose our jobs. Yet they will offer 2 million to Brenda, (1/2 a million more than we need to stay open next year), who has no more cages than we do, to do the same thing. People will lose jobs(we have people with over 20 years in serving the County) and families will lose houses because they will not give us 1.5 million to remain open and serving the community- yet Brenda Barnette will get 2 million and she pics and choses which animals she will take?!?!? However as Executive Triplett pointed out she is not the only person at the table wanting to take on the Animal Control/Sheltering for King County. I do not think this is over yet......please do not use Brenda's blog as the only source of information.... www.kcanimalcontrol.blogspot.com is another source to offset what is in the media.
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Post by coconut on Oct 5, 2009 21:21:35 GMT -5
I would totally like to see KCAC stay intact AND get the money they need to keep going RIGHT!! I support the work done there...so much so that I offered to work in licensing enforcement...but I fear they may have found me just a tad too overqualified to do the door-to-door stuff. BUT I WANTED TO!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT to see AC get money...I see where it goes and the quality folks who make it all happen. You have a vocal supporter in King County. I'd like NOT to see it privatized unless doing so would IMPROVE the stats! Which reminds me...I'm probably coming by tomorrow
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Post by winterlakesfarm on Oct 5, 2009 21:32:02 GMT -5
As far as starving horses after Nov 1st- no worries there yet. We are actually open until next June. We just have to move out of the flood zone before Nov 1st.
Field Services will still be available this winter!
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Post by schwung on Oct 5, 2009 21:35:51 GMT -5
Well that's good, but how is Seattle Humane going to help with horses after June next year??
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Post by winterlakesfarm on Oct 5, 2009 21:42:37 GMT -5
LOL good question......I do not honestly think it will come to that. There will be more things I will be able to discuss later but honestly there are other options than the Seattle Humane Society.
All of that being said I should add the staff of the SHS is WONDERFUL. I have worked with some of them and talked to many others and like all shelter workers they have a very real passion for animals and the community. They do a hard and thankless job for very little money because they genuinely care for animals and people.
All the people here should feel free to voice their concerns and ideas to their local council members and to the Executive, who despite the recent decisions is really not a bad guy. He recently stepped up and took a bullet from the Council and stood up for KCACC employees. In fact he is a pretty good guy who is having to deal with a mess that was handed to him that was certainly not of his making. He is doing the best he can with what he has.
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dawn
New BB Member
Posts: 7
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Post by dawn on Oct 5, 2009 22:34:10 GMT -5
thanks for the update WLF!
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Post by jennywho on Oct 6, 2009 0:01:14 GMT -5
Another plug for the SHS. I have talked to staff there a couple of times and they were awesome. I was very impressed.
WLF I sure hope it all works out for the best. I can't imagine having as stressful of a job as you do and having to deal with all of the political bs to boot.
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Post by cat67 on Oct 6, 2009 14:07:52 GMT -5
Closing KCAC is the dumbest idea ever and in the world of politics, that is saying something.
People here are clueless. KCAC runs a WONDERFUL shelter. Compared to the Los Angeles shelters, you could eat off the floor at King County's shelter! And their employees ACTUALLY LIKE ANIMALS and aren't just drawing a paycheck.
All I can say is, if you're in KC, don't vote for Dow Constantine. Idiot.
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countrygirl
Junior BB Member
Little Miss Kahlua!
Posts: 71
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Post by countrygirl on Oct 6, 2009 14:16:24 GMT -5
Wow- I think that these people are just dumb. These animals need as much help as possible! I actually ran across a horse cruelty case myself the other day- and I took the problem into my own hands. But not all of these animals are going to get help right away, and we need these shelters! All animals do- dogs, cats, horses... Llamas even! Yes- I saw somebody neglect two llama's, and those llama's are now safe, but I do not think they should have ended up like that. I also rescued a cat that was abandoned and starved and nursed him back to health and now he is in a good home.
But I think that all these animals need a good place to go, I think that closing KCAC is the dumbest thing ever.
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Post by schwung on Nov 10, 2009 11:52:51 GMT -5
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Post by hollynanne on Nov 10, 2009 12:45:29 GMT -5
It sounds like they need a manager with a better overall plan of caring for the animals, maintaining the facilities, workers and fundraising!!
After the hurricane in 2004, Escambia county (Pensacola Florida) was at a 96% euthanasia rate (inc. injuries, rabies, etc). 96%! Their conditions were awesome. Those were the cleanest cages/runs/etc I have ever seen! They were over 200% max capacity, because of the hurricane.
I guess I just don't understand why it had to get that bad and why they were $2M in the red every year. Counties with more "animal control problems" and WAY less money county-wide don't seem to be having the problems King county is having...
It sounds like it is/was a priority issue. I guess it doesn't matter now, does it... What a bunch of crap...
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Post by drsgjunky on Nov 10, 2009 12:45:38 GMT -5
How would this effect (horse/livestock) neglect complaints/investigations? Who (if anyone) will investigate those cases (individual towns)?
Sounds like more cracks for horses to fall through.
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