The Potomac Highlands Dispatch - the online newspaper

Problems before shelter manager resigned, and after, almost as bad
Ark of Hope Rescue owner, operator weighs in on shelter happenings

Opinion by Dianne Care
Ark of Hope Rescue
MOUNT SAVAGE, Feb. 11 -- I have been reading Cumberland Chat, Times-News and the Potomac Highlands Dispatch and I kept saying that I was going to keep my mouth shut and not comment but I can’t keep silent any longer. I am not going to hide behind any silly fictitious name, I’ll tell you straight out that this is Dianne Care of The Ark of Hope Rescue. If you agree or don’t agree with me it’s ok.

God has made us all with different opinions, here is mine. I am so tired of all the “bull crap” going around and being slung back and forth, I feel it is time for people to “grow up” and pull together for the animals! Maybe my opinion might make some sense to someone out there.

First, you all know that The Ark of Hope is a no-kill rescue. In our 19 years we have never put an animal down but we have the “luxury” of being able to say that we do not have any space available, so right now we cannot accept any new animals. We run exclusively on donations and we are willing to spend thousands of dollars on one dog or cat if it means it will save its life. I am willing to keep an animal at The Ark as long as it takes to find it the right family/home. The county shelter does not have that “luxury” with either space or money. Now please hear me out…

Since Camille Carrico resigned as Allegany County Animal Control Office Manager, there have been a lot of changes at the facility. Some very good changes. Others are really starting to upset a lot of good, animal loving people. If Camille were here she would agree that she and I did not see eye to eye on many matters, but while she was there, the shelter was run primarily by the specific laws / rules of the county.

The question of how many animals were being put to sleep was always a huge conflict! But when it came to adoptions, the proper precautions were being conducted. Sometimes she was considered to be too strict in adoption. Making sure the people coming to adopt were checked out not to have had a past animal conviction. She made sure that their other animals at their home had up to date rabies vaccinations, it was checked that the adoptive family did live at their given address or if they rented that the landlord had given them written permission that they could bring an animal into the home, etc. And yes, sometimes it was hard to adopt an animal from the shelter, but I believe that if you really want to adopt an animal you will understand that all the “red tape” that you have to go through is for the benefit of the animal being adopted and for the new family.

At the same time the number of euthanizes was insane!

Now, I understand that some of the animals are being adopted without the above county adoption criteria. I myself have talked to a couple new adopted families that called The Ark of Hope Rescue with questions for help about their pets (how to handle different problems that they were having). One family said that when they adopted their new pet, the person at the counter gave her the papers to sign. The shelter never asked for a utility bill or any other means to show proof of residence. When I asked if the person went in the file room to check the files…she said that the person never left the counter, he never asked if they had other animals at home, etc. I know that two of the new adoptive families should never have been allowed to adopt since they both have had pass conflicts with the shelter (citations) with the way they “did not care for the past animals correctly,” they are on file.

That’s another problem; the “volunteers” are now doing the adoptions! They have the right to go into the file room and go through any of the files. Do you have a file at the Animal Shelter? How does it make you feel knowing that anyone can go and look at the information in the folders? I have been told that those folders are public records! I am not very versed on privacy laws but that doesn’t seem right to me!

Now I feel that the “new” policy on adoptions is “to get as many animals as possible out the door to make room and with no regards to the animals future just to show numbers…numbers being adopted and not euthanized.” There are other ways of making numbers happen. First and for most, the animals future and well being should always be put ahead of just being another number going out the door!

Another way animals are being pushed out the door improperly… I have always been told the shelter’s policy on stray animals that come into the shelter is that they must be held for five days before they are placed up for adoption. There are animals that are being brought in as strays and are being adopted or sent out to rescues in one to two days! There was a brown Himalayan Cat, neutered and front declawed that came in as a stray on, let’s say a Thursday. On Friday, a lady called me at The Ark of Hope and asked if I had her lost, declawed, neutered, Himalayan cat.

I told her no but asked her to email me a picture….Saturday I found out that the cat was at the shelter and was adopted on Friday! When I told someone at the shelter that owner was looking for that Himalayan I was told to tell them to call on Monday to see if it was still there, when it was known that that cat had already been adopted out only one day after it arrived! Of course, the lady did not get her cat back.

Someone else brought in a dog that they said they found and had for two days, they couldn’t keep it so they took it to the shelter on let’s say a Thursday. Saturday they came back and wanted to adopt the pup. He was there two days, was that enough time for the owners to find him? These are not the only two animals that this has happened to. If someone wants to adopt an animal they can and will wait a couple of days so procedures can be done correctly, to give the owners a chance to retrieve their pets. I have been told that adoption “paper work” is being signed ahead of time and is being left so if an animal is being adopted the acting manager does not have to be there, the papers are already signed.

Who is going to be held accountable when one of the owners find out that the shelter has adopted their pet out without holding them for the five day hold period? Or what about when a dog or cat that has biten is adopted out and then bites his new owner or a child. Isn’t there something about liability, if the animal was adopted and it’s past aggressive behavior was not fortold to the new adoptive family? Oh my!

The problems that the shelter had prior to Camille’s resignation and the problems it is having now is almost as bad! One group is not the reason the shelter is remaining open. It is all the hard work that has been done and is continually being done by the small staff that is there and the dozens of volunteers.

Right now the shelter is in bad shape with the staff situation. One control officer is out on maternity leave; the other just came back against her doctor’s advice and is on light duty. The kennel tech has been out after being injured at work (not by an animal). She has just returned, on light duty. What the heck! If it wasn’t for the volunteers, the doors would have had to have closed. So everyone, yes Allegany County, owes all the volunteers and the small staff a great big Kudos!

But on the other hand if the bickering, cat fighting (not the animals), gossiping, back stabbing, nasty emailing, etc. doesn’t stop there won’t be any volunteers left.

Or is that the plan? Are the volunteers who think differently to some, are they being weeded out? A lot of good animal loving volunteers have already left because of different situations that have happened and others are on the door step, saying just one more thing and I’m out of here.

The media whores need to step back and realize that it is going to take volunteer hands, from all different ways of thinking to work together not as a single or as a small group but as a whole group working to help each other and the animals!

What the volunteers may not realize is the community is watching and listening. And the people that wanted to help, wanted to see the shelter become a no-kill and see the shelter “grow” are now saying that too many people are making matters worse.

The volunteer program could and should be a good thing for the shelter but there seems to be no authority supervising them, training them, assisting them, and making sure that the county’s safety procedures are being followed. The volunteers are supposed to fill out a volunteer application then sign a liability waiver. Ask how many had actually have done that. I was there one day when a person came in that wanted to volunteer and asked what should they do, what paper work did they have to do. They were answered, don’t worry about it, just come on back, we just do what we want to do!

Volunteers have been told not to take out some of the dogs that may not be safe, they take them out anyway. Volunteers have been given keys to the shelter so that they can go in whenever they want to go and walk the dogs. In the evening when there is no county staff there, people are going in, taking dogs outside, children nine to ten years old are walking dogs…Who is going to be held accountable when, not if, but when someone gets hurt. Volunteers are to keep the dogs apart from each other and there have been dogs fights because they have come in contact with each other. Dogs have gotten loose; they have pulled people down while they are being walked outside, etc. Volunteers are asking their friends to come out too, again no papers signed and no county staff there in case something happens.

This is a disaster waiting to happen! I have asked a few people why the County Administrator David Eberly, the County Attorney Bill Rudd, acting Shelter Manager Dick Devore, the County Finance Director Jerry Frantz is allowing this to happen? I was told that they know about it, they have had phone calls about it.

When someone files a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the county and the animal shelter, guess whose taxes are going to pay for that! There needs to be supervision and rules and policies MUST be followed.

This controversy about our county shelter becoming a no-kill shelter or not is getting way-out-of hand. It’s not us against them! For God’s sake, no one wants to kill healthy, adoptable animals-well maybe one person does-but he needs to open his heart and allow himself to be educated! I would like to see the Allegany County Animal Shelter become a no-kill but it is going to take a lot of work and I’m not sure this county will be able to do it.

People are going to have to understand that at times there will be animals that will be euthanized! This county has an open door shelter program. If there is no room left, no rescues with openings, fosters are full then decisions will have to be made according to the county shelters rules on euthanasia. Animals are being sent out of state, out to other rescues, fosters, etc there maybe a time when all the rooms are full and a group of six stray dogs or cats come in. They MUST be held for five days, what is going to happen to produce six rooms.

Spring is on its way (I hope) and with spring comes kittens, many litters of kittens! And with kittens, overcrowding and stress comes “Upper Respiratory Infections” better known as URI. In just a few weeks the shelter had, between a couple of sick dogs and all the cats with URI over $7,100.00 of vet bills. That is not counting what was done for free. Thank God the Allegany County Animal Shelter Management Foundation paid that vet bill for the county. But what would have happened if they didn’t? They can’t do that all the time. Is the county going to be able to finance these vetting bills?

And like I said the kitten explosion has not happened yet, but it will be coming. There is not an empty cat cage now. Cats are being kept in these tiny cages. Where are they going to put all the spring kittens? There will have to be a decision made whether any of us like it or not. And people will have to understand that everyone is doing their best but there may be times that we will lose a couple for no good reason other than for space and rules.

Then don’t blame the shelter for this. Put the blame where it is deserved, the community, and the public! Blame the owners that will not spay or neuter their pets. Blame the owners that “toss” their pets out and do not take responsibility for them. Not the shelter, they are doing everything possible.

Why do we have to put a name on the shelter “No-Kill”? Why can’t we have a shelter that tries to find every animal a good home, tries not to euthanizes healthy, society safe animals. A shelter that works hard on transferring some of the animals to reputable rescues and fosters.

May God help the new Shelter Manager when he or she starts the new job! It is going to take someone that has experience running a shelter and someone that knows how to work with groups of people, organizing them, pulling them together and getting them to work together as a team! Not someone who has a foster rescue for a year or a transport group. I am not trying to step on anyone’s toes or be degrading but it is going to take a very strong person to take control, someone who will “run” this county shelter. And that person will need every one of us to help.

It is going to be a lot of very hard work getting the shelter to be a real no-kill facility in this area. First, the community is going to have to be educated of the idea of “no-kill.” It does not mean that there won’t be animals humanely put down sometimes! You cannot save every animal! If there was an unlimited amount of money, space, staff and volunteers it would be a lot easier to achieve it; right now that is not realistic. But if the community can or will work together including the shelter management, staff, volunteers, local veterinarians, the mass public, the county commissioners, other rescue groups, etc. we can come pretty close. If we can all WORK FOR THE ANIMALS! Not for individual self gratification!