Category: Animal Shelter Operations

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Pet Limit Laws

As with most laws, pet limit laws exist because some people lack the common sense to understand their limits. This blog is the result of a seizure of 97 dogs in our community. The notion of pet limit laws is the belief that as the number of animals that increase at a residence, the issue of animal-related complaints rise. Many communities enact pet limits in preparation for the idiots who come into their communities lacking the necessary common sense needed when people group together.

Pet limit laws can be found either in the local zoning code or in the animal control ordinance. Most limit the number of pets to less than a half dozen (over six months of age). As an incentive, many communities allow people to own more sterile pets than fertile ones. The idea is that people who spay/neuter their pets are generally more responsible than those who don’t.  Exemptions are often given to people who are fostering animals for the animal shelter.

A large number of pets at a specific residence increases noise related to pets and odor related to pet waste. Given these issues, it is understandable that people make animals one of the issues that are most reported to city/county councils. The worst part of people owning too many pets is when the government has to step in. Most public animal shelters are unprepared for a large influx of animals. So it comes down to one person’s lack of common sense creates a crisis for those who have to deal with it.

If I sound a little harsh here, it is because I have dealt with my share of pet seizures resulting from stupid people owning pets. From a professional perspective, there are a lot more stupid people in our communities than you could ever imagine; unless you are living next to one, and then you know.

It will be interesting to see how our community deals with this latest seizure. Will they address pet limits due to a single idiot, or do we need a few more incidents of our shelters being overburdened?

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Am I getting Racist?

Ever since the BLM riots, I have worried that my attitude towards blacks has gotten worse. I spent much time trying to walk myself back from this racist abyss. And then I found bloggers on YouTube who shared my sentiments. They were all black, but they too were feeling Black Fatigue.

These black bloggers were feeling the same way about other blacks, but being non-white, they were free to talk about it. They, too, want to avoid what they call “ghetto blacks.” They helped me realize that I was no more racist than they were. I found kindred spirits. Everything that I was feeling about ghetto blacks was also being felt by blacks. It wasn’t a racial thing at all, it is just a feeling that good people have towards bad people; skin color plays no part. But to be fair, we have plenty of ghetto whites as well.

So, if BLM turned you into a racist, many blacks feel the same way that you do. BLM just widened the gulf between blacks and other races, including their own.

If you have been watching the news, you’ll see that the ICE protesters are following the BLM script: protest for a few hours, light a few cars on fire, then loot a few stores before heading home. And that is what makes, as the media says, a “mostly peaceful protest.” Just as BLM opened my eyes to ghetto blacks, the ICE protests have opened my eyes to the threat of illegal immigrants; it is funny how looting does that to a person.

If your cause is centered around inflicting harm on a community, you’ll never get many of us to see your cause of being anything other than domestic terrorism.

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Dog Bites on Postal Carriers

A couple of months ago, I received a postcard from the Post Office reminding residents of the need to secure their pets; dog bites rise in the summer months. Today, our local media reports that there has been a spike in the number of postal carriers being bitten by dogs. Two factors are present when dog bites occur: hot weather that makes dogs short-tempered, and irresponsible dog owners who let their dogs run loose. There isn’t much of a cure for either of these two factors…. Or is there?

I have always believed that the Postal Service holds the greatest cure to end the stupidity factor. They only need to stop mail service to the neighborhood with loose aggressive dogs, and the dog owners’ neighbors will begin the education process. In most cases, the dog owner sees his (or her) error and will comply with the neighborhood norms. If that doesn’t work, then the dog becomes a victim of the neighborhood by either someone holding the dog for Animal Control to pick up or by “accidentally” digesting food that disagrees with the dog.  Having the option of having animal control in the community is a good step in reducing incidents of extreme justice.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of pet owners who cannot overcome their stupidity and thus secures the careers of many animal control personnel. I used to meet up with postal carriers to check in with them about potential problems on their routes. No one knows the problem of loose dogs better than postal carriers: work with them to keep the mail flowing.

In communities where animal control is underfunded, I have heard about neighborhoods in which people carry weapons when going out for a neighborly walk.  Usually, the problem has to persist when neighbors resort to such activities; and yet,  the owner acts shocked when one of their dogs is the recipient of a neighbor’s bullet.   Clueless is right up there with stupidity for such people.

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Advisory Boards

Community leaders will create advisory boards to oversee governmental operations to show their openness to community input.  The one thing that many of these boards have is attracting people with special interests.  Those same community leaders aren’t smart enough to know what they have done.

It is difficult to direct a governmental operation when your advisory board does not share your vision.  The no-kill movement exasperated the problem for animal shelters when their advisory boards were led by animal rights nuts demanding that the shelter meet its 90% live release rate to satisfy the board’s directive to become no-kill.

It is very easy to get onto an advisory board.  In most cases, you just express your desire.  Since most hard-working people aren’t interested in nightly meetings, special-interest folks will pack the board.  Usually, each county commissioner or city council member appoints a person for each board.  I witnessed incidents in which members of an animal rights interest would send letters and emails to specific council members to direct their appointee.

Keep in mind, the only purpose for creating advisory boards is to make the commission or council feel better about themselves.  They have no idea as to what they have unleashed upon the departments.  I have not witnessed many effective boards because most of those boards fail to represent the citizens at large.

School Boards and Animal Shelter Advisory Boards seem to draw the moths of the liberal hivemind to them as an automobile speeding down the highway with its highbeams on.

Imagine being given the task of solving the deer overpopulation in your community and recommending a kill solution.  That is going to make your life with the animal rights members of your advisory board difficult.  I remember hunting with my father as a child in Utah.  That seemed like a good place to move to.

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Its not their fault!

I was reading comments following the recent incident of one of our police officers shooting a dog.  Many people conclude that the dog was not to blame.  On that, I agree.  Dogs become confused, especially when some stranger is yelling at them.  Time and time again we see evidence that many pet owners are not smart enough to own a dog.  Any reasonable person would realize that the best way to control your dog is with a leash.   If you can’t figure out the purpose of the leash, you should not take your dog into a crowd.

Every effort that the person attempting to control the dog made it worse.  Their excitement just further excited the dog.  During the two separate altercations that the police had with the dog, I did not hear a single person say “no” to the dog.  That is the first step in training dogs to be around people; to stop aberrant behavior.  This incident failed at all levels.

When the officer approached the dog the first time, the leash was on the dog, but no one was holding the leash.  Someone was stepping on the leash.  The officer should have seen the risk that he was entering into and demanded that someone take the leash into their hands.  It might have helped that he didn’t start with “his cop voice.”

In the second incident with the dog, the dog was off-leash.  The person near the dog could be clearly seen with the leash in her hand.  This makes no sense; the person had to be pretty stupid to take the dog off leash following the dog biting an officer just moments before.

Still using his “cop voice,” but a little more excited, the officer was yelling at the woman to hold the dog.  In addition to the woman being stupid, she was also very slow.  The dog began approaching the officer and the woman’s efforts to stop the dog only seemed to excite the dog more.

As slow as the woman was, the police officer was very quick in pumping four rounds into the dog.  Although the dog didn’t immediately die, it was in pretty bad shape.  I don’t know at what point that dog realized that he was acting badly; it is further evidence that people should be tested first before they are allowed to own a pet or have children.

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The First Climate Protester

When I was very young, maybe around 4 or 5 years old, I would get angry with my mother and go out and sit in the street in front of our home.  I might have been the first climate protester.  My mother would come outside to pull me out of the street.  I was too young to understand that sitting in the street was a stupid thing to do.  Well, actually, maybe I did.  I never once considered turning around and going back out into the street after my mother intervened.  I had gotten her attention and I was good to go.

The problem with modern-day climate protesters is that no one cares enough about them that anyone, except angry drivers, would pull them out of the street.  Once they have been pulled off the street, they get up and resume their spot in the roadway.  I find myself asking, “Where are their mothers?”  Would someone please love them enough to stop them from doing stupid things?

Sure, I want to breathe fresh air, but not from beneath the undercarriage of a passing motor vehicle.

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Controlled Substance War Story

That last blog reminded me of an incident involving controlled substances security.  Sorry! A couple of employees came to me to advise me that our veterinarian had left our controlled substances unsecured.  The veterinarian was on vacation and was the only person with the keys to the drug box.

While in the military, I spent a lot of my time studying.  I usually studied criminal investigation techniques, but I would often break from that training to pick up other useful knowledge.   As such, I learned locksmithing; to be more exact, I studied lock picking.

I simply picked the drug box lock and resecured the drugs.  When the veterinarian returned from vacation; I explained to the veterinarian what I had done.  It seems that the veterinarian only heard “lock pick” and “drug box.”

A few days later, I was visited by a trio of criminal investigators who were investigating me for breaking into the veterinarian’s drug box.  Fortunately, they got a good laugh out of it.  They went on to report my veterinarian to the State Pharmacy Board.  I don’t know what the best lesson to learn here was: to pay more attention to locking your drugs, paying more attention when your Executive Director is talking to you,  or just not being stupid (trying to get your boss fired without thinking it through).

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Hiring a veterinarian

Hiring a veterinarian can be the most challenging task that you might ever encounter. Your veterinarian will likely be your most expensive employee and the veterinarian position will be the hardest position that you will ever have to fill. During your interview with potential hires, you will keep asking yourself if there is any hope that you will get your money’s worth from that individual. Here is what you will encounter:

You need someone who can organize their time and be able to perform high-volume surgeries. But here is the kicker: they can’t be too fast or too slow. A veterinarian that needs two or three hours to complete a spay/neuter will be too ineffective on your staff; but, a veterinarian who completes surgeries within minutes will be taking shortcuts. I have witnessed veterinarians taking shortcuts in closing and substituting glue for sutures. I’ve seen organizations dealing with the bad press from people taking their pets home, only to complain about open wounds. And then the shelter has to pay for that person to take their pet to the emergency clinic to close the wound again. You can’t afford to be paying for many of those incidents. It is much cheaper to do the surgeries right, even if it takes a few minutes more.

Hiring a veterinarian is all about balance. That balance is very hard to find. As such, you need to think about “plan B.” If your local humane society operates a high-volume clinic, you might consider contracting with them for your surgeries. Some will even provide pickup and delivery services. “Plan C” is contracting with a local veterinarian who is willing to reduce their rates for a constant income source. Surgeries make up a small portion of a veterinarian’s business and you might find one who wants your business just to stay proficient.

A word of caution. Avoid “luxury veterinarians”; who might have worked at a luxury, government, or university clinic where that had unlimited resources.  There are hidden costs associated with “luxury veterinarians,” because they are used to providing deluxe services.  I discovered just how many dogs you can find with lime disease if you test for it. You are going to run up your veterinary costs if you treat every dog that comes into your shelter with lime disease. If you have the time and the money, go for it. If you are working with the same budget that I’ve had throughout my career, you have to stop short of providing luxury services.

Another word of caution is the handling of controlled substances. Although the shelter purchases the drugs, your veterinarian is the only one allowed to handle them. If you decide to fire your veterinarian, have another veterinarian in the wings to accept responsibility for the drugs. Come to think about it, you might want to schedule route drug tests for your veterinarian. I never did that and thinking back, I wish that I had.

I am going to get slightly off-topic. When I worked in Utah, employees who were in accidents when driving a government vehicle were immediately sent in for a drug test. At first thought, you’ll think that is a stupid idea, until you start to realize that the accident could have been caused by someone on drugs. Does meth make you drive a little more aggressive? I think that it might. Of course, back in those days, Utah had the third-highest meth use in the Country.

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Surveys

Just like tipping, survey requests have gotten out of hand.  I am constantly being asked via email for my opinion.  I’d like to think that someone wants to know what I think on a particular matter.  But, before I get a big head, I realize that they really are not interested in my thoughts, but my money.

At the end of the survey is a request for money.  In most cases, you can’t even submit your survey until after you’ve donated.  I’ve given up on taking surveys.  I am not interested enough in my opinion to pay for it.

The curse with giving to “good causes” is that they spring forth with more “good causes.”  The next thing, you start thinking about changing your email address.  Surveys are the same way.  One survey breeds another.

The trick is to create an email address just for this purpose; then you can focus your spam emails into one location and leave your other email addresses for more important purposes.  I’ve thought about creating an email that is SPAM@davidflagler.com, but that might be too obvious.

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There are no bad dogs.

Recently, I was contacted by a blogger who wanted facetime on my website.  I am always curious about people who approach me and want to write on my website when they have a website of their own.  In checking out his website, he had a tagline that claimed, “There are no bad dogs.”

This is the greatest lie that we can tell people.  In the same vein is when we tell people that all dogs are alike.  People usually make that claim when talking about pitbulls.  That too, is another lie.

Anyone who has worked in an animal shelter knows that pets have phenotypical and behavioral differences.  We chalk that up to genetics.  It is foolish to think that genetics does not impact behavior.  Let us face it, poodles and chihuahuas are the meanest dogs.  We chalk that up to their genetically small brains.  They don’t make the newspapers because they are too small to cause any real damage to a person.  Pitbulls are the breed most likely to cause a fatality due to their size, aggression, and numbers.  There is something about a pitbull owner that seems to think that they need to breed more pitbull mixes.  I think they are having a contest to see just how many other breeds will breed with a pitbull.

For many years, dog fighters would breed their line of pitbulls to be mean.   They would come upon a specific genetic marker for aggression and milk it. Many of the offspring of those animals find their way into animal shelters.  One of the biggest problems that we face is that most pet owners do not know how to respond to the aggression they see in their pets.  Like having a misbehaving child, they blame themselves and attempt to adapt to these new behaviours.

It is tragic the number of pitbull owners who give up their pet after witnessing numerous incidents of aggression and wait for the “the big one.”  The one action that is so severe that they are forced to surrender their dog.  That action is usually a bite so severe that it cannot be overlooked.  The victim is usually a child.

Pitbulls are not alone in being potentially dangerous.  It is the responsibility of shelter staff to see aggressive behaviour before you place the dog on the adoption row.  Too often, animal shelters are trying so hard to reach a 90% save rate that they will intentionally overlook a dog’s behaviour in hope of being able to announce they’ve become no-kill.  For that reason, maybe people should avoid a no-kill shelter fearing that their no-kill rating is more important than an adopter’s safety.

Animal shelters that adopt potentially dangerous dogs and pet owners who choose to keep a potentially dangerous dog should be charged with reckless endangerment if someone is ever injured due to their complacency.  An animal shelter is negligent when keeping a dog that has shown aggression towards their own staff.  If more shelters were held responsible for their animals that they adopt, they might reconsider the importance of being called no-kill.

Don’t get me wrong, no-kill is a good thing, if it is done in a responsible way.