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Animal Shelter Advisory Committee Minutes - 05/13/2011MINUTES THE ANIMAL SHELTER ADVISORY COMMITTEE (ASAC) May 13, 2011 MEMBERS PRESENT: Julie Gibson, DVM I_: Member Marty Maxwell, Animal Welfare Organization Rep. E Member Penny Miller, Citizen -At -Large F: Citizen /Member Katrena Mitchell, Chair /Animal Services Administrator I staff Stephen Dodge, LRCA/Animal Control Supervisor staff Michael Smith, Councilor- District 1 :- Council Liaison Lou Franklin, Director of Public Health 1, staff Steven Parady, Recording Secretary !- Staff I. CALL TO ORDER Katrena Mitchell, Animal Services Administrator called the meeting to order. II. REVIEW & APPROVAL OF DECEMBER MINUTES The minutes from the ASAC Meeting on March 3 2011 were distributed and reviewed. Mrs. Maxwell made the motion to accept these minutes with a second by Dr. Gibson. Motion was carried. III. OLD BUSINESS None IV. NEW BUSINESS Councilor Smith suggested that we need a way to communicate with the public on how to adopt animals from the Animal Services Center and the Humane Society. He then explained that Dr. Gibson and he were discussing taking pictures of the animals that needed adoption and placing them in the waiting rooms of area veterinarians, thus, enabling the public to see what animals needed to be adopted. Mrs. Franklin advised that Animal Services Center does not do adoptions. Mrs. Franklin advised that there have been some changes since the last meeting and asked Ms. Mitchell to explain Facebook and Petango. Ms. Mitchell explained that PetPoint is a database that is currently being utilized at the Animal Services Center. She explained that all of the animals that are brought into the Animal Services Center are photographed and uploaded online to Petango.com for the public to see and identify their lost pets. Ms. Mitchell then explained the Animal Services' Facebook page and further stated that on this said page "there is a lot of educational information, as well as some of the animal's information" and she then gave an example. Ms. Mitchell commented about the success of the page, and Mrs. Franklin agreed with the benefits of having a Facebook page by adding "When there were wildfires in Wichita County and surrounding areas that Facebook was an asset to unite owners with their lost pets." Mrs. Miller advised that the Humane Society has been successfully using Facebook as well. Ms. Mitchell then gave out the Petango website which is " www. petango. com \wichitafallsanimalservices." Dr. Gibson questioned if the Animal Services Center could pick up animals directly from the veterinarians office because "people will bring in other people's animals because they don't want to bring the pet into animal control." Mrs. Franklin replied by requesting the public to bring the animals to the Animal Services Center so they can be identified. Dr. Gibson says she has concluded that she was just going to take the animals to ASC or have animal control pick them up because "9 times out of 10 if she did not, the animals would never get back to their owners." Ms. Mitchell advised that the ASC does have citizens that come in and do not want to leave the animals. As a result, the Animal Service Center takes their information and educates them about various methods to reunite the animals such as Craigslist, Facebook, and the newspaper (who will run their ad for free.) Mrs. Maxwell states "I don't know why people just wouldn't bring them into Animal Control." Mrs. Miller states, "Because they believe they would be put to sleep and they will be responsible for that." Ms. Mitchell explains, "If they don't bring the animals in and don't do any advertising then the animals don't get home to its owner." Dr. Gibson states, "I am thinking that it would be easier for me to take them in and have Animal Control or Humane Society pick them up." Mrs. Franklin explained that any animals inside the city limits ASC is responsible for and the Humane Society is responsible for the county animals. Mrs. Franklin furthers by stating that "Ms. Mitchell has been successful with rescue groups taking animals, and to do date, we have sent as many animals to rescue as we send to the humane society." Ms. Mitchell reiterated "tomorrow we have 7 Lab puppies flying out of Kickapoo Airport, with a volunteer company called Pilot for Paws. The company will pick the dogs up after making another stop en route to Denver, Colorado. Councilor Smith states that Ms. Mitchell should call TV stations because that would be "one heck of a story." Mrs. Franklin states that Ms. Mitchell was going to Austin one weekend and took one rescue dog with her. Councilor Smith states, "That would be great information to get to the public, because someone may be traveling for example to Houston and they may be able to transport a rescued animal. Mrs. Franklin asked Ms. Mitchell to share the story of the Border Collie that was rescued. Ms. Mitchell explains there was a Border Collie that was surrendered by its owner. This said owner had 10 animals and was a hoarder, so she surrendered her over to the Animal Services Center. This Border Collie displayed what is typical "Collie" behaviour; even with agility and obedience training this pet would still act crazy. Ms. Mitchell contacted a search and rescue agency located in Austin, TX for this pet. The dog was evaluated, trained, and now the dog is currently being utilized as a search and rescue animal in Austin, TX. Councilor Smith advised that he saw on national news a resuscitation apparatus for pets, and prior to the meeting, he was talking to Mrs. Franklin and questioning if the local fire stations had such equipment. Mrs. Franklin says that she "received an email from Chief Foster who knows that they have some but will check to see how many." Dr. Gibson advises that her clinic has already checked into that and most of the fire stations do not have resuscitation devices. Mrs. Franklin then advised Dr. Gibson that Chief Foster has already received additional resuscitation devices. Councilor Smith suggested that the ASC request resuscitation apparatus in a similar fashion to the microchip scanners. He states, "maybe a company will give us some or we can offer a challenge for the community members to donate for the devices." Dr. Gibson states that she could get them at cost. Councilor Smith says that he would like to see "one at every fire station." Mrs. Maxwell asked about the spay and neuter ordinance brought up at the last ASAC meeting and if anyone has been able to check on the ordinance. Mrs. Mitchell explained that she has been gathering information and is reviewing ordinances from Ft. Worth, Arlington, and Dallas. The information gathered to this point, is that some of the aforementioned cities have had mandatory spay and neuter laws since 2007, but they still have to euthanize animals. Mrs. Maxwell asked Mrs. Mitchell if she knew the rate of euthanziation. Ms. Mitchell states, "I do not know the rate of euthanziation and I am needing to call a few of them back because they look at it differently and will have to do some mathematics. She also says "that I would like to start with the Animals that Animal Control picks up so when they are reclaimed that they need to be spayed or neutered. " Mrs. Franklin asks Dr. Gibson if she has gotten any rabies vouchers. Dr. Gibson replies that she has only received two. Mrs. Franklin says "if we start doing the spay and neuter then I would like to do the voucher with the reclaim fee because the only other option is to put out a contract bid." Ms. Mitchell advises that the ordinances in San Antonio, TX and Lawton, OK were interesting. Lawton calls it their "breeding advertising transfer permit. " When advertising animals or giving or selling, you must have a permit and list that number in your ad. Mrs. Franklin advises that San Antonio has a litter permit, that only allows two litters per year and they advertise in the paper they must give that number or they will be ticketed. Mrs. Maxwell stated "I worry about the people who are not going to pick up animals or just dump them because didn't the paper say they had to pay to bring in animals to the Animal Services Center ?" Mrs. Franklin replies, "the ordinance says they have to but all they have to say is they are a stray and we have had them do that." Ms. Mitchell says, "we have had very few people be bothered by the 25 dollar fee." Dr. Gibson questions "how many people would surrender their animals if they had to have them spayed or neutered ?" Ms. Franklin then ask Dr. Gibson "how much was it to spay and neuture ?" Dr. Gibson explains the fees as: "cats are about 50 and dogs are more." Dr. Gibson states that if Animal Services does the voucher then maybe some veterinarians would spay and neuter at a cheaper price. Mrs. Franklin then replies that Ms. Mitchell will put an ordinance together, then meet with the stakeholders, the local veterinarians, and get feedback. Mrs. Maxwell asked if anyone has heard how Miss. Fannie's is doing with their grant. Ms. Mitchell replies that she has not heard anything. Councillor Smith questioned how the facility was doing. Ms. Mitchell replies that we have been very busy, and for the month of April the center took in 367 animals all- together, 230 dogs, 104 cats, 33 others. Councilor Smith asked what was the most exotic animal the center has taken in since the Animal Service Center has opened. Ms. Mitchell replied pigs, goats, chickens, rabbits, ferrets, and birds, she also states "we have been getting a lot of snake calls." Mrs. Miller advises that she has seen snakes in Tanglewood edition in Wichita Falls, TX edition in Wichita Falls, TX. Mrs. Franklin replied that we tell everyone that has a pet in Tanglewood to get the rattlesnake vaccine. Mrs. Maxwell asks if the Animal Services Center "gets any birds in ?" Mrs. Mitchell replies that when birds are brought in they are promptly taken to the local wild bird rescue. Mrs. Franklin then requested Ms. Mitchell to set the date for the next meeting. The next meeting, according to Ms. Mitchell, is set for the second Friday in August 2011. Dr. Gibson asked about inspection of the new facility. Mrs. Franklin advised that she was checking to determine if having Dr. Gibson inspect would be a conflict of interest, since Dr. Gibson is currently serving on the board. ADJOURN Ms. Mitchell advised that the next ASAC meeting is set for Friday August 12, 2011 at 12:00pm. Penny Miller made the motion to adjourn. Dr. Gibson seconded the motion to adjourn. Motion carried and all were in favor. irk Katrena Mitchell ASAC Chairman Animal Services Administrator Steven Parady 6 ASAC Recording Secretary Animal Services Sr. Admin Clerk Date D a6e RECEIVED IN CITY CLERK'S OF¢I�E DATE: BY: I E;