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Animal Shelter Advisory Committee Minutes - 09/20/2024 The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Nicki Bacon City Official LRCA Samuel Jones Animal Services Operator Dr. Bryan Wade Veterinarian COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Amber Browning At Large Michelle Pohlman Animal Welfare OTHERS PRESENT: Tom Taylor District 5 City Councilor Amy Fagan Director of Public Health Katelyn Locy Senior Admin Clerk Jan Herzog P.E.T.S.Underdog Express Liaison Karen Hamlin Citizen Carol Covey Citizen I. CALL TO ORDER Nicki Bacon,Chair,Called the meeting to order. II. STATEMENT OF MEMBERS AND GUESTS PRESENT All members were present except for the following;Amber Browning and Michelle Pohlman. All guest's names were stated,and none were missed. IILREVIEW&APPROVAL OF NOVEMBERS MINUTES The minutes from the ASAC Meeting from April 2024,were distributed and reviewed.A motion was made to accept these minutes by Samuel Jones,with a second following by Dr Bryan Wade. The motion was carried. IV.OLD BUSINESS There was no Old Business to discuss V. NEW BUSINESS A. Ordinance Changes The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Ms.Bacon states that herself and Mrs.Amy Fagan have brought this in front of the board of health.There were some changes that needed to be made. Everyone was given a copy of the changes made The first change that was made to Ordinance 14-5"Interference with Duties"section B.It used to state "The person who commits an offense if he or she fails to comply with any lawful order of the above stated"and did not state what the"above stated"was.We have now added in that in parenthesis 14-4; which is"Responsibility to enforce police powers".This now allows us to know what the"Above stated" meant. Ms.Bacon continues by going over the second change.This was made to Ordinance 14-10"Owner Surrendered Animals".We have added for those who are surrendering a litter of puppies or kittens they will be required to have a prepay and appointment day set at the time of surrender for the mother dog within thirty days of surrendering.This will include turning in current rabies and city license. Additionally,we are adding that they are required to attend the responsible pet ownership course. The purpose of this is to help educate them and so they are not surrendering multiple litters. The next change is made to Ordinance 14-14"Animal Adoption Policies",we removed the portion where it states"All animals in the home must be spayed/neutered and microchipped".We felt as this was a burden do our adoption process,citizens were stating things such as;"Well If I'm adopting a male cat and I have a male cat in the house why is this being required". In addition,we have added in number 4,which states that in the event that an animal less than 6 weeks of age is adopted it is required that the animal of the opposite sex in the home is spayed/neutered.This helps us diminish the possibility of pregnancy with adopted animals. The third change made is under Ordinance 14-17"Responsible Pet Ownership Program". We added under the eligibility section,any individual who surrenders a litter of puppies or kittens and has previously surrendered one or more puppies or kittens within the past 36 months,are required to take the Responsible Pet Ownership Course. Ms.Bacon corrects prior statement in regards to Ordinance 14-10,she states that citizens are only required to take responsible pet ownership class if they have previously surrendered within the last 36- month period. Moving on to the Dangerous Dog License Requirements,we have removed the portion where it stated to register the dog on the national registry.This is due to the National Registry no longer existing. In addition,we used to require that they have$750,000 worth of insurance,we have no lowered that to $500,000.This is due to being unable to locate an insurance company that would give them the$750,000 coverage that was required. The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Now under Ordinance 14-335"Declaration of a Dangerous Dog",prior it had just stated"If the determination of the Health Director is overturned...".We have now added"or Designee".This allows someone to be designated if the Health Director is unavailable. Lastly,we added in Ordinance 14-490 for"Seizure Warrant".Prior we did not have anything in the ordinance that covered anything expect all other portions that are already covered(For example permits and dangerous dog,etc.).So,this is for all the portions that are not specifically covered under a seizure warrant and so we are able to still obtain the seizure warrant. For example,if a dog in someone's backyard and it is emaciated and the citizen does not want to give up their animal,we can now get a seizure warrant from a judge for this situation.It will allow us to then get that animal and get it into safety.What its states is in the event of non-compliance of any portion of this ordinance by a lawful request of an officer we have the right to obtain a seizure warrant to obtain that animal. Ms.Bacon asks if there are any questions. Mrs.Herzog asks what judge issues the warrants. Ms.Bacon answers,the city judge. Councilor Taylor ask to confirm this go through the city attomey's office. Ms.Bacon confirms.Additionally adds,the board of health has already approved this. Mr.Jones makes a motion to accept the changes made to the ordinance,Doctor Wade seconds the motion. The motion carried. B. Spay & Neuter Campaign Part II Ms.Bacon begins to explain, our first part was getting with all of our rescues and those who take animals from us.Those being ELR,P.E.T.S Underdog, Humane Society,etc. So,we joined together with all of them and they agreed on helping us with this campaign for Spay&Neuter. We put all those rescues on a bar card with information about Its Hip to Snip,which is our campaign slogan. Our part 2 is to get with all of the veterinarians in our area and do the same thing as before,put all of the veterinarians on a bar card with information. Have them promote Its Hip to Snip and spread the word with the community.This allows the community to see that we are all working together to lower our stray population. Ms. Bacon asks Doctor Wade for his input on this as he has a veterinary practice here. Doctor Wade states he would agree with this idea. The Animal Services Advisory Committee (ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Mrs.Bacon continues to by stating,with the rescues we did have some incentives to participate in this. Mrs.Fagan adds in;when we had our initial meeting,Leslie had come in and one of the items we had spoken about we were limited as a governmental entity on what we can say and do. So,one of the things Mrs. Fagan appreciated was that P.E.T.S.took the campaign and spun it into something that we couldn't say but,it got a lot of attention. The created a shirt with a cuss word in it and a video,the video shoes a farmer driving through a field and then it changes into something totally different. It was a good way to take the messaging and put it into different ways. The Humane Society did do the same thing and used their own branding and their own spin on it. Mrs.Fagan believes we received a good first level message out. One of the things talked about when we had met with Leslie and all who were in the original meeting was is how to incentivize it and do something like a drawing or raffle but have it to where it is connected but not done by us as we cannot legally do so.We began to work with other entities to see if they could do that as well as promoting the campaign.They were working on ways to do this,weather it was someone seeing the campaign and they bring that in to wherever they would be getting their animals care. Then they would receive items such as a cooler,the idea was when you engage people then it becomes an item to discuss. It then becomes something that is more of a norm rather than something the City tell you like,you have to get your animal spayed or neutered. Its not just us,we all just deal with the aftermath. So,the idea was just to make it apart of the culture and to go over why we should spay&neuter. Mrs.Fagan states she fmds it interesting that one of the items discussed is,the front of our bar card has information and the back of the bar card has the barriers. Its easy to just say,"here is our message and its really important",the issues become why people aren't doing it. What is keeping people from taking action?There is so many reasons why so,the idea that we discussed in the first meeting was, if the reasoning is transportation then here are resources for that. If the reasoning is factual information about your animals'behavior then here is the information for that. Mrs.Fagan additionally adds,KAUZ and KFDX did agree to run either a 15 sec or 30 sec PSA'S for this initially so,once we get the veterinarians on board and we come back in, we will reapproach KAUZ and KFDX to do that secondary campaign. These will say; these are your local vets they are dealing with the same issue everyone else is. It's a unified message,and they should run those for us again.We are aiming for November-December,works perfectly due to people starting to get"Christmas Puppies". Mrs. Hamlin states when P.E.T.S first opened herself and Mrs. Herzog would walk the streets with brochures in the areas primarily you would not see a lot of spaying&neutering.They saw a The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 lot of response by doing that. Maybe the city could do the same,if not she believes we could round up volunteers to do so. This was also at a time when P.E.T.S was not so overloaded and when they had plenty of grants.Mrs.Hamlin continues, she is unsure on how many grants or funding they have now. Mrs.Fagan replies,as a Health Department we are located over off third street and these other things get done.Then Animal Services is part of us but,animals have also been as a side if you will. So,when we have staff out,for example today staff is at the fall market,are those staff members handing out anything that is for Animal Services. That is unknown. One of the things we really worked on is,when the staff are out doing other things(Such as a diabetes class, pain management,etc.),those same staff can easily hand out the bar cards and do why we should spay and neuter.That will be something that we will be looking at internally. Mrs.Fagan believes that we can do a better job as a Health Department of also getting that message out because,we touch a lot of lives,we are out in Burk,Electra,and Iowa Park,and so,we need to do better about getting that message out there. Mrs.Fagan continues by stating,we are with people all the time.The other piece is,his folks are with people all the time and those are initially the ones that have the lose animals or have the challenges. So,I don't know that were handing out anything as ACOs(Animal Care Officers) when we drop off a notice of violation for something else,are we also educating about spay& neuter.Mrs. Fagan says,she doesn't think we are and that is for us to begin.The next step is we have as a department 101 people and we can do more because,we are out in the community. Additionally,we could work with community volunteers to do more about that education.The challenges she sees is that here, if we have somebody who wants to reclaim an animal and they want to get spay&neuter appointment,it's a month and a half out and it's a challenge. There is a lot of demand in this community and not enough resources. Mrs.Hamlin mentions,she was started to ask Dr. Wade if he gives any kind of cut for when somebody brings in a low-income proof. Dr.Wade responds,he hasn't in the past but,he has never really been approached with that circumstance. Mrs. Hamlin states,she knows it can be hard because of the overhead but she just wondered If there is somehow give lower income people a break. Dr. Wade replies,he's unsure on how that would work,obviously we don't get the grants and the nonprofit advantages that for example P.E.T.S does. So,he believes it would have to be a matter of running the numbers and figuring out what would work. The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Mrs.Fagan adds,she believes it's a good question to ask but, she also thinks not to point out Dr Wade as a shining star,he also sits on this board and she takes her dog to his practice as citizen, and he just lost his associate vet. So,she thinks our challenge is we can't even get some of our veterinarians to talk about why rabies is "real"and why quarantining is necessary. We think we have a more universal problem of knowledge and education among our other vets and a larger problem on talking with all of the local veterinarians about rabies and why spay&neuter and go at it that way. Mrs.Hamlin agrees and says,she has been to another vet and she has seen unaltered animals come in with litters. Mrs.Fagan states that even if we could just do the education piece on the why because sometimes people don't want to make people mad,or they don't want to have those hard conversations.It's the same with quarantine,we have veterinarians actively telling people that quarantine is unnecessary or that home quarantine is just fine and"why would the city mandate that the animal need to stay with a veterinarian or at animal services the city just wants to make money" Everyone agrees we need a lot more education Mrs.Hamlin gives the idea to,this could be used as a tax write off,if maybe once a year or twice a year we have a spay&neuter day.We could do it on like a Saturday and just Spay&Neuter all day. She's unsure if the vets would go for this, and again maybe angle that towards the low- income population so we don't people from the"Country Club"bringing their animals in. In addition,maybe somehow Animal Control can get certificates from people or pass out information about when they could take their animal to whichever vet to participate. She explains this would be a big sacrifice but,that vet offices could write it off on their income tax. It would be donation and they could do either cats or dogs or both. Mrs. Fagan responds by stating, we should start with step one which is making those relationships because,a lot of our local veterinarian's offices have sold off. So,those change relationships and its time for us to reach out and make those foundational relationships and talk quarantine first.Then do this as our secondary piece once we have those,we can certainly ask those question as those relationships develop. Ms. Bacon asks if there is anything further for the Spay&Neuter Campaign. There was none. C. Shelter Update The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Mrs.Bacon begins by going over numbers,in 2023 at this time in August we had 314 owner surrenders and this year we have 313 so,that number has not really changed but shows a 2% decrease. In 2023 ACOs picked up 763 animals this year we have picked up 946,that is a 2% increase. We had 23 returned adoptions in 2023 and 45 already in 2024,that has already increased by 1%. Our front desk staff took in 1,066 in 2023 and have taken in 1,064 in 2024,that number also did not change much with a 1%decrease. We adopted out 279 in 2023 and in 2024 we are at 237,which is a 2%decrease. We euthanized 729 in 2023 and 668 this year in 2024, so we have decreased 7%. We transferred 388 animals to rescue in 2023 and this year we have done already 434, which is 2%increase.For our owner reclaims we had 395 in 2023 and we have already returned 450 this year,which is a 1%increase from last year. The ones that we don't count in our live outcome number are our DOAs(which is found dead), Feral Euthanasia, and Owner Request Euthanasia's,as those are elderly,cancer,stuff that we are just doing a service. In 2023 we had 18 DOAs this year we have only had 8. 204 feral euthanasia's this year we have 371,we have gone up 8%there.Owner request euthanasia we had 153 last year this year we have 176,there was no percent increase it stayed the same. Last year at this time we had 2,166 intakes as a whole,this year we are already at 2,365,so we have increased significantly from our intakes as of last year to this year. Ms.Bacon explains that the reason why the numbers are so skewed here is because,here we still have animals that are in the shelter. That total being 21 animals being in the shelter,some from April,June,July,and August. That is why the numbers don't add up at the bottom but,they will at the end of the year once all the animals have an outcome. Our live outcome rate for 2023 was at 59%and this year so far,we are at 63°•o so, at least we have increased our live outcome by 4%. Ms. Bacon states,she has also included a section that was just dogs and cats,that way our wildlife(Such as skunks)are not included in our live outcome number, for those just care about the dogs and the cats. For just dogs and cats our live outcome is 62%,the other animals did help our live outcome rate because,we had adopted out animals such as rabbits and snakes. Ms. Bacon asks if there are any questions. Mrs. Fagan states that the turnaround is amazing,before the shelter's numbers were 60-70% being euthanized and now its the other way around. Ms.Bacon says,that when she first started the live outcome rate was around only 40%and that was around 6 years ago. The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Mrs. Hamlin mentioned,to get those numbers down as we all know is not just spay&neuter, its also adoption. She is also fostering a dog that she got from animal services.If anybody would have known about him,he may have just been adopted. He knows basic commands,he's around 3 years old,has no issues with cats. Mrs. Hamlin wonders in places such as Mexico,who have a horrible reputation when animals,they have an empty channel(TV Channel),and all they did was come out and show every animal in that shelter that was available. Ms.Bacon responds by stating,we do weekly with both stations(Pet of the Week). Mrs.Hamlin explains,the difference is when they did it,it was for all the adoptable animals in the shelter,people would tell her they would watch that like a fishbowl. These videos were just continually looped,showing these wonderful animals and talking about them. She's unsure if there is an empty channel in the city that would do that. Mrs.Fagan states,the city used to have channel 11 and they got rid of that.The only thing they do now,is they have a YouTube Channel. Its unsure if we can run things perpetually,she thinks its just the videos that they upload. They do upload out Pet of the Week and other things. Mrs. Hamlin states we really do need one. Mrs.Fagan replies agreeing we do,as there are some pretty amazing animals here and its just that they would spend a few minutes watching them or seeing them. Ms.Bacon continues by saying,at one point we did think about doing a Facebook live and putting it in the kitten room and just having it continuously run on live. Then when cleaning needed to happen we could add"We are taking a break for cleaning"and then come back when cleaning is done. So,we have thought about that, and now since we have a shelf in their we could just take one of the Ipads and put it on there. Mrs.Hamlin adds,that could even be done in the yard as well with dogs. Mrs.Fagan states,one of the things she does want to say is the number of animals that go out of this facility via transfer out to our rescue groups,is just amazing. She remembers sitting in this room 8 years ago and talking about how we didn't have those partnerships. We are extremely thankful. Ms.Bacon says,434(animals)in 8 months is a lot. Our rescue groups have really stepped up. The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Mrs. Fagan agrees,she says our numbers would not be where they are at without those groups. Its amazing to her.Not to go back to our original discussion but,the adoptions being down is what prompted the proposed ordinance modifications.Due to the fact that this is concerning and its so frustrating for staff,when more animals come in then go out. So,we keep seeing our adoption numbers decrease and its frustrating.We have done more adoption events now then we have ever have before. That's why,Katelyn(Locy) is in her Hockey jersey because,this week is dog's vs cat's,we are doing a home coming theme and half price adoptions.That one of the reasons why,Mrs. Fagan,really hopes with the less strict ordinances on adoptions we will get more animals adopted. People will just flat out tell us,"I don't want spay and neuter the other animals in my home"then,they go somewhere else that doesn't require that.That tends to be very challenging,not getting our animals adopted because, we do have some great ones. Mrs.Herzog agrees,and adds that it is not unusual that when they post an animal saying they got the animal from animal service but, is now with their rescue,now people want to adopt. In addition,that's not really their practice, as they really want to send them out of state. It's like, the people don't want to come, they don't want to get sad by seeing the ones they can't take. Mrs. Herzog believes that Mrs.Hamlin is really onto something with some kind of video showing the animals and maybe a Facebook life would be an easy way to do that. Ms.Bacon continue by saying,she's not sure how we would do it for dogs, it was stated to do it out in the yard but we can't leave an Ipad out there.We could possibly do it during the day. It would just be a Facebook live and we could turn it on when we did a meet and great,or when we just take a dog out there. Mrs. Hamlin asks if we have a barn cat program. Mrs.Bacon states that we do.With the barn cat program,you are required to adopt two as well. This helps with getting more out and people do participate in the barn cat but,a lot of people I think have that mentality that if you live out in the country that's the only way they can do this. Mrs.Fagan adds, when we bought this land (The City of Wichita Falls)then intent at that time we were partnered with the Humane Society,we had a contractual relationship with them.They were going to build a facility on this property when we built a facility on this property.That didn't work out and that is fine but,now we have land. Mrs.Fagan has been pounding the pavement a little bit to talk about doing something. This idea first came up when a presentation was made about the parks master plan.About two council meetings ago they were talking about dog parks,everyone wants a dog park,and the citizens are the reason we have a dog park over on southside.Now they are building a new one over on MLK. So,we have talked as a staff about The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 some kind of dreams for this facility because,we ae going to start writing some grants and hoping we will have some dollars or get in the parks master plan. Mrs. Fagan continues,she has approached the assistant city manager,parks director,and property management person to see if its even possible. We want to extend this parking lot that the staff use and then Sam(Mr.Jones)had this fun idea to make like a dog run out back for our dogs that are here in the facility because,the get to know area out here is great but, its pretty small. Especially if you are a larger dog and you want to run around and do all the things. So, Sam had dreamed a dream and so,we believe we can put in like U shaped.Then staff or volunteers can take the dogs out there and they can just run around. That would also be a cute way to showcase them,there is nothing more fun than a dog just running having fun at this facility. It's so hard to film in this facility. So,the idea is to clear our all the area and build a dog park out there, that's the dream. Councilor Taylor responds and states, yesterday they have already spoke about the dog park that is going to be built,it's going to have separated areas for small and large dogs,with included control access.This is where you go into a locked small area before entering or existing the park. Outside of that amenity,at the moment there is nothing more planned.Councilor Taylor would say the timing would be a Iittle late to add into the master plan but, on Wednesday there is a committee meeting open to the public about updates over the master plan and where we are at. So,that would be good. We could get a third dog park over here, and it be joint with the shelter. One of the early steps would be trying to calculate a cost. Since we own this land that is one big step taken already. Councilor Taylor states,he wouldn't think unless there is some crazy regulation that basically outside of a little concrete and the fencing that we would need,generally speaking it does not sound like an expensive project.Now,the city is looking at forming a park foundation,the goal of this park foundation is to solicit donations from the public.Now this foundation is still in the early planning stages,and most likely wont move forward until after the master plan has finished being presented. That being said,we have a 4B Board and a 4A board, particularly the 4B Board that has a fair amount of money to help promote the city.They do also work with park stuff in a particular sport complex they had put in like a million dollars. That would be something that Councilor Taylor would be in favor of something like that. It does two things, it helps the cities obligation right here at Animal Services plus citizens would have access to it. This would also allow the city to have one over by Lake Wichita part of town, then the one over on north side,and then have one on this side of town.At yesterday's meeting,the question came up amongst the member ship,well why don't we have another one(speaking about a dog park). The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Mrs. Fagan states,that she has talk to Blake and few others and it just all kind of came up in the last one when he was presenting at the council meeting. So,it was something that we had talked about and talked about as a team,about our long-term dreams,hopes,and aspirations. It would be amazing if we could get that to happen. We have all this property let's use it. Councilor Taylor adds,of course part of the budget, with the developing budget,they go out to the staff with the items they request and towards items we would like to have if money were available.If nothing else that's a starting place. Councilor Taylor believes in the short term perhaps,most likely would be 4B. Ms. Bacon continues,on the topic of"if we had money",there is a citizen here Ms. Covey that wanted to speak about something. Ms.Covey states,she did not want to speak today she believed it would be prudent to sit in and to look,learn,and listen.To see everything that was going on. Last month she had adopted out a cat and it did not go well, it did end with having to euthanize the animal.Wanted to see the subject of money,will always come up. Having the animal looked at by a veterinarian would have saved herself and her family tons of heartbreak. The animal's hips were not correct,they were disintegrating in her socket. The day before she was going into have the surgery,she got sick and she started vomiting everywhere,and there was no reason to have her continue that so they had opted to put her to sleep. Ms.Covey just wonders if a veterinarian to be put on staff with the city is not an option,what other options are available to us to help make sure we are adopting healthy adoptable animals. Her kids are older and they understood that Alex(The animal adopted)was sick but,what happens when herself gets attached and has her five-year-old is just sitting there crying because "mommy brought home a new animal and it wasn't healthy".This was her main concern. Ms.Bacon agrees and as that is 100% a valid concern.We have a very well-educated Adoption Supervisor who,she's not a veterinarian but, she can tell when an animal may have an issue. Overall though we cannot guarantee that as we are not medical professionals,if they look,sound, feel healthy and they are great with our staff or great with another animal,those are the things that we look at when we are assessing an animal to go into our adoptions program. We do vaccinate on intake and our animals in adoptions we do booster vaccination if they stay past about two weeks. This ensures that they continue to stay healthy in our care. We additionally do a heartworm test(For Dogs)prior to them leaving.Anything internally, like muscular or in this case bone degeneration, is very hard for us to tell because we do not have that veterinarian on staff. The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 Ms. Bacon adds that we test for FLV and FIV in our cats. So,we can tell those things when it comes to the health of the animal. We have adopted animals with heartworms before,but we advised them(The Adopters)of that information and treatment would be on them to continue.As far as getting a veterinarian on staff,we have put it in our above current budget. We did a RFP, which was around 20 pages on why we need a veterinarian,and this is what it would cost. This would not be a full-time veterinarian,as we do not have the spacing for an office but somebody that could go through and evaluate the animals and do further tests that we cannot do.We do advise adopters that animals are basically"as is"from what we can see,and they may have. Right,it's just an item that we have put in in our above current. If an animal does come in injured we have donations that we used for vet care or we have set aside funds for veterinarians.When we run out of funds,we do have rescues that will take the animals for us and get donations to treat them.We just had a dog that had a broken leg,it was broken in two places, and Emily's Legacy took.They had$6,000 worth of donations given by citizens for this dog.Those are the little ways that we can help.As far as getting a veterinarian here logistically and financially that's where we would have to look. Ms. Covey states that's why she wanted to come to sit in this meeting as it sounds like we have done a lot of things over the years for animal welfare. So,the idea is just to continue going on that route to push towards it. Ms.Covey asks what people's reasons are for not spaying&neutering their animals,that we had to change the verbiage there. Ms. Bacon responds by saying,we have had people say,"It will take the manhood away from my animal"and"I wouldn't take my own manhood away". We have also heard that it will change their whole personality or there is no reason for them to do that because I don't have any other animals in my home. When we had the requirement to have all the other animals in the home be spayed or neutered then they wouldn't do that either. Most reasons come up with "ignorance". Mrs.Fagan adds that cost and time are other factors as well.We are finding people are just different with different opinions.This is not a new problem,it's been a problem for a long time but,even the demeanor of the people that we work with has changed since Covid. People's experience with animals during Covid has changed. During Covid people needed animals because they were at home,and they weren't out doing things. Then we saw people giving us their animals because they were over it,they wanted to travel or just live life. So,it's been a very interesting change over time. That's one of the things that Katelyn does at the front desk;she collects data about the"why".Why is someone turning in their animals or why do they choose not to adopt. We are doing a better job at getting the date and really looking at that data because The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 it's hard and it can be incredibly hard on staff. Someone came in one day and turned in an 8-yr old beautiful Golden Retriever and they turned the dog over with the reason that the dog is getting older,and they didn't want to deal with the vet bills that come along with age. Mrs.Fagan states that she had to sit there and watch that person bring the dog,then watch the staff member come get the dog and walk the dog down the hallway with the dog looking back at the owner. It's heart breaking and so,we want to answer those questions too because we want to try and combat where we can,where there is ignorance,where we educate.We always want to try and educate first. It's possibly just some of the cultural changes in our society. Councilor Taylor agrees. Mrs. Covey agrees as well and states she honestly can't fathom that as she has an 11-year-old mastiff that is on a chicken noodle soup diet because she can't process food anymore. Councilor Taylor adds,with like getting a veterinarian. We have a significant portion of our population that doesn't even look out for the common good that a municipality can and should provide for the community. People will say"Why should I pay for her/him to get veterinarian treatment". There is a number of people out there that do not understand or realize or except the need for some things. Councilor Taylor states he can see faces right now,if you propose that right there."That's more taxes right there"or"That will raise my property tax"and more. Mrs.Hamlin mentions;she had asked the question before with no answer given at a council meeting. Do we know when an animal gets brought it,what it cost to board that animal,to euthanize that animal,then to be disposed of because her taxes go to that,and she would like to know what that total is. Mrs.Fagan answers: One of the challenges we face;to be very upfront,her budget is 1.5 million dollars. When we built the facility, it was$700,000 and so it has more than doubled since we built the facility,and we are thankful for that because we have a lot of work that we must do. We are basically"cleaning up after society", if you will but, the challenge that we face is that,for people who love animals you would think that's reasonable,good and go towards something. Then we have people that just see the"You have raised my taxes"or"How dare you spend 1.5 million on an Animal Shelter". Our old CFO felt that way,very much did not want us to invest or spend any dollars and even a veterinarian,we have put that in our above current for 9 years now and it has been turned down 9 times. Last year we pulled that out and just put in an additional staff member because our responsibility has only increased with social media and all the extra things,we need another body. We put in to have she believes a public health specialist like what Paige is(Animal Care and Adoption Specialist)to help do more assessments and to help do more enrichment. Unfortunately,we were unsuccessful in that, and we didn't get another The Animal Services Advisory Committee(ASAC)Minutes Date: September 20th,2024 person, it's hard to explain why.There was an IT person added,there was a this added or a that and animals tend to be a side. Mrs. Fagan continues by saying,she really struggles with that because if she says its 1.5 million people are going to come in and be like"Show me where we can cut these dollars"Or"Why do dogs need treats". Which none of us in this room would think twice about but, some citizens are not that way,and we already face so much persecution. That's a struggle that she has in Public Health in general because the value is so important but,unless you see it it's a waste of money in some ways. ADJOURN No date was set for the next meeting at this time. Dr. Bryan Wade motioned to adjourn the meeting. Samuel Jones seconded. The motions carried,all in favor. Nicki Bacon Date ASAC Chairman Animal Services Administrator