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Animal Shelter Advisory Committee Minutes - 11/18/2022 The Animal Shelter Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date November 18, 2022 COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Nicki Bacon Animal Shelter Administrator Megan Gardner Animal Walfare Organization Diann Bowman Animal Care and Adoption Supervisor William Tucker Field Supervisor here at Animal Services Bryan Wade,D.V.M Veterinarian Amy Fagean Asistant Director of Public Health Amber Browning Public Citizen Jon Harry Public Citizen COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENCE: Leslie Harrelson Public Citizen OTHERS PRESENT: Lou Kreidler Director of Public Health Crystal Caroll Senior Admin Clerk I. CALL TO ORDER Nicki Bacon,Chair,called the meeting to order II. INDUCTION OF NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS William Tucker and Amber Browning sworn in. III. REVIEW&APPROVAL OF FEBRUARY MINUTES The minutes from the ASAC Meeting from December 2021, were distributed and reviewed. A motion was made to accept these minutes with a second following. The motion was carried. IV. OLD BUSINESS None. V. NEW BUSINESS A. Shelter number update. Ms. Bacon continued with the shelter update and shelter numbers. As of November 17,the live outcome rate for all animals that have come into the shelter, including guinea pigs, pigs, goats, chicken rabbits,etc. is 72%. The live outcome for dogs and cats alone was 71%. Ms. Bacon informed the committee that the adoption rate is at 20%which is the same as it was last year and euthanasia rate currently is at 28%which is a 1% increase from last year the transfers to recuse is at 28%which is also the same as 2021 and our return to owner is 24%which is a 1%decrease from 2021 That makes out total live outcome 72% The Animal Shelter Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date November 18, 2022 Ms. Bacon also informed that number of animals that came into the shelter this year it was a 1%increase. So,that is where she believes the reason 1%decrees in outcome lies. We have noticed a large increase in owner surrendered animals this year. Last year about this time the owner surrender rate was 75%and this year we are already looking at 144 animals surrendered and were not through the month or the year yet. Ms. Bacon believes due to that act we will continue to see a rise in that percentage. Dian brought up that she believes that after covid,with everyone going back to work there is a hand in the number of surrenders as well. Diann was asked if with her doing the Owner Surrender interviews did she notice an increase in the number of people we see can't afford food. Diann informed that she believes it's not so much food cots or vet care. A lot of time it's moving.Or the owner'just font want to deal with it'.They don't talk about training and things. The owner gets a puppy but without training provided, as the animal grows older it becomes too much to handle. What is brought to that conclusion is that we as the Shelter,direct them where to go and provide a list of resources for whatever they need. That's what she has seen as the majority of our owner surrenders last year and this year. It was asked if the military population is a big contributor to relinquishing animals. It was stated that it is not a big contributor. if it is due to deployment there are also resources provided for that for that also. Introductions were made so new members could be known B.Next item on the agenda is the discussion about 4H and FFA. Ms. Bacon informed that an email was received from our Wichita County Extension Agent regarding our current animals for FFA.The issues where that there are 4H in a school-based program. The email stated that not ail kids may be enrolled in a type of agricultural related class that is required in our ordinances. There are home school children that participate in 4H. It was stated that there is also an issue regarding where animals are to be kept. The issue we have,a child in 4H has goats staying at the grandmother's house. And per our ordinance the animals can't be at the grandmother's house because they need to be where the child lives. Our ordinance only states `during the school year'. But they also have these animals before they got to market in summer time and not during the school year so it can be an entire school year or it can be until those animals go to the market. So, there is some adjustments that were asked be made in our ordinances. Does anybody have any opinions on that? The ordinance was different before the review was made in 2019,changes were made without much knowledge of 4H. Therefor changes made were not congruent with how 4H works. It is needed to go back and `tweaked' so 4H kids are covered. The Animal Shelter Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date November 18,2022 A commitment was made to extension agent that we would work with any students and the permit until the time that such changes are made. Ms. Bacon has been discussing with Diann if breeding- is a livestock permit needed?FFA 4H does not cover. It was asked to discuss at another time. C. Staff turnover and position changes Ms. Bacon starts off that in 2021 a decision was made to reorganize Animal Services,with that came removing the Animal Care&Kennel Coordinator position. Which opened room to hire 2 new supervisors. I supervisor would be dedicated to field and animal control.The other supervisor would be dedicated to kennels and ACO. In 2022 kennel tech positions were also removed so all positions are ACOs. That placed ACOs in the kennels and ACOs in the fields and they rotate every 5 weeks. The intention of doing so was to lower the number of`on-call' and to spread out who was having to euthanize. Unfortunately,with every 5 weeks rotating it was noted that some ACO's were wanting to stay in one roll. So that caused turn over. They are still hired on as ACOs. However,there are ACO's Kennel and ACOs Field. They are still cross trained so if there is ever an issue with staffing ACO's can cross over to fill what place is needed. Questions? Exit interviews? HR does. Pay rate was asked— 16.74. Reason for leaving,officers felt as if they had to do more weekends,and the amount of euthanasia. Finding the right person to maintain the balance. Ms. Bacon lets the committee know Lou is taking over- Are expectations made clear with HR? All hiring is central to HR. However,Staff is responsible for pulling applications and conducting interviews. It is through interview process. All the good and bad is brought up. Warned of all possibilities of what may happen. It is brought up that therapy is offered to employees. It is brought up that at the 6-month orientations as a reminder it is mentioned again therapy is there for all employees who need it. The Animal Shelter Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date November 18, 2022 Are the main reasons for reasons of leaving emotional? Main reason can be said that is pay and its seen across the department. With people being aware of the pay being an issue is there something being done? Yes,council is aware and changes have been made before. In 2021 the reason for combined pay was made due to Kennels making 12 an hour and ACO were making 14. This caused a rift regarding people wanting to be here and not being the right fit. When did the last pay increase occur? October I"2022 D. Swine Ordinance Ms. Bacon starts by advising everyone that a citizen asked to reinstate the allowing of Potbelly Pigs inside city limits. In 2019 when the ordinance was revamped, we grandfathered in those who already had these pigs and permits that were in the city limits. Then proceeded to illuminate any further Potbelly Pigs within out city. This citizen has spoken to city council. As a supervisory team, it has been discussed,and at this time,we do not believe it would be a good idea to allow Potbellied Pigs within the city limits. The reasoning behind this is many citizens do purchase Potbelly pigs and then these pigs become around 600 lbs. and are no longer a"Potbelly pig". Then they proceed to drop them off to us.We have to then find them a home or a rescue for them to go to. In addition,there is an odor/vector and sanitary issue when it comes to owning these pigs. We have had issues in the past with citizens keeping these pigs but not having the proper set back from other houses. We have also received many"at large"calls for pigs and considered a nuisance at that point in time. Mr. Bacon opens the topic for discussion. Amy Fagan adds that in addition to that, in the past a citizen had come up to her crying that she had purchased a pig for her daughter,but could no longer keep up with the maintenance that comes with it. Instead of the citizen explaining to her daughter that they could no longer keep the pig the citizen chooses to let the pig loose so,that we may catch it. This happens more often than you think. Main issue we have with pigs is abandonment. About 2 or 3 times a year we have pigs being abandoned or brought through our front door to be owner surrendered. Exact numbers can be pulled from records if needed. The Animal Shelter Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date November 18, 2022 With pigs that are abandoned,we have to capture them,whether it be on the road or in a residence. Often times these pigs are 200 lbs. or more so, in getting these pigs transported to our facility is a challenge. A worker's comp situation has occurred involving capturing and transposing a pig to the facility. There has been a drastic decrease in incidents since the 2019 ordinance change. We also have to hold this animal for a specific set time,whether it be owned or unowned.The shelter is at max compacity at almost all times. Ms. Fagan goes on to explain all types of animals held and that we have held some of our smaller animals in our own offices when there is no room. We have to use rooms that are designed for a specific use to hold animals that we didn't plan for when the shelter was built. When we had an outbreak like the disease outbreak that happened about 6 years ago,we had to expand our own storage room as an additional Isolation area due to not having space to isolate all the sick animals we had to keep. The ordinance was put in place for the purpose of irresponsible owners. We have to make sure we can handle what we have,which is Dogs,Cats, Small Animals,etc. In addition,as we allow and if we allow more animals to be owned or permitted into the ordinances,we have to make sure that we can care for these animals and house them correctly. The more we allow the unusual and can potentially cause issues,he less likely we can do a good job with our ordinary day-to-day things. It was asked,how much of an impact did the 2019 ordinance change have on specifically the pigs? Numbers were pulled but not presented. It was discussed that people are still going to do things against ordinance regardless of what is written. For instance,we had an alligator and an emu that we had to catch one time. We had 300-plus animal seizures that had different types of exotics. We have had a couple of those types of seizures. People will always do strange things against the ordinance.We are never going to do enough education. Even if we did education to 104,000 people, they would still make choices and not understand. Mrs. Kreidler stated that we did a Survey of other cities-that allowed PBP inside city limits. Very few do allow it. They all have the same issues we have. Citizen comment: Is this in front of us because of one person? Big cities like Fort Worth allow it. 2016- 2018 there was a big surge in the number of potbellied pigs. There was a fad. Since the ordinance changed was there a change in the amount of pig issues? Ms. Bacon stated that prior to 2019,we did have a lot of issues with pigs,after the ordinance change,we have had 2 pigs. Compared to Wichita Falls, Pigs do not allow,and Waco,Temple, and big cities do not allow PBP either. We cannot afford to go back to prior to 2019. The Animal Shelter Advisory Committee (ASAC) Minutes Date November 18, 2022 Citizen question: What kind of education do we give and what target audience do we have toward PBP? Ms. Bacon responded that we do have a responsible pet ownership course that is mainly for cats and dogs, we educate about appropriate fencing and rabies. We had a domesticated kitten last year that was positive for rabies. We do educate the public about permits. Mrs. Kreidler mentioned that we have a social media website to educate the public and that all officers are trained to educate the public first when we go out. Every time we go out, our first intent is to educate them about the ordinance prior to enforcement. All staff at Animal Services are Educators first. We train staff in different areas of the shelter and with animals as well. How to Mrs. Fagan mentioned that we do educational outreach, such as touch a truck and with schools. We had a brochure we handed out when ordinances changed. Mr. Tucker mentioned that all officers go to basic ACO and have 30 hours of continuing education. Ms. Bacon mentioned that we do have specific PBP training. We use our peers,research,and classes. There would be issues with putting it back into the ordinance. There are staff training issues,our trucks cannot hold all sizes of pigs,and only a few officers know how to drive a truck with a trailer. Mrs. Kreidler stated that people would get pigs hoping they would stay small and they would get over the weight limit and overwhelmed. We had a citizen that had pigs wallowing in mud. He had two pigs,they were a nuisance. Had pigs left outside and learned how to get out of the fence and we would have to chase them. We have seen that most owners are not great pig owners. Out of 100,only one person. Citizen comment: The biggest issues are the education of pigs,community outreach,and officer training. There are websites to help learn about pigs and the management of them. If they are exclusively housed outside,they can become a nuisance. Issues with pet ownership will not change. Would the shelter want volunteers to educate the public about pigs and ownership?To provide transport to shelters. Mrs. Bowman said we work with rescues that are 501c3 only. Mrs. Fagan stated that we cannot have volunteers driving our trucks because that is a liability,and they could not pick up animals either. Ms. Bacon asked if anyone has any other questions about the swine ordinance and did state that at this time we do not have any plans to change the ordinance to include potbellied pigs. The citizen did mention HUD and the Protections for fair housing act. Assistance animals would be protected under the fair housing act for emotional support animals, the ADA does not recognize pigs. His pig is an emotional support animal with a letter from his physician. Ms. Bacon stated she did not have a date for the next ASAC meeting. Ms. Kriedler did announce she was retiring and thanked everyone for being on the committee and helping us to advise the committee. ADJOURN No date was set for the next meeting. Mr.Tucker made the motion to adjourn. Dr. Wade seconded the motion to adjourn.The motion carried all were in favor. Date: 11/18,2022 at 13:22. Lt--), .)3 fidcki Bacon Date ae ASAC Chairman Animal Services Administrator