Following the lead of cities like San Francisco, Austin, New York and Richmond, the City of Dallas has created an official task force, the Dallas Companion Animal Project (Dallas CAP), charged with developing a blueprint for ending the killing of adoptable animals.

“Our goal is to guide the community in identifying and increasing easily accessible programs that will allow us to stop the killing of healthy, treatable companion animals,” said Rebecca Poling, chair of the task force and a member of the Animal Shelter Commission.

To do that, Dallas CAP will focus on getting the community more involved on all levels:  reducing the number of animals given up and abandoned by their owners; making it easier and more affordable for owners to spay and neuter their pets; increasing the number of stray and loose animals returned to their owners; offering options to people considering giving up their pets; and increasing the number of animals adopted and those transferred to other shelters and humane organizations.

This past year, 20,684 dogs and cats—or 75 percent of the 28,392 companion animals that ended up in the City’s shelter—were put to death simply because there weren’t enough homes for them.

Ending the killing of adoptable animals is not about any one shelter becoming no kill,” said Poling.  “It’s about the entire community coming together and embracing all the components of a successful plan:  spay/neuter, education, adoption and rescue, owner retention, behavior hotlines, responsible pet ownership.

“No single agency or organization can possibly be responsible for all the components necessary to make Dallas no kill.  We’re looking for individuals, businesses, corporations, associations, nonprofits, advocacy groups and animal-welfare organizations willing to be a part of this effort by lending their names and encouraging others to do the same.”

The City of Dallas is ready to make the move towards no kill said Joey Zapata, Interim Assistant City Manager.  “We have a new Mayor who firmly believes that Dallas should have the goal of becoming no kill; a City Council committed to supporting the task force; and a new shelter manager, Jody Jones, who played a leading role in making Richmond, VA, a no-kill community.”

Jones knows from her experience in Richmond that in addition to saving lives, reducing euthanasia rates community-wide would have other benefits as well.

“Working together to develop a successful no-kill plan will engage the community in the welfare of our animals and make Dallas a more pet-friendly place to live,” said Jones.  “It will save taxpayer dollars and result in a more educated and informed public.  It also will encourage private/public partnerships, and, most important, it will improve the quality of life for companion animals and people in the City of Dallas.”

For more information about the Dallas Companion Animal Project or to get involved, email dallascompanionanimalproject@gmail.com or visit www.DallasCompanionAnimalProject.org.  Find Dallas Companion Animal Project on Facebook or follow on Twitter @DallasAnimals.

Looks like the City got it right when they hired Jody Jones to take over where Lt. Walton left off. 

In less than three months, she’s already accomplished a lot (in addition to dealing with the chaos when half her department was RIFF’d):

-New Identi-band collars for pets in the shelter.  No more metal tags tied with string that get pulled off, fall off, broken and lost, leaving the animals unidentified. 

-A revised intake process that includes additional data collection, assessments, and photos right when an animal enters the building – so everything will now be in “real time”.   Now maybe we can find out where the animals come from, and why and focus efforts on the root of the problem.  In the 2nd phase of this project, Jones says expect to finally see vaccinations on intake.  That should make some of the rescue groups happy.

-Changes to ensure that donations designated for the shelter are used solely for shelter projects and don’t become part of the City’s general fund like revenue from adoption fees does.  The mechanism to do this has been in place for some time, but hasn’t been capitalized upon.   Sounds like future donations may be able to pay for all sorts of improvements that aren’t in the city budget.

-Vets are in the shelter on the weekends!  Injured animals don’t just come in Monday – Friday.  This one was long overdue.

-DAS customer services hours will now coincide with the hours the shelter is open, which should eliminate a lot of confusion.

-Every other Friday, you’ll see DAS pets featured live on CBS 11’s “News This Morning” program.  The segment normally airs around 6:50 a.m. for you early birds.  Our new manager has showcased three homeless pets so far, and all three have gotten adopted.

-The adoption desk is getting business cards, and on the back of each there will be a place to write down specific information about an animal a potential adopter is interested in.

Some upcoming projects:

-Improving data collection

-Improvements to officer safety

-Enhancements to animal care

-The AC.  Well, it’s still on the list.  Seems like it has been since around 2007.  For now portable AC units and large coolers have been brought in.  There’s still more to be done, but no timeline was provided.

-A new PA system.  Wonder how they got this far without one?  Hopefully this will become a priority as it is expected to improve communications and make everyone (people and pets) safer.

-Additional security cameras will be installed, as well Wi-Fi.  This’ll allow managers to see more of what is happening and respond more quickly when needed. 

More for the near future (let’s guess 2012):

-Better training and orientation for staff

-More supplies and equipment, a better way to purchase it, and a better way to distribute it all

-Revised call structures (sounds like a continuation of the evaluation and assessment of how 311 calls are handled).

-And finally, a REAL volunteer program.

As one Commissioner pointed out, it seems Jody Jones is not only on the right track, but has managed to accomplish in months what some  have been requesting for years. 

And there’s more planned.  Here are some of the other highlights from the meeting:

-Calls to animal services for stray dogs, nuisances (barking), licensing question, tethering, cruelty, etc., are down more than 10,000 from last year to this (could the new ordinances be working?)

-About 1,700 people per month visit the shelter

-Intake is down and DAS’ live release rate is up!  Euthanasia is actually down more than 15%.

-Pet registration is up with the new online pet registration option

-The Commission’s Dangerous Dog Committee has reviewed the City Code and made numerous (very numerous) recommendations for changes the city needs to make.  Some are policy and procedure changes, but others may require changes to the ordinance.  There seem to be an awful lot of horror stories out there about out-of-control hearings, inconsistent application of the ordinances, and just plain vendettas.  Hopefully some of that will change soon.  In the meantime, make sure your dog doesn’t bite anyone or anything. 

-There’s talk of a new plan to deal with wildlife.  One that could save the City a lot of money, and save a lot of unnecessary killing of wildlife.   Did you know that Austin no longer loans traps?  Nor will they accept trapped wildlife for relocation?   Plano stopped trapping and loaning traps and they’re saving $ 150,000/year.  Hmmm…stay tuned for more in this.

And the big one. A city-wide goal of 0% euthanasia of healthy, adoptable animals (it’s in writing folks!).

There’s a lot of change happening at DAS, good and bad.  To make sure that things stay under control and on schedule, the Animal Shelter Commission will meet monthly through the end of the year.  Meetings are scheduled for October 20th, November 17th, and December 8th. 

Coming up next: An outstanding honor for the long-time chair of the Animal Shelter Commission.

The budget, the layoffs and the RIFFs. 

Interim Assistant City Manager Joey Zapata, the former director of Code, who helped Lt. Walton direct the much-needed turn-around at DAS last fall, knew he’d be facing some tough questions and he was prepared.   First, he reminded the standing-room only crowd that for the past three years, city budget cuts have taken their toll on virtually every other city department, while Dallas Animal Services remained virtually untouched.

Why?  Municipal budgets often lag behind the national economy, good or bad.  The reason:  They rely on property taxes for a large portion of their revenue.  Property values are only assessed once a year, so the revenue the city earns doesn’t change weekly, or monthly, only yearly.  If the stock market crashes in January, most cities and towns won’t begin to feel the effect until the end of the year when home values are assessed and property taxes reduced.  In a City the size of Dallas, it takes even longer before the full effect of a dip in the national economy is felt.  That’s because it’s impossible to re-assess every property every year.  Instead, the city is divided into sections and often only one section is assessed each year.  The first year of a recession, the effect is only a fraction of what it may eventually be.  The second year, a little more, and the third year, even more.

So now it’s DAS turn to do their share to help balance the budget, and to his credit, Zapata – working on a plan originally developed by the Walton to “right size” the department, has managed to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars from Animal Services budget with only a minor reduction in staff.  This year (fiscal year 2010-2011), DAS has 131 staff members.  For fiscal year 2011-2012, which begins October 1st, DAS will have 130 staff members.  25+ senior animal control officer positions and 30+ animal keeper positions are being done away with as part of the RIF (reduction in force) process to save money, but 7 new supervisor positions are being created, open positions in the field are being filled, and 34 temporary contract workers are being brought in.

How does only one job loss result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings?  Most of it comes from replacing full time animal keepers with temporary contract workers who cost less money.  But a lot of people seemed very concerned about the level of care the animals at DAS will receive from contract workers, so Mr. Zapata addressed that concern first.  The temporary workers are fully screened by the agency the City contracts with before they even arrive at the shelter.  And although they weren’t initially expected to be in place until October 1st, they have been brought in early to insure they have plenty of time to get every bit of training they need from experienced animal keepers. 

Twenty new customer service representative positions are being created, and those currently working in the shelter are being urged to apply for them.  The expectation is that in addition to providing support for the adoption staff, they can help oversee the new animal keepers on an on-going basis.

Mr. Zapata also pointed out that temporary workers who fail to live up to expectations can simply be sent back to the agency – no questions asked.  On the other hand, it often takes months – if not years – to muddle through all the steps required by civil service before a city employee can be fired, no matter how poorly they do their job.  Case in point: Tyrone McGill was indicated by a Grand Jury on animal cruelty charges over a year ago and still collects over $ 60,000/year.

Another key difference is that by using temporary contract workers, Dallas Animal Services managers can easily request additional workers when needed, bypassing the often time-consuming, red-tape wrapped hiring process required by the City.  The ability to “scale-up or scale-down” is important because attendance (or lack thereof) has been a big problem at DAS, and has, at times, resulted in a reduced level of care for the animals.

Cruelty investigations are being outsourced as well, and that’ll save even more money.  Initial calls for animal cruelty will be answered by DAS officers, who will assess the situation, then transfer situations requiring further investigation to an agency like the SPCA of Texas, whose officers – unlike DAS officers – are licensed peace officers.  There’s a lot still to be worked out here, so details are scarce and the transition probably won’t happen until October.

Mr. Zapata also provided some insight into the reorganizational part of what’s happening at Dallas Animal Services.  The current organizational chart shows one division manager, four managers (shelter, field, business, and vets), and five supervisors, with a staff of 131 -  a staff to management ration that would make most MBAs cringe.  FYI: Those titles aren’t the official ones.  They are similar, but I hope easier to understand that manager 1, manage 2, etc.  The new org chart, once all is said and done, should show a Program Manager (think Chairman/CEO – Jody Jones), a division manager (COO – someone with experience to run the operations part), four (maybe five?) managers (some from inside and some from out), and approximately twelve supervisors.

The RIF’d senior animal control officers are being encouraged to apply for those new supervisor positions in hopes all will be filled with people experienced in animal welfare.  Those that aren’t interested in the supervisor positions, will fill the open positions for ACOs in the field.  A larger number of animal services officers will be sharing euthanasia duty, so compassion fatigue and burnout should decrease.  

Even with all these changes, the goal is to keep officers in the field 24/7.  Which brings up yet another concern we heard -  the night drop boxes may have to be closed overnight because there won’t be anyone at the shelter from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.   If that happens, some on the Commission seemed to think people would still dump their pets – in the parking lot, or in crates or cardboard boxes at the front door -  where they’ll be forced to fend for themselves until morning.  But the alternative is to leave the boxes open all night and have a field services officer swing by whenever possible to check the boxes.  That might be a better option, but it’s possible an injured or sick animal could be stuck in the night drop for an hour or two – maybe more – with no one around. 

Another thing the Commissioners were concerned about was that all the RIF’d employees applying for the new positions are being made to take some new civil service test.  It sounds like it’s something human resources has instituted for all new city employees, although it was hard to understand.  So far, twenty DAS staff members have taken the test and only 8 have passed.   Some of those that failed are seasoned animal services officers who have been helping pets and their owners for years, and the Commission wants them to stay.  There wasn’t much information provided about what was on the test, but Mr. Zapata has decided to put together a prep course for it, and everyone should be able to take the prep class and then retake the test. 

So how did a reorganization and reduction in force that sounds, if not justifiable, then at least palatable, go so terribly wrong?  Code Compliance screwed it up.  Surprise.  First, the new interim director of Code Compliance didn’t do a very good job of conveying to the RIF’d employees that new positions were being created and that if they wanted to stay, they could.  Apparently no one in Code Compliance realized that if all the RIF’d animal keepers were required to spend the day at City Hall, there would be no one to feed, water, or clean up after the animals.  They didn’t tell anyone at DAS that they were pulling all these people out of the shelter for the entire day, so by late afternoon when the skeleton crew remaining at the shelter realized the animal keepers weren’t coming back, it was up to our newly hired program manager and two long-time staff members to feed, water and clean all 700+ animals.  They simultaneously RIF’d the senior animal control officers leaving no one to do euthanasia.  Rumor has it staff had to be borrowed from the SPCA of Texas to help out there.  And there have been purchasing issues as well – lots of them.  DAS ran out of cat carriers because no one re-ordered them (the implication was the person who was supposed to order them was RIF’d).

There are lots of other examples as well – it seems like it all boils down to a) a lack of communication between the new Code Director Jimmy Martin and DAS, and b) micromanagement by some folks in Code who the Commission has been told repeatedly aren’t involved with DAS at all anymore (perhaps if Mary Suhm is reading this she’ll look into that one).  Frankly Mr. Martin  isn’t winning any friends in the animal welfare community.  He didn’t endear himself to anyone at the meeting.  He rarely spoke, letting Mr. Zapata handle the critics and Jody Jones deliver the reports.  In fact, from where we were sitting, he seemed pretty disinterested – as though most of what was going on was more of a bother to him than anything else.  Luckily with Mr. Zapata, DAS at least has a chance – I guess it does pay to have “friends in high places”.

The bottom line: Expect two more months of craziness, but with the help of an amazing new shelter manager the long-term result – hopefully – will be a lean, mean, sustainable, fighting machine that focuses on compassion, animal welfare, responsible pet ownership, public safety, and increasing the live release rate.  

Stay tuned for Part Two:  The Good News.  It’s pretty good.

The proposed budget cuts, employee layoffs and staff reorganization will most likely consume a large portion of the meeting, which is open to the public.  Members of the public can express their comments at the end of the meeting.  Meetings usually last until 4 or 5 p.m.  The complete agenda is available online at http://www.ci.dallas.tx.us/cso/pdf/meetings/ASC-09-01.pdf.

The agenda includes an Animal Services Manager’s Report, a Task Force Report, New Organizational Charts, Continuing Air-conditioning Problems at the Shelter,  Applications and certifications for approved Foster Care, DAS 2011 – 2012 Budget and Update on RIFs, Flexible Adoption Fees, Foster Home Applications/Inspections,  Use of RSVP Veternarians, Outsourcing Animal Cruelty Investigations and Civil Seizures, Vaccination on Intake, Review of Dangerous Dog Ordinance and Policy, Establishing a “Tomorrow Fund” for Chapter 7 violations, etc.

Sadly, things are not OK at Dallas Animal Services, despite having one of the most well-respected animal sheltering professionals in place (noticed I didn’t say in charge, because to be in charge you have to be allowed to be in charge by the people above you in the management hierarchy.)

Jody Jones has a solid reputation, unwavering professionalism, and decades of experience, and she’s not backing down from the challenge.  But the City seems bound and determined to run her off.  Why else would they lay off more than half the staff just weeks after she arrives?  Why are the managers who work directly under her being transferred or “Riffed”?   We’re told morale is so low at the shelter (and the temperature still so hot), it’s palpable.  Sure, the folks at Code Compliance insist the  AC is fixed.  And still do.  It’s not.  Supplies are short.  Bills aren’t being paid.  Orders are getting held up.  Why?  We’ll have to find out.  And Jody Jones is scooping poop because someone in Code Compliance didn’t think to send temps over to feed, water, and clean the kennels last week when all 53 of the Riffed staffers were forced to spend the day at City Hall going through the process -whatever that is.

If you’re not upset, you ought to be.  The Commission seems to really like the new director, and even the staff is defending her.  So where’s the breakdown?  We’ve got more research to do, but if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck and walks like a duck….it’s probably Code Compliance.

Since that time, things have changed – and for the better.  Are things perfect?  No.  But compassion now defines what happens at the shelter, euthanasia rates are slowly dropping, new programs are being developed to reduce intake and increase live release rates, a number of the recommendations contained in the HSUS report have been successfully implemented, the new manager is experienced and well-respected in the animal welfare field, and the new Mayor wants to support the Animal Shelter Commission and keep things moving forward.  Dallas Animal Services, thanks to the involvement of the City Council, the City Manager, and the community, has done an about-face in less than a year.

Then this past week something occurred that would not have been possible before.  The Animal Shelter Commission requested that the City establish a task force, with representatives from the Commission, the City, and the Community -to work toward the creation of a realistic, cost-effective, collaborative, and achievable strategic plan for reducing the number of adoptable animals euthanized in our community.  Some might call it a “No Kill” plan, others a “No Harm/No Kill” plan, and still others prefer the term “Humane Community”.  Whatever you call it, the goal of the plan will be to meld existing programs and resources with new initiatives to create a community where no healthy, adoptable animal is killed.

It makes sense then, that now is the time.  It’s time to move on.  Time to shut the door on an ugly chapter in the history of Dallas Animal Services, hopefully never to return.  And this blog has served its purpose, so we’ll move on as well - to a new blog where we’ll follow along on what should be an incredible journey – the journey to No Kill.

Stay tuned – we’ll post a link to the new blog shortly and you can follow along as the journey begins.

From the Dallas County Elections website:

		Percent	Votes
Mike Rawlings		40.87%	28,419
David Kunkle		31.95%	22,214
Ron Natinsky		25.06%	17,428
E. Edward Okpa, II		2.12%	1,474
			69,535

They’ve put up an interesting map as well showing which precincts voted for which candidate.

Did you know that Dallas Animal Services expects to announce a new manager in the next few weeks and the beloved Lieutenant will return to DPD?

Won’t you please take advantage of  this one last chance to let him know how much you care by attending the Real Men Care Event on Sunday?

REAL MEN CARE benefits Metroplex Animal Coalition and Dallas Animal Adovcates

Sunday, May 15th, 6:00 p.m., Sambucca Restaurant, Dallas

Honorees:  Lieutenant Scott Walton, J.P. Bonnelly, Richard (Dick) Hunter, and Robert Hayden

Tickets: $65 available online now – or $75 at the door – includes two free drink tickets, free appetizers courtesy Sambucca, photo opportunities, “Real Men” tatoos, a fabulous silent auction, shopping, meeting, mingling and more!

All the information you need can be found on the website HERE.   Don’t wait!  Get your tickets now!