COUNTYWIDE : Doggedly Defending Their Duty

Orrie Markley arrived with a panting dachshund in her arms and a distraught look on her face.

“She was running across the street,” said Garden Grove resident Markley, handing the dog to animal control Sgt. Steve Slate. “I didn’t want her to get hurt. I called her and she came right up to me. If I didn’t have two dogs already, I’d keep her.”

Slate has seen “every kind of animal you can think of” during 14 years at the Orange County Animal Shelter in Orange, considered the largest shelter in the western United States. Receiving lost or abandoned creatures is a part of his job, a task repeated scores of times every day, particularly in springtime.

“That’s fine, we’ll take care of her,” he told a relieved Markley before he led the dachsund away to join the hundreds of other dogs, cats, birds, snakes, chickens, ducks, rabbits and tortoises in the two-acre, 50-year-old complex.

Thousands of animals arrive at the shelter every month, and thousands eventually die there, but no one can tell Slate, Sgt. Marie Hulett-Curtner or assistant director Judy Maitlen those animals are mistreated.

And Maitlen does not hesitate to defend the shelter’s reputation in the face of the decision by two South County cities, and pressure within another, for so-called “pro-life” animal shelters.

“We take in about 100 animals a day here. Our job is to get these animals home,” Maitlen said. “If an animal has identification, over 99% of the time it will get back home. We make repeated phone calls, we knock on doors, we do whatever we can to make sure that happens.”

Statistics show that fewer animals are coming into the shelter annually, Hulett-Curtner said, adding that an increased emphasis on spaying and neutering dogs and cats is partially responsible. In 1986, the shelter took in 44,736 animals; in 1991 it received 28,566.

“We are enforcing the laws, not allowing people to be irresponsible with their pets,” she said. “You don’t see packs of (wild) dogs roaming around Orange County.”

Only when an animal has spent too long at the shelter with no apparent hope of finding a home is it put to sleep, Maitlen said. Although all animals are kept longer than required by law, about 30% of the animals that arrive at the shelter must eventually be killed, she said.

By law, animals with identification must be kept seven working days and those without a tag three working days.

“It’s euthanasia. The animal is given a shot, and they literally just go to sleep, the same way vets do it,” said Maitlen, explaining that about 50% of those animals killed are brought in by their owners, a tough duty most shelters will not perform. “It’s the old ‘it’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it.’ The bottom line is someone has to deal with those animals that are not wanted.”

In South County, the Mission Viejo City Council has recently cut off its contract for animal services with the county and will soon set up a shelter where no animal is euthanized.

The city currently contracts with city of Irvine for animal services. Some residents in Dana Point are also working on their City Council to do the same. San Clemente already has a non-euthanizing shelter and is in the midst of a study on whether it should provide services to neighboring Dana Point.

“It’s a philosophical thing,” Maitlen said. “Mission Viejo has decided to have a shelter where they don’t kill any animals. It’s a lofty goal, but it’s very difficult to do.”

Hulett-Curtner, the shelter’s public education coordinator, questions the reasoning behind such decisions. “It’s not necessarily the most humane thing to keep animals alive in a small kennel for a long time,” she said. “Sure, they are kept alive, but the quality of life could be questioned.”

Among the services provided at the county shelter are:

* A full-time veterinarian and staff of 130 employees who provide 24-hour emergency service.

* Shelter are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. six days a week, until 7 p.m. Wednesdays, and phone lines are monitored 24 hours a day.

* Animal health technicians are at the shelter daily, and the shelter has agreements with seven veterinarians around the county to provide fast emergency service.

“With 20 cities currently contracting with the county for animal shelter service, we have economy of scale and we can produce a much better service,” Maitlen said. “We never have a day when there is no one here.”