Animal Shelter’s Spay Plan OKd

Orange County Animal Shelter officials won approval Tuesday for a program to spay and neuter dogs over objections from angry residents, including one who referred to the shelter as “nothing more than a dog pound.”

Animal rights activist Sherry Meddick told county supervisors that she believes the plan, aimed at bringing the county shelter into compliance with state law, was hastily put together after months of inactivity.

“I don’t like having such a piecemeal plan crammed down my throat,” Meddick said, suggesting instead that a private nonprofit organization take over the facility.

“I can’t call that place a shelter when it’s nothing more than a dog pound,” she said.

Beginning Jan. 1, state law will require all shelters to spay or neuter dogs and cats before they can be given up for adoption. In anticipation of the new law, the county shelter in March 1998 began having cats sterilized by outside veterinarians before making them available for adoption.

Mike Spurgeon, who was given authority over the shelter three months ago, said that the facility, on The City Drive in Orange, will be in compliance by Jan. 1.

While Meddick and other activists don’t oppose neutering or spaying adoptive pets, they have a long history of distrust over operations at the facility and are unhappy that the county plan was drafted without their input or that of the shelter’s advisory board.

The plan, which the shelter’s advisory board decided not to recommend, calls for hiring a veterinarian and two animal health technicians to sterilize the roughly 4,400 dogs adopted each year. All three positions already have been filled, said Spurgeon, interim director of regulatory services for the county.

The shelter would increase its current operations by leasing a mobile surgical vehicle to conduct spaying and neutering. Any additional work would be done by local veterinarians under contract with the county for $40 a dog. Animal activists say that fee is too low and doesn’t take into account differences in the size and weight of dogs.

The county estimates the cost at $234,230 a year, offset by the $36 fee each adoptive owner would pay to have a pet sterilized and the $36 fine the new law imposes on owners whose unsterilized pets are impounded, shelter officials said.

Critics, including some supervisors, said the county dragged its feet for 15 months coordinating the program for dogs.

“The negligence and lack of attention has been inexcusable,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who before voting for the program offered several amendments, including requiring status reports every two months.

Shelter officials also were told to create a Web site within six months that will feature pictures of adoptable pets, making it easier for public viewing.

The idea had been presented previously by a technology firm, but shelter officials rejected it, Spitzer said.

“In the past, Lockheed Martin was told ‘No,’ when it’s so easy to snap a photograph with a digital camera and put that onto your site,” he said.

While supervisors did not upgrade the status of the shelter’s seven-member advisory board to a policy-making body, as requested by animal activists, they also rejected suggestions that the public be part of the selection and hiring process for a new shelter director.

“The public is welcome to have some input, but we don’t want the public hiring our employees,” Supervisor Tom Wilson said.