County Vows Tight Leash on Shelter

A new chief veterinarian was appointed by the county Wednesday to help clean up the county-run shelter and end a feline distemper outbreak that has killed dozens of cats at the aging facility.

Even as Dr. Todd Kopit was accepting the interim post in the wake of his predecessor’s resignation the day before, county officials began talking about revamping the shelter, which has been under fire from residents and veterinarians for outdated practices and a resistance to change.

“We need to get back to communicating with the community,” said Mike Spurgeon, chief of regulatory services at the county Health Care Agency, which oversees the shelter. “We must improve our outreach and relationship to the community, including the rescue groups and the veterinarians.”

Spurgeon promised to expand the shelter’s hours to evenings and Sundays and improve its adoption program.

Kopit said the shelter needs an image overhaul.

“I want to see if we can make the shelter of Orange County a place that is not considered a place of death--as some look at it--but a place where we can help animals,” he said.

Kopit, who will be paid $50 an hour for up to 30 hours a week, has a private veterinary practice in Stanton and is president of the Orange County chapter of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Assn.

His appointment came a day after the former chief veterinarian resigned. Dr. Richard H. Evans had been placed on administrative leave Tuesday while the county investigated the shelter’s slow response to the cat distemper outbreak, which began in October.

Kopit will start work today with an assessment of the disease situation, he said.

“The first thing is to get control of the outbreak that is there in the cats and possibly the dogs,” he said. Some in the shelter suspect that dog distemper, which can be hard to detect in kennel animals, may be afflicting some of the canines at the facility.

Robert Newman, a Santa Ana lawyer who serves on the shelter advisory board, said Spurgeon and Kopit are saying the right things but have to deliver on the promises.

“We have been talking about changing shelter hours [since May 1999], and a dog-walking program for four months,” he said. “We are still talking about it.”

County officials also said they are moving ahead with a proposal to hire an architect to design a $6.1-million shelter in Tustin to replace the aging facility in Orange.

The county has had plans to build a new shelter on the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station since 1994. The proposal stalled, however, because the Navy will not convey the land until sometime this spring, said Tustin Assistant City Manager Christine Shingleton.

The shelter, which would be built by June 2003, could serve the county and 21 contract cities.

Shelter critics said administrators must immediately improve a wide range of programs, in addition to being more welcoming to the public.

“Orange County is far behind the national trend in adoption,” said Maria Dales, an animal advocate and former chairwoman of the shelter advisory panel. “If you and I ran a business like this, we would be out of business.”

Kopit said he would likely resign his position on the shelter advisory panel, agreeing it would be a conflict to continue in the oversight role while working at the shelter as an employee.

With Evans gone, both the chief vet position and the directorship of the shelter are now being handled by interim personnel. Mark McDorman, former chief of field operations, has served as interim director since last March.

A search for a director is now underway, with a candidate expected to be hired by April 1. A permanent chief veterinarian will be hired shortly after that.