Interim Animal Care Administrator Named

Continuing to clean house at its troubled animal care agency, Orange County officials Monday tapped a former administrator to serve as interim director until a new boss is chosen this spring.

Russell Patton, who retired as county personnel director in 1995, will take over today as interim director of Animal Care Services, said Mike Spurgeon, chief of regulatory services at the Health Care Agency, which oversees animal control services.

Spurgeon said former interim director Mark McDorman will return to running the department’s field operations, which includes catching strays, collecting injured or dead animals, and investigating abuse complaints.

The caretaker appointment of Patton comes less than a month after the county’s chief veterinarian, Dr. Richard Evans, was placed on leave, then abruptly quit while officials at the parent Health Care Agency were investigating why the animal control agency didn’t curb an outbreak of cat distemper at its shelter in Orange, which surfaced last October. Dozens of cats died in the outbreak, including some after they were adopted and others that were infected by shelter cats in the foster homes.