Animal Care Chief’s Job Is Pet Cause Too

Julie Ann Ryan Johnson is used to coming to the rescue. And that’s just what Orange County’s troubled animal shelter needs from the newly appointed director of Animal Care Services.

As a child in San Juan Capistrano, Johnson often surprised her parents with strays she rescued from the street, nursing them back to health and begging to keep them as pets. By age 11, she was well on her way to fulfilling her life’s ambition and passion. Cradling her tabby cat, Leo, in her arms, she walked to the veterinary clinic across the street and begged for a job.

“She was just a little lady. I think it was very bold,” recalled Dr. Joseph Cortesi, who agreed to let her clean kennels on the weekends and during the summer at his Capistrano Veterinary Clinic.

“She was always an enthusiastic and exuberant little girl,” he said. “She would dive in and do anything she was asked. And she kind of had a sixth sense around animals. She’s that way now.”

The indefatigable Johnson, now 37 and “Dr. Ryan” on the job as a highly esteemed local veterinarian, will need all the energy she can muster to lead the animal-services agency out of its dark days of mismanagement and misconduct.

“It’s going to be a great challenge,” she said Wednesday, a day after her appointment. “I’m really looking forward to it. There’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”

The agency, which handles about 50,000 animals a year, is trying to recover from a tempestuous period during which the former director and chief veterinarian resigned in the face of escalating outrage over outdated practices.

A grand jury investigating the complaints reported earlier this year that managers and staff repeatedly neglected to follow their own policies for treating sick and injured animals by inappropriately handling controlled substances, prematurely euthanizing animals and not making daily rounds.

Johnson said her priority is restoring the agency’s stability and, most importantly, morale.

“My goal is to make everyone proud of the shelter,” she said. “And I really believe that’s achievable.”

Johnson is president of the Southern California Veterinary Medical Assn. and has worked full-time as a brand manager at Waltham Pet Foods in Los Angeles. She was recruited for the Orange County job, which pays an annual salary of $106,000.

Robert Newman, a Santa Ana attorney and one of five members of an advisory panel that serves as a public sounding board for the shelter, said the county pursued Ryan after nationwide searches failed to turn up the right candidate.

“They weren’t getting what they were looking for. And the humane community kept saying we needed someone like Dr. Ryan,” he said. “This is really great news for the shelter.”

Johnson lives in San Juan Capistrano with her husband, Gary Johnson, also a veterinarian. They have three cats and three dogs at home and keep two horses at a nearby stable.

Johnson fondly recalls the day she walked into Cortesi’s clinic hoping to be hired, and recounts how she used to bring home strays like the shepherd mix that had to go to a shelter after it bit her sister on the forehead, leaving a scar.

“I’ve always loved animals, and I’ve always wanted to be a vet,” she said. “I don’t know why. It’s just always been like that.”