County officials failed our animal shelter – Orange County Register

Millions of dollars wasted. Senior Orange County executives running shady deals. Failure of accountability in Community Resources department.

No, I’m not talking about the Auditor Andrew Do scandal. Reported in the OC RegisterI’m talking about Orange County Animal Care, the county shelter. Despite a $28 million annual budget and a $35 million facility, the shelter Failing industry and community standards.

The Do scandal and the mismanagement of the shelter show the same symptoms of failure at the highest levels of the county and the Community Resources department. No respect for the needs of the community. A tendency to deal behind the scenes. And, when uncomfortable truths emerge, a stubborn cover-up.

The Orange County Grand Jury showed that the shelter had only a third of the number required by industry standards. The shelter director’s response? He had no calculations to show for it. Just artificially inflated numbers pulled out of a hat. The director even claimed that he had the exact wrong number of volunteers. Volunteers lack self-confidence at the manager who counted them wrong.

Staff shortages led to security problems, including a life-threatening eventInstead of hiring dog handlers to make the shelter safer, the county resorted to: underreporting of animal bitesto the public and the Grand Jury. (Is this perjury?)

Understaffing also means that dogs do not have daily time outside of the kennel. Socialization of large dogs has almost completely disappeared. These activities, which are standard in good shelters, are essential to reduce stress and facilitate adoption. Without socialization, dogs become stressed and therefore less likely to be successfully adopted. They may be put to sleep unnecessarily.

COVID restrictions, which have been in place for nearly 4 years, were only partially relaxed in 2024. Some restrictions, Teri Sforza of the Register reported. OC has the shortest visiting hours of any major regional shelter. It keeps some adoptable dogs out of sight. Tellingly, shelter managers also prohibit visitors from unkempt areas of the facility.

A The sweetheart contract was signed To a former employee (and, we’re guessing, friend of the county executives) who didn’t produce any of the deliverables named in the contract but collected the payments.

The list goes on and onThe county gave dozens of small pets (such as guinea pigs) to the reptile organization. Shipping to Arizona(In a similar San Diego case, small pets were turned into snake food.) Tony Saavedra reported in the RegisterDespite warning signs, the shelter continued to give dogs to Woofy Acres, an unqualified organization. Dozens Woofy Acres dogs euthanized.

Last year, even the shelter basic animal counts were wrongOther troubling issues included: marked on these pages By State Senator Janet Nguyen.

The Do scandal has been brewing for almost a year because top executives continued to deny the problem. Now it appears that these top executives are the root cause of the problem. Their fake investigation appears to be a stalling tactic.

Likewise, top executives buried the disturbing revelations about the animal shelter, hoping to distract them and buy time. In the meantime, resorted to false statements and reinforced bad governance.

The shelter now has its second unqualified director in a row. The current one (Monica Schmidt) is a political scientist whose experience is dominated by Public Relations. The previous director (Andi Bernard) had no shelter experience. These choices, made by the same county administrators who brought us the Supervisor Andrew Do scandal, are driven by these bureaucrats’ desire to cover up poor performance and reward their collaborators at the taxpayer’s expense.

Frontline workers, hardworking and conscientious, are also victims of the county’s unaccountable top brass. In the Do scandal, frontline workers challenged corrupt contracts, but Community Resources director Dylan Wright overruled them and sent the money to now-discredited recipients. At the shelter, kennel attendants work long hours, but their dedication cannot compensate for the misallocation of resources and misguided policies implemented by Monica Schmidt and Community Resources.