Statement to the Orange County BOCC  
                        Elliot M. Cramer
                          June 8, 2004

I want to again compliment John Link and his staff on the 
progress they have made on the shelter takeover. Obviously John 
was correct in his assessment of the time needed for 
preparation.  

Animal neglect at APS
I have seen a memo from Joe Pulcinella regarding Hope, the puppy 
who was seriously neglected and abused by APS.  I understand that 
you have received no other communication on this incident and 
that only Joe has been contacted about this. None of the people 
involved were contacted except Peggy O'Neil.  She has informed me 
of her dismay and she has written HSUS regarding this.  This is 
the first time in over two years that anyone that APS has 
publicly acknowledged that there has been improper and 
unacceptable care at the shelter; not even the HSUS report was 
sufficient to elicit such a response from the prior management.  
Joe's candor is welcome and long overdue.  This incident took 
place before Joe arrived and it appears that no one at APS is 
being held accountable or has taken personal responsibility -- 
not the former interim Director, Suzy Cooke, now a Board member 
again, nor Nicole Carper, the shelter operations manager at the 
time.  

Joe clearly was not fully informed about this incident.  The 
collar did much more than abraid the skin; Peggy O'Neil stated 
that "The collar had cut into "Hope's" neck and was embedded. Fur 
and skin covered the collar. ... I was cautioned when adopting 
her, that I should not air our (shelter's) dirty linens in front 
of the public, by the then shelter director."  

I think that Suzy Cooke should be asked to come forward with an 
explanation of what she did in response to this disgraceful 
example of animal cruelty.


Accounting for animals on July 1.
As you know, I have been very concerned with inadequate record 
keeping at APS.  Although I requested it several months ago, I 
have been unable to obtain an accounting of where each APS animal 
is; I fear that without prompt intervention by someone with 
computer and shelter skills, you will not have an accounting on 
July 1.  I do have these skills and have offered to help.  I do 
not believe that anyone at the County is skilled in the use of 
the new Chameleon software although APS was supposed to start 
using it two years ago.  Joe has inherited a situation where, for 
two years there has been no one on the APS staff who has more 
than a rudimentary knowledge of computers.  I'm still eager to 
help when I get back for vacation - if I am asked.

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               Statement to the Orange County BOCC  (2)
                        Elliot M. Cramer
                          June 8, 2004

Spay/neuter services
I am pleased that you have a proposal from Soren Windram of New 
Hope Animal Hospital.  I am familiar with him and believe that he 
is very highly regarded and has strong animal welfare interests.  
With regard to Dr. Dubrovsky, evidently APS has backed off from 
the demand of $264,000 per year that Ann Peterson presented to 
the BOCC.  At the April 20 meeting of the BOCC, Ann Peterson 
(speaking for APS) demanded $264,000 per month in order for APS 
to provide veterinarian services to the County beginning July 1.  
This demand was rejected by the County.  Both Pat Sanford and I 
told Ann Peterson that her figures were grossly incorrect;  she 
insisted that she had obtained these figures from Suzy Cooke and 
that they were correct.

This proposal could not have come to you without the approval of 
APS since Dr. Dubrovsky has an employment contract with APS at a 
salary (as of July 18, 2002) of $52,000 per year.  He leases his 
building for $1 per year, conditional on his maintaining that 
contract.  This provides his clinic and apparently includes 
payment of utilities (according to section 5f).  The lease 
terminates upon the termination of Dubrovsky's employment 
contract.  Obviously Dr. Dubrovsky cannot enter into a contract 
with the County without the approval of APS.  If APS is entering 
into a different agreement, the County should be privy to it.

The HSUS evaluation of APS veterinarian services were hardly 
glowing and I do believe you need the kind of strong oversight 
that John Link is proposing.  I hope that by this time next year 
the County will have its own mobile spay/neuter facility since it 
will be much more cost-effective to hire its own veterinarian on 
an hourly basis for spay/neutering and other care.


Comments from the HSUS Report

Approximately 6-10 animals were sterilized each day by one 
veterinarian. According to the veterinarian, he is capable of 
doing 20 surgeries per day (shelter and public) and is skilled in 
pediatric sterilization. The HSUS team was not told why he was 
not performing pediatric sterilization as well as why all animals 
were not sterilized at adoption.

APS did not provide a health guarantee for adopted pets and did 
not provide follow-up medical treatment, which is common among 
sheltering agencies. APS did encourage adopters to seek a 
follow-up physical examination at an area veterinary clinic but 
not provide certificates for a free exam from local 
veterinarians.

Numerous animals housed in the shelter, but not only in isolation 
areas, had obvious signs of upper respiratory infection including 
watery eyes, a runny or crusted nose, dehydration, appetite loss 
and lethargy.