Update on trying to get some questions answered

On June 6 2013, I sent a follow-up email to the Pet Rescue email asking about my original email and if I could expect a response soon. I received a reply that day from Jackie Alleman, (from her personal email account, not Pet Rescue's, which strikes me as a bit odd). She said:

"We would love to set up a time you can come by and I can answer your questions for you.  You can contact me at..." and then gave her personal email and phone number (again, odd).

I emailed her a day and time, she emailed back and said she couldn't make that time and she offered an alternative. I emailed back and offered to meet the next afternoon.

There wasn't a response from her after that.

However, on 6/21/13, Beau Putnam emailed me from the Pet Rescue email address. Here is our brief exchange:

This was probably a response to an East Oregonian newspaper article from 6/17/13 that interviewed me about my (and the communities') issues with Pet Rescue.

Also take a look at the Facebook page for the East Oregonin from 6/18/13. There are comments from the community about their experiences with Pet Rescue, and many are negative and reflect what I've heard from people before.

Strangely, though Alleman hasn't responded to me directly, she posted a lengthy letter to the editor after the EO article came out. It's directed at me specifically, though she never told me about it: a friend had to point it out to me or I wouldn't have known it existed:


June 20, 2013
Dear Editor,
I’d like to publicly apologize to Suzanne Phillips for not finding her a time at Humane Society of Eastern Oregon/Pet Rescue Non-profit Shelter to volunteer. As we have many volunteers each week and eagerly find tasks for them to do, I can only imagine that there was a misunderstanding between her and our staff. Pet Rescue will set policy so we can improve each volunteer experience, without adding undue liability or risk to our volunteer or HSEO/Pet Rescue.

Suzanne complains in the article (East Oregonian, Tuesday, June 18) that she doesn’t see Pet Rescue in the community. We provide tours for girl scout, boy scout and youth groups. We provide pet education classes in the local school districts. We’ve set up a booth at the Good Shepherd Family Education day and handed out information and goodies for 4 or more years now. We’ve had entries in the Hermiston parade. This last year we provided 1300 lbs of dog and cat food for families and seniors citizens that need temporary emergency help. Every year we mentor high school seniors that are interested in animal care as a profession. If Suzanne hasn’t seen us, I guess we don’t hang out in the same places.

Unfortunately, the bulk of animals that come to pet rescue through government agencies are strays. That means they have had unknown care and their mental stress and physical health is compromised. So each dog we take in, threatens the health of the other animals in the shelter with the germs it carries. It is very common for animal shelters to constantly deal with diseases such as parvo and kennel cough and we do too. We vaccinate high risk animals when they enter our shelter, but then we still have to wait at least 10 days for the shot to have the optimum effect. We have found that one of the best ways for our shelter to keep germs at bay, besides cleaning and disinfecting daily, is to keep dog to dog exposure at a minimum. So this precludes us from letting all the animals run together. We have volunteers come and walk dogs nearly every day we are open. We will review this policy again and strive to improve the facilities of the shelter to allow individual dogs more exercise time.

I cannot express enough the importance of spaying and neutering your pets. I believe the key is to encourage more responsibility from pet owners. Don’t lash out at the shelters, who are trying to clean up the mess of overpopulation. Motivating pet owners with proper licenses and fees is one way. We believe that the best use of Pet Rescue's resources is to help pet owners become responsible by letting them invest in their own pets spay or neuter and vet care and Pet Rescue encouraging that, by providing assistance as needed. We are continually looking for ideas that will help provide these services to families without taking away their commitment to provide for their own animal. We are thankful to Washington State University and their excellent vet program (which some of our local vets are alumni) for spaying and neutering at least 25 animals per year for adoption from our shelter.

I’d like to mention that HSEO/Pet Rescue reunites approximately 10 dogs a month with their lost owners and provides a centrally located facility for folks to check for their stray animal. Each city sets their own fine or deterrent for picking up a lost animal and those funds collected from grateful families go back to the government agencies. The animals that are not claimed within 5 days (Oregon State require only 3) are then evaluated and put up for adoption. Aggressive, severely injured and sick animals must be euthanized. The rest of these animals become the inventory of Pet Rescue. Pet Rescue maintains an inventory of approx. 60 animals to provide the best assortment for those who are looking to adopt an animal. And any business-person knows that you keep your inventory healthy and marketable. To think that we don’t weigh seriously the hard decisions of euthanasia, haven’t managed a business with inventory. Also, I assume, any successful business-person knows that he must sell his inventory at market prices. We believe, the price of the investment in the animal does more to ensure a safe, loving, forever home than an intrusive and judgmental home visit. But again, our board will continue to revisit this policy.

In addition, I want to thank the amazing folks in this area for their good wishes and financial and verbal support they continually give us, from the first years to today, and even through this scrutiny by the East Oregonian Newspaper. People of Umatilla and Morrow County have had the vision to support a shelter of our kind for 2 decades. We will strive to manage the resources wisely these good people grant us to provide a shelter they can be proud of.

I am happy that Suzanne found a place to volunteer her time. And I am sure, with her efforts, her statement, “the dogs are not overpopulated, just under marketed,” her new shelter will be empty soon. I know the hard work that each shelter director down to kennel cleaner puts in every day. And, as in politics, there are many ways to provide services and care for the abandoned and stray animals that are out there in our community. We welcome new agencies with their opinions on animal care, to help with this challenging problem. We will even help you succeed as much as we are able. Our current policies are what works for us and this end of Umatilla and Morrow County and the 500 animals that come through our door each year. And with a little tweeking of guidelines here and there, we have stayed in business for over 20 years now, adopting more than 260 shelter dogs per year and reuniting about 120 with their owners. With no huge grant or government agency money to build us a shelter, my mother, Gay Van Schoiack, took her husband’s life insurance policy and built a building, cleaned the kennels and paid the bills, month after month, because that was the level of her commitment to the animals and this community. Humane Society of Eastern Oregon/Pet Rescue will continue her commitment and legacy.

Sincerely, Jackie Alleman
Director of Humane Society of Eastern Oregon /Pet Rescue
1844 NW Geer Rd, Hermiston, OR 97838


I'll respond to this letter in another post.

Pet Rescue avoids answering questions from the public?

One of the biggest red flags with Pet Rescue is their lack of transparency. There is almost no information online about the organization. Their policies, goals, mission statement, financial information, shelter statistics, even something as simple as the names and duties of the board members is all a mystery. And considering the many allegations of poor practices and downright abuse, many people in Hermiston are concerned that such a lack of transparency is just a sign of corruption and an attempt to hide shady dealings from the public.

On May 27 2013, I sent an email to the Humane Society of Eastern Oregon with a list of 18 questions (see below). The next day, Jackie Alleman (the president of Pet Rescue) sent a Facebook message to my employer stating that she thought some of the questions were "confrontational" but that she would "compile that information as soon as possible". It was inappropriate for her to contact my employer in any way: my questions were sent from my personal email on a weekend day and there was no information in the email that pointed to where I worked and in fact none of the questions had anything to do with where I worked; I was asking them as a concerned citizen. She would have had to search my name on the internet to even figure out that information, and I find that unprofessional and downright strange.


But the bigger point is: I have yet to recieve a response of any kind.

Here are the questions I sent:

Hi, since I moved here a few years ago, I've heard a lot of negative rumors circulating about Pet Rescue, and I was hoping you could answer a few questions. The Humane Society of Eastern Oregon is the largest shelter in the entire region, and I really want to give you the benefit of the doubt.

1) It's difficult to find information about your organization online. Can you tell me the names, and duties of the board of directors (and any paid staff) for Pet Rescue?

2) Do you have yearly statistics for  things like: number of animals that you took in, number adopted, number of return adoptions, number and reason for euthanasias, etc? And if so, is it published somewhere or can you send it to me?

3) I've heard from several people that you've adopted animals to friends or family members who then used the animals for breeding purposes, is this true?

4) Do you utilize foster homes? How many foster homes do you currently have?

5) Every time I visit the shelter, I never see any volunteers working (walking dogs, manning the front desk, cleaning, answering phones, etc). Pretty much the only person I've seen there is Beau Putnam. How many volunteers do you currently have coming on, say, at least a weekly basis? How often are dogs walked during the day?  Is there a fenced play area nearby where dogs can play off leash?

6) What kind of contract(s) do you have with local municipalities, which cities/counties do you contract with, and what are your specific (contracted) duties? How much money do the cities/counties pay you for these contracts?

7) How long do you typically hold a stray/found animal before offering it for adoption or euthanizing?

8) I think that euthanasias are performed in the shelter building, but I've heard that they're done in the cat room in front of all the cats. Is this true? Is there a certified euthanasia tech on staff?

9) The last time I visited the shelter, there were no toys or bedding in any of the dog runs, are the dogs provided with any toys or bedding at any time during the day?

10) The last time I visited the shelter, there were healthy cats in cages very close to cats with an obvious URI. Do you ever separate or quarantine obviously sick animals from the healthy ones?

11) Do you vaccinate animals upon intake? All of the Pet Rescue adoptions paperwork I've seen show that you either don't vaccinate at all, or only vaccinate the day an animal is adopted.

12) Sometimes I've seen some very nice, obviously professional photos of adoptable animals on the Pet Finder website, but most of the time the photos are very poor quality. Is there a photographer who volunteers sometimes, and if so, why doesn't he or she take all the photos for marketing purposes?

13) I've also noticed that almost all the entries on the Pet Finder page under "adopted" animals (aka the "Happy Tails") have been deleted (normally Petfinder keeps them up forever as good publicity for the shelter). Why is that?

14) I've also noticed on Petfinder that the postings for adoptable animals almost never have a description or much information on each animal, even for pets that have been listed for days or weeks. Why is that? Who puts up the Petfinder listings? Do you ever have volunteers do this?

15) Why does Pet Rescue not have its own website?

16) Are there written protocols or SOP's for shelter operations and policies? And if so, can you send them to me?

17) What kind of software/record-keeping do you use at the shelter to keep track of animal ID's, intakes, adoptions, etc?

18) Which veterinarian(s) do you typically use for shelter animals?

I understand that was a lot of questions, but these things concern me and others in the community. Thank you for your time in answering them.

Today I sent a follow up email. We'll see if they respond.

Marketing of Adoptable Animals: Photography and Descriptions

One of the most important (and easy and cheap) ways to market adoptable animals is to have a good photo and description.

Why it's important.

Most shelters are lucky enough to have at least one volunteer who is a professional photographer or serious hobbyist. But even if they don't, anyone can take a decent photo, even with a camera phone: It simply needs to be well-lit, with an uncluttered background, in focus, and catching the animal looking relaxed and happy. This might take a few more minutes than simply snapping a shot of the animal coming in the shelter door, but it can make all the difference in the world.

Take for example, these screen shots from the first page of the Petfinder page of Humane Society of Eastern Oregon from May 30 2013:

Jack and Butterscotch have been up for adoption for at least a week, and yet no one has taken decent photos of them. The photos are poorly lit, poorly focused, and the dogs look scared and stressed. Not the best image if you want to showcase an animal. And if a potential adopter clicks through to read more about these dogs, they don't have any description on their pages:

The only information we get is the breed, gender, and adoption fee. Nothing about the dog's history, personality, energy level, or suitability with children and other pets. Certainly, an interested adopter could call the shelter to get this information, but why put up yet another barrier to adoption when it takes only a few minutes to make this information easily available to the public? And these dogs have been at the shelter for over a week. That is plenty of time for a volunteer to spend some time getting to the know the dog and write a brief description in Petfinder.

A good, brief description of animal anywhere he/she is being advertised: Name, aprox. age, weight, or adult size if it's a baby, maybe a sentence or two of background history, 1-3 sentences on personality, and a cute quirk that will help the animal stand out a bit. End the description with the contact info for the shelter so that interested adopters don't have to go searching for it, it's all right there and they can call or email the shelter within seconds of becoming interested.


I've had this job myself for a couple of the rescues I volunteer for. Petfinder's interface is simple and easy to use. This is an excellent task for volunteers, and takes only a few minutes to set up, take the photos, and upload them to the website.

Being very generous, let's say it takes a total of 30 minutes of time per animal to evaluate them, take a decent photo, upload it, and write a description. There's only 11 animals on the Petfinder page, that's only 5 1/2 hours. A single volunteer could knock that out in a day at no cost to the shelter. And if its a task that's made routine by the shelter management, it's something that could easily be kept up to date when new animals are added to the shelter. 30 minutes per animal is not a lot to ask.

We know that Pet Rescue is capable of this photos because the one of Aurora is good! It's well-lit, in focus, uncluttered background, and she's in an eye-catching pose looking at the camera. Not perfect, but clean, happy, and eye catching, which is all you really need.

We also know that Pet Rescue is capable of writing good descriptions, because Duke and Tigger (although their photos are terrible) have them:

Moreover, on May 30 2013, there were only 11 animals listed on the Petfinder page, all of them dogs. I suspect they also have cats and kittens for adoption (they almost always do), and probably more dogs, but I don't know for sure because there is no information about them anywhere online.

All adoptable animals should be advertised, it only makes good marketing sense. The longer it takes to get them adopted, the more money is spent to house them and the more time they spend taking up space that could go to other animals in need.

The internet is just bursting with tips on photographing shelter animals. Here are a few of them:

How to take better photos of shelter pets, step-by-step
How photography can save pets' lives, from Petfinder.com
Ten simple steps that improve animal shelter photos
Taking great photographs of shelter animals
Five non-conventional tips for creating compelling images of shelter animals

Adopting out microchipped dogs: Cookie's story

This story was sent to me by Becky. She picked up a friendly stray dog in Hermiston on May 12 2013. She didn't trust Pet Rescue, so instead of taking him to the shelter right away, she decided to take on the work herself of finding the dog's owners.

Becky writes: 

"I took him to the vet the next day. He was scanned for a micro chip and one was immediately found. I was elated! They made two phone calls and located the registry on which he was registered and was put in contact with the registered owner.

Maria, the owners daughter, could not believe her father's dog had been found. He had been gone for four months. What was more incredulous, they live in Yakima! Someone had Cookies with them in their truck, there is some confusion as to who, it was either the son in law or the owner, when they stopped in Plymouth, Washington. Cookies went missing during their stop there. He was unable to find him and had to get back on the road.  At that time we had no idea how he had gotten to Hermiston. 

Maria was not immediately able to come to Hermiston due to her fathers illness. I told her not to worry, I enjoyed having Cookies.  His hair was in such deplorable condition that I had him groomed and sent updated pics to Maria.  Two weeks went by and that little dog stole not only my heart but my whole family's.

Fourteen days to the day we found Cookies, my three year old son let Cookies outside without our knowledge. Our yard is fenced but Cookies is so small, there are a couple of spots he can slip out. As soon as we realized he was missing, the search was on. We walked around our neighborhood and posted his picture on several Facebook sites. I also left a voice message on Pet Rescue's answering machine Tuesday morning at 6:30am. And I made the agonizing call to Maria to let her know. I felt I had let her dad down.

A woman commented on one of the posts I put on a Facebook page and suggested we had a poodle thief on our hands because her mother in law had a poodle come up missing two weeks prior. Coincidence? As it turns out, no. After talking back and forth on Facebook, we determined we were looking for the same dog. She didn't immediately recognize the dog because the pic I posted was after he had been groomed. She said her mother in law had adopted the dog from Per Rescue three weeks prior. I told her Cookies' story and she was sympathetic but also upset that her family paid to adopt a dog that already had an owner.

I called Pet Rescue at 11:54am on Tuesday morning. Initially to make sure my message was heard and to check to see if Cookies had been turned in. Beau answered, confirmed he had received my message and said no one had called or turned Cookies in.

I should have left I at that but I couldn't. I told him about how I had heard he adopted Cookies out and questioned why no one checked for a micro chip. He defiantly said "That dog has never been here and we do check for chips. Micro chips aren't always registered." I argued that Cookies' micro chip is registered but my words fell on deaf ears.  He then informed me that whoever adopts a dog becomes the legal owner.

I contacted Hermiston Police Department. The dispatcher took a report and had a deputy call me. His demeanor was unpleasant and so was his response. He told me Pet Rescue is not required to check for micro chips. Despite my protests, he basically told me there was nothing they could do. "It is a civil matter."

I continued to call Pet Rescue every day looking for Cookies. I even went down there to see for myself that he wasn't there because I DO NOT trust them. Fast forward to Thursday, May 30 at 4:51pm. I was at the photo studio located in Wal Mart with my two youngest children getting their pictures taken. I missed a call on my phone while getting my boys into costume for the pictures. As soon as I got the opportunity, I checked my missed calls and saw that Pet Rescue had tried to call me. It was now 4:54pm (6 minutes before the shelter closed) so I immediately called back. 

Beau answered and he says, "I have your dog here." I start crying and and babbling. He asks me to tell him the story again because he is really confused. So I do so. He states that I am the only one who reported him missing so he will give him to me.

Because I am unable to immediately go and pick Cookies up, he says I can come in the following day and positively ID him and pick him up. I explained that it is easy to ID Cookies over the phone. Cookies has a very obvious injury to his nose. His left nostril is separated from his upper lip and there is a scar on the right side of his nose. Plus, you can easily feel his micro chip and told him where it was located.  While on the phone with me, he looks at Cookies' nose and then says, "I remember this dog now. We did adopt him out." 

The following morning, Beau calls me and says that he can't give the dog to me. He said he went back in the 'Lost and Found' book and found where the people who adopted him called to report him missing. He claimed that legally he had to give him back to them.

I was livid. What would this guy have done had I picked Cookies up the night before when he said I could have him? Demand that I give him back? He calls me a little later and claims to have come up with a solution that "works for everyone". His great idea was to contact the people who adopted him in Hermiston, ask them if they want the dog back. If they did not want him back, he would return the fee they paid for the dog to them. Then he would contact the original owners in Yakima and offer them the dog. They would have three days to pick him up and would have to pay a fee of $100. (Remember that the original owner is ill and homebound).

I did not see how this was a good or fair plan. I argued with him and he was quick to tell me that he don't have to do anything. I said "Oh I am we'll aware of that. That is exactly what I was told by a police officer." He says, "So now you're calling the cops on me?!" I defended myself by telling him that I was simply trying to find out if the original owners had a legal leg to stand on in order to get their dog back.

Beau has repeatedly asked why the original owners never called to look for their dog. I can't seem to get him to understand that these people live in Yakima. The dog went missing in Plymouth. How were they suppose to know he ended up in Hermiston?  He also argues that you don't just leave the area where your dog went missing but he doesn't understand that he had no choice. It is my understanding whoever was with the dog when he went missing was on a time constraint due to being on the clock and on the job. I also emailed Beau and argued the purpose of getting a pet micro chipped is so that if a pet goes missing, the owners can be contacted and the pet returned to them. His reply was this-

Hello, I agree with you and it is my hope that the people in Yakima do get their dog back. I hope it all works out. I would just like you to understand that micro-chips are quite controversial. For instance, micro-chip companies have certain scanners that only work for their particular micro-chip. Their are instances when a dog has come in that our so called "universal scanner" has not picked up certain brands of chips. On the other hand Vet Clinics are putting in micro-chips that shelters may not have scanners for. It is unfortunate but each scanner can run up to 700 dollars a piece and we have not been fortunate enough to have the companies donate scanners. On our end it is something most individuals to not know or understand. We are strong advocates of tags with phone numbers on them for these certain occasions. I hope you understand the issues at hand.
Thanks

Now I am to wait for Beau to call me when he gets an answer from the people who adopted him. By today, 3pm I still had not heard from him so I emailed him. He said he still had not been able to reach anyone."

Becky sent an update June 1st:

"The people who adopted Cookies surrendered him. Beau said he is going to return the adoption fee of $100 to them. My husband is on his way to Pet Rescue now to pick Cookies up. We have to pay the $100 adoption fee."

Then later that evening :

"Beau and my husband had a confrontation this morning while picking up Cookies. Later Beau showed up at our house. He has redeemed himself. He came to apologize.

Maybe he isn't a bad guy after all. His concern was that the original owners dumped Cookies and didn't really want him back. Honestly, no one really knows what the real story is. We can all guess and speculate but we will never really know Cookies' story"

We'll start by giving Pet Rescue the benefit of the doubt: Microchip universal scanners are not perfect. Even when used correctly, they fail to pick up chips a small percentage of the time. This error rate drops to almost zero if the animal is scanned a second time, however, which is why current best practice is to scan a stray dog at least twice.

I'd also like to address Beau's statements about microchips line by line:

"... micro-chips are quite controversial."

This hasn't been true since the 1990's, despite the rumors that are still circulating. Microhips used to be  controversial when they were a new, unproven technology that wasn't widely used. Now they are considered almost standard for pets to have, and statistics show that they significantly increase a lost pet's odds of being returned home. Every vet I know recommends them; most shelter and rescue groups have their pets microchipped before adopting them out. Even most of the small private rescue groups I've worked with have a universal scanner because microchips are so widely used nowadays. Several states even have laws pertaining to scanning for microchips. That's how widespread and important microchipping is in the US. The only "controversy" remaining is standardizing the frequencies used and making a universal database. With a current universal scanner, which Pet Rescue claims to have, these issues don't apply.

"..micro-chip companies have certain scanners that only work for their particular micro-chip. Their(sic) are instances when a dog has come in that our so called "universal scanner" has not picked up certain brands of chips. On the other hand Vet Clinics are putting in micro-chips that shelters may not have scanners for..."

Again, this is mainly a problem of the past. Currently, 98% of pets in the US are chipped with 125 kHz chips, there is one company that uses 128 kHz and the rest of the world uses only 134.2 kHz frequency chips, but obviously they're not used very often in the US. Current universal scanners pick up all of these frequencies, anyway.

It's not relevant to this case, anyway, since Cookie's microchip was 125 kHz.

"... each scanner can run up to 700 dollars a piece and we have not been fortunate enough to have the companies donate scanners..."

I'm not sure how this is relevant, since he already stated that Pet Rescue already has a universal scanner and used it on Cookies. Does he mean that they have an old scanner that is inadequate but they can't afford one that actually works? If that's so, it's disturbing, and Pet Rescue needs to correct that immediately. It's not a pet-owner's fault that the shelter has a scanner that outdated a decade ago.

The $700 figure is also an exaggeration; usually they run $250-$300. Cost is a bit irrelevant since this is a vital piece of equipment for any animal shelter, right up there with having electricity and running water. For Pet Rescue, $300 represents the adoption fees of two dogs. Or, have a fundraiser specifically for a new scanner. Heck, I've seen a three-day donut-selling fundraiser run by two people pull in that much money.


It's also not relevant to bring up the fact that sometimes owners forget to register their contact information with the chip company, or forget to update it: Cookie's registry was correct and up to date.

Microchip scanners fail a small percentage of the time, and if we assume that's what happened with Cookie, then certainly Pet Rescue didn't do anything wrong by adopting him out to the family in Hermiston. Once the truth came to light, however, they should have handled the situation MUCH differently.

I'm very glad that Beau apologized to Becky. And it's also true that we may never know what the real deal is with Cookies' original owner. To me it does seem unlikely that they "dumped" him in Plymouth, but it's always a possibility.

However, the facts remain: Cookies was microchipped and the contact information was up to date and the owners wanted him back. It should have been an open and shut case. There's really not much more to ask of the owners except maybe that they expend a little more energy to get the dog, but even that could be understandable due to the drive and having their minds on other things. Not everyone is willing to drop everything to drive 2 hours for a dog. It doesn't necessarily mean they're bad pet owners.

Beau did not handle this situation well. At best, it was sloppy shelter work followed by inappropriate customer service. Either way, he's the director and the public face of the Humane Society of Eastern Oregon and needs to step it up.