What Should We Demand of Our Local Shelter?

Why should we demand anything of the Humane Society of Eastern Oregon?

Because Pet Rescue is killing about 50% of the animals that come into its care every year and there is no excuse for such a high euthanasia rate. Here is the basic math: in the US there are about 3 million adoptable pets euthanized each year "for space" (including those at Pet Rescue). It sounds like a lot, but it turns out there are 17 million people looking for a pet who could have given those pets homes. All we have to do is reach a small number of those people. Why isn't Pet Rescue reaching these potential adopters, especially when we see that in Pendleton, La Grande, Walla Walla, and the Tri-Cities have no-kill shelters who ARE? Because Pet Rescue is not trying.

Because Pet Rescue is a non-profit organization. They put themselves out there, and receive benefits such as not having to pay taxes, as a service to the community. They are not a normal, autonomous business, answerable only to itself.

Because Pet Rescue receives most of its funding from tax dollars. They receive over $100,000 per year from  Hermiston, and Umatilla. Those are OUR tax dollars, we get a say in how they're spent. And I for one don't find it appropriate to spend MY money killing healthy, treatable, and adoptable animals in the face of life-saving alternatives.

Because Pet Rescue already lost its contract with the City of Pendleton (to a no-kill shelter) a couple years ago because of their abysmal euthanization rate and poor reputation in the community.

Because many people, including myself, have asked, begged, pleaded, reasoned, and cried, for the management to change, to stop killing animals, to treat them more humanely, to try harder to find them homes before killing them. For years, we supported; we've suggested ideas; we've offered to volunteer; we've emailed informative articles; we've given options. Mostly, we have been ignored. Many people who want to volunteer are turned away; in some cases, volunteers have been banned from the building for daring to suggest things could be done a different way.

Because Pet Rescue could change to a no-kill shelter (saving about 90% of the animals that come through the doors, notwithstanding extremely sick or aggressive animals) TODAY, overnight, if they made the commitment. It's been done before in other cities around the US, the only thing standing in their way is commitment and caring. If they aren't willing to come into the 21st century, they need to get out of the shelter/rescue business and become for-profit dog dealers.


What Specifically Should We Demand?

The most obvious: Immediately stop euthanizing animals except in cases of extreme aggression or sickness.

This is made possible by immediate, and comprehensive, implementation of programs in 10 main areas:

Here, in my opinion, are the top priorities:

1) Pet Rescue needs to stop paying its own board member, Jackie Alleman, $40,000 per year in rent. That's over $3300 per month. That's SIX TIMES the amount spent on "animal care" according to the most recent tax return (see below). It may be perfectly legal, but it is morally and ethically wrong to throw away that many tax dollars while the animals are killed or go without basic amenities.

2) Expand and vote in a new board of directors. According to the most recent records, the three board members are the same as they've been for years, and they are all related to each other (see above). The organization is stagnant. Board members could and SHOULD do all kinds of organizational work, from writing grants, contacting other rescues for help, completing animal records; most shelters have at least 5 or 6 people, some have dozens. Make meeting minutes available online for people to read would help improve transparent record keeping (which currently has zero transparency) and improve their reputation in the community.

3) Encourage and seek out volunteers. At least as recently as this week, Pet Rescue has turned away people who want to volunteer because it's "too much work" to supervise and train them.Volunteers are the heart and soul of animal shelters. Everything that Beau Putnam and Jackie Alleman claim they can't do, can be done by volunteers.

4) Post ALL adoptable animals in at least two places online (for example, petfinder.com and facebook), including a quick photo and brief description. They currently have less than 10% of their available animals advertised, including some who have been there for weeks.

5) Start working with other rescue organizations to get animals moving faster. There's no reason to let animals sit at Pet Rescue for months when there are other shelters who could have them adopted out within days. The Oregon Humane Society, to name just one, has a "second chance" program that

6) Start following the best practices laid out by the Association for Shelter Veterinarians: including
a) vaccinate ALL healthy-looking animals upon intake with core vaccines (cost is usually $1-$4 per vaccine), and b) provide proper cages for cats and kittens, including allowing a minimum of 2 feet between food and litter box.

7) Provide basic comfort items to each animal: bedding, toys, chew toys, etc. Currently, bedding is only rarely provided to any dogs, even on cold days. Puzzle toys (like 'kongs') and chew toys are proven to reduce stress in shelter dogs, making them more adoptable.

8) Utilize volunteers to take nice photos of each animal that's been there longer than, say, a week. There are several photographers who have volunteered their time in the past to take high quality photos, they should be contacted again. Good photos and descriptions of animals are essential to attracting adopters.

9) Create a stray pet plan, and stick to it. This should include: Scanning every stray animal with the microchip scanner when they come in (there are at least three KNOWN cases in the past two years of Pet Rescue adopting out a pet to a new home even though it had a microchip, even though they have a new, universal scanner given to him by Hermiston Veterinary Clinic); posting every stray pet to at least two lost and found online pet sites within 24 hours of intake (for example, craigslist and FB pet group).

10) Start utilizing the low-cost non-profit spay/neuter clinic in Benton City, WA. It's ridiculous that only 25 animals a year are spayed/neutered by Pet Rescue. Using the clinic, this number could go up to almost 100%.

There are many, many potential improvements, but this is a good start. Here is a sample list of resources about animal sheltering in the 21st century:
http://eowatchdog.blogspot.com/p/resources.html

How can we force them to change if they don't want to?

You CAN make a difference just by sending an email, right now. Write city hall. They're the ones who contract with Pet Rescue for pound services. They're the ones giving our tax dollars to a under-performing contractor.

City Hall's phone number is (541) 567-5521
Email: city@hermiston.or.us
Mailing and physical address: City of Hermiston 180 NE 2nd St. Hermiston, OR 97838
Office hours: 8am - 5pm weekdays
The Hermiston city manager is Byron Smith
The assistant city manager is Mark Morgan
The mayor is Dr. David Drotzmann, ddrotzmann@hermiston.or.us

City council members:
Lori Davis, ldavis@hermiston.or.us
Clara Beas-Fitzgerald, cbeas-fitzgerald@hermiston.or.us
Jackie C. Myers, jmyers@hermiston.or.us
Manuel Gutierrez, mgutierrez@hermiston.or.us
Rod S. Hardin, rhardin@hermiston.or.us
John Kirwan, jkirwan@hermiston.or.us
Doug Primmer, dprimmer@hermiston.or.us

Attend a city council meeting and speak a few words during the "public comment" portion. Be polite and brief. They need to know that the community has many concerns about it's animal shelter AND that there's a set of straight-forward solutions that could be implemented TODAY. Print out this blog post to use as talking points. (The next meeting is January 12 at 7pm)


Write a letter to the editor to the Hermiston Herald: http://www.hermistonherald.com/hh/submit-letter
Write a letter to the editor of the East Oregonian: http://www.eastoregonian.com/eo/submit-letter
Write emails to Beau Putnam and Jackie Alleman, or message them on Facebook. Let them know that there BETTER ways to do things, and they don't HAVE to kill so many animals. Include specific examples of things they could be doing better. Be polite, but firm. They've done business the same way for a long time, they're ingrained with a certain way of thinking, and are used to blaming others for their shortcomings. They can't hide anymore, we have the data and numerous examples of other no-kill shelters to prove it.

Here is an example letter:

Dear Mayor and Council,

I have learned some disturbing information about the Humane Society of Eastern Oregon aka Pet Rescue, the animal shelter that is contracted by the city to take care of stray pets. They kill 50% of the animals they take in. This is far above the state average of about 16%, and far more than they should. Most of these animals are adoptable, and they do this killing in the face of life-saving alternatives. In addition, they pay their own board member (Jackie Alleman) $40,000 in annual rent, but only spend $5800 in animal care. People who visit the building report dogs and cats get the bare minimum of care, often going without blankets in cold weather, or toys to keep them occupied, or daily walks due to "not enough" volunteers... even as they turn away people who WANT to volunteer! I am greatly concerned that my tax dollars are paying for this substandard and inhumane service.

A group of community members who are knowledgeable in the area of modern animal sheltering have drawn up a list of recommendations for changes at Pet Rescue that would immediately stop the killing of adoptable animals (and improve the mental and physical health of the animals). They've tried to discuss it with board and staff members of Pet Rescue (namely, Beau Putnam and Jackie Alleman), but have been completely dismissed. Some volunteers have even been banned from the building for suggesting changes. The list of policies can be found here: ___________

This is completely unacceptable in the year 2015. Every municipality in Oregon and Washington has access to a "no-kill" shelter (a facility with a 90% save rate, euthanizing only for extreme sickness or aggression). Our local ones include Pendleton PAWS, Benton-Franklin Humane Society, Blue Mountain Humane Society of Walla Walla, and Blue Mountain Humane Association of Union county.

We demand that the City of Hermiston contract their animal control with a no-kill shelter. You have influence to affect change at the Hermiston shelter, but if they won't comply with these simple, straight-forward changes in policy, than it's your duty to see that they no longer have the support of our tax dollars.

Sincerely,

(name),
(your address)

Beau Putnam refuses to work with other rescues

In yet another example of Pet Rescue putting pets in their care as a last priority, Beau Putnam shows again that he's not willing to work with other rescues.

 


This is Rufus, an elderly, 10 lb dog who's been at Pet Rescue since June 2014. During his long stay at the "shelter", he was not neutered or groomed, and often went without bedding even during cold weather. A volunteer (one of the few people allowed to volunteer) felt sorry for him and posted his picture out on a FB pet adoption group.

Right away, a 501c3 rescue in Portland saw his picture and contacted Pet Rescue and asked Beau if he would transfer the dog to them, since they had an adopter who was looking for a small terrier like dog. He said flatly, no. If they wanted him, they'd have to pay the $150 adoption fee ($50 refundable after proof of neuter). They managed to talk him down in price, and did all the work of lining up a transport to take him to Portland three days later. Beau Putnam refused to put a hold on the dog, even for three days. He refers to that as "boarding" apparently not understanding that holds are a normal part of business for most animal shelters. Worried about what might happen to him over the next few days, the rescue scrambled to find a last minute foster home.

Rufus made it out alive, and has finally been groomed. But the way Beau Putnam handled the situation was stupid, cruel, and rude. This dog should have been advertised online. Pet Rescue SHOULD have contacted other rescues to ASK for a transfer months ago; aside from the fact it appears this dog was neglected by Pet Rescue; when a rescue actually went out of its way to take an elderly, unneutered dog who'd been sitting "on the shelf" for half a year, off of his hands and into an loving home, he should have gladly transferred for free.

This is not the way things are done in the 21st century American animal shelter community.

Utilizing the internet and social media to advertise pets

I hadn't checked on Pet Rescue's efforts in a few months, so I searched FaceBook to see what they're up to. This search brings up four different pages: an error page by facebook that redirects elsewhere; an automatically generated business page that is not maintained by anyone; a "group" page which appears defunct, but used to be maintained and updated by Jackie Alleman; and, finally, the actual, currently official, FaceBook Page. (located here): https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pet-Rescue-Humane-Society-of-Eastern-Oregon/573075486046546?fref=nf

(It would be smart of the Pet Rescue management to clean up the FB listings for "Pet Rescue Hermiston", get rid of the defunct "group" page, and contact FaceBook about the erroneous pages, because it's confusing to people trying to find information on the rescue.)

The main page on Face Book is not a terrible page: they've made improvements to it in the last few years (especially starting in May 2013).  There's very little information on it (it doesn't even list what animals are currently up for adoption, adoption fees, staff or board member names/duties, hours of operation, bylaws, information on volunteering, etc)...

...but they are at least updating it several times a week with information on some adoptions, and even a Christmas fundraiser and discount adoption drive. This is a good thing, but it's only the first, small step needed to come into 21st century animal sheltering.

 As of this writing:
1) They still have no website of their own. (There is a blog that hasn't been updated in 5 years)
2) Nothing on Petango.com or Adoptapet.com or Petharbor.com (three of the four largest FREE animal adoption sites in North America)
3) The only other online presence they have is a page on Petfinder: http://awos.petfinder.com/shelters/OR103.html  however, the front page is outdated and ugly, and when you click on their "available animals" link, there are literally 4 dogs listed. No cats at all and the photos of the animals that ARE listed are terrible, and there are no descriptions for the animals (except their adoption fees), even for dogs that have been there for months (presumably giving the staff or volunteers ample time to get to the know the dog and take five minutes to type out a paragraph on their personality).

Compare Pet Rescue to the other shelters in the local area:
1) Pendleton PAWS (no kill) (website, Facebook updated multiple times daily; Petango and Petfinder have nearly all adoptable pets listed): http://pendletonpaws.org/
2) Benton Franklin Humane Society (no-kill) (website, Facebook updated multiple times daily; Petango and Petfinder have nearly all adoptable pets listed: http://www.bfhs.com/about-us/
3) Tricities Animal Shelter (unclear if "no-kill", but they have a nice website and utilize many programs to encourage adoption, volunteering, etc) (website, Facebook updated multiple times daily; Petango and Petfinder have nearly all adoptable pets listed: http://www.tri-citiesanimalshelter.com/adopt_pet.php

See a pattern? Pet Rescue's refusal to use the internet to advertise their animals means potential adopters aren't seeing them. In 2013, Jackie Alleman stated to the EO that Pet Rescue usually has about 60 animals up for adoption at any one time. Only advertising 4 out of 60 (7%) of available animals is ridiculous ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE EUTHANIZING "FOR SPACE" (Alleman also stated to the EO that Pet Rescue euthanizes about 50% of their animals!). They can't just sit back and wait for people to visit them, that's a stupid way to do business, and worse, it's costing animals' lives.

What they should start doing TODAY:
1) Post every single adoptable/available animal in at LEAST two places on the internet (for example, petfinder.com and facebook) WITH a quick photo and brief description.
2) Put out a call (in the newspaper, on craigslist, on their facebook page, etc) for volunteers to design/create and host a website. It doesn't have to be fancy, and could be up and running within a week, easily.
3) Put out a call to volunteers to take "nice" photos of all animals to replace the "quick" photos. (The nicer the photo, the more likely to catch the eye of an adopter).
4) Designate 1 or more volunteers to keep the Facebook page updated at least once a day. This way limited staff time won't be taken up with FB posts.

That's just a start, but it's a good one, and these are all steps they could do TODAY and THIS WEEK.

Enough with the excuses, Beau and Jackie. Get it together, or stop calling yourselves a "shelter".

Things looking up?

The staff at Pet Rescue/Humane Society of Eastern Oregon seem to be stepping up a bit in the last few months. They are getting better at updating their Facebook page and actually attended a large adoption event in Kennewick.

They still have a long way to go before they operate like a 21st century animal shelter, but I hope they continue on this positive track.

Ignorant of the law; euthanizing for no reason

On the evening of 12/29/13, a woman, R. B. was driving through downtown Hermiston when she spotted a dog that appeared to be a stray. It was an adult male unneutered pix/boxer cross that was loose on the sidewalk and was also very skinny and dirty. She stopped and put the dog in her car. A neighbor than came out and told her the dog was not a stray, but lived at a house nearby. R. B. called the police and explained the situation. Officer McMahon arrived and, after seeing the poor condition of the dog, decided it was in bad enough shape to seize and charge the owner with animal neglect. He took photos of the dog at the scene and posted a notice of impoundment on the owner's door (the owner wasn't home).

R. B. explained that she was on the board of directors for a Hermiston based non-profit animal rescue, that they had a foster available to house the dog, and funds to provide immediate vet care. The officer said he wasn't allowed to release the dog to her and that the dog had to go to the Humane Society of Eastern Oregon (aka Pet Rescue). (He did explain that the non-profit could get on "the list" by speaking to city hall).

Concerned that the dog would not be treated properly at Pet Rescue, R. B. sent another volunteer, Sharon M., to the shelter. She arrived less than an hour after the dog did. She spoke with Beau Putnam, explaining that the rescue she volunteered for could take the dog and provide him with immediate vet care. Beau refused to transfer the dog, stating that if she wanted the dog she could, quote: "adopt the dog in five days for $150."

This brings up a number of disturbing questions. Like, why would he think the dog could or should be put up for adoption in only five days?

1) The dog was seized as part of an animal neglect case. Five days probably isn't even enough time for the owner to be charged, let alone been found guilty in a court of law. Unless the owner releases the dog, or the city files a petition to the court to gain full custody/ownership of the dog, it has to be held until conviction. Even if the city files a petition, it takes at least 14 days for that to take effect. At best, Beau Putnam is ignorant of animal laws. At worst, he just doesn't care because he's so used to flouting the constitutional rights of dog owners who are also ignorant of their rights under the law.

2) Even if the dog was released by the owner, which would give Pet Rescue the immediate right to adopt to a new home, that's not nearly enough time to allow the dog to get proper medical care, and recover enough to be vaccinated and neutered.

3) And even so, why wouldn't he be willing to work with another rescue agency? Pet Rescue personnel complain all the time that they are "forced" to euthanize adoptable animals because they "don't have enough space". And yet, here is a prime example of them refusing to transfer a "problem animal" thus freeing up a cage and saving them from having to pay for vet care/vaccines/neutering.

Leaving aside the legal issues, many of us are concerned that this dog will not be provided proper care; will, if vaccinated at all, will be vaccinated while likely immune-compromised; will not be neutered prior to adoption; is not likely to be adopted at ALL due to his current state; that Pet Rescue won't do anything to improve the adoptability of the dog; and if not adopted he will be euthanized without trying to work with other rescues in the area.

"If we had more money..."

I often hear the excuse from poorly-performing shelters such as Pet Rescue, that they would do a better job "if they had more money".

This isn't true. They will do a better job when they make a commitment to do so. Ironically, the better job they do, the more donations and community support they would get. It doesn't work the other way around.

Keep in mind, for example, the Memphis Animal Shelter:

It has a budget of $7.2 million.

It has over 550 cages and a brand-new facility.

It has multiple, full-time paid staff members.

And yet, because it is plagued by the same administration and procedural problems as Hermiston Pet Rescue, even with lots of money, it still euthanizes healthy, friendly animals "for space", even when there are empty cages. It still does a poor job advertising online, often killing nice pets without the public even knowing they exist. It "oops kills" pets that have owners looking for them in the next room. It kills kittens and puppies without even contacting anyone to ask for foster homes. The list goes on.

There is no excuse for not following the Animal Shelter Best Practice Guidelines. The size of your budget has nothing to do with it.