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)