Nearly 700 out-of-town animals behind bars at county shelter

orange county animal shelter

Wading carefully back into the minefield of the Shelter Wars, The Watchdog puts forward these numbers, showing that 682 animals from outside the county shelter’s jurisdiction landed there last year.

Most of them were surrendered by their owners, or were euthanasia requests, said county shelter spokesman Ryan Drabek.

Most of the animals (644) came from OC cities which have their own shelter set-ups, like Mission Viejo (120), Irvine (107), Westminster (95) and Costa Mesa (88).

Here are the per-city figures from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008:

City                 Number of animals
Mission Viejo        120
Irvine                   107
Westminster           95
Costa Mesa            88
San Clemente         57
Laguna Niguel        49
Newport Beach       47
Los Alamitos         35
Laguna Beach         22
Dana Point              9
Seal Beach               8
Laguna Woods         7
TOTAL: 644

The point of contention between the county shelter and the city shelters (or at least, one of the points of contention) is who should be handling these animals and paying for their care, and, often, demise.

In its June report, “Is Orange County Going to the Dogs?”  the Orange County Grand Jury said:

Local shelter operators may perform a mental triage on a pet brought to them on the basis of how much room is available and what the odds are that someone will adopt it. Many city and private shelters focus on the probability of adoption. Some city and private shelters may suggest that owners drop off the pet at OC Animal Care and the County Shelter will try to find a home for it. When this happens the limited-access shelters (also called “no-kill” shelters) that suggest owners take their pet to the OC Animal Care are no longer responsible for what happens to the animal. They can continue to claim that they are a no-kill shelter all the while knowing that the animals they have rejected will most likely be euthanized.

The grand jury urged city shelters to accept all animals from within their service areas (whether they’re easily adoptable or not); or to reimburse the county for the cost of boarding and euthanizing those animals (about $159 per animal).

In their legally-required responses, the citys have basically said, “No.”

The city shelters actually wind up with animals that should be at the county shelter, some say; people fib about where they live because they know that if they leave an animal at the county shelter, its odds of survival are only 50 percent.

And the county often picks up animals it shouldn’t be picking up in the city shelter service area, and then “sell” those animals (some city shelter people don’t feel that the county “adopts” animals out, because there is no rigorous screening process).

And the city shelter people don’t much trust the county’s numbers.

Oy. The Watchdog still thinks these numbers are interesting. And it’s important to remember that all these folks are working for the same thing: To find homes for unwanted animals. The Watchdog, like the grand jury, hopes for a wider spay/neuter effort in the not-so-distant future to reduce the carnage.