...something that has just been impossible for Capital Area Humane Society and Franklin County Dog Shelter. This "cold war" has been to the detriment of rescue efforts in Central Ohio for the past 5 years.
Now both are coming under public scrutiny, each at opposite ends of the spectrum. Strangely, Franklin County is in trouble for trying to do too much and Capital Area Humane Society- well, you know.
Lets address the Franklin County problem briefly- the rescue community, in general, loves FCAS. Lisa Wahoff is a great person and has transformed Franklin County Animal Control into a progressive, grant-seeking (and using!) pro-active humane organization. Her staff is out in the community helping catch dogs, reuniting dogs with their owners, distributing literature on the importance of spay/neuter and behavior training. On her watch, Friends of the Shelter was formed- an independent non-profit organization that exists for the purpose of raising money to provide medical care that the county couldn't pay for, start a spay/neuter program, and do humane education to help people keep their dogs in their homes. She works closely with dozens of rescue groups to get animals off death row at the county and into other organizations for a second chance at life- not to mention her offering of shelter facilities for Mingle with our Mutts- thereby helping dogs to which she has absolutely no obligation.
In short, Lisa Wahoff has been a solution oriented shelter director and it has resulted in good will from not only the rescue community in Franklin County, but the public in general. It has also helped Mary Jo Kilroy get re-elected to the Franklin County Board of Commissioners and elected to the United States House of Representatives. Why do you think she put a "Pets for Kilroy!" board on her Kilroy for Congress website? Because she wanted to tap into the good will Lisa created in the community by doing the right thing for the shelter dogs. If there's one thing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can all get behind, it's helping down-on-their-luck dogs get a second chance.
It is unfortunate that Lisa Wahoff has made some poor choices that has overshadowed so much of her good work. Most of what the Columbus Disgrace continues to report on is nothing more than Page 6 gossip- where we believe Wahoff really did herself in was alienating the Ohio State University School of Veterinary Medicine.
Gotta follow veterinary advice, rescuers- no ifs, ands, or buts. No matter how much you think you know about the medical issues with an animal, you have no right to disregard the medical opinion of a veterinarian.
Now that that is out of the way, let's talk about Capital and Franklin's cold war. Franklin County worked with lots of rescue groups which is great. The one that they should have first and foremost had a good- no, GREAT- relationship with is the Capital Area Humane Society. Of course, we understand why they didn't- in fact, even when Capital did take dogs from Franklin County in a show of good will, 90% of the dogs would end up back at FCAS within a few weeks because of this problem or that. After a while Lisa understandably stopped wasting her time with Jodi. Even so, Lisa still should have made a collaboration with Capital her top priority if she wanted to make changes in the dogs lives over at the county. If Jodi continued to find excuses for why not, Lisa should have continued to press the issue, publicly if necessary. Capital was taking dogs anyway from Perry County, Union County, Madison County, and everywhere around the state just to get attention. (Even though she told everybody she wanted to focus on Franklin County first- it was hilarious- a complete contradiction to her actual actions) But why on earth would you want to combine forces?
Let's look at San Francisco who did it. Yes, tons of money from Maddies Fund, community support from a rich city that also probably has spay/neuter ordinances that are actually enforced. But does anybody think that kind of situation fell from the sky?
In 1994 the city's largest humane society, the San Francisco SPCA, and the city's animal control facility, the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control signed an agreement stating that they would work together to GUARANTEEING that no adoptable dog or cat in San Francisco would be euthanized. It wasn't until 4 years later that San Francisco actually opened their amazing, cage-free adoption center funded by Maddies. Since a central "animal rescue center" developed, dollars and resources weren't wasted on both groups trying to work independently. The county, an -open admission shelter, had a commitment from the SPCA to be the primary source from which they would pull animals. 85% of animals at the massive, gorgeous SPCA adoption center in San Diego started out at animal control. When there is a problem with another geographical area or puppy mill or something, the SFSPCA will help in those circumstances, but it never comprimises the amount of animals that are pulled from animal control. It also lends it's facilities to smaller groups for meetings, functions, training, humane education, ect... but it has a requirement that 50% of the animals in the group are pulled from animal control. This requirement of course is relaxed with breed-specific rescues.
Back in Columbus, both Franklin County and Capital Area continue to get funding for a lot of the same programs that they implemented independently of each other. (Yes, Franklin County even has a coloring book, but I doubt they spent 30 grand developing theirs) And when it comes to something like, for example, a spay/neuter clinic, something that both shelters run, you have to get the supplies, recruit veterinarians, hire/schedule support staff, take appointments- the point is that it takes a LOT of resources to get it going and maintain. How about both shelters run one program, even if surgeries are still taking place at both shelters. ONE phone number for the public to call, ONE non-profit applying for the subsidy grant, ONE organization utilizing all the resources- you save money and streamline efforts for measurable results!
This sort of mentality could apply to MANY aspects of sheltering- how about adoptions? All the animals at both Capital and Franklin are loaded into the database for the Meet Your Match program. So if someone goes into CAHS and doesn't find a match in the 19 dogs that are for adoption right now. (Hey, we're just going off the Capital Area website!) maybe they can "Meet Their Match" with one of the HUNDREDS available at the county.
By the way, why are there only 19 dogs for adoption with Capital? And 5 of them are the same, hard-to-place breed?But I digress.
This blog post has gone on long enough, and we're sure you get the point. More solutions in blogs to come. Why should we look to other cities as models for what we should do here in Central Ohio? BECAUSE THEY'RE ACTUALLY FINDING ANSWERS AND SAVING LIVES. YES JODI-SAVING LIVES IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING.
Check out the San Francisco SPCA at http://www.sfspca.org/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
WOW only 19 dogs! How many empty cages???
WOW only 19 dogs! How many empty cages???
WOW only 19 dogs in the Meet Your Match program. And how many empty cages??
There is no meet your match program. They had it for several months after offering it several years ago and still have the posters up and it has been advertised on their website.It looks good. However, there are no signs on the cages with the dogs personalities per the meet your match program. They have run off all of the volunteers who used to test them.
Every time I ask about dogs there, they always say that they were from Franklin County. How is that not working with them?
Ignorant comments by people with no facts.... gee, there are dogs at Capital RIGHT NOW from Franklin County Animal Shelter. The cat save rate has improved over 10% under Jodi Buckman. What are YOU doing to help animals in central ohio other than trotting out old myths and horror stories? Vouchers were given to over 1,000 households last year.... why do you think people who can't afford to spay one cat should have more than one voucher as opposed to helping more households have ONE pet? If you have 12 cats that you can't afford to spay you are part of the problem!
I wouldn't be holding up Franklin County as an example of productive leadership..... there are multiple sides to every story, but when your #1 and #2 staff are at odds and so on and so on.... and the Ohio State University no longer wants to be associated with you....
With regards to the voucher program. I applied for a voucher when the program first started (as did several of my neighbors). No vouchers arrived. When we called about them, several times, we were told that there was a delay in dispersement. Most of the cats were spayed/neutered by our vets. At our cost. Money that could have been spent on future vet care, vaccines, food. I believe that some of those same cats have now been abandoned and are out roaming the streets, repopulating. I finally received my voucher, as did MOST of the neighbors, but too late. And they expired. So, my question... 1000 vouchers were passed out. How many of those were used? And if 1000 were used... how many were passed out? And, how many applications did they receive and ignore? I know of three that were ignored. Must be more than that out there.
Yes there are two sides to every story but wouldnt it be nice to see the good side of Franklin county in the Dispatch? I guess the difference with Franklin county and CAHS is if people dont agree with the director at CAHS they are asked to leave. That eliminates any difference of opinions with the leadership. It is "agree with what I say,do what I say or hit the road."
As a volunteer at CAHS I was told that OSU students left Franklin county as "Franklin county tried to save too many animals and it was too busy." Also they wanted to do cats.
We in rescue have begged to see the statistics at CAHS but keep getting the "oh adoptions and saving lives is up". No numbers just the same old song. I would love to see numbers of how they are saving 10% more.
Let me tell you what I have done to help CAHS get the vouchers sent. I printed off,filled out,stamped and mailed in vouchers for people to have their cats altered. I
picked up cats to be altered and drove them to vets offices myself. Many people are feeding and caring for strays so they have more than one cat "per household." If a person is wanting to alter 12 cats they are NOT part of the problem they are attempting to decrease the problem. They are saving lives and decreasing the overpopulation. Not everyone has a salary of over one hundred thousand dollars a year and welcome the ability to help the overpopulation.
Post a Comment