What would be the first item of business when the new director takes over? Just by looking at their annual report, it is obvious what the first priority would be to completely revamp their "programs".
Here's a list of their programs and services according to their annual report:
Cruelty investigations (which is partially funded by the county, even though their 2007 report says that only 4% of funding came from taxpayer dollars. It will be interesting to see if the county budget says the same thing)
Re-homing pets
Safe Haven
Feral Fix
AdvoCAT Spay/Neuter Voucher program
OSU Surgical Rotation
Partners for Pets (the inmates from Pickaway County Correctional Institute that care for the animals)
Pet Therapy (shelter animals visit hospitals and retirement homes)
Obedience Classes (for the public, even though dogs with the slightest obedience problems in their care are killed...oh the irony)
Food Bank (The kind of bank that you deposit into but never are able to withdraw)
Humane Education in schools
Advocacy (their words... "educating elected officials and community leaders about the status of animals in our community and advocating for legislative changes"
Community Outreach (again, their words..." Attending events and programs to showcase the work of the Humane Society and educate the community about the issues impacting animals)
65% of revenue in 2007 went to programs.
Advocacy. Let's address Capital Area's claim that they spend money on Advocacy. At 85% kill rates, why are they spending money on "educating elected officials" and "advocating for legislative changes"? The primary reason is most likely because CAHS plucked Jodi Buckman from a national lobbying group AND it looks good on a website/newsletter. So where did the money go? There is not one scrap of information on any successes or even attempts at changing laws to be more animal friendly in Central Ohio. Nothing on their newsletter and nothing on their website. Laws haven't changed for the better in the 5 years Jodi's been "educating elected officials" and "advocating for legislative changes"- we can't even pass a puppy-mill bill that provides BASIC regulation for commercial breeding mills! (Capital Area Humane Society has NOTHING to do with lobbying for the puppy mill bill, by the way. Hmmmm maybe they could give the 'advocacy' money to the group that IS involved...)
Pet Therapy- Ok, there's nothing in your report about what this program accomplished. On your website, there is no Pet Therapy program, but there is a similar sounding Pet Visitation under the "programs" option. The Pet Visitation program states that it is a VOLUNTEER RUN program... I'm sorry, but the last time I checked, volunteers work for free. How are you spending money on a program that is run for free? The other program that is on your website but nowhere in your report is "Capital Canine Connection". This involves volunteers with their own personal dogs conducting visits to hosptials and retirement homes. WHY ARE YOU SPENDING MONEY ON THIS? How does this benefit the cats that are being killed every day?
All this really amounts too is another empty PR program.
Food Bank- Again, nothing in your report on who received food. Nothing on your website about how a group can get food from you. But alas, pictures of all the stockpiled food in your basement. Also, how do you spend money on this program?
Obedience Classes- very important for pet dog retention, to be sure- but, um, you're open admission for cats. How about some help for cat owners? Obedience classes for dogs are all over the place, but we'd sure like to see some cat-owner interactive activities. Maybe not really obedience, but how about Home Depot DIY- style "build a scratching post" classes, or litterbox issues 101 (where you could talk about new technology in litter like crystals, yesterdays news, ect...and reasons why litterbox issues develop and how to avoid/solve problems) Understanding cat behavior, proper cat diets, or other cat craft classes. Maybe if you started treated cats like the special, unique animals that they are, the public will too.
Community Outreach and Humane Education- Note to Jodi: these are the same things, especially to Capital Area, for whom both of these things are a "non-profity" sounding shroud for Public Relations. (If you can't give love, give money- right gals?) Unless Capital really starts doing something that the public can learn from, stop spending money on this PR baloney.
AdvoCAT- If this is not at the top of the list of the ways Capital Area wastes resources, it is definitely near the top. It is a mystery why Capital has a staff of veterinarians and a fully functioning veterinary facility and yet continue to use a voucher system to pay veterinarians $65.00 and $40.00 for each cat spay and cat neuter, respectively. If you kept the surgeries in-house do you really think it would cost you $40.00 for each cat neuter?? It is no secret that some veterinarians charge the public LESS than $65.00 for a cat spay, yet you continue to pay 65.00 for the vouchers in order to make life EASIER for you. The AdvoCAT money could provide TWICE as many spay and neuter surgeries if you actually CARED ENOUGH to execute the program properly.
Safe Haven- We never hear about the safe haven program, but respect the privacy of those who utilize it. We just hope that it actually does exist and is used by victims who need it. Sadly, somehow we just don't believe the fact that we never hear about the safe haven program is because you are handling the cases with respect and privacy.
Partners for Pets- O.K., caring for shelter animals are not the place for inmates to be rehabilitated. Have them paint the facility, mow the lawn, shovel snow, whatever...but maybe the reason that your cats are always sick is because you are having untrained, uncaring inmates "care" for them. Perhaps if you didn't chase away all the volunteers who did care you wouldn't have been forced into this embarrassing position. This would be one of the first programs the new director should reorganize.
So how does Capital Area spend 65% of it's budget on these 'programs', either completely staffed with volunteers, unpaid rehabilitating inmates, or stocked with donated product? Each of them has a paid "manager", "director", or "coordinator". No wonder there's no money left to actually benefit the animals!
Capital, you have a crisis in your shelter and you cannont bother with this ridiculous fluff any longer. KILLING 85% OF CATS IS ABSURD when you have all of these "programs".
For God's sake Jodi, GET FOCUSED.
This is what the board should be telling you, but since they don't, we will.
1 comment:
As a former volunteer, I have to speak up for the prisoner program. The prisoners cared much, much more for the animals than the paid janitorial staff. The paid staff were uncaring at best and cruel at their worst. Cats were picked up by the tail to be placed in carriers so the cages could be cleaned and all of the animals were treated like so much trash to be moved out of the way so they could get their cleaning done. The prisoners, on the other hand, were always kind to the animals, knew them by name and paid attention to their activities, giving me updates about them and how they were doing. If I could, I would fire all the paid janitors (many of whom I am convinced are illegal aliens), and have an ALL prisoner janitorial staff!
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