Dexter, Floyd, and Jake. Dogs threatened by County decisions! See their stories.
Scamp
COUNTY SHELTER
See the 2017 dog and budget numbers here.
August 2017. County volunteers allowed a dog with a bite history to approach other dogs at the shelter and she then bit 2 dogs. The County has now transferred her to the Santa Maria Shelter. Some volunteers think this was done to avoid the fuss that occurs when the SB shelter euthanizes a dog. Usually the transfers are from the North County shelters to SB.
August 2017- The County threatened another dog with euthanization according to a Craigslist post. Shadows Fund agreed to take Scamp as DAWG is not taking dogs that need training. At last report he was waiting for SF to pick him up from the SB shelter. See his picture below.
July 2017 - County is looking for people to serve on their advisory board.
June 2017 - City of Lompoc cancels contract with County, extends it for 1 month to find another provider if possible. City pays ~$320K to County for sheltering and animal control services and the costs have been going up faster than inflation. City has $1.5M deficit to fill. No other options are available, so Council renews contract for 1 year in July.
April 2017- Animal Services reports to Board of Supervisors everything is going great at 4/4 board meeting. AS will form advisory board to continue staff-dominated process of Oversight Team. Board votes 5-0 to accept report. See meeting summary.
April 2017- County hiring 6th SB Shelter Dog Volunteer Coordinator in 6 years. Does not include dog volunteer on interview panel until issue raised in Oversight Team meeting.
Feb 2017- County Auditors Office substantiates allegations of timecard and database fraud at shelter. Full story here.
Feb 2017- Independent story on shelter doesn't refer to Auditor's memo provided to reporter. Dog featured in story is in list of dogs scheduled for euthanization sent to rescues by email.
Feb 2017- SB Shelter has not replaced the tarp on the 'covered yard' where dogs are exercised during rain. This yard is critical for dogs who don't like to go to the bathroom in their kennels. Pic from 6/2016.
Nov 2016- SB Shelter dog with history of swallowing balls is sent for emergency surgery to remove ball. A volunteer had previously had to reach down his throat to remove a ball.
Long-Time Volunteer Resigns- Nov 2016. A volunteer that had spent up to 20 hrs/week at the shelter has resigned. She no longer could tolerate the mistreatment of volunteers by shelter management.
November, 2016- The County trainer/evaluator hours cut to 10/wk. The trainer was hired in January 2016 and was paid almost $40,000 for her time through June. She worked more than 30 hours a week during this period so the County could spend the budget they had allocated for that fiscal year. Now they are facing budget pressures and have decreased her hours significantly. It is unclear how she can service all three shelters with this number of hours when she is paid to travel to Lompoc and Santa Maria.
11/14- Santa Barbara Adoption Counselors threatened with termination. A recent comment on Edhat related that all but one of the adoption counselors at the SB shelter have been sent a "firing message" for not attending the 3rd in a series of meetings about the open adoption process. This has been confirmed.
Another Threatened Dog- Lulu! On 11/2 the County threatened this dog with euthanization if a rescue didn't take her by 11/4. This is a now familiar tactic to get a dog that needs training out of their shelter and off of their books without increasing their euthanization rates. See the full story here.
Animal Services delivers report to Board of Supervisors- Public commenters want major changes. 10-4-2016 One proposal is a Commission to review shelter practices. See full proposal here. More about the AHA process here.
Rest in Peace, Raven. Young lab put down after emergency surgery. Sept 23, 2016. More here.
Dogfight in playgroup at shelter, playgroups suspended Sept 2016. Playgroups still suspended as of November. More here.
Kyle Barbre to be Sentenced for Torturing and Killing Floyd (shown at left) at SB Courthouse 9-29. Delayed to 10-27. See more here.
Rico Killed at SB Co Shelter 9-29-2016.
Rico was considered to be unadoptable by the County but was allowed to attend lunchtime gatherings with many chances to make some poor choices. He had not been given a 1 wk deadline for rescues to take him as his risk was considered to be low. He bit a staff member at a lunchtime gathering on 9-28. He was euthanized on 9-29. See more here.
Dog Found Dead in Kennel at SB Shelter 9-16-2106. Wall-E, a 5 yr old lab/samoyed mix was found dead in his kennel by a volunteer Friday morning. His death is being listed as due to "natural causes." See more here.
R.I.P Corazon, Senior Santa Maria Shelter Dog 9-4-2016 Corazon was killed by the County on Thursday even though a rescue was trying to pull him on the day he died. See the full story here.
High Dog Transfers Out of County 9-4-2016 The latest year end numbers show that almost as many dogs have been transferred to rescues and out-of-county shelters as have been adopted. DAWG and Shadows Fund take some of these, but others go to places with high kill ratios such as in the case of Dexter sent to Orange County. Here are the numbers.
FY end 2013 2014 2015 2016
Adopted 987 766 742 724
Transferred 803 793 719 626
Corazon
See the available DAWG adoption and budget data here.
August 2017 - The DAWG Board has delayed their IRS filing due in May until November. They say this is a regular occurrence with them. They reportedly ran a big deficit in 2016 but without the IRS info there is no way to confirm this.
August 2017 - DAWG sets up a GoFundMe fundraiser for Lulu with a goal of $8000. Initially the page referred to kennel manager Ari Kleine but was quickly changed to refer to DAWG. As of 8/17 $115 was raised. As of 2016 DAWG had $1M in their bank account.
August 2017- DAWG's newly hired Adoption Counselor is fired. Their trainer told her that only he or the kennel manager could show a number of adoptable shelter dogs to adopters even though neither of them work on weekends, the prime adoption days. This makes 5 staff members terminated or quit since May.
August 2017 - DAWG has a number of adoptable dogs that have been at the shelter for extended periods even though people have expressed interest in adoption them. DAWG continues to use an extensive adoption application even though the other shelters in SB have switched to conversational adoption approaches with great success.
July 2017- Another kennel attendant gives her notice and quits. DAWG management tries to talk her out of it but is unsuccessful.
June 2017 - New shelter manager starts work. Kennel attendant is promoted to Adoption Counselor.
June 2017 - Jake is adopted by his foster after DAWG cannot rehome him after 13 months. Adoption is spurred by DAWG demanding Jake be returned to shelter despite kenneling poorly. See full story here.
June 2017 - Board President accuses fosterer via email of mistreating the DAWG's in his care by keeping one in the backyard and by not properly training the other. DAWGs left in his care for 13 and 10 mos, respectively.
May 2017 - DAWG fires shelter manager and lead kennel attendant. Adoption counselor and vet tech quit. Vet tech not replaced as of August 2017.
April 2017- Lulu is adopted to person that volunteers warned staff about. He violates many of the rules that he was told by the trainer and lets her run off leash at Elings with severe knee injuries. She has been kept in the medical isolation kennels since June with only very short pee breaks due to her knee injuries that occurred at the DAWG shelter. See her story here.
April 2017- Board decides to make major changes in shelter operations without consulting stakeholders. 5 of 9 lead volunteers stop coming to shelter. Big dogs rarely get walks after changes.
April 2017 - Trainer does not trust volunteers to handle new dogs and makes more than 1/2 of big dogs staff only. Many of these dogs don't get walked on weekends due to skill levels of staff working those days.
March 2017 - DAWG rehires ex-trainer on 90 day contract for 25 hrs/wk. Trainer uses Cesar Milan training techniques and adds the use of the spray bottle for aversion training. Focus of trainer is keeping dogs quiet.
January 2017 - Duke gets returned to DAWG for bites. Has been trained for 1 yr by ex-trainer with shock collars. Is forced to wear a muzzle for 2 weeks straight inside of his locked kennel.
Lulu, Dexter, and Jake. Dogs affected by DAWG decisions! See their stories.
AHA Project Costs- 9-3-2016. The AHA projects costs as of 7/2016 have been about $115K. The labor costs for the County's participation on the Oversight Team and its subcommittees is estimated to be another $100K. The additional staff positions added due to the AHA report (trainer, head vet, vet tech, shelter director) cost more than $500,000/yr. This has pushed the Animal Services budget to about $5.2 million this year.
