REPORT ON PET ADOPTION CENTER TO BE PRESENTED TO CITY COUNCIL
A report on Brenham’s Pet Adoption Center will be presented to City Council next Thursday in a workshop session. Wende Ragonis, Director of City Services, said that a report is being drafted to present to council. It will address a number of concerns about the Pet Adoption Center by Carol Jensen. She spoke to the city council on September 7th. An ad hoc committee was formed to look into Jensen’s concerns. On the committee are Wende Ragonis, Assistant City Manager Ryan Rapelye, Human Resources Director Susan Nienstedt, and three members of city council: Danny Goss, Keith Herring, and Susan Cantey. Ragonis said that the city does a good job with animal control, but that operating a pet adoption center brought a new set of challenges:
Ragonis also said the city is looking at hiring an expert in animal services to act as a consultant on the shelter:
Ragonis said that the Pet Adoption Center recently had a surprise state inspection and that it received the highest marks possible in all areas. She said that the inspection report will also be presented to council. The formal report to the City Council is expected to be included in the Agenda Packet for the meeting next Thursday. That packet should be available late Friday.
The statement that “the Pet Adoption Center recently had a surprise state inspection and it received the highest marks possible in all areas” has caused confusion and needs to be clarified. The following statements with respect to this inspection have been confirmed as accurate by Dr. Hergert, who performed the inspection, via telephone on October 31.
The inspection was not a “surprise” inspection. It was the annual inspection mandated by the state for the purpose of evaluating the rabies quarantine facilities. The only ratings available are “Satisfactory,” “Unsatisfactory,” or “Probation.” The Brenham shelter received the “Satisfactory” rating. The rating applies only to the rabies quarantine facilities, items 38-46 on the inspection report. Nothing else is rated by the state. The state does not evaluate or enforce adequacy or competency of care and welfare of animals. The inspector can make recommendations for improvement, which Dr. Hergert did. Some of her comments can be found on pages 3 and 4 of her report. Dr.Hergert’s comments include recommendations regarding cat litter, food storage bins, shelving, too many kittens in one cage, sick kittens that need to see a vet, fostering, fund raising, marketing, donations, volunteer program training, more exercise and playtime for dogs, toys, blankets, beds, etc. for dogs. The official end result of the inspection provided by the state is a certificate indicating that the shelter has complied with the provisions of Chapter 826 of the Health and Safety Code with respect to rabies control, and is therefore licensed to operate as an Animal Quarantine Facility.
I’m surprised and deeply saddened to see the Brenham city management ‘spin’ this inspection in this manner. I usually try to defend city officials in these comments, but there’s nothing defensible about this. Either we the citizens have an animal adoption center, or we have an animal control depository; there doesn’t seem like there should be much grey area about it.
Grandpa, well said and “amen” to that. I do believe the ‘spin’ came from the Police Department, and the City management chose to trust what they were told. I think they now understand that they were not given a complete, accurate account as to what exactly was evaluated, and for what purpose, and what the “ratings” actually meant. This attempt to ‘spin’ the inspection goes hand-in-hand with many similar occurrences noted in the document I presented to City Council November 2, which KWHI printed in its entirety that afternoon. The common pattern is clear.
It sounds to me like the new facility received great ratings but there are still operational problems. I’m glad that is being addressed but I agree that hiring a qualified person would be better than paying an advisor if possible. If qualified personnel aren’t available then it makes sense to have an advisor come in and train the staff on best practices. In that case it’s money well spent.
#wowrukiddinme
Just another wasted salary!
Let’s hire a consultant in all the city departments because obviously the employees on the payroll can’t figure anything out! Heck let’s just hire someone to write, text, talk for the consultants now to save a later meeting and paid BBQ and or whatever they choose for lunch!
Let’s make sure the guys in jail can watch the World Series and have a pizza party also for free because I don’t mind contributing my hard earned money to see them happy!!!
Oh, who’s gonna consult the potholes to make sure they are a temporary fix???
I could go in and on but I gotta go feed the chickens and tuck the pigs in for bed…
So if you have chickens and pigs you must live in the county. If you’re in the city might want to keep that to yourself, because that is illegal according to the city ordinances…..JS
Looking at hiring an animal service expert as a consultant? How about hiring an animal service expert as the director and save our tax dollars.
Why do we NEED an animal service expert if the center already received “the highest marks possible in all areas” ? Sounds like they want to waste tax dollars , again, just to pacify someone.
Perhaps the inspected areas do not fully represent the desired range of operations for our adoption center, and instead merely appraise the facility’s physical care of the animals? I don’t know, as I haven’t found any public website containing detailed information about the state’s inspection procedures, but that is at least one potential reason. Possibly someone could enlighten us here?
RescuePet Owner, unfortunately the ONLY things evaluated and enforceable by the state (Sections 826 and 829 of the State Health Code) are adequacy of rabies quarantine facility minimum standards and compliance with animal control officer training requirements. The highest rating available is “satisfactory,” and the shelter obtained this rating on this very limited criteria. So “receiving the highest marks possible in all areas” is a bit misleading. The state does not evaluate or enforce adequacy or competency of care and welfare of animals. Therefore, they do not evaluate feeding, exercise, socialization, vaccinations, worming, veterinary care, euthanization criteria, adoption outreach and marketing, rescue networking, size of living space and ability to see something other than four solid walls, etc. etc.
Concerns regarding employees attitude not friendly never returns calls important calls regarding animal that was adopted and is missing. Opionions and not recomendations. No customer service.Not friendly. Arguing among each other. Very sad situation there. I witnessed first hand the not getting along with each other crying disfuctional situation atmosphere. Very sad for the animals but they can’t talk to tell someone!