At last Thursday's City Council meeting, Ignacio De La Fuente asked Chief Batts if the City of Oakland should turn over the Oakland Animal Shelter to the SPCA or to Alameda County. The Chief indicated that OPD has discussed options for outsourcing as De La Fuente suggested.
Council Member De La Fuente asked Chief Batts, "Have we explored, really, transferring that animal shelter to the SPCA, the County, some other agency that can deal with the animal shelter?" The Chief responds, "We have, we are currently exploring different things to do with the animal shelter. I do have to applaud my staff who works out there who does an outstanding job but we are looking at ways to maximize that org to utilize it or even to adress that situation like you were saying."
Here's how it went down:
Ignacio...
The Chief responds....
I'm not exactly sure what this means? If we don't have any money in the budget for OAS now, how could we possible provide enough resources to the SPCA to operate a legitimate shelter? And who would handle animal control and enforcement? The City is considering allowing backyard livestock but wouldn't have anyone around to enforce whatever restrictions were in place? Sounds like a tea party slaughterhouse operators dream scenario.
I'm curious if anyone has a good idea of what this outsourcing proposal would look like in reality? On the surface it seems a bit sketchy and would, once again, leave Oakland animals to suffer.
1 comment:
Tim, thanks for posting this. Yes, it is true that both Ignacio DeLaFuente and Chief Batts have been looking to either close the shelter or transfer operation of it to an org like the SPCA. This is absolute insanity, as OAS is exceptionally well run! I do volunteer work with animals, mostly feral cats in Oakland, have been here 34 years dealing with the different animal shelters and agencies. Our city shelter is phenomenal. The SPCA is a great organization in it's own right but is doing very little to help Oakland's animals. They do not take in strays, period. OAS is the only "open door" shelter in Oakland, and they get hundreds of calls for service daily. The idea of the spca or another non-profit taking over control and responding to the field service calls at the current high (and increasing) volume (dog fighting, abuse of animals, stray dogs and cats, abandoned animals, etc), well, it does not make any sense! The current Animal Control Officers are doing a great job in my experience. The shelter Director, Megan Webb has been stellar in pulling the rescue groups in to help, making sure the army of volunteers at the shelter are well trained, etc. This is called, "one of the most transformed shelters" in the country by Maddie's Fund. Batts and De LaFuente should pay attention to City Auditor Courtney Ruby, as she knows where the waste is in Oakland. This city can do a lot more cutting of non-essential services. OAS is essential, is already saving the city money and should be getting an award, not threatened with closure or transfer to an agency unfamilar and inexperienced with the REAL work of Oakland's abandoned, abused,old, sick, "unadoptable" animals.
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