Vicki
Administrator
On August 1st, the Animal Control Department in Kansas City, MO implemented a new policy when it comes to evaluating their field officers. Effective now, animal control officers in KCMO will be required to issue a minimum of 15 summonses and impound a minimum of 20 dogs per month.
These minimum standards are being used as a management tool to address Animal Control Officers (ACOs) who are not performing their duties. Getting GPS devices installed in the trucks was also considered but there was no room in the budget.
With 18 full time field officers, 20 animals per month is a minimum of 360 animals per month (4,320 per year) that will be brought into the shelter.
Through July 21st of 2009, Animal Control had impounded 4,137 animals - of those 1,636 of them were killed in the shelter. With 1 out of every 3 animals that enters the shelter being killed, any increase in pets coming into the shelter - along with the new shelter management's decision to increase fees for recovering an animal from the shelter during an economic crisis -- will undoubtedly lead to an increase in kill rates in KCMO.
After a promising start to the year, kill rates for June have already risen 46% and July numbers will probably come in even higher.
We're making too much progress to sit idely by and allow the killing to increase.
While yes, animal control needs to pick up stray animals, and animals that are suffering from cruelty/neglect, 384 animals (most marked as healthy, normal seeming animals) were confiscated in the first half of this year for basic (non-aggressive) animal control ordinance violations - nearly 3x the number (134) that were prosecuted for cruelty/neglect. We at KCDA keep hearing stories of animals getting confiscated from owners due to inadequate housing (even though Spay/Neuter Kansas City's outreach program has free dog houses available to needy families), animals confiscated from owners because they are not altered under the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance for pit bulls, and others that are confiscated because they cannot afford the fine associated with having not licensed their dog.
The new evaluation criteria will further increase the number of animals needlessly taken from homes for minor animal control violations. Just this weekend numerous well fed, up-to-date on shots, altered cats were seized for nothing more than being over the city's pet limit of four animals. For each of these cats that entered the shelter this past weekend, others in the shelter died to make room for them. This isn't an acceptable option.
Instead of rewarding animal control officers for creating good outcomes for the owners and animals by offering assistance when needed or for scanning for microchips in the field so animals can get back home, the rewards system is now put in place to encourage animal control officers to bring animals back to the shelter where a large percentage of them end up dying.
If we are to seriously decrease the number of animals killed in our shelters, we must not only work on adoptions on the back end, but also on lowering the amount of dogs coming into the shelter whenever possible on the front end. This evaluation system runs counter to that goal.
Instead of evaluating officers on how many animals they bring in, how about these for better options for evaluating the quality of work for ACOs:
-- The number of low cost spay/neuter vouchers they have redeemed at Spay/Neuter Kansas City
-- The number of unvaccinated animals that get updated shots at low-cost shot clinics
-- The number of cruelty/neglect cases prosecuted
-- The number of animals without proper shelter that they were able to get proper shelter for using already-existing relationships with Spay/Neuter Kansas City's Outreach program
-- The number of pet owners they got to license currently unlicensed animals (and seizing animals for this offense should be prohibited)
All would be far better alternatives to the current program...
We cannot continue incentivize animal control officer actions that unnecessarily lead to the increase in killing in our shelters. While animal control has a role and responsibility to get animals out of abusive and neglectful situations, and needs to do work to pick up truly stray dogs, there must be an emphasis on getting pets back into their rightful homes, and to keep them in their homes when possible. ACOs that have already proven themselves inept should be fired. They should not be encouraged to go out and pick the low hanging fruit in order to meet some arbitrary quota. Being rewarded for behavior that leads to more killing is a completely unacceptable form of 'management".
http://www.kcdogadvocates.org/dnn/Politics/KansasCityMO/tabid/73/Default.aspx
These minimum standards are being used as a management tool to address Animal Control Officers (ACOs) who are not performing their duties. Getting GPS devices installed in the trucks was also considered but there was no room in the budget.
With 18 full time field officers, 20 animals per month is a minimum of 360 animals per month (4,320 per year) that will be brought into the shelter.
Through July 21st of 2009, Animal Control had impounded 4,137 animals - of those 1,636 of them were killed in the shelter. With 1 out of every 3 animals that enters the shelter being killed, any increase in pets coming into the shelter - along with the new shelter management's decision to increase fees for recovering an animal from the shelter during an economic crisis -- will undoubtedly lead to an increase in kill rates in KCMO.
After a promising start to the year, kill rates for June have already risen 46% and July numbers will probably come in even higher.
We're making too much progress to sit idely by and allow the killing to increase.
While yes, animal control needs to pick up stray animals, and animals that are suffering from cruelty/neglect, 384 animals (most marked as healthy, normal seeming animals) were confiscated in the first half of this year for basic (non-aggressive) animal control ordinance violations - nearly 3x the number (134) that were prosecuted for cruelty/neglect. We at KCDA keep hearing stories of animals getting confiscated from owners due to inadequate housing (even though Spay/Neuter Kansas City's outreach program has free dog houses available to needy families), animals confiscated from owners because they are not altered under the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance for pit bulls, and others that are confiscated because they cannot afford the fine associated with having not licensed their dog.
The new evaluation criteria will further increase the number of animals needlessly taken from homes for minor animal control violations. Just this weekend numerous well fed, up-to-date on shots, altered cats were seized for nothing more than being over the city's pet limit of four animals. For each of these cats that entered the shelter this past weekend, others in the shelter died to make room for them. This isn't an acceptable option.
Instead of rewarding animal control officers for creating good outcomes for the owners and animals by offering assistance when needed or for scanning for microchips in the field so animals can get back home, the rewards system is now put in place to encourage animal control officers to bring animals back to the shelter where a large percentage of them end up dying.
If we are to seriously decrease the number of animals killed in our shelters, we must not only work on adoptions on the back end, but also on lowering the amount of dogs coming into the shelter whenever possible on the front end. This evaluation system runs counter to that goal.
Instead of evaluating officers on how many animals they bring in, how about these for better options for evaluating the quality of work for ACOs:
-- The number of low cost spay/neuter vouchers they have redeemed at Spay/Neuter Kansas City
-- The number of unvaccinated animals that get updated shots at low-cost shot clinics
-- The number of cruelty/neglect cases prosecuted
-- The number of animals without proper shelter that they were able to get proper shelter for using already-existing relationships with Spay/Neuter Kansas City's Outreach program
-- The number of pet owners they got to license currently unlicensed animals (and seizing animals for this offense should be prohibited)
All would be far better alternatives to the current program...
We cannot continue incentivize animal control officer actions that unnecessarily lead to the increase in killing in our shelters. While animal control has a role and responsibility to get animals out of abusive and neglectful situations, and needs to do work to pick up truly stray dogs, there must be an emphasis on getting pets back into their rightful homes, and to keep them in their homes when possible. ACOs that have already proven themselves inept should be fired. They should not be encouraged to go out and pick the low hanging fruit in order to meet some arbitrary quota. Being rewarded for behavior that leads to more killing is a completely unacceptable form of 'management".
http://www.kcdogadvocates.org/dnn/Politics/KansasCityMO/tabid/73/Default.aspx