Broward pets lose as once again commissioners choose to kick the can down the road

After receiving another disappointing, yet not surprising, auditor’s report on Broward County Animal Care, and hearing from concerned members of the community, Broward County commissioners didn’t act.

They instead chose to give the shelter and county administration more time to fix the problems, or as advocates see it more time to produce excuses for why they are not serving the needs of the community.

Broward’s Administrative Code 8.8 defines the Animal Care Division responsibilities to include maintaining a shelter for impoundment of strays, at large or infectious animals. It also states the division’s function and responsibility includes apprehending and returning to owner or impounding any animal roaming free.

Chapter 4 of the Broward County Municipal Code was written with the very first substantive provision specifically prohibiting animals-at-large.

The shelter director is trying to delegate her core function to cities and tried to do it without even discussing it with them. Instead of avoiding her job, she should do the job she was hired to do. Both she and county administration claim, without evidence, that it is more likely for families to find lost pets at their city police department.

Actual data analyzed by No Kill Advocacy Center could not support this assertion. This is simply a shell game: keep animals out to keep the numbers low.

So now if the shelter will take strays from cities, what about good Samaritans who try to bring stray animals to the shelter? Will they still be turned away?

Mismanagement of shelter operations continues to be a theme. Over the past decade multiple investigations of Broward Animal Care have identified significant problems with the way the shelter is managed and operated.

How are pet tags declining, as the audit report stated? How are we to fund spay/neuter, which demonstrably lowers overpopulation and therefore actually reduces shelter intake, if we cannot get tag issuance done properly? Those funds pay to help control the pet population.

The audit showed enrichment is not adequate for the shelter population and is not recorded and easily accessible. Lack of enrichment leads to decline and unruly behavior.

These suffering pets are then not eligible for adoption and are killed. The shelter cannot simply take in pets; it must be held accountable for providing adequate care and enrichment while in the shelter.

The shelter director recently asked the community to come help the shelter notwithstanding her 18-month campaign to oust outspoken volunteers and rescue organizations. She told commissioners she has 50 new volunteers a month. Since when? Show us the data!

All too many discussions with commissioners and administration, audits and investigations, and opinion pieces published in this newspaper have identified the challenges faced by a county shelter that committed over a decade ago to achieve a no-kill community. The components of that goal were identified in the resolution passed in 2012. None of the directors since 2012 has embraced those tenets, including the new director.

The shelter must be the hub of a complex system of resources and programs. It does not necessarily provide the services, but it oversees and outsources to qualified groups with experience in providing those services. This requires building relationships and reestablishing trust with the community.

County commissioners need to stop giving county administration one more chance and make real change. This means directing county administration to outsource tag licensing, high-volume spay and neuter services and low/ no-cost veterinary care.

The shelter needs to focus on education and pet-retention programs for the community and building relationships with rescues and private shelters locally and outside the area, including transportation programs, and foster, volunteer and adoption programs.

Wendy Schugar-Martin, J.D., M.B.A., is an animal advocate living in Broward County. She is a co-founder and executive director for The Freckles Freedom Fund, Inc., a nonprofit dog rescue that facilitates the rescue of neglected, homeless and abandoned bully breeds. She volunteered at the county shelter until she was fired in 2019. She sued the county, maintaining the firing was retaliatory. The lawsuit was settled for $25,000 this year.