After approving a new animal care and control plan on Monday, King County will be spending about a $1 million a year to take care of cats and dogs. That's about a $1 million more in general fund money than the cash-strapped county will likely spend annually to help care for sick, hungry and needy people. The decision doesn't bode well for a County leadership that will have to make tough decisions soon about how to address an operating budget that's $140 million in the red over the next two years. Faced with a tough choice, the County essentially punted.
It is easy to get confused when confronted with all of the political pronouncements, press reports and fear-mongering of the past several weeks. Is King County Animal Care and Control (KCACC) going to close? If so, when? What will happen to the 10, 000-12,000 animals per year that enter KCACC shelters? Who will provide animal control services, and investigate charges of animal cruelty and neglect? The answers to some of these questions are not yet known, and we all will have to remain patient over the next several weeks as the details of KCACC’s closure are worked out. But there are a few things we know.
Was Interim Executive Kurt Triplett’s announcement on Thursday good news or bad news for the animals of King County? Unfortunately, the answer is, “it depends.” We would love to take Mr. Triplett at his word, and think that he has now realized that King County Animal Care & Control should not, and cannot provide animal care and control services for the county. But we were given pause when we read between the words of Mr. Triplett’s speech
After years of bitter battles, the writing is on the wall for King County Animal Care and Control. It is becoming more and more clear to everyone that despite claims of reform, KCACC if failing in every respect – it is not providing humane care to the animals in its custody, it is not improving community outreach and adoption efforts, it is not conducting competent animal cruelty and neglect investigations, and it is leaving the public in danger by refusing to respond to calls about dangerous, free-roaming dogs. The confluence of King County’s looming $56 million budget deficit and the threat of flooding from the Green River is also forcing change. With the combination of these factors, we can be sure that something dramatic is going to happen, and soon. But what?
The day after our blog, “KCACC Failures Endanger Community,” the Seattle Times has released a front page article titled “Dog-attack victims wait days or weeks for a response.” The Seattle Times got part of the story right. KCACC’s lack of response to animal control calls is shameful and irresponsible, and puts the King County community at risk. This is nothing less than a betrayal of the public trust. But the Seattle Times gets it wrong with the implication that this delayed response has come as a consequence of improved conditions at KCACC’s animal shelters. To the contrary, this failure only illustrates KCACC’s inability to perform any part of its mission competently. As KCACC Exposed has thoroughly documented, KCACC still maintains its animals in deplorable conditions, does a woefully inadequate job of investigating animal cruelty complaints, and also fails to protect the public by refusing to respond to calls about aggressive, free-roaming dogs.
Yet again, the reckless policies and irresponsible behavior of King County Animal Care and Control have resulted in tragedy. Last week, KCACC’s failure to respond to multiple complaints about free-roaming aggressive dogs resulted in the death of two horses at an animal sanctuary, leaving two foals orphaned. Last year, the same failure resulted in the severe mauling of an elderly SeaTac woman. In that case, neighbors had complained multiple times to KCACC about free-roaming dogs terrorizing a SeaTac neighborhood – causing people to be afraid to leave their homes or allow their children to play in their backyards. Yet KCACC ignored these pleas for help, and did not respond until after a woman had nearly been killed.
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