polices of troubled oakland animal shelter assailed in city hall meeting

Friday, February 18, 2005

The speakers, among nearly 250 people who attended the meeting, said the shelter is underfunded, workers are overworked, and senior police management - - who oversee animal control services -- is too busy trying to reduce homicides to focus on humane treatment of homeless animals.

"The problems of the shelter have always been well known to shelter staff and volunteers," said Karen McNeil, a volunteer who has helped place Oakland's unwanted dogs in homes. "Maybe the city should start listening to us so that Oakland does not once again receive national attention for the wrong reasons."

Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente scheduled the City Hall meeting after a former employee and other whistle-blowers reported problems at the shelter including animals being euthanized without sedation and the killing of dogs that could have been adopted through volunteer rescue groups.

The policy in Oakland and most animal shelters is to euthanize animals only after first giving them a sedative. But in Oakland, 26 dogs were euthanized in one day in September even though the shelter had run out of the sedative, shelter employees and volunteers said. There were also several incidents in which dogs allegedly were put to death even though volunteers were ready to foster the canines and find them permanent homes.

The allegations have prompted the city's police internal affairs unit to investigate the shelter. On Tuesday, acting shelter director RaShan McClarty was placed on paid leave while investigators interview shelter employees and volunteers. McClarty did not speak at Tuesday's hearing, but his pastor defended his character and said he was not guilty of wrongdoing.

Several people said the problems at the shelter predated McClarty's tenure as acting director, which began in the fall, although speakers said the problems has gotten worse while he was in charge.

Many of the speakers also called for the animal services to be separated from the Police Department. Some recommended that it become an autonomous city department; others recommended that Oakland consider contracting with a nonprofit organization that specializes in animal care.

"You shouldn't have to ask the police chief to make a choice between human life and animal life,'' said Jill Posener, a Berkeley resident who urged Oakland residents to model their programs like ones in her city or in San Francisco.

Councilwoman Jane Brunner, who attended the meeting, agreed that the shelter should be moved out of the Police Department.

Before the meeting, De La Fuente proposed upgrading the shelter director's job to make the employee more accountable. His proposal would raise the director's salary, which is now $65,000 a year, but take away civil service protections so that a future shelter boss would serve at the will of the city administrator.