Officials craft shelter's policies

At a meeting Tuesday night, county officials indicated a willingness to ignore a state statute in order to ensure that what they said is a sensible policy on when to euthanize animals in the county's shelter.

The Orange County Animal Shelter Operations Task Force met to begin reviewing the interim operations manual for the Orange County Animal Shelter, which the county took over from the Animal Protection Society last summer after allegations of mismanagement.

The county is in the process of consolidating animal shelter and animal control services into one county department or bureau.

County Commissioner Moses Carey Jr. emphasized Tuesday that the operations manual needed to be amended quickly and that the policies would evolve from there.

"We're going to learn as we go; we're not going to be perfect from day one. We're not going to be perfect in year one," Carey said.

Joe Pulcinella, the shelter's director, outlined some of the features that had been added to the shelter's standard operating procedures.

Judgements that used to be made by staff now will be made by management, and an extra series of checks was added before an animal is allowed to be euthanized.

The meeting also addressed policies task force members wanted to alter.

Those policies included criteria for dealing with aggressive animals, the way that statistics for shelter operations are reported at the end of each month and the length of time animals are kept in the shelter.

Discussion about length of stay generated the most controversy.

Pat Sanford, a former director of the shelter, and Elliot Cramer, a vocal critic of APS' management of the shelter, said there needs to be a set duration after which an animal would be euthanized.

They said a state statute set to go into effect Jan. 1 states that animals may not be sheltered for more than 30 days without socialization with their own species - something not possible in the current shelter building.

They also said the Humane Society of the United States advised limiting length of stay in an opinion that the county solicited.

County officials took a different stance.

Pulcinella said he called county shelters in the area and found no fixed policy on length of stay.

He said a decision on how long an animal stays in a shelter is complex and should be based on a variety of factors, like an animal's temperament and adoptability and the amount of available shelter space.

County officials said the county was in no way bound by the report from HSUS and should customize the report to fit its specific needs.

"It was never the intent of the HSUS to just take that and plop it down on Orange County," said Gwen Harvey, assistant county manager.

Carey also emphasized that the county has a history of doing what it thinks is appropriate, sometimes surpassing state law, sometimes doing other than it dictates.

"They're not going to come out here and haul anybody away if a few animals stay in a shelter more than 30 days," Carey said.

"We're going to do what we think is in the best interest of our citizens and our animals in Orange County."

But Cramer disagreed with this idea. "I was appalled. I was appalled to hear it said that the county may ignore state law."

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.