“No task force is designed to last forever,” Montgomery County Administrator Michael Colbert said. “It’s designed to have a set of goals and priorities and recommendations, and then we have to move to an implementation phase. In this case, that task force did a great job.”
But some task force members, including Kristen Tilton of People Assisting Animal Welfare and Robyn McGeorge of local rescue Robyn’s Nest, said the group’s work isn’t finished yet. They say they’ll continue meeting with or without the county’s involvement and specifically calling on county officials to audit the ARC.
“If we’re going to solve the problem in our county, I say we must make significant changes in our shelter,” said McGeorge.
Partnership pilot
The pilot initiative is in partnership with Best Friends Animal Society and several local rescue and animal welfare groups: SICSA Pet Adoption & Wellness Center, Humane Society of Greater Dayton, Adopt-A-Pit Rescue and HALO K9 Behavior.
The program’s goal is to increase the number of dogs leaving the shelter through adoption or rescue.
Best Friends Animal Society will provide funding to assist rescue partners in transferring dogs with treatable medical needs that require more intensive or specialized care than the shelter is equipped to provide. In addition, transfer incentives will be available to participating organizations to increase the number of dogs placed into rescue and adoption programs, according to a Montgomery County press release.
During the three-month pilot period, ARC will work with partners to increase data tracking, streamline communication for medical cases and coordinate transfers. Participating rescues will submit monthly reports documenting dogs pulled.
At the conclusion of the pilot, outcomes like euthanasia rates, transfer totals and medical placement diversion will be reviewed to determine next steps, according to county officials.
Stray dogs and ARC
There are an estimated 140,000 dogs in Montgomery County. The county’s shelter has room for a fraction of this, with shelter leaders saying they can ideally fit roughly 80 dogs at their 6790 Webster St. location.
The county’s stray dog task force was formed last year after several community members called on the county to work more with local organizations to address the issue of stray dogs. The group included several county and state elected officials, as well as local rescues.
Tilton created a petition, which has gathered more than 700 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon, that calls on the county to bring in an independent auditor to review ARC’s operations.
“This is not a criticism for its own sake,” Tilton told commissioners at their Tuesday meeting. “It’s about whether the county’s animal control system is functioning with the law it is told to enforce.”
Montgomery County worked with Team Shelter USA in 2018 to perform a similar evaluation after the county’s shelter came under scrutiny for its euthanasia rates, with animal welfare activists criticizing the agency for euthanizing dogs quickly. This audit cost roughly $15,000 at the time, according to Colbert. He said this is not an expense the county wants to incur again.
“My message is the lack of kennel space and stray dogs is a nationwide problem,” Colbert said.
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