October 2020 Meeting of the Baltimore County Animal Services Advisory Commission

 Hi, all,

Here is the wrap-up of the Commission's October meeting.                    AGENDA OCTOBER 2020 MEETING

1) Call to order

2) Roll Call and certification of a quorum-In attendance were Deborah Stone Hess, Maryanne Martin Bailey, Roy Plummer, Louis Eguzo, Ann Gearhart, Chris Shaughness, and Bob Swensen

3) Approval of September 2020 Minutes September minutes were approved. here are the Se[ptember minutes:

BALTIMORE COUNTY ANIMAL SERVICES

ADVISORY COMMISSION

September 15, 2020

The forty-eighth regular meeting of the Baltimore County Animal Services Advisory Commission was held on Tuesday, September 15, 2020 via Zoom.

Members in attendance were: Deborah Stone-Hess, Maryanne Bailey, Roy Plummer, Louis Eguzo, and Bob Swensen.

This meeting was called to order at 6:36 p.m. by the Chair Deborah Stone-Hess.

Minutes

June and July minutes were approved.

New Business: 

Julie Sauter is resigning from the commission. This leaves two open seats.

Dr. Andrulis is officially the Chief of Animal Services. Jonny Akchin is the Deputy Chief and will be dealing with HR and external relations.

Johnny attended the meeting, spoke to Commission members, and answered questions.

He discussed plans for a new online training module to onboard volunteers, and discussed other plans to grow the volunteer program by recruiting volunteers through community service coordinators, drug rehabilitation programs and guidance counselors. 

He explained that Animal Services is undergoing a cultural change and moving in a new direction.

BCAS is currently interviewing for a new assistant to work with the Volunteer Coordinator and Rescue/Foster Coordinator.

Deborah is shooting a video at Animal Services. The video’s purpose is to explain to adopters how to conduct a two week shutdown. This is meant to help adopters be more successful with their new pet. 

People are allowed in the shelter now for adoption and surrender appointments.

Wednesdays and Thursdays schedule rabies vaccinations, licenses and microchipping.

TNR Fridays where people can bring in as many cats as they want.

Working with Permits, Approvals and Inspections on a Contractual Partnership Agreement for care/feeding of free-roaming feral cat colonies where a violation would be a public health nuisance. 

Deborah reviewed new monthly numbers for BCAS which are provided to BAWA showing over 90% live release rate for dogs and cats.

Client satisfaction surveys for vet services are 97% positive.

Next meeting scheduled for October 20, 2020 via Zoom.

Adjournment at 7:07 p.m.

4) New Business

a) Introduction of new Commission member Chris Shaughness

Chris Shaughness is our newest Commission member. She's an Administrative appointment. Many of us know her. Chris introduced herself and explained her extensive background in working with animals.

She spent 25 years in the corporate world, then when her dog developed arthritis, she looked into wholistic treatments and became certified as a pet massage therapist, then became certified as an animal behaviorist and trainer. She quit the corporate world and wrote a book about how to work with puppy mill survivors. She worked as Marketing Dir. of two shelters in Pennsylvania.Then she moved back home to this area.

For the past four years she was Exec Dir of a fundraising group for Montgomery County's shelter. She has now left that job and is opening a senior dog sanctuary.

She's excited to be on the Commission and we are thrilled to have her!!!

There is another new Administrative member appointed who was not able to attend this meeting.  More on that at our next meeting.

b) 3rd qtr. Stats

Here are the BCAS 3rd quarter stats and comparison with 3rd  qtr. stats in 2019.

                  3rd Quarter 2020 BCAS Statistics Analysis

                      Dogs             Cats

Intake                440            909

Adoption                22%            44%

Redeemed           37.7%      2.2%

Pulled by Rescue  27.5%     27.7%

TNR                               72

Owner Reqstd. Euth.   46        32

Other Euth.            8.6%           7.3%

Live Release           91.4%          92.7%

                        3rd Quarter 2019 Statistics Analysis 

                     Dogs             Cats

Intake             625            1016

Adoption             23.8%           34.8%

Redeemed       31.2%           2.6%

Pulled by Rescue    28.9%           28.2%

TNR                               178

Owner Reqstd. Euth.  54           26

Other Euth.           8.9%           10.3%

Live Release          91.1%           89.7%

c) Feral Cats-Deborah had a discussion with Dr. Andrulis about how BCAS might be able to provide more care to TNR cats that present with illnesses. This care can be expensive and BCAS is not always able to provide it. More on this in the coming months.

5) OLD BUSINESS 

a) Latest News from BCAS 

Deborah spoke with Dr. Andrulis about the latest happenings at BCAS. Here's a summary of that conversation:

DR. ANDRULIS update

STILL DOING EVERYTHING BY APPOINTMENT

DOING MORE VIRTUAL MEET AND GREETS

WHAT WE TRY TO DO IS TAKE VIDEOS OF THE ANIMALS NOW THEY’RE GOING ON THE WEBSITE WHICH LINKS TO YTHE VIDEO ON YOU TUBE VSO THEY CAN SEE MORE OF THE ANIMAL’S BEHAVIOR TO DECIDE WHETHER THEY’RE INTERESTED BEFORE THEY COME TO FILL OUT PAPERWORK.

PEOPLE BEING ABLE TO SEE VIDEOS OF THE ANIMALS SHOULD HELP WITH ADOPTIONS

THE ONLY BARRIER IS HOW QUICKLY WE CAN MAKE THE VIDEOS

LAST WEEK WE HAD THE DOG 2-WEEK SHUTDOWN VIDEO UP

THEY UPDATED THE WEBSITE AND THEY LOST THE LINK TO THAT VIDEO AND LINKS TO DOCUMENTS FOR PEOPLE TO FILL OUT FOR LOST AND ADOPTABLE PETS

THERE’S A MEETING WITH OIT TUESDAY (TODAY) TO TRY TO GET ALL THAT FIXED

HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE FIXED WITHIN A WEEK

DR. A  FOUND BCAS  HAD A PETFINDER ACCOUNT THAT HAD NOT BEEN USED IN A LONG TIME SO BCAS IS GOING TO BEGIN USING IT

ANIMALS ON PETFINDER HAVE SO MUCH EXPOSURE, WE HAVE TO BE CAREFUL TO USE IT ONLY FOR ANIMALS NOT LIKELY TO FIND ADOPTERS OTHERWISE THEY WILL BE FLOODED WITH INQUIRIES ABOUT ANIMALS THAT WILL ALREADY FIND IT EASIER TO GET ADOPTERS 

SO THEY ARE USING IT FOR FARM ANIMALS AND ANIMALS THAT HAVE BEEN IN THE SHELTER LONG-TERM WITHOUT FINDING A HOME 

BCAS HAS A PARTNERSHIP WITH PETSMART IN TOWSON AND IT HAS BEEN REALLY GREAT.

THEY’VE MANAGED TO GET 6-8 EXOTIC ANIMAKS ADOPTED THRU PETSMART LIKE RABBITS, BIRDS AND A TURTLE

PETSMART REQUIRES BCAS TO PROVIDE STAFF TO TAKE CARE OF BIGGER ANIMALS BUT DOESN’T REQUIRE THAT WITH EXOTICS.

PETSMART HAS A BIG DEMAND FOR RABBITS SO THAT WORKS OUT REALLY WELL. BCAS  S/N’S THEM AND DOES AN EXAM BEFORE THEY GO TO PETSMART.

THEN IF AN ADOPTER COMES TO PETSMART AND WANTS TO ADOPT ONE OF THE ANIMALS, PETSMART CALLS THE SHELTER TO DO A BACKGROUND CHECK ON THE ADOPTER.

DR. A HAS PUT THRU A REQUEST TO HAVE A TV MOUNTED IN THE LOBBY

SHE CAN PUT ALL THE VIDEOS WE MAKE ON THERE

SO WHILE THE STAFF MEMBER AT THE FRONT DESK IS FILLING OUT PAPERWORK FOR ADOPTIONS, THEY CAN PRESS PLAY AND THE ADOPTER WILL BE ABLE TO WATCH THE VIDEOS THAT ARE APPROPRIATE.

THEY’LL SEND A CONSISTENT MESSAGE THIS WAY AND KNOW WHAT INFO IS BEING GIVEN TO THE CLIENT.

BCAS IS POSTING ANIMALS ON THE PATCH WHICH IS ONLINE. EVERY COMMUNITY HAS THEIR OWN VERSION OF THE PATCH , INCLUDING BALTIMORE COUNTY.

PATCH GIVES INFO ON  LOCAL EVENTS IN THAT AREA SO THEY’VE BEEN DOING A SPOTLIGHT ANIMAL EVCERY WEEK THERE.

THEY ARE DOING AN ADOPTION PROOMOTION FOR HALLOWEEN.  SHANNON WANTS TO DO A WEEKEND EVENT WHERE THEY SPIN A WHEEL AND WIN PRIZES AND THEY’REOIN GG TO HAVE FREE ADOPTIONS FOR BLACK AND ORANGE CATS IN THE SPIRIT OF HALLOWEEN.

BECKY IS DOING A GREAT JOB WITH THE WORKING CAT PROGRAM. THESE ARE CATS THAT ARE NOT AS SOCIALIZED SOME NEED TO BE OUTDOOR CATS. 

SHE GETS 3-5 ADOPTED EVERY WEEK.

THEY ARE WORKING TO GET A SPECIAL SECTION ON THE WEBSITE ABOUT WORKING CATS TO PROMOTE THE PROGRAM.

b) BCAS Videos-Deborah has been working with BCAS to make videos that will be helpful to adopters. We've completed videos on the 2-week shutdown for dogs, two week shutdown for cats, and now we're working on a video about how to introduce dogs in the household with newly adopted dogs. 

c) Commission Annual Report-Deborah will be working on an outline for this.

d) Next meeting date-November 17th at 6:30 pm on Zoom

e) Adjournment