Teresa Tomlinson/Columbusga
07/16/2012 03:48 PM
To
Pat Biegler/Columbusga@COLUMBUSGA
cc
ihugley@columbusga.org, Liz Turner/Columbusga@Columbusga
Subject
Re: Good Morning Mayor Tomlinson
Pat Biegler/Columbusga
07/16/2012 01:48 PM
To
schick1030@yahoo.com
cc
Teresa Tomlinson/Columbusga@COLUMBUSGA, Lisa Goodwin/Columbusga@Columbusga,
Isaiah Hugley/Columbusga@Columbusga, Liz Turner/Columbusga@Columbusga, Drale
Short/Columbusga@COLUMBUSGA
Subject
Good Morning Mayor Tomlinson
Dear Ms. Spears,
The Mayor received your email and asked that I respond to your concerns.
As you can see from my signature block, I'm the Director of Public Services and
one of my responsibilies is management of the Special Enforcement and Animal
Care and Control Dvision, under the supervision of Drale Short.
The good news is that all of your concerns are being, or will be addressed.
Last May, the Mayor initiated a program identified as the Save-A-Pet program.
Of course, we have a brochure for that, but the important thing is that the
program has nine major components, all being worked on at some level. Those
programs are
1. A Comprehensive Adoption Program. In 2010, we adopted out 325 animals.
With the inception of the save a pet program last year, we adopted out 1,199
animals and this year, in only six months we have adopted out 724 animals.
2. Cooperative work with rescue groups. Again, the stastics are heartening.
In 2010 we place 623 animals with rescue groups. In 2011 with placed 832 and
this year so far, we've placed 720. We have a checklist that we use before
any euthanizations and that includes contacting all of the known rescue groups
to advise them of an animals availability for adoption.
3. Volunteers. Last fall we were able to hire a part time volunteer
coordinator. We have a robust and growing program for in shelter care and
assistance to staff and for off-site adoption evens two or more per week. The
program is growing and we have a lot of really good ideas when time allows. We
have also established a save a pet committee in conjunction with PAWS which is
taking on some of less robust programs and starting to work on finding
volunteers who can make those programs grow.
4. Feral Cat - Trap/Neuter/Spay - is one of those programs that the save a pet
committee is actively working to grow.
5. Foster Care Network - PAWS has an active program and we are partnering with
them on this effort.
6. Medical and Behavioral Programs - We've set up an "angel" fund for
medicines, supplies, etc. Donations are welcome and we have some volunteers
who are beginning some fund raising programs for the shetler.
7. Pet Retention Programs - Lots of work has been done here. We scan every
animal multiple times during their stay with us for microchips. We put every
animal brought in on our website so that owners can, hopefully, identify their
lost pets. Since 2010, we've consistently returned 700 to 800 animals to their
owners.
8. High volume spay neuter - council put into effect a spay or pay ordinance
on March 1, 2012, allowing us to issue citations for owners who adopt pets and
then do not have them spayed or neutered according to law. We track compliance
and send out post card reminders to owners who do not notify us of the
spay/neuter of their pets. So far, we've had a good volume of our reminder
cards resulting in compliance. We have yet to issue a citation for
non-compliance, so the new system is working!!!
9. Proper Pet care - We're talking about this one at the save a pet committee.
As you can see, there is much going on and we are very, very pleased with our
progress. While we have not gotten to where we would like to be, the
improvements have been significant and measurable. The programs I've described
here are only a few of the things we are doing to improve the lot of our
animals.
I appreciate you interest and hope you will come volunteer with us. Please
check out our website at columbusga.org. We're working on some fairly
significant changes and improvements to the website, but our statistics are
available there as we believe firmly in being as transparent as possible about
our performance. We're working on our first quarterly newsletter and have a
number of other initiatives on going so stay tuned. I will also pass along
your email with the suggestions you have made to our save-a-pet committee for
inclusion in our program.
Let me also comment that, while our program is far from perfect, we have a
dedicated staff who work hard and do all that they can for our animals within
the constraints of budget and state regulation. Oftentimes these two
constraints mean that we cannot do all the things we would like. However, any
shortcomings are not for lack of trying or dedication.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Patricia C. Biegler
Director of Public Services
Columbus Consolidated Government
Office 706-225-4675
Fax 706-653-4576
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