As they do every day, our volunteers REPRESENT on National Feral Cat Day. Today, @Linda Saffell submitted testimony at the Prince Georges County Legislative Listening Session in Springdale, MD, appealing for animal shelter intake accountability. Getting an accurate baseline and a definition of a problem, is the only way, really to solve the problem. Without open and accurate shelter reporting, none of us knows whether the shelters our tax dollars fund, could be doing better. The testimony goes like this: Dear County Exec Baker, Sen. Peters, and Del. Ivey, Thank you for the opportunity to offer input on legislative priorities for the County and State. I understand there were over 60 individuals requesting time to speak and so I have opted to write to you rather than add to the rolls of speakers in a brief listening session. The people of Maryland are oddly silent about the quality of service we see in animal control facilities today. Why is that? Well, because data on the operations of these facilities is not widely available. Many Prince Georgians, and other Maryland residents too, have mad skills in data analysis and management decision-making using data. WHEN we have access to the raw data on animal intake, care in the shelter, and disposition (outcomes), we can see how well (or poorly) our shelter is functioning. But there is no statewide mandate for business data to be publicly accessible. (In fact, only in Prince Georges County, where a private organization had to resort to filing a lawsuit, has raw data been made available, and then, only to that private organization, of which I am a proud member). If we are really committed to open government, if we truly want an engaged citizenry, then I think it is time for us to ask shelters, which receive the lions share of funding for animal care across the State, to open their records, to begin keeping records, if none are kept, and to share them with us. Their standard for care of animals ought to at least equal our own standards. The community CANNOT step up to help, so long as we do not know what needs repair. ALL animal intakes should be required to be counted and included in the reporting -- that is to say, even if a shelter manager does not ascribe value to a type of dog or a temperament of cat, those animals lives should still be counted in both intake and outcome reporting. (Currently, PGs Department of the Environment does not include them in the Animal Control Monthly Report and does not notify the public how it omits some records.) We need State-wide shelter reporting transparency.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 00:34:17 +0000