VERY DISTURBING From GRACE (Posting again, please share): County Commissioner Pegge Adams oversees Genesee County Animal Control. She says she is sick of the constant lying that is going on. Indeed, it seems that she, herself is struggling with the truth. Most of the following statements by Adams were taken from an article published in the Davison Index on July 31, 2014; others were public statements made by her. • ADAMS SAYS: Director Lazar was chosen after a national search and was hired based on her extensive experience and training. FACT: Several highly qualified candidates were overlooked. In fact Adams tried to talk one of exceptional candidate out of persuing the job after the first interview and this candidates followup emails and phone calls were completely ignored. • ADAMS SAYS: Adoption rates have risen and euthanasia rates have steadily dropped, and have been in the 20 -30 % range for 6 months FACT: From January through April of 2014, according to the reports that GCAC submits to the Board of Commissioners, they took in 707 dogs and killed 302 of them. That is over 42%. The numbers are even worse for cats with 53% killed or 200 killed out of 375 received. Math never lies. • ADAMS SAYS: Animals are humanely euthanized at GCAC. FACT: She has been asked several times since this spring of this year about the method of euthanasia used and she refuses to answer. • ADAMS SAYS: The public can now pay for licenses, fines, and adoptions with a debit or credit card. Previous to this year, cash was the only option. FACT: As of Monday, August 11, the sign in the lobby still says Cash Only and when a visitor told the employee at the desk that she needed to find an ATM to get cash to adopt, the employee never offered her a credit or debit option. • ADAMS SAYS:The volunteer program was greatly expanded. Last June, only two volunteers were allowed in the shelter at a time, and volunteer orientations did not happen routinely. Now, volunteer orientations happen monthly and many volunteers help out at the shelter. FACT: There is a huge retention issue. Typically 20 or more people will come to orientation but few ever return. Volunteers report being treated badly by staff. Orientations are running every other month at best. On Monday, August 4, Adams unilaterally decided to halt the volunteer program. To date it has taken two separate votes of the Board of Commissioners directing her to reinstate it as it was prior to the halt. • ADAMS SAYS: Last June, meetings of the Animal Control Subcommittee were not open to the public and consisted of three commissioners and Director Lazar. She replaced this by an Animal Control Advisory Committee, comprised of three commissioners and six citizens duly appointed by the BOC. FACT: Public meetings that have been out of session since May 21, 2014, the date of the last meeting. Citizens were given two minutes to ask questions but panel members are not allowed to address their concerns or answer their questions. There has been NO followup from Adams or Lazar on several serious questions since May 21. • ADAMS SAYS: A foster program was put in place last October by Director Lazar. FACT: The dog and cat foster coordinators grew so frustrated by lack of common courtesy - such as a reply to her legitimate emails regarding the set up of the program, that they quit. Volunteers who have fostered have recently been asked to bring kittens back to the shelter and one of those kittens was killed shortly after its return for being too skinny. • ADAMS SAYS - The county paid 60% of the cost of new outdoor dog runs installed at GCAC earlier this year. FACT: The new outdoor dog runs were funded by donations from Friends of Genesee County Animal Shelter and a private citizen. No county funds were used to pay for this fencing. Those funds actually came from a memorial fund that private citizens contributed to over the years to the shelter in memory of pets and people. It never belonged to or was collected by the county; nor was it intended for anything other than things that would directly benefit the shelter animals. • ADAMS SAYS: Last summer, a spay/neuter program was initiated and is still going. It makes it possible for the public to adopt an already altered animal, in an effort to keep populations under control. FACT: The spay-neuter program intiaited last summer was funded by grant money secured by a private citizen. The shelter dragged its feet for months and was in danger of forfeiting the funds. The money currently being used to spay-neuter some of the animals at GCAC comes from spay-neuter deposits collected by Animal Control. In April 2014, there was over $60,000 in this account. The county has allocated $11,800 of it to spay-neuter some animals even though these funds are required by law to be used exclusively for spay-neuter surgery or education.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 20:51:46 +0000
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