Harley, former shelter dog
From a dedicated worker no longer at MCAS: Workers stay as long as they can. Many are broken in the process.
“I will be honest with you in saying that I am not dealing very well with the changes at MCAS. I was always hopeful, looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and the rainbows after the storm. Now I am angry, stressed and feeling so very defeated. I stay for the animals, the people who care [for] the animals and humans that need help. Before I always thought the work I did was for the good the pets and people now I’m not as sure. I do feel like a robot-processing, documenting, no emotions allowed. The only time I have with the animals is cleaning and “admission”.
To make it worse we are being blamed with bad time management because admissions take too long. We are literally taking animals in, poking, prodding shoving deworming into their mouths, vaccinating and putting them in a kennel. If they aren’t relaxed and compliant with all of that they are flagged and medicated with trazadone or gabapentin. How do we let them feel comfortable or safe? We don’t, it’s wrong. It’s disgusting. I hate it… They’re never there [management]only barking (pun intended) orders and snapping the leash on us when we ask questions. It’s bad. Really bad… We have no behavior department, no trainers, no behavior modification and no enhanced enrichment. We have broken animal care staff doing our best under military like rule. I wonder if this is really what [University of Wisconsin] does.”
The subversion of MCAS’ funded mission began when Jackie Rose was hired as MCAS director in October 2015. Policy by policy, then Director Rose, revised the agency’s democratic government and humane mission, eliminating input from the community and exerting singular control. Her abuse of power and her public safety views that public safety is best served by killing not education and behavior training despite being contradicted by research, became the new norm. Ms Rose took the agency backwards to a time well before the 2000 a citizens’ task force decided upon a humane shelter based in prevention, education and training.
The Multnomah County Chair and Board of Commissioners have failed to hold managers accountable. They have doled out more money following every failure. MCAS has deteriorated further under the direction of Operations manager Marian Cannell, originally from Dallas, Texas, Animal Control. Director Erin Grahek, formerly from Aging and Disabilities, served as MCAS interim director, later appointing herself as the most qualified to continue to run MCAS. She then promptly deferred all of her authority to Marian Cannell, an individual whose public safety views are primitive: ‘Swat and kill.’
Staff are untrained and are left to deal with distressed animals made anxious by a hostile negative loud environment. Animals are killed as “unsafe” when they are simply victims of poor management. When internal appointments are based upon loyalty to management not proper credentials, expect failure.
The “public safety” risk used at MCAS to justify killing animals is greatly exaggerated. The best public safety cure is a sane shelter where animals are not rushed and staff are not forced to get the dogs out of here quickly adopted to anyone with $25, a “sale” that has been ongoing for 2 years. Intrusive intake exams should never be conducted on frightened dogs, muzzled and tied to the wall. Know and befriend them first.
Finally, it is important to remember there are few dangerous dogs and many dangerous situations caused by uneducated people. MCAS has no owner education diversion programs.
“As a class of injury receiving medical treatment, dog bites on average, are less severe (according to the accepted measurement, called an injury severity scale) than any other class of common injury. The average treated dog bite is rated as minor, at the lowest level, 1 out of 6. (A level 1 injury is one from which the person recovers quickly with no lasting impairment; a level 6 is one likely to be fatal). Only 1 % of all treated bites rate as more severe than level 1.”
—Dogs bite but balloons and slippers are more dangerous. Janis Bradley, James and Kenneth, Berkeley, 2005.
Year after year MCAS is awarded more funding, now at over $15.6 million dollars for failure. How does this continue in a liberal humane county, a grifter’s paradise.
Gail O’Connell-Babcock