Anonymous
January 30, 2022, 10:40 am
9.9k Views
10 Comments
By an edhat reader
What’s going on at the Santa Barbara Humane Society? I’ve been having a heck of a time getting a hold of someone there.
I read the recent article by The Independent and it seemed to speak to some of the issues about 13 employees quitting in a short amount of time, apparently due to the new leadership.
Do they receive taxpayer funding? Do we have any say about what’s going on over there?
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Might be a good investigation for the grand jury.
Many years ago there was a grand jury investigation on SBCAS. One of the items was why was the donation box money at the front desk being put into the general fund rather than toward animal care. But that is really small potatoes compared to the current SB Humane situation. Apparently they have between $33M and $55 M in their golden coffers. They tried hard to get the other 2 Humane’s in the County to merge, along with BUNS, DAWG, C4P, and ASAP. Thankfully for each of those organizations, the ‘merger’ fell flat (with not a little acrimony) (And a lot of relief by many volunteers). SBHumane has always had a poor reputation by anyone who really knew the place – lots of money and big donors, little spent on the dogs and cats kept there. SBCAS has plenty of issues, too. You pretty much can’t adopt a little dog there since it seems any that come in go out immediately to rescue – and the big ones, if they stay too long, end up on a ‘urgent’ list to be removed from the census one way or the other. ASAP can’t seem to keep an ED, and volunteers are down and expenses and hiring way up. BUNS struggles with a horribly aging physical set up, and wanted to be able to move into the County owned area where DAWG was for so many years. Doesn’t seem the County wants them there for some unknown reason. SB Humane had a food pantry of some sort – but they shut it down during Covid. The County started a food pantry with a great bit of hoopla, but the place where they put the food was overrun with rats, not surprisingly. Not a real loss, since single digit numbers of people were the only users of the pantry.
Most long term volunteers have been pushed or eased out on Overpass Road, or been fed up and left. It’s a shame. Whether rich donor or tax dollars, that money is not effectively being used by the two or three biggest players to benefit the animals in this Community.
I’d have to say the Grand Jury could look into both SB/SM humane and SBCAS they did it before, they should do it again. Try to get any transparency in the numbers of intakes vs positive outcomes vs expenses and check how many out of County transfers in and out there are. I don’t think it is what the Community wants.
RENE, Even with a lack of an ED or a difficult physical set up, ASAP or BUNS would NEVER leave animals sitting in their own filth for hours, without beds, crying in pain, endlessly pawing at a metal doors, or pacing in cages. They would never leave them without daily exercise or minimal human interaction. They would never leave them without needed medical treatment. And they would never adopt them to any Tom, Dick and Harry who walked in the door. Especially when there is a wealth of seasoned volunteers waiting to help. But that is what’s occurring at County Animal Control. A handful of volunteers a veterinarian one day a week and one kennel attendant cannot do it alone. Dogs are being neglected and some days their basic needs are barely met. It is like the worst prison you have ever seen on TV with that one nice guard who looks out for the prisoners and eventually gets killed by the corrupt warden. It must change.
People keep saying Santa Barbara has a “no kill” shelter. That is a huge lie. There is no such thing as a no kill shelter when it comes to dogs housed there. There are situations where humane euthanasia is necessary, space and politics should never be those reasons.
The Humane Society or as it’s now called SB Humane is a Non Profit, funded by private donations and grants. The public doesn’t have a say in their practices. A lot of respect was lost for the HS after the firing of a 25 year beloved employee who resided in the historic yellow house and managed the property along with a host of other things. But they are not the only shelter with leadership problems. Even worse things are happening next door at SB County Animal Services (SBCAS) where the public does have a say. Employees have quit over practices there as well. SBCAS is a division of the public health dept. and it is last on their list of for funding, facilities maintenance and anything else. Complete lack of leadership and severe understaffing at SBCAS has led to animal neglect and many poor decisions .The dogs residing in the south county shelter are not being cared for adequately. Dogs are being euthanized for things like separation anxiety and lack of space. Dogs are being tranquillized to keep them from constantly barking and pawing at the metal barriers. They are housed in unsafe run down kennels with concrete floors and metal walls. They are adopted to anyone with a pulse without the benefit of counseling or any vetting of the potential adopter. There isn’t a facility manager or a kennel manager.
Thank god for groups like ASAP & BUNS who provide all daily care as well as cover all medical costs for shelter cats & rabbits. These groups have teams of volunteers who provide all the daily feeding, cleaning , exercise and love to the animals under their watch. They pay for all medical costs through generous donors and their own pockets.
Shelter dogs also used to have dedicated volunteers who took them on regular walks and provided daily care. But the shelter has few that were allowed to remain. Those who spoke up regarding poor conditions were shut out. The public needs to know what is going on at both shelters but they force change at SBCAS.
Sounds like next investigative Indy piece should be on the County shelter.
No one has mentioned it, so I will: Many animals were surrendered or abandoned during this pandemic. The facility has become extremely ovecrowded. Something has to give, however sad. The low-hanging fruit are dogs with behavior problems regardless of how they were caused, nature or nuture. They tend not to be adopted quickly and “clog” the facility.
Sounds like shes do for a pay raise or pay off and then she can go to another City
Wow, simply shocking and sad. You can’t begin to make up something like this. There is no excuse for this. The money is there, it sounds like it’s being mismanaged and they got rid of the guy that knew too much and cared. They just had that big fundraiser honoring Betty White’s birthday that the their Board if directors matched donations. This should be brought up at a Board meeting, who are the Board members? Poor abused animals , make you wander if people have offered to volunteer and been turned away to cover this up.
Yup. She has a history. Same issues came up when County Animal Services hired her. If County shelter lost 13 people, I’m pretty sure they’d be in negative numbers! But they’ve had a few walk out. At least I gave notice.
Seems like from the comments that a lot of people are confused about something. SB County Animal Control is under the SB County Health DEpartment. Tax payer funded. SB Humane is not the same. The county supervisors don’t have financial responsibility for SB Humane. Two different places and organizations. It used to be that the county shelter took all the strays and animals turned in by owners. The SB Humane only could take animals turned in by owners. Now Humane says on their website they took in 100 strays. They always seem to have pups and kittens which must come from out of our area – other counties. Both have taken animals from Texas??? due to hurricanes. Humane has millions$ from donors and the county has a much smaller chunk from the Public health budget. It is two different places – with different staff, bosses, oversight and budgets and ‘missions’.