Humane Society in St Lucie County in Jeopardy

Humane Society in St Lucie County in Jeopardy

Commissioners in St. Lucie County and Fort Pierce were supposed to decide this week whether to renew contracts with the Humane Society of St. Lucie County.

Fallout after a recent inspection found poor conditions at the Humane Society of St Lucie County. Instead of renewing their annual contract, county commissioners decided instead to move to a month-to-month contract.

Unclean cages, undrinkable water, heat was among the issues reported by Meghan McRoberts from WPTV.

These are big issues. But not unusual.

Here are some of Meghan reporting:

Humane Society of SLC on month-to-month contract after community concerns expressed

Concerns with Humane Society

St. Lucie County to do month-to-month contract with Humane Society

 

Miami -Dade struggled for years before building this new gorgeous place.

I could sit her and write a history of Humane Societies and bore you to tears but lets just say in South Florida its been challenging. Lack of funds. Lack of support. Endless dogs and cats.

I have not looked into the finances of the Humane Society but I will say this. Taking away contracts instead of working together to make this succeed is not the solution.

My suggestions (After working in animal welfare for ten years)

  1. Don’t get defensive take responsibility and move forward.
  2. Read this book. It literally gives you directions on  how to build a community. Call Nathan. He will come if the commission wants him. It takes a village to do this and it can be done. and when I say read this book I’m talking about every commissioner reading it.

 

  1. Engage every rescue org in the community to work together.
  2. More low cost spay and neuter and low cost mircochip responsibilities.

I could go on and on but my best suggestion is to read Nathans book and come together.

I’m done buying books for commissioners. This is why.

So many books. So little time.

https://www.petconnection.com/2008/01/28/you-can-lead-a-florida-county-commissioner-to-water/

“Seems Florida’s Palm Beach County is considering a mandatory spay/neuter law, and some kind constituent sent each of the county commissioners, the ones who’ll be voting on the issue, a copy of Nathan Winograd’s “Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America” to assist them in making this decision that will impact the lives of dogs, cats, and people in their county.

Now it seems that one of the commissioners, Burt Aaronson, has no plans to read the book, saying, “If people want me to read something, they could have enclosed a letter: ‘We’d like you to read this, we are  giving it to you as a gift.’”

Wow, commissioner, you’re a tough guy to do a favor for. It wasn’t enough that this constituent purchased the book and sent it to you, you wanted them to schmooze you up, too?”

True Story. That person was me.

At the time and still today there are many pets that die at Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control. We were trying to do a few things. We were trying to create a village of knowledgeable people in all aspects dog and cat to cut down the death of the animals which is atrocious.  We had a big, diverse circle of friends.

This was probably the last public event I ever did in rescue. Most of commissioners were corrupt. The Palm Beach Post was awful. I hold them just as responsible as the commissioners..

One person, Bob Kanjian, read the book. He totally got it. I think if I asked him today he would say this book changed his life. I am forever grateful to him for reading and understanding.

There is a huge issue with shelters and rescues and humane societies. I’m glad for the people who spoke out. Now do something about it.

 

TreasureCoast

TreasureCoast

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  • Posted 6 years ago

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