County says it will have final say on cutbacks to volunteer role at shelter
By Buffy Pollock, Rogue Valley Times
A group of volunteers for the Friends of the Animal Shelter presented a petition, signed by over 1,200 people, to Jackson County commissioners Wednesday as part of an ongoing protest to changes made at the county animal shelter last year.
About a half-dozen shelter volunteers were at the meeting, with two addressing commissioners in person and a third providing comment over Zoom. Those who spoke said they were doing so on their own behalf and were not representing FOTAS in an official capacity.
A handful of changes were made by county officials at the shelter last year, including a volunteer-free day — every Monday — so shelter staff could deep clean, complete evaluations and work on a feasibility study to determine future changes to the aging shelter.
In another change, volunteers are no longer permitted to transport animals for veterinary appointments, which volunteers claim delays the process of getting shelter dogs ready to be adopted.
Ashland resident Tony Davis, who has volunteered at the shelter for the past two years, spearheaded the petition, claiming that dogs are “confined to their kennels for about 40 hours, from Sunday afternoons at 4 p.m. to Tuesday mornings at 10 a.m., with only a few minutes out of the kennels while they are cleaned.”
Davis stood his ground Wednesday, voicing concerns about dogs receiving less socializing on Mondays. County officials this week insisted that increased staffing at the shelter has resulted in dogs receiving adequate socialization and time outside of kennels.
Applegate resident Laura Ahearn said she helped gather petition signatures and urged commissioners to reconsider recent changes.
“It was exactly three months ago that I first appeared here to talk about the exclusion of volunteers from the animal shelter on Mondays. I collected about 50 of the 1,600-plus signatures on the petition,” she said. “I should have collected more. Let me tell you why that didn’t happen. Every citizen I approached stopped and listened intently. They had insightful questions and the engaged me in conversation. No one walked away or told me that this wasn’t important.”
Ahearn urged commissioners to “stop the secrecy and promote an open and productive dialogue.”
Signatures came from people living in “Lake Creek, Eagle Point, Gold Hill, Rogue River and — my home turf — the Applegate Valley,” Ahearn said. “A widely represented sampling of the people you serve. The people you work for. Today is an opportunity to immediately set things onto the right track — to adopt the policies and implement the actions that your constituents want.”
Commissioners did not comment to FOTAS volunteers. Jackson County Commissioner Colleen Roberts and Jackson County Administrator Danny Jordan both clarified with volunteers that they were speaking on their own behalf, and not on the behalf of FOTAS.
Jackson County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer, county liaison to the animal shelter, said in an interview after the meeting the county would continue to have the final say on decisions regarding the animal shelter, located on Highway 99 near Phoenix.
Dotterrer said commissioners have listened to all public comment provided in recent months.
“They are, and have been, a part of the conversation. At the end of the day, the staff that runs the animal control program in Jackson County will make the decisions about these things,” he said. “We are going to re-examine things as we move forward with the changes we’re making, and we’ll take into consideration their input. We always do that but, as I said, at the end of the day, we make what we believe is the best decision for our (Jackson County) Animal Control program.”
Davis said he would continue to gather signatures in person and online and hoped that commissioners would address volunteers’ concerns.
“All of us who spoke today, we all had different tones and different focuses. They should be getting the message, but who knows if they are. It’s just a strange mentality to dig in on something like this,” Davis said. “This has all been an education on how hard it is to bring about change on a relatively simple issue.”
Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal. This story first appeared in the Rogue Valley Times.
