County has restricted access one day a week to allow for staff training
By Damian Mann for Ashland.news
A petition urging Jackson County Commissioners to let volunteers back into the animal shelter to walk dogs on Mondays has been gathering steam.
“We have about 1,000 signatures,” said Ashland resident Tony Davis, a volunteer with Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS), who was at the Medford Farmer’s Market on Thursday gathering more signatures.
Davis, who has been spearheading the petition effort, said signatures have been gathered since May 15 and will be presented to the Board of Commissioners next Wednesday, June 14.
“We’re asking that Mondays be treated like all the other days of the week,” Davis said.
According to the petition, “It has become apparent, however, 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.”
The county has been using Mondays for staff training and to work on procedures to improve the shelter operation.
Volunteers, who have a keen interest in the welfare of the dogs and the cats at the shelter in Phoenix, worry the dogs aren’t getting enough exercise.
“If they want to get dogs adopted, they need to get socialized and less stressed, and this doesn’t help that,” Davis said.
FOTAS volunteers used to drive animals to get spayed or neutered, and that has also stopped, Davis said.
He said he thinks FOTAS volunteers have enough liability protections to make the drive.
The petition asks the county to reinstate the ability of volunteers to transport animals to veterinarians to help expedite surgeries and speed up adoption timelines.
Adequate shelters for dogs in exercise yards are also requested in the petition.
Davis volunteers one day a week at the Phoenix shelter, and he doesn’t sense that FOTAS has a strained relationship with county staff or that the staff doesn’t want them there.
“I do not get bad vibes like that at all,” he said.
Davis said he goes to the shelter one day a week and walks the dogs, taking them to an exercise yard.
FOTAS has been at loggerheads with the county since last year over a number of issues. The county has been undergoing a feasibility study over the possibility of building a new shelter and required a day each week to train staff and allow them to concentrate on their tasks.
FOTAS has helped with the operations of the shelter since 1991 and has more than 200 volunteers.
Annually the organization raises $500,000, of which $200,000 comes from a bequest that helps increase the adoption rate at the shelter and other services. Volunteers help with everything from dog walking to adopting dogs and cats. Last December, Lithia Driveway & Fields donated $20,000 to FOTAS to provide a subsidy to help cover the costs of adoption because the number of dogs and cats has increased after the pandemic.
Jackson County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer said the county has been working on staff training and instituting new processes and procedures, but he hopes that within a month the county will reexamine its policy.
“Staff feels like they need time of their own to go through training and these other issues,” he said. “There needs to be a day when just our staff is there.”
Like many local governments and businesses, Jackson County has struggled to maintain staffing levels throughout most departments.
On Mondays, staff does take the dogs out of kennels for cleaning, Dotterrer said.
He said FOTAS volunteers typically only work with about one-third of the dogs at the shelter at any given time.
For legal reasons, if a stray is picked up, the county puts the dog in a special holding area for 72 hours to provide time for an owner to pick it up.
These dogs are placed in another kennel, where they are not walked by volunteers but are cared for by staff members, Dotterrer said.
The county is reexamining how best to allow volunteers to transport animals to get spayed or neutered.
“We need to make sure, from a legal standpoint, that there aren’t any liability issues,” he said.
There are a number of concerns such as background checks, car insurance and liability insurance that are being looked at, Dotterrer said.
He said the overriding goal is to run animal control operations in a professional and legal manner, requiring the county to go through this “due diligence” process.
At the same time, Dotterrer said he knows it’s a difficult time for FOTAS volunteers, which he said are critical to the operation of the shelter.
“I understand where they are coming from,” he said.
Reach writer Damian Mann at dmannnews@gmail.com.
June 13 update: At Dave Dotterrer’s request, a paraphrase from a phone interview with him saying he hopes volunteers would be let back in within a month was removed.
