California's Problem Shelters

OC accused of failing to cooperate with rescue efforts

Well, I've got one for you too. Been working on getting this so called Yorkie X (not really- she's maybe a Shih Tzu Mix) out of OC this week- she's 12 years old, blind, terribly matted- basically a true train wreck of a dog. Talked to Tammy yesterday, had the thing figured out, and she told me that she wouldn't be in today, but that anyone could help with the bail today. So sent my voulenteer up there (keep in mind, its a solid 90 minute drive each way, before Friday afternoon traffic), with instructions to call me if anything went wrong, so we could figure it out. Mind you, I had already called OC three times at that point, NEVER getting through on either Tammy/Ronnie's line or the regular line. My voulenteer tried too, before she left, and was on hold for 20 minutes before giving up and just heading up there, thinking she could be there by the time they bothered to pick up the phone.

4 hours later, I get a call from my voulenteer who is now back home. OC wouldn't release the dog to her, despite all my prior assurances it would be fine. They wouldn't allow her to call me to talk to them to figure it out (she does't have a cell phone). And they wouldn't guarentee that the dog wouldn't be PTS, despite all of our efforts to get it.  Apparently at the end, the lieutenant on call came out, and told my voulenteer that it would just be too much paperwork, and they didn't want to deal with it.   Now, call me crazy, but I have to say this just about eliminates any and all desire I ever have and had to help this shelter for about the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I know shit happens, and I've had lousy experiences at plenty of shelters before- but in this case, the flippancy and uncaring nature of those there really, really takes the cake. Even better, when my voulenteer told them that we'd finally given up trying to talk to anybody by phone because of the hours of futile attempts, they apparently got extremley defensive and angry with her, and wouldn't discuss the situation with the dog at all.  

SO what am I left with. A voulenteer who gave up several hours of her day to deal with rude shelter workers and bad traffic, now thinking that somehow it's her fault if the dog is killed; I look like an ass because I told her we had it all worked out, because that's what Tammy told me. We don't have this little dog to saftey to show to it, and even if we figured out the logistics of bailing the thing, I now have no way of getting it down here. So what was accomplished? A wasted day, the shelter staff didn't have to bother doing any work, this dog is still sitting at the shelter, waiting for them to remember to kill it, and I'm extremley pissed off.   I don't want this to come off wrong- the few times I've worked with Tammy, she's been GREAT. But obviously, if you have the bad luck to not go through her or to *GASP* NEED TO SPEAK TO A PERSON ON THE PHONE, you are shit out of luck.   

Nothing may be able to be done about stupidity of the shelter staff- but I intend to do something about this phone thing. This is now the 3rd dog that I've had a major issues with the phone systems at OC, and considering I've maybe taken 5 dogs from there total in my whole time rescuing, thats quite a number. I've already sent a letter to the editor of the  OC register, detailing the problem. I don't have delusions of grandeur of what that will accomplish, but one can only hope. Far as I'm concerned, this little girl I was trying to get might as well be dead- she was sceduled days ago, and our attempts to get her and Tammy has kept her alive. I have no way of getting to her for at several more days, and even that is pushing it. Won't be long till we can add her to the list of dogs who died becasue OC can't answer their phones, won't be bothered to make a phone call, do some paperwork, or just look in the dogs file on the computer, where all the arrangements had already been made.  

Mina