February 14, 2023
Carmen Verdugo
14955 Dale Evans Pkwy,
Apple Valley, CA 92307
Dear City Council Members:
Source 1. AVAS Exiting Dog Outcomes
https://www.applevalley.org/home/showpublisheddocument/32917/638100816277230000 Source 2. AVAS has not accounted for 4 dogs as per their Deposition Report (at the time this is posted) https://www.applevalley.org/home/showpublisheddocument/32917/638100816277230000 1 Source 3. AVAS Rescue Page
AVAS Public Notice of Dogs that are in Danger of Being Euthanized on January 11th, a day before they will be Euthanized. Links to the dogs went down the next day. Check above for the outcome of the ones that have been reported
https://www.facebook.com/AVASRescueTeam
2 The AVAS Rescue Page has finally begun posting pictures of dogs available for adoption as of the past week. Prior to this posting, dogs had not been posted since August 25th, 2022.
Apple Valley Animal Shelter is a beautiful shelter, and when I walked in, all the staff at the front desk and volunteers were friendly to me. My issues are not with the employees working on the ground level, but rather with AVAS policies and administration. Since the last time we met on January 24th, AVAS has not postedEuthanasia lists on a consistent basis.
January 11th was the last time a Euthanasia list, “AVAS NOTICE OF RESCUE COMMITMENT,” was posted on their Facebook page or emailed to rescues; the posted stated that the dogs were in danger of being euthanized by 9am the following day, January 12th (Source 1). This provides rescuers, networkers, and the public less than 12 hours to save them.
In addition, per their policy, adoptions from the public are not allowed on the same day of euthanasia. If a person shows up to adopt, and the dog is still alive, why is it that someone cannot adopt it? When I asked, I was told “the link is down, that is all the information I can give.” It is their policy that one cannot adopt if the link is down, even if the dog is still alive.
There are residents who have seen this, and I believe one of them spoke at the last city council.
I ask that city council please ask them to change this policy.
Requests:
1. If a rescue calls to inquire of a dog whose link went down that morning, but is still alive, Brandie Lee (Rescue Coordinator) should be forthcoming with the information. “The link is down” does not suffice.
2. The public should be able to adopt a dog that is scheduled to be Euthanized the same day, regardless if they found out online.
3. Other shelters make this available to the public on their website.
4. Deposition Reports need to have euthanasia dates on it, for accountability. 3 As for the Counter Argument
1. AVAS is far from becoming a No-Kill shelter, to be considered a No-Kill Shelter, their Euthanasia would have to be at 12%. They are currently at an average of 40% on the conservative side. This is a non-issue.
2. If we care about the Animals at the Shelter why don’t we donate and volunteer to help save these animals? We do volunteer our time and money to save these animals in the only way we can, which is donating to the Rescue that pulls out these dogs. I spend a minimum of $100 a month in donations to verified 501 c3 Rescues who show freedom photos, and provide updates, and Veterinarian receipts. We donate our time finding rescuers and promoting available dogs for adoption or reunification with owners. (We don’t all live close).
3. Aren’t people being scammed by these groups who pledge on Facebook? We are told in our Networking Groups to “Never honor a pledge without a freedom photo from the rescue, and that we could send it to the vet’s office directly.”
4. Backlash is an unfortunate issue that many shelters if not all receive, there will always be an upset and unreasonable public, but that is not an excuse for the lack of transparency on their website, over the phone, and in person. Prior to the deposition report on January 23rd, one had not been available since November 2022.
5. AVAS Director Gina claims that the time it takes to correct misinformation is time taken away from attending to the dogs, but I would argue that the time that is spent stalking a potential adopter on Facebook, then confronting and accusing them of being a rescuer, is harassment, and time spent away from helping dogs.
a. If the shelter was transparent there wouldn’t be all this misinformation that is being claimed.
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