Consultant to Manatee County Commission: No Kill is 'continual journey'

MANATEE -- It's time to rebuild Manatee County's troubled Animal Services Division, which means better staffing, possibly a new animal shelter, an in-house vet, a new director and full transparency, a consultant told commissioners Tuesday.

Although blessed with a strong group of employees, the division must form a coalition with rescue groups and others in order to carry out the decision to become the first No Kill shelter in Florida, said Alan Pennington, vice president of the Matrix Consulting Group of Edwardsville, Ill., which issued a 99-page operational audit last week.

"Maintaining a No Kill community is a continual journey," Pennington told the commission and a handful of those who testified about conclusions in the report.

A strong foster care program, aided by active rescue groups and better use of volunteers; a high visibility community satellite adoption center open at least one night per week; and a public-private partnership are all good methods of solving recurring problems at the division's Palmetto animal shelter, he advised.

Better communication and more exact reporting could help rebuild trust with the public, he said.

"Transparency is important," he said.

Speaker Katherine Morningstar said she was surprised by the high percentage of division employees who disagreed with the county's basic No Kill philosophy.

In 2011, the commission adopted a No Kill policy, which specified the county would stop killing healthy animals in its care. But it also created serious crowding problems in the county shelter.

In answer to a survey question about whether employees thought No Kill was the right philosophy for the county, 66.7 percent disagreed, 26.7 percent were neutral and 6.7 percent agreed, according to the report.

She considered it a "huge problem," saying employees who cannot support No Kill should have been let go from their jobs.

Another speaker, Rebecca Neal, president of the Humane Society of Manatee County, said she was encouraged because she had just gotten a bill from the county to relicense her dog.

The division has begun to better enforce licensing requirements to provide a dependable source of revenue

for the division. She wanted to know if the board would consider directing all licensing fee monies back to Animal Services rather than sending it to the general fund where it could be spent on other things.

County Administrator Ed Hunzeker promised a "very public discussion" of Animal Services' financial matters in a February session.

County officials commissioned the audit after authorities filed multiple charges against owners of a private east Manatee animal sanctuary in connection with an animal cruelty case. The case against the owners of the private sanctuary, Napiers Log Cabin Horse and Animal Sanctuary, continues.

For years, the county sent animals to the private sanctuary despite clear warnings of poor sanitation and lack of food and water for animals, sheriff's office investigators concluded. However, they found insufficient evidence to file criminal charges against county employees.

Sara Kennedy, Herald reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7031. Follow her on Twitter @sarawrites.

This story was originally published December 17, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Consultant to Manatee County Commission: No Kill is 'continual journey' ."