The Orange Solution

Why would our county animal shelters surreptitiously send a bunch of our dogs to a high-kill shelter with a bad reputation like Orange County’s? We don’t know, but we do know that they sent nine Santa Barbara dogs there to live under horrific conditions where there was a high chance that they would be euthanized. Then, there was a problem with one of the dogs Orange County had adopted out, through no fault of the dog’s. Knowing that its standard operation procedure was to kill him, then when contacted by Orange County, they did not step up and take him back.

So why is this? Why would they do such an irresponsible and horrific thing? Are they trying to pad their numbers of dogs as “live” releases, so that they will look good?

More to the point, why would they rather send Santa Barbara dogs to die in bad shelters than to work with reputable rescues here in our own county? Are the dogs paying the price for whistleblowing on the part of rescue workers who have broken the code of silence for what happens in Santa Barbara County Animal Shelters? Is this how we want our tax dollars spent? When we relinquish a dog to the shelter, is this what we think will happen to our pet? And when will those who supervise the Director of Animal Services find a new director who understands and is willing to implement honest and reasonable policies, and do the job properly and with integrity?