Vet denies allegations by shelter volunteers

Deepa Bharath

Costa Mesa animal control officers are investigating a Huntington

Beach animal shelter after receiving complaints from former

volunteers about starving animals and unsanitary conditions there.

Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan said he and other council members

are concerned about the issue, because the city has a three-year

contract with the Orange County Humane Society in Huntington Beach.

It pays the shelter to house stray animals. The city of Westminster

has a similar contract with the Huntington Beach shelter.

Depending on the results of the investigation, the city may have

to consider terminating the contract, Monahan said.

“We’re concerned about these complaints that the animals aren’t

being treated right,” he said.

The animal control officers initiated the investigation even

before the volunteers came and complained at the Aug. 16 council

meeting, Monahan said.

“Right now, we are just waiting to see what comes out of that

investigation,” he said.

The shelter fired its 85 volunteers as of Aug. 30, following

differences of opinion between the volunteers and the management

about how to run the shelter, said Samir Botros, the veterinarian who

owns the shelter.

“The volunteers were beginning to interfere in everything, from

administrative issues to medical issues,” he said. “That’s why we

decided to do away with the volunteer program. They know nothing

about medicine, but they want to stick their nose in everything.”

Linda Francis, who began volunteering in August 2003 and quit

before the volunteers were let go, said disease was rampant at the

hospital and animals were not given necessary antibiotic injections.

Most had poor medical conditions and were forced to sit in their own

vomit and feces, she said.

“Almost every time I went in there, I saw dirty litter boxes and

feeding bowls stacked everywhere,” Francis said. “There was no hot

water and no soap.”

Conditions at the shelter were deplorable said Surf City resident

Judy Wheeler, who started volunteering at the shelter in October

2002.

“I got to the point where I could hardly stand to be there,” she

said. “I would come home crying after watching these dogs dying.”

All of the volunteers “have horror stories to tell,” she said.

“It’s a nightmare there. I used to come home with feces stuck on

my shoes and stuck on my pants from cleaning,” Wheeler said. “I had

to take off my clothes in the garage.”

Botros denied all allegations.

“It will be a tragedy if this shelter has to close, because more

than 200 animals will have nowhere to go and will have to be

euthanized,” he said.

The shelter receives about $4,000 a month from the city of Costa

Mesa, Botros said.

“We will struggle if the cities cancel their contracts with us,”

he said. “But I hope that won’t happen, because the animal control

officers are here, and they see what goes on here. They understand

our situation.”

The building itself is 55 years old, but the animals are fed and

well taken care of, Botros said.

For the last two weekends, former volunteers have been picketing

outside the shelter, protesting its treatment of the animals.

Shelly Hunter, another former volunteer, and a Huntington Beach

resident who is heading the weekend protests outside the shelter,

said she and other volunteers have seen the shelter’s solitary

freezer overflow with animal carcasses.

“One volunteer got a picture of a dead dog lying on top of the

freezer because the freezer was too full,” she said.

Botros said that photo is not of the freezer in his shelter.

“I don’t know where they got that,” he said. “We always call the

contracting company to come take the dead bodies, and they would do

that at least twice a week.”

But former volunteer and Costa Mesa resident Shannon Meade, who

also spoke at the council meeting, said the society is not treating

the animals in a humane manner.

“Costa Mesa should find other shelters where these animals can be

accommodated,” she said.

The volunteers will go about doing that if they get a chance,

Meade said.

“It’s a major task,” she said. “But I know that a lot of people

are willing to help.”

-- Dave Brooks contributed to this report.

* DEEPA BHARATH is the enterprise and general assignment reporter.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at

deepa.bharath@latimes.com.