Deepa BharathPolitical tension between volunteers and management...

Deepa Bharath

Political tension between volunteers and management at an animal

shelter in Huntington Beach stifled operations and became the ax that

dropped on the volunteer program, administrators and shelter workers

said on Monday.

The city of Costa Mesa has launched an investigation into the

Orange County Humane Society after several former volunteers

complained at a City Council meeting last month that the animals at

the shelter were not receiving proper care. The city has a contract

with the shelter to send all rescued animals there.

Nearly 85 volunteers were asked to leave the shelter after the

situation got out of hand because of constant arguments over

medication and space arrangements, said Samir Botros, the

veterinarian who runs the shelter.

Botros said he got rid of the volunteer program as of Aug. 30

because volunteers complained so much about the facility and about

what medicines were given to the animals that day-to-day operation

had become a burden for administrators.

A handful of volunteers who have remained positive and supportive

of the shelter still come in and help out, he said.

“They don’t do as much work inside the shelter,” he said. “They

help us with publicity or getting us outside help from other

agencies.”

Jon Vreeland, a volunteer who still works for the shelter, said

volunteers are losing sight of why animal shelters exist.

“If they were so interested in animals, they wouldn’t be blocking

and picketing the shelter,” he said. “These animals need to be

adopted. They need to go home.”

The disgruntled volunteers got into a power struggle with the

administration and presented irrational demands, Vreeland said.

“Some of them wanted animals to be euthanized because they’ve been

in the shelter too long,” he said. “But that’s the beauty of our

shelter. We’re a no-kill shelter. We give animals a chance to live

and have had some of them for a year or more.”

Former volunteers maintain that their intentions are pure and free

of any agenda. They will continue to protest outside the shelter on

Newland Street until it is shut down and rebuilt, former volunteer

Sune Gillin said.

“Politics was the farthest thing from our minds,” she said.

Gillin, who had been volunteering at the shelter for five years

until she was asked to leave in March, said she built a strong

volunteer base at the shelter over the years.

“We were taking sick animals home and nursing them back to

health,” she said. “One dog I took home was so sick that it had to be

force-fed and carried up and down the stairs.”

Gillin and other volunteers say the shelter is “falling apart” and

animals get hurt because the cages and fences don’t get fixed.

But Angie Dahman, one of the few volunteers who still works

weekends at the shelter, said the complaining volunteers were

exaggerating the circumstances and wanted the shelter to operate on

their terms.

“They were talking about two dogs being squeezed into one cage,”

she said. “But I saw that the dogs were happier that way. They had a

friend.”

Volunteers still take dogs out for walks and make extra food such

as chicken and rice for the weaker animals, Dahman said.

“We know the shelter is in an old building that needs repairs and

rebuilding,” she said. “But Dr. Botros is working with the city on

that, and those things do take time.”

Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Libby Cowan said she is primarily

concerned about whether animals are treated humanely at the shelter.

“I want to make sure they are getting food, water and healthcare,

which are all in the contract our city has with them,” she said. “We

owe it to our animals to perform an in-depth review and analysis of

the conditions at the shelter.”

Costa Mesa has a three-year contract with the Orange County Humane

Society and pays the shelter $4,000 a month to send its animals

there. The city is one year into its contract, Cowan said.

“But we do have clauses in there that say we can get out of it if

the terms of the contract are not being met,” she said.

People have different values when it comes to the level of care in

a shelter, Cowan said.

“You have to wonder ‘What if it’s true?’ and also ‘What if it’s

exaggerated?’” she said. “But we have an obligation to our animals to

find out where the truth is.”

* 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.