Animals need a clean shelter

It’s good news that the Orange County Humane Society’s animal shelter

will be replaced. For the past year, shelter volunteers have been

alarmed about conditions at the outdated facility, which reportedly

lacks even the basics of hot water. A modern facility with the latest

technology and building standards will make the shelter more pleasant

for the animals, for visitors and for volunteers.

While many of the volunteers’ complaints raise questions about the

standards of care at the shelter, official investigations of the

facility by law enforcement officers have never substantiated the

most serious allegations.

Last Thanksgiving, when volunteers alleged that animals were left

untended over the long holiday, authorities went in and found that,

in fact, care had been provided.

Some of the allegations are sickening -- including areas overrun

with feces and urine, flea infestations, and the like.

It is obviously difficult to keep such a facility as spotless as

one would one’s own home. But surely an animal shelter should be

operated with the same health standards as a public restaurant.

A restaurant without hot water -- or with a rat infestation, as

substantiated by investigators -- would be shut down immediately

until the situation was corrected.

Homeless animals need and deserve the same level of sanitation

that people do, to cut down on the spread of diseases, as well as for

overall comfort.

By many accounts, the existing shelter can be a highly unpleasant

place, even for people who regularly work with animals.

One volunteer reported that a veterinarian associated with the

shelter so disliked being at the shelter that animals in need of

medical attention were not being attended to.

If that story is true, it should never have happened.

Hopefully, the Humane Society and the private operator will see to

it that the new shelter is a clean, pleasant place that animal lovers

and the community will be proud to have.