{"id":9542,"date":"2017-03-01T16:29:17","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T16:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/?p=9542"},"modified":"2017-03-02T00:00:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T00:00:43","slug":"mr-mayor-when-you-are-serious-about-solving-the-citys-animal-issues-give-us-a-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/?p=9542","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s about to get all Jerry Springer up in the DAS lobby, y’all"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why DAS should check their mission statement, again.<\/span><\/h3>\n

We\u2019re going to take the long way around to the moral of this story, so stick with us. This morning started with a text from a friend. She spotted a loose dog at Tom Thumb, but it was skittish and she didn\u2019t have time to catch it. Someone else had just spotted it, so she texted me. It had crossed a SIX lane road in rush hour traffic and was now close to my house. She asked me to go \u201csee what I could do\u201d\u2026oh that\u2019s always how it always starts.<\/p>\n

\"16999178_10208476406443228_3962124118704738829_n\"<\/a>Let me asterisk this situation by saying this loose dog is the very type of dog the city will NOT come get. Yes, we still have a city that will NOT COME GET LOOSE DOGS. If you put in a call to 311 and request an Animal Services Officer (ASO) come out, this dog is a garden variety loose dog, no ASO will be dispatched, even though the dog has most likely just crossed a 6 lane road in a SCHOOL ZONE. The dog is not \u201cendangering\u201d anyone in that moment, so they will not come.<\/p>\n

Back to the loose dog. Two citizens assessed the dog and decide that a trap was needed. One of the citizens called a third citizen to transport the trap to the location. Blah, blah, blah, purchased a roast chicken, the citizen trapped the dog and transported the dog to DAS. This is where is get surreal. Now remember, several citizens worked together to do the CITY\u2019s JOB by catching this un-spayed\u00a0dog and transporting the dog to the shelter. Again, taking time from their days to do the city\u2019s job. Don\u2019t forget, in these modern times, in addition to these citizens,\u00a0an entire neighborhood was watching and helping via social media<\/a>, so outcomes matter.<\/p>\n

Before we get to what happened at the shelter, let\u2019s flash back to the spring of 2015. We were involved in a meeting with the Director of Code Compliance, Kris Sweckard, and Assistant City Manager, Joey Zapata and Mr. Sweckard was asked about intake procedures at DAS. There was much discussion about whether or not DAS REQUIRED citizens to provide their ID, if DAS was REQUIRED to take a picture of the ID, and if there were any written protocols at all. Mr. Sweckard was adamant that DAS was to check the ID only and was very surprised to hear that employees were photographing driver licenses. He told the meeting attendees there was NO intake SOP (standard operating procedure) at that time and that an intake SOP would be would be written. There was much discussion about if the requirement to photograph resident\u2019s drivers licenses might act as a deterrent to people surrendering dogs. Zapata and Sweckard were against photographing licenses as they agreed that it might be a deterrent. Despite the promise for the new SOP to be written and shared with the group when it was ready, we never saw the completed and approved SOP.<\/p>\n

In November 2015, as part of the intake procedure, DAS implemented a \u201cFound Pet Release Form\u201d. Citizens were to sign this form when they turned in strays. Many citizens voiced concern that the document was confusing, asked irrelevant questions, and the form was permission to euthanize in a misleading manner. Some citizens refused to sign the form. I personally have been turning in stray dogs and declining to sign the form since the implementation of the form. Let me also place an asterisk here, this is very important, when I do the city\u2019s job and catch a dog in the field, in a trap, and DAS comes out and picks the dog up, no one gives me a form to sign. Whether they pick it up or I drop it off \u2013 it\u2019s the same stray dog, why the different process?<\/p>\n

\"17022101_10208478111245847_5733354958909952815_n\"<\/a>So today, I trapped a dog, transported it, and turn it in to the DAS lost and found \u2013 all for free. City of Dallas, you\u2019re welcome. DAS then insisted I sign the form, and I declined, as I always do. This particular time, no familiar faces were at the front desk and so the issue escalated. Let me pause here and say that DAS has my name, address, picture of my driver\u2019 license, and phone number on file. They do NOT need my permission or consent to euthanize a stray dog, state law and city ordinances dictate when, where, and how they can do that. If I want to be contacted about the dog, I have them put notes directly in the dog\u2019s file, which is the place someone would look before euthanizing the dog.<\/p>\n

Back to the form, I declined to sign the form and gave the intake desk person the option to call Major Hobbs or Ann Barnes to the front desk to discuss. Neither were available, so she called a supervisor, first name, Cissy. Keep in mind that the entire time this conversation was going on, none of the employees actually walked over to each other, or to me, for a spatially appropriate conversation. They were shouting back and forth across the shelter. You know \u2013 the shelter, where scared animals are waiting for what is next. So the conversation looked something like this.<\/p>\n

Employee, shouting across the room, \u201cCissy, she won\u2019t sign the form\u201d<\/p>\n

Supervisor Cissy, shouting \u201cThen she can\u2019t leave the dog\u201d<\/p>\n

Employee, \u201cIf you don\u2019t sign, you can\u2019t leave the dog\u201d<\/p>\n

Citizen (that\u2019s me), \u201cI\u2019m not signing the form.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employee, \u201cThen you can\u2019t leave the dog\u201d<\/p>\n

Rinse repeat \u2013 rinse repeat<\/p>\n

Realizing the conversation wasn\u2019t going anywhere, I walked over to the very patient\u00a0and kind\u00a0DAS employee who was holding the dog. He had been slow, quiet, and wonderful with her. I told him how much I appreciated him and how quiet and slow he had been with the dog, and then I smiled at him softly and said, I\u2019m not signing the form, and I\u2019m not taking the dog, thank you for your help today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then I picked up my large dog kennel and started backing out the front door. (no one would get the door for me) And as I was backing out of the door, I could hear supervisor Cissy directing the poor kind intake worker, again, to give me the dog back. Then she waived at him indicating he should follow me out. I could hear her shouting at him to get outside and give me the dog back.<\/p>\n

He came out carrying the poor scared dog and again I told him that I was sorry, but he could call the police, he could say the dog was abandoned, he could let the dog go in the parking lot, but I was not going to take the dog back. They were a municipal shelter and their job was to take strays and he couldn\u2019t make me take the dog back.<\/p>\n

Eventually, supervisor Cissy called him back into the building. I\u2019m pretty sure she changed her mind about things when she over heard me telling him to call the police. But how ridiculous! How RIDICULOUS!<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s pretend you are worried about ICE, or your legal status (I have seen DAS threaten to call the police over a family\u2019s grandparents lack of papers), or you don\u2019t want your private information accidentally published on the national PetHarbor portal (this happens more than you think)<\/p>\n

\"PetHarborPersonalInfo\"<\/a>

Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

There is no city law or ordinance that says you have to sign that document to turn over a\u00a0dog to the shelter. What on God\u2019s green earth would make a shelter supervisor, who should know better, turn away a citizen who has brought in a stray. Dallas, by the way, encase you havent\u2019 heard, has a crisis level stray issue!<\/p>\n

\"CCS-FRM-128<\/a>

Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

The moral of this story:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 DAS should create a culture where people feel safe and appreciated for helping solve the city\u2019s crisis level loose dog problem and for helping care for the city\u2019s lost and stray animals.<\/h3>\n

There is not ONE question on that form that matters for a citizens to legally turn that stray dog over to the shelter. I am not afraid of going to jail over \u201cabandoning\u201d a dog at DAS, come and get me. I am not in jeopardy of being deported, or having my parole revoked, or whatever else other people might worry about when dealing with authority, but that\u2019s not the point. The point is, no one should have to consider any of those things when turning in a dog at DAS. The shelter\u00a0should be a safe, courteous, place. When it\u2019s not, people dump dogs. Let\u2019s say that again, when DAS is not a safe place to take and surrender dogs,\u00a0people dump dogs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite a few friendly, knowledgeable faces, the intake side of DAS is generally NOT a welcoming or helpful place. Seeing dog after dog after cat after dog come in through the doors is disheartening for everyone, but allowing DAS to be rude, unhelpful, obstructionist, and to make citizens feels unsafe is NOT the answer to solving dog dumping and dog overpopulation. Get it together Dallas. Intaking dogs at an open admissions municipal shelter is not rocket science. Citizens expect better than to be chased out into the parking lot by employees trying to give them back a stray dog.<\/p>\n

I am for DAS, I am a huge fan of Major Hobbs, so far, I\u2019m am even a fan of new city manager T.C. Broadnax, but yesterday, oh yesterday, after giving up my day to catching, transporting, and turning in a stray dog, even I\u00a0wanted to tell DAS to go f$%K themselves. They treat collaborative citizens like dirty criminals. Yesterday was nothing new or different, but that\u2019s an entirely different blog post. Remembering that despite it all, \u00a0I am for DAS\u00a0and their success, \u00a0imagine how the average person feels when they have to deal with them. It\u2019s heartbreaking. The city must\u00a0do better for the people,\u00a0for the animals, and for our communities.<\/p>\n

Of course, we will be bringing this issue to Major Hobbs\u2019 attention and we will be cc-ing the new city manager. We will share the response.<\/p>\n

Mr. Mayor, when you are serious about solving the city\u2019s animal issues, give us a call.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

We wrote this post yesterday and did not distribute it except to email\u00a0it to Major Hobbs and to cc city manger, T.C. Broadnax this morning. Major Hobbs immediately responded to the email and said that she would look into the matter. By the end of the day, she had indeed responded and let us know that\u00a0DAS employees\u00a0have been instructed to\u00a0request that citizens fill out the form, but that the form is not required if a citizen wants to turn in an animal at the lost and found intake desk; citizens have the option to decline filling out the form. Major Hobbs was thankful for the information about the incident and appreciative of the opportunity to get her staff\u00a0on the same page and in\u00a0alignment with the direction DAS is\u00a0moving towards. She added she would be taking steps to make sure the employees all had the information and understood the policy moving forward. Wow.<\/p>\n

Let us stop right here and talk about what a tectonic shift Major Hobbs’ response is from previous DAS leadership and management. Even, might I say, from Major Hobbs’ predecessor, Deputy Chief Sherwin. First, she responded. Don\u2019t laugh, we\u2019re serious. Second, she took it seriously, got both sides of the story, and then addressed the concerns. We can not applaud and embrace her\u00a0leadership enough.<\/p>\n

DAS\u00a0is still a hot mess\u00a0and\u00a0has a LONG, tough road ahead to become a functional department. I am sure there will be many more frustrating days “collaborating\u201d on loose dogs, but with support for Major Hobbs and her transparent, accountability driven leadership style, the city just might get out of the crack they\u2019re in. She might actually be the driving force that gets DAS the long needed bible of standard operating procedures and the training manual to keep the place on track,\u00a0consistent, and inline with shelter law and city ordinances. We hope the city works extra hard to make sure she doesn\u2019t retire in April.<\/p>\n

We hope to start to see days where we just can turn in a stray dog and it\u2019s a normal, uneventful experience. No drama, no inconsistencies, no obstructionists, no mistaken euthanasias, no problems. We know that will take time, \u00a0but in the meantime, we\u2019re really glad to see that the door at DAS is FINALLY open to real word feedback\u00a0from tax paying citizens who are ultimately the users of the shelter and animal control system. Thank you Major Hobbs and welcome aboard Mr. Broadnax. I hope and pray the honeymoon lasts, \u2018cause the next time a shelter worker chases me out into the parking lot trying to give me back a stray dog, it\u2019s going to get all Jerry Springer up in that parking lot, and trust me, none of us want to see that!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why DAS should check their mission statement, again. We\u2019re going to take the long way around to the moral of this story, so stick with us. This morning started with a text from a friend. She spotted a loose dog at Tom Thumb, but it was skittish and she didn\u2019t have time to catch it. Someone else had just spotted it, so she texted me. It had crossed a SIX lane road in rush hour traffic and was now close to my house. She asked me to go \u201csee what I could do\u201d\u2026oh that\u2019s always how it always starts. Let me asterisk this situation by saying this loose dog is the very type of dog the city will NOT come get. Yes, we still have a city that will NOT COME GET LOOSE DOGS. If you put in a call to 311 and request an Animal Services Officer (ASO) come out, this dog is a garden variety loose dog, no ASO will be dispatched, even though the dog has most likely just crossed a 6 lane road in a SCHOOL ZONE. The dog is not \u201cendangering\u201d anyone in that moment, so they will not come. Back to the loose dog. Two citizens assessed the dog and decide that a trap was needed. One of the citizens called a third citizen to transport the trap to the location. Blah, blah, blah, purchased a roast chicken, the citizen trapped the dog and transported the dog to DAS. This is where is get surreal. Now remember, several citizens worked together to do the CITY\u2019s JOB by catching this un-spayed\u00a0dog and transporting the dog to the shelter. Again, taking time from their days to do the city\u2019s job. Don\u2019t forget, in these modern times, in addition to these citizens,\u00a0an entire neighborhood was watching and helping via social media, so outcomes matter. Before we get to what happened at the shelter, let\u2019s flash back to the spring of 2015. We were involved in a meeting with the Director of Code Compliance, Kris Sweckard, and Assistant City Manager, Joey Zapata and Mr. Sweckard was asked about intake procedures at DAS. There was much discussion about whether or not DAS REQUIRED citizens to provide their ID, if DAS was REQUIRED to take a picture of the ID, and if there were any written protocols at all. Mr. Sweckard was adamant that DAS was to check the ID only and was very surprised to hear that employees were photographing driver licenses. He told the meeting attendees there was NO intake SOP (standard operating procedure) at that time and that an intake SOP would be would be written. There was much discussion about if the requirement to photograph resident\u2019s drivers licenses might act as a deterrent to people surrendering dogs. Zapata and Sweckard were against photographing licenses as they agreed that it might be a deterrent. Despite the promise for the new SOP to be written and shared with the group when it was ready, we never saw the completed and approved SOP. In November 2015, as part of the intake procedure, DAS implemented a \u201cFound Pet Release Form\u201d. Citizens were to sign this form when they turned in strays. Many citizens voiced concern that the document was confusing, asked irrelevant questions, and the form was permission to euthanize in a misleading manner. Some citizens refused to sign the form. I personally have been turning in stray dogs and declining to sign the form since the implementation of the form. Let me also place an asterisk here, this is very important, when I do the city\u2019s job and catch a dog in the field, in a trap, and DAS comes out and picks the dog up, no one gives me a form to sign. Whether they pick it up or I drop it off \u2013 it\u2019s the same stray dog, why the different process? So today, I trapped a dog, transported it, and turn it in to the DAS lost and found \u2013 all for free. City of Dallas, you\u2019re welcome. DAS then insisted I sign the form, and I declined, as I always do. This particular time, no familiar faces were at the front desk and so the issue escalated. Let me pause here and say that DAS has my name, address, picture of my driver\u2019 license, and phone number on file. They do NOT need my permission or consent to euthanize a stray dog, state law and city ordinances dictate when, where, and how they can do that. If I want to be contacted about the dog, I have them put notes directly in the dog\u2019s file, which is the place someone would look before euthanizing the dog. Back to the form, I declined to sign the form and gave the intake desk person the option to call Major Hobbs or Ann Barnes to the front desk to discuss. Neither were available, so she called a supervisor, first name, Cissy. Keep in mind that the entire time this conversation was going on, none of the employees actually walked over to each other, or to me, for a spatially appropriate conversation. They were shouting back and forth across the shelter. You know \u2013 the shelter, where scared animals are waiting for what is next. So the conversation looked something like this. Employee, shouting across the room, \u201cCissy, she won\u2019t sign the form\u201d Supervisor Cissy, shouting \u201cThen she can\u2019t leave the dog\u201d Employee, \u201cIf you don\u2019t sign, you can\u2019t leave the dog\u201d Citizen (that\u2019s me), \u201cI\u2019m not signing the form.\u201d Employee, \u201cThen you can\u2019t leave the dog\u201d Rinse repeat \u2013 rinse repeat Realizing the conversation wasn\u2019t going anywhere, I walked over to the very patient\u00a0and kind\u00a0DAS employee who was holding the dog. He had been slow, quiet, and wonderful with her. I told him how much I appreciated him and how quiet and slow he had been with the dog, and then I smiled at him softly and said, I\u2019m not signing the form, and I\u2019m not taking the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-follow-our-progress-with-the-city","category-this-that","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/17022101_10208478111245847_5733354958909952815_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9542"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9588,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9542\/revisions\/9588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gypsydogops.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}