The staff and volunteers at the Guilford County Animal Shelter are doing everything they can to help the animals and avoid euthanizing the cats and dogs held there – but they are human, not superhuman, and, right now, the shelter is facing a perfect storm of challenges that is overwhelming staff and volunteers alike.

The shelter is seriously understaffed for the current animal population levels, is prevented from using donations effectively, and is experiencing overcrowding because many pet owners can’t afford to keep their pets given the current economic difficulties they’re experiencing.

The many major problems the shelter is now facing were more than evident at a Thursday, Nov. 14 meeting of the Guilford County Animal Services Advisory Board.

At that meeting, which was held in the conference room of the Guilford County animal shelter at 980 Guilford College Road in Greensboro, staff and board members spoke of depleted funds, a lack of needed space, stifling bureaucratic hurdles, the loss of valuable programs and much more.

One positive note at the meeting came when Guilford County Animal Services Director Jorge Ortega announced that an individual had made a $67,000 donation to Animal Services, but the shelter needs a whole lot more than that to meet its staffing needs and give the animals the attention they deserve – and the attention and care that keeps those animals sane and adoptable.

At the November 14 meeting, the discussions also centered on the lack of necessary funds, the immense difficulty of hiring a veterinarian to work for the public shelter, and staff shortages that are causing the shelter to suspend vital programs that keep the cats and dogs from going insane.

 Therefore, a lengthy stay for animals in a crowded shelter turns many of the animals in custody from being highly adoptable to being completely unadoptable.

The shelter doesn’t even have a veterinarian.  At the meeting, Ortega explained the situation.

“Our veterinarian position has been posted for a month now,” he told the advisory board members. “We have had almost exactly 700 views and one entry.”

One Animal Services employee explained the problem.

“The salary is OK, but we are competing against private practices,” she said.

She went on to add that the veterinarian job at the shelter under current conditions is overwhelming.

“This is a seven-day-a-week job,” she said at the meeting.

Staffing shortages and a lack of funding are leading to many other challenges that are overwhelming the staff at the shelter as well as the volunteers.

After the meeting, two very hard-working volunteers stood outside in the cold and the rain and told the Rhino Times that, despite the best efforts to care for the animals, everyone in the system was feeling overwhelmed by the massive challenge of humanely looking after such a large number of animals with extremely limited resources and staffing.

“I’m exhausted,” one female volunteer said, “I’m just exhausted.”

Her friend, also a volunteer, was in the same state.  She said the two were doing everything they possibly could to help the animals, including putting in a lot of time on Saturdays; however, the amount of work is utterly overwhelming and shelter staff can’t do what they need to do without more full-time help, part-time help and volunteers.

One of the best director hires that Guilford County government ever made was Jorge Ortega. Former Guilford County Commissioner Justin Conrad deserves most of the credit for finding Ortega and convincing him to come to work for Guilford County after a horrendous animal abuse scandal at the old county shelter nearly a decade ago. That scandal at the old Guilford County Animal Shelter led to the largest fine for animal cruelty in the history of the state.

After that, the Guilford County commissioners were focused on animal welfare and they approved the construction of a new animal shelter that now sits at 980 Guilford College Road. The commissioners rejected Ortega’s first request for a large shelter and later opted for a smaller, less expensive one.

About two months ago, a contingent of leaders of most of the animal welfare organizations in the county came and spoke as speakers from the floor to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners about the problems – especially some seemingly absurd county policies that keep the shelter from using donations effectively.

Though they spoke passionately about the problems, nothing seemed to change.

At the November 14 advisory board meeting, Ortega did say that county staff was currently reviewing and attempting to address the donation problem.

But that’s just one of the challenges. The shelter is now having to suspend some vital programs that keep the animals mentally healthy.

 For instance, the shelter has had a Dog’s Day Out Program where people take the dogs out for a day of pleasant human attention so the dog can get some relief from the incessant barking of other dogs in nearby cages.

Due to overcrowding and length of stay issues, perfectly adoptable animals end up being completely unadoptable after being in a cage in a jam-packed shelter for weeks on end because the overworked staff doesn’t have the time to run the Dogs Day Out Program or to arrange for volunteers to do so.

Though the Animal Services advisory board was set up to advise the Board of Commissioners, unlike many other advisory boards in the past, this board hasn’t been given a slot at county commissioners meetings to provide periodic updates and advice to the county’s leaders.

At an afternoon work session of the Board of Commissioners earlier this month, Ortega was scheduled to give a presentation to the commissioners; however, he didn’t get to give his report because the commissioners spent so much time on other county matters such as county employee benefits.

At the Animal Services Advisory Board meeting on November 14, several board members asked if the commissioners ever even see or hear the advisory board’s recommendations – or if the commissioners are aware of the challenges currently facing the shelter.

Staff informed advisory board members that the minutes of their board meetings were emailed to the county commissioners, but that was it.  It’s possible that some busy commissioners never take the time to read or even open the emails containing the minutes since commissioners receive a vast amount of county reports, notices and other county materials every week.

Regardless, the new county budget adopted by the commissioners in June made things harder on the shelter by raising pet adoption fees in a tough economy.  County staff apparently thinks that will bring more revenue into the county; however, many animal welfare advocates argue that the change costs more money than it brings in because every animal that isn’t adopted remains the shelter’s responsibility to house, feed and provide medical care for.

The Board of Commissioners did at least overrule county staff’s attempt to raise the adoption fee on senior cats by 500 percent in one fell swoop in a bad economy. Those animals are already in low demand and attempting to raise the price so high for adopting them boggles the mind.

Now, Animal Services staff has learned that, come December, the shelter, due to a lack of funds, will need to implement required “seasonal layoffs.”

The front desk administrative staff – which is already spread thin and overworked, will lose two out of the remaining five workers, leaving three people to cover the duties seven days a week. On weekends and busy days, it takes three people just to deal with crowds, answer the phones and coordinate the different parts of the shelter.

Already, due to insufficient staffing, even when people do want to adopt a pet, sometimes they have to wait several hours for the actual adoption to take place, and many, who are initially excited about getting a new pet, end up frustrated after waiting for hours.

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