Oakland Animal Services: Rescue - Adopt - Educate

When a call comes in to OAS, Oakland’s animal control officers have to be ready for just about anything. And sometimes these calls have nothing to do with domesticated animals such as dogs or cats.

Often the calls involve wildlife—animals that have gotten stuck in one way or another in close proximity to people. They are often injured as well, which further complicates the situation. During two recent responses to calls—the first involving a fox and the second an opossum—officer teams learned to get creative to assist the animals while keeping the public and themselves safe.

Officers Elena Hocking and Amanda Howes responded to a call about a fox in an Oakland hills yard. Part of the city’s beauty is the many parks that border residential neighborhoods, some of which lead into the foothills or heavily wooded areas, so wild animal calls come in more often than one might expect. In this case, a sick fox had found its way into the home’s laundry room, stumbled off a deck, and fell several feet. At that point it simply hunkered down in the yard. The officers arrived to discover a very sick fox—possibly having seizures from distemper—down a steep hillside. Eventually, they had to scale the hillside to reach the animal, after which they sedated it in order to keep the fox from further harming itself or other people or animals.

In a second case that same day, OAS Animal Control Officers Leo Ayala and Jessica Colman responded to a call about an opossum tangled in barbed wire in the city’s Fruitvale district. In struggling to free itself, the animal had injured and more deeply entangled itself. With backup from officers Hocking and Howes, the OAS team sedated the animal and then had to climb a fence to be able to use a bolt cutter to set it free.

The teamwork and innovation such situations demand often extends beyond the officers to the rest of OAS’s staff, veterinarians and volunteers, as well as to local veterinarians and rehabilitation groups—including Montclair Veterinary Hospital and Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue (YUWR) and Education Center, both of which regularly take on the injured wildlife retrieved by OAS officers. Together these people and groups assist OAS officers with the care, rehabilitation and, hopefully, eventual release of the animals. By the time rehabilitated wildlife is released, we hope they have grown a little savvier about living around humans, which, unfortunately for them, is a reality of their semi-urban environment. But just in case they haven’t, OAS’s animal control officers are here, ready to serve.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 11th, 2013 at 4:00 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Good press never hurts . . . and, in fact, it can help raise one’s visibility. . . and that’s really good news for Oakland Animal Services (OAS), Oakland itself, and, best of all, the animals. Recently, OAS was pleased to learn it received another bit of good press when the San Rafael News Pointer featured OAS’s transfer work with Wings of Rescue in a late February edition of the newspaper.

The story focused on the recent air transfer of twenty-five OAS dogs to Boise Animal Shelter in Idaho. The flight, manned by pilots from Wings of Rescue, a nonprofit animal rescue organization, was paid for by Friends of Oakland Animal Services (FOAS) as part of OAS’s ongoing focus on animal transfers. Pilots Carol Hyman and Jerry Hinshaw are San Rafael residents and fly their plane out of the San Rafael Airport, a private hangar and strip—and it was the local pilots and location that put the story on the San Rafael News Pointer editor and writer Greg Andersen’s radar.

So when OAS volunteers showed up bright and early at the airport one Saturday morning, they weren’t just meeting pilots and helping load twenty-five small crates and its eager occupants into the plane; suddenly they were doing a little public relations for the shelter—telling Andersen about Oakland Animal Services’ improving live-release rate, its increased transfer and adoption work which accounted for approximately 40 percent of live releases from the shelter last year, and, specifically, the transfer work with Wings of Rescue.

The resulting story in the February 25, 2013, edition of the San Rafael News Pointer captures the efforts of so many . . . maybe igniting someone else’s passion for volunteer work, or maybe just giving them a tiny bit of an idea of what goes into getting Oakland’s needy animals into the hands of someone who will love and appreciate them.

Check out the full story here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 21st, 2013 at 3:25 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Megan Webb, director of Oakland Animal Services (OAS), resigned as of February 26, 2013. Webb, who has been director since 2009—and served the shelter in other capacities for more than ten years—has accepted the executive director’s position with the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria, Virginia.

“This has been the most difficult decision of my life,” Webb said in announcing her resignation to staff and volunteers. “It is extremely difficult to leave OAS after so many years, so much hard work, and many wonderful connections with so many people.”

Webb emphasized that she hoped that her leaving would not derail any of the good work that staff and volunteers have accomplished in recent years. Beginning with former director Adam Parascandola and continuing with Webb, OAS’s reputation as a humane, progressive shelter has grown stronger; staff and veterinarians are sought-after speakers in the animal care field; and, best of all, practices set in motion during Webb’s tenure have changed industry practices—starting right here in Oakland.

In her resignation letter, in discussions with staff and volunteers, and in final meetings with Oakland police department supervisors, Webb was quick to point to staff, volunteers, and rescue organization partners for the success of the shelter.

“I have been privileged to work with an incredible team of volunteers and staff,” she said. “Together, we’ve made huge improvements at OAS. We have a strong, nationally recognized volunteer program with volunteers donating more than 20,000 hours to the shelter every year. We have implemented best practices in the care of our animals, modernized our animal housing, created a large spay/neuter clinic, given OAS animal control officers the skills to investigate criminal cases of animal abuse and crime, increased adoptions and transfers of animals, and significantly improved our relationships with community groups.”

Without a doubt, Webb has made inroads in animal care for OAS and other animal welfare organizations both local and nationwide. “All of us remember OAS before Megan Webb became the director,” said Linda McCormick, founder of local nonprofit Fix Our Ferals. “Megan’s progressive changes have been life-saving and precedent-setting, and, hopefully, have set the bar high for the future at OAS.”

The city of Oakland will begin a search for Webb’s replacement immediately. In the meantime, animal control officer supervisor Lorena Arreola, who has been with OAS since 2011, has been named interim director. Prior to joining OAS, Arreola served ten years as an animal control officer and, before that, worked as a veterinary technician.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 at 2:17 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

If you come to Oakland Animal Services (OAS) looking to adopt a bunny, you might notice some changes to the rabbit room. Over the course of the last month, a team of volunteers have been working hard to renovate this small room—located in the back of the shelter—which houses the resident rabbits and their supplies. The goal was to make the space more organized and easier to keep clean, but in that process, the room received almost a complete makeover, transforming it into an especially inviting place for both bunnies and their visitors.

The process, although straightforward, was a little more involved than might initially meet the eye. All the cages were removed and thoroughly cleaned, the walls were scrubbed and painted a calming green, and the floors were replaced. The room’s layout took shape over the several weeks of the process, and in its final form, the room is even better than it was for rabbit needs. It offers more space for staff and volunteers to clean behind the cages, allows some of the bulk products (such as hay and pellets) to be stored out of sight, and further creates a welcoming environment for both animals and people. Being that February is adopt-a-rabbit month and Easter is just around the corner, it seems the renovation could not have come at a better time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2013 at 11:08 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Tulip and Daisy

Check out the furry friend who visited with Christina Loren this week.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2013 at 4:37 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Strong partners make a difference in any endeavor. This is something Oakland Animal Services (OAS) can attest to in looking back at 2012 and its partnerships with more than two dozen rescue organizations both local and across the country, the efforts of which have resulted in increasingly positive news for the animals that pass through the shelter’s doors. Specifically, 2012 was a good year for OAS as we saw a 5 percent increase in animal transfers to partners—despite a tough economy and fewer adoptions—between this year and last.

Being the only open-admission shelter in Oakland means OAS takes in any animals brought through its doors—the strays, the unwanted, the abused—and that means big numbers of animals needing care in a given year. As animal numbers have gone up and city funding has been unable to keep pace, OAS staff and volunteers have turned to their partners for help . . . and found incredible support. Each group helps within its own possibilities: some take one or two animals; others take many more. But the bottom line is that in partnering, OAS is able to place many more animals into homes and make room for the many more that come through the doors each day.

Some of OAS’s partnerships are long standing; others are just getting started. Among newer relationships is that with Cat Town, a volunteer-created organization in only its first year that focuses on hard-to-adopt cats. The San Francisco SPCA* also stepped up to help the hundreds of underage kittens that are brought to OAS by taking them into their foster program. Safe Cat Foundation took in some of the cats testing positive for feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and placed them in homes. Through the combined efforts of many groups and OAS volunteers and staff, the euthanasia rate for OAS cats went down a whopping 11 percent between 2011 and 2012.
One example of how the partnerships work is Simone, a fourteen-year-old tortoiseshell cat surrendered to OAS. After three weeks of remaining shutdown at the shelter, Simone was taken in by Cat Town. She left the shelter, made a brief stop at the vet’s office, and then headed to her foster home. Within days in the home, Simone’s foster mom reported: “She is already arching her back happily while I pet her, and she just started purring.” Simone’s story illustrates how important OAS’s partnerships are, especially for animals who struggle in the shelter environment.
OAS truly could not do it without the many hands and hearts of our partners, including All Creatures, Bay Area Turtle Rescue, Berkeley Humane Society, Brighthaven, Inc., Cat Town, ChickenMan, Companion Animal Foundation, DogSpot Rescue, Dusty Paws, East Bay Rabbit Rescue, the East Bay SPCA, Norcal German Shepherd Rescue, Harvest Home, Hopalong, the Idaho Humane Society, Maddie’s Fund, Paws Crossed, Pets Unlimited, Safe Cat Foundation, San Francisco SPCA, Santa Cruz Animal Services, Solano SPCA, Hound Haven, Tenth Life Foundation, and Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF)—each of which took in between five and five-hundred animals and helped us help even more animals in 2012.

We at OAS thank our many transfer partners for the endless support and effort they gave to make 2012 a brighter year for animals. We look forward to 2013, knowing that, with continued efforts of such strong partners, we can do even better by our animals than we did before . . . no matter what the year brings.

*Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Josie is one of the cats sponsored by Cat Town, one of Oakland Animal Services’ transfer partners.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 1st, 2013 at 12:59 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

It was a sad day for the cats of Oakland – not to mention for the volunteers and staff of Oakland Animal Services (OAS). Warren Kennell, one of the shelter’s most committed volunteers, had left the building on Saturday, on his way to adventures in Europe.

Last week about 25 volunteers and staff gathered at a restaurant in Oakland to wish Warren “Bon Voyage.” The appreciation dinner, full of hearty laughs and memorable anecdotes, was testament to the impact he has made on both the animals and people in his seven years of service.

From the beginning Warren’s ability to relate to each cat’s unique personality made him stand out.  His genuine appreciation and knowledge of cats—and his excellent people skills–eventually made him a great candidate to become an OAS mentor, a vital role in the shelter’s volunteer program. Socializing cats, assisting in cat-dog tests, doing adoption counseling and follow-ups, and helping to train new volunteers were just a few of the tasks he performed regularly.  Almost every day at the shelter, visitors, staff and other volunteers would routinely see him hustling around the cat condos in the adoption gallery.

“I have known him both as a volunteer and a friend,” said Mary Cochran, a fellow cat mentor who has worked with Warren since he started at OAS. “He was the ultimate cat whisperer, who never got flustered. I always felt comfortable knowing that he would be around.”

In fact, Warren became a fixture for everyone at OAS, and so his planned departure shocked his colleagues. “Warren has played such an important part in growing and improving our cat program and has literally helped hundreds of cats, citizens and volunteers. We will miss him,” said Megan Webb, Director of Oakland Animal Services, who was volunteer manager when Warren signed up — a thought that many have echoed.

Last year alone Warren clocked more than 900 volunteer hours, a number that is calculated to equal a donation of more than $18,000*.  (Considering this, it is even more apparent how vital and valuable volunteer programs are. In 2012 OAS volunteers totaled more than 19,000 hours of service.)

The oddsmakers at OAS are guessing that Warren will continue to make an impact with homing cats in need, regardless of where he is in the world.  His first destination is France, but when it comes to making definitive plans on what will follow, Warren takes a lesson from his feline friends and is leaving his agenda open.

In the meantime, OAS will be looking to its amazing pool of current and future volunteers to help fill the Warren gap. His departure is bittersweet, mixed with all the emotions of saying farewell to a friend, but full of the excitement and anticipation in welcoming new ones and helping them grow to their full potential. If you are interested in volunteering at OAS, please sign up for an Open House to find out more about our volunteer program.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2013 at 11:42 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

In December, twenty-five lucky dogs landed in their new homes in time for the holidays thanks to the efforts of Wings of Rescue, Idaho Humane Society, and the staff and volunteers at Oakland Animal Services (OAS). Over the past year, OAS has transferred over 160 small dogs to Idaho Humane Society, where the small-dog population is much smaller and they are adopted more quickly than they would be in Oakland.

Previously, volunteers made the eleven-hour drive to Boise in vans. This time, thanks to Wings of Rescue and Friends of Oakland Animal Services (FOAS), the nonprofit wing of the shelter that has funded transportation costs for these trips to Idaho and other transports, the journey has been made a lot shorter. Wings of Rescue, a volunteer-based organization, matches pilots with animal shelters and private rescue organizations that need help transferring animals across the western United States. OAS volunteers prepped the dogs in the days leading up to the flight, gathered crates, took the dogs for potty breaks before their flight, and then drove them to the airport.

Muneca, a small poodle, was one of the lucky pooches to book a ticket on the flight.

Found as a stray, she had a serious eye injury that required surgery to remove it (which was also funded by FOAS). She was adopted within two weeks of her arrival, along with most of her companions.

Wings of Rescue and similar organizations like Pilots N Paws (which connected OAS with Wings of Rescue) are helping to create an even larger network of shelters and rescue groups working together, thus extending OAS’s ability to help animals find homes more quickly. We hope to make more flights in 2013 to place more small dogs into homes.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013 at 2:33 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Oakland Animal Control Officers Jackie and Nicole running a play group!

When dog handler and trainer Aimee Sadler brought her training program to Oakland Animal Services (OAS) earlier this month, she brought with her some old ideas—that dogs are social animals and that they thrive in packs—into which she’s breathed new life, saying that play groups, even in shelter settings, yield amazingly positive benefits for the animals.

Sadler, a nationally recognized expert on shelter dogs, is formerly of Longmont Humane Society in Colorado and currently with Southampton Animal Rescue Foundation in New York. She came to OAS and the Bay Area with her presentation “Playing for Life . . . a Training and Behavior Program for Sheltered Dogs Featuring Play Groups” and the conviction that animal groups in the United States can do better by its shelter dogs . . . much better. The training wowed attendees, had dogs barking for more, and introduced OAS to a practice that could potentially change a lot about shelter procedure and life for the dogs passing through it.

A grant from Animal Farm Foundation, in response to Oakland Animal Services’ proposal, brought Sadler to Oakland for two days, December 12 and 13. OAS opened the training to all interested shelters in the Bay Area, ultimately putting together an audience of 50 people representing 6 shelters and groups. At the Pet Food Express headquarters’ classroom, Sadler used her PowerPoint and video presentation to show OAS staff, mentors, and dog crew—as well as staff and volunteers from across the Bay Area—proof of the enrichment, training, and behavior programs that Sadler has been implementing. Her programs build on play groups as a foundation for happier, healthier shelter dogs and have led to “canine live release rates” exceeding 95 percent and an encouraging decrease in euthanasia rates.

After the three-hour presentation, the rest of the two-day training was at OAS. There, Sadler showed her work in action, engaging OAS dogs—most of whom had never been with more than one dog at the shelter—in play groups of half a dozen or more. In the groups, the dogs romped, and ran, and rolled to their hearts’ content, showing volunteers and shelter staff that letting dogs be dogs has wildly healthful benefits and that, for the most part, the dogs can figure it out and play exceedingly well together. For their part, the attending humans learned to evaluate play styles and other behavior, match compatible personalities, and, primarily, remain in the background of the whirling play.

Since Sadler and her team left, OAS staff and volunteers have continued working the groups, experimenting with ways in which to work them into the regular schedule of the shelter to the benefit of all. Dog Crew even took a group of dogs out on the lawn to play during open shelter hours—what a better way to show off our dogs than in a kennel!

“Working with Aimee Sadler was such a fantastic opportunity,” said OAS Director Megan Webb of the two-day session. “What Aimee has taught us really should improve the quality of life for all of the dogs as well as increase their adoptability.” Webb’s words have been echoed again and again by staff and volunteers; they are noticing a decrease in overall kennel stress, spent dogs sleeping after play sessions, and the sheer joy of the dogs at play.

There is nothing new under the sun, it is said. Aimee Sadler’s play-group idea, as she will be the first to point out, is a take on age-old knowledge about our canine companions, but it is an idea whose time has come, again, and one that will certainly push shelter standards and result in positive upward movement for shelter animal health and placement. And that is always a good idea.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 23rd, 2012 at 6:41 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Update 12/11/12:  Great news!!   East Bay SPCA took Dolly into their adoption program today!  We thank them for believing in her!

The mystery of Dolly, an unusually handsome mixed breed dog, has been solved, and everyone is feeling glad that they didn’t have anything riding on this bet!

When Dolly came to Oakland Animal Services in July, her unusual look had everyone guessing about her background. A beautiful dog, she sports a brindle coat overlaid with a black saddle. She is 56 pounds, with a solid frame and a dainty face . . . and a little different from most dogs. The best guess was that she was some sort of hound mix, but no one was sure, of course. That is until a volunteer sponsored a professional DNA test to determine Dolly’s makeup.

While the volunteers waited to hear the results of the test, Dolly was becoming a volunteer favorite at the shelter for her sweet, bouncy personality as well. At the same time, the guesses came pouring in about what she might be: Plott hound, Boxer, Catahoula leopard dog, American Staffordshire terrier, and even Jack Russell terrier!

Finally, the results came in, and we were all surprised to learn that Dolly is 25 percent Bernese mountain dog and 25 percent Doberman Pinscher! The other 50 percent is not certain, but the best matches were 21 percent Bloodhound, 16 percent shepherd, 4 percent Chow Chow, and 2 percent poodle. Our darling girl is definitely a “mixed breed” dog, and we think she got the best of each breed.

To see more photos and a video of Dolly, click here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 at 12:18 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.