HSUS Shelter Evaluation Report to Carson City Animal Services, November 2010
This PDF contains a 98-page report from the “Shelter Evaluation Services” department of the Humane Society of the United States. It was delivered to the city of Carson City, Nevada, during November 2010. The local Nevada Appeal newspaper first reported on its findings on December 30, 2010.
According to the Appeal, the city’s Health and Human Services Department, which oversees Animal Services, requested the evaluation last spring. The report is based on a three-day site visit conducted in July to tour the shelter’s current operations, services, and programs. HSUS charges $25,000 for such evaluations.
The report criticizes the Carson City Animal Services (CCAS) facility for not watering its lawn; causing stray, feral, and otherwise unsocialized cats elevated stress levels through improper housing; insufficient housing for exotic animals, birds, and small mammals; “a complete absence of nurturing animal care and animal enrichment programs”; inadequate animal-handling training for staff members; flawed communication with off-site veterinarians; limited usable animal-housing space; and unhygienic cleaning practices. HSUS also recommended that CCAS “contact local teachers who may be interested in receiving KIND News,” a monthly publication put out by HSUS’s youth-education division.
The Carson City Board of Supervisors moved to accept most of HSUS’s recommendations on December 7, 2010, shy of building a new facility.
“We asked for this to get an idea of how we’re doing compared to other communities and to find out if we can be doing better,” Gail Radtke, Carson City’s animal-services manager, told the Appeal.
However, given that the evaluation was based on a very short visit to the Carson City facilities and that HSUS doesn’t operate or oversee any shelter of its own, it’s unclear why the city paid HSUS for the report, especially amid a statewide budget deficit of up to $3 billion. The super-rich HSUS has yet to explain publicly why it shouldn’t be providing evaluation reports like this one for free.
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