March 12, 2010
Changes To City Animal Control Meeting Resistance
8 Comments »Two blogs are speaking up about proposed changes to reassign Richmond Animal Care and Control from the Department of General Services to be under Public Works. The local SPCA has some compelling arguments on why the Richmond Animal Care and Control should be placed under the Richmond Police Department.
I believe it is crucially important that RAC&C be reassigned to the Police Department. Rationale for my opinion, and that of the Richmond SPCA, includes:
• RAC&C serves an important public safety function, and citizens rely on it to respond promptly and effectively to emergency calls.
• The division is responsible for investigating and aiding in the prosecution of animal-related crimes, most notably dog fighting and animal abuse and neglect.
• As a public safety agency, its resources and staffing levels must be protected from debilitating reductions floated or mandated during difficult budget years.
• Public Works has no similarity to or understanding of the functions of animal control.
• The prevailing assignment of animal control divisions in the state and across the country is Police due in large part to the many synergies that naturally exist among public safety agencies.
• Reassignment to Police would impart a valuable level of credibility and respect to the crucial functions of RAC&C.
Also check out the Southside Richmond Blog who is a bit more direct.
If you weren’t aware, dog fighting rings in the Southside have been abated in the past. Can an agency that has no legal authority to authorize an arrest or direct connection to the police really manage this problem any better than it has snow and leaf removal? Perhaps the result would be something like this: “Pardon us, would you kindly stop gambling, killing dogs, and housing violent animals or we’ll have to write a civil citation.”
Public Works already has too much on it’s plate to do any job well. This is a very bad idea.
Richard, thanks for posting this. I know we have lots of rescued pets in our neighborhood and lots of volunteers at RAC&C and the SPCA…. This matters to all of us. Thanks!
I don’t agree that Public Works crews are not doing *any* job well.
The problem is not with the hard working staff , but failure on the part of the administration to properly plan, coordinate and allocate their limited resources.
That said, I agree that adding animal control to their plate would be a stupid idea.
The community needs are not being served under the current set-up, I don’t see how this would make things any better.
You tweaked the meaning of my post, when we a fundamentally in agreement.
The comments made by the SPCA leadership are absolutely correct. In other municipalities, animal control officers either have police powers to make arrests, or work closely with the local law enforcement, since cruelty cases such as fighting are often linked to other illegal activity (drugs. gambling, gun trafficking).
Time to watch a few episodes of Animal Cops.
Sadly, cruelty cases can ALSO lead to a big fat NFL Ed Block Courage Award.
Off Topic but GREAT news… I just got a newsletter from the SPCA where they announce that:
“The Partnership for Healthy Pets, which will be adopted by MARTIN’S, was established with Ukrop’s Super Markets in 2002 and has provided all the food, litter and treats for pets at the Robins-Starr Humane Center for the last seven years.”
Maybe this new chain won’t be so bad after all. They certainly deserve big time kudo’s for this.
very nice
[...] for the next 6 months Animal Control will report to the Department of Public Works. We covered the issue previously and everyone that spoke on that thread were in favor of placing Animal Control under the police. [...]