View from an IACC volunteer
Ghandi once said that how a society treats its animals is the best indication of its civility. The recent stories regarding Doug Rae of Indianapolis Animal Care and Control, particularly the segment I watched on WRTV 6 are peculiar in that no one can exactly pin down one good reason why he is apparently on probation. WRTV found lots of critics but no one, least of all Mr. Mark Renner, acting Director of Public Safety, can say exactly what Mr. Rae did wrong…that he re-staffed 2 positions? Well, he’s the executive director – if he can’t do that in his own agency without being placed on probation, it is a sad commentary of the state of the Public Safety Department in Indianapolis. Is it because he adopted out too many pit bulls? I’ve been a volunteer at IACC for about a year now and work about 20 hours a month on their adoption events, and I can tell you that if a pit or pit mix make it out of the shelter and into a loving home, then they are one of the lucky few. This has become all the more true after Humane Society of Indianapolis changed their policy in March 2008 wherein they began “picking and choosing” from among IACC’s animals, and required the general public to make an appointment and undergo counseling before being allowed to surrender an animal to the Humane Society. IACC does not have this luxury; they get what their officers bring in, no matter what.
There will inevitably be adopters and other people who have not or will not have good experiences with certain breeds but there is no way for IAC to control or predict that. They are underfunded and understaffed as it is. If Mr. Renner wants to change something, I propose the novel idea that he start including dog and cat food in the budget, instead of making IACC rely on donations and charities; as far as I am aware, not one other city agency has to rely so heavily on volunteers and donations. Additionally, I applaud Mr. Rae’s efforts to adopt out dogs that are so-called “bully breeds” after they’ve undergone temperament testing or are “rehab-able.” One recent example is Destiny, the pit bull I adopted out this past Sunday, who is a great example of a sweet, mellow dog who has since adapted remarkably to her new home.
The timing of this “probation” is also suspect in that, only a few weeks after Scott Newman resigned, Mr. Renner found the need to put Mr. Rae on probation, even though there were no apparent problems under Mr. Newman’s tenure. In fact, Mr. Rae was praised during the earlier part of this week for bringing the Animal Control response rate up 11% since the start of the year (see http://www.indystar.com/article/20090813/LOCAL18/908130398/1001/NEWS/Animal+control+responses+are+up+11++in++09). The timing is also suspect in that news of the story broke on the very same day that Mr. Rae was due to head up the IACC’s monthly meeting on August 12, 2009. One has to wonder if Mr. Rae and Mr. Renner simply had a personality conflict. If so, Mr. Renner should be ashamed of himself for misusing his (hopefully temporary) authority in this way. I’ve met and worked with Mr. Rae a number of times, most notably at the Mutt Strut, (where the Humane Society of Indianapolis raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and where IACC was allowed one booth). Mr. Rae stayed the entire Saturday and helped out us volunteers immensely. I would ask Mr. Renner to please let him do his job, which is already extremely difficult without a temporary boss looking over his shoulder. Instead, Mr. Renner should concentrate on boosting morale at IACC, where his current actions are undoubtedly only hurting matters, not helping them.
~Jennifer Wallander, Esq.
Indianapolis, IN
