Animal Services Advisory Board

Wichita Animal Services Advisory Board July 15, 2020 Meeting Minutes Board Members attending: Teresa Burks, Mike Marlett, Richard Ruth, Patrick Atkins, Vanessa Christophersen, Stephanie McCurdy, Elaine Stephen (Ti'Juana Hardwell absent) City staff attending: Captain Chester Pinkston, Lieutenant Santiago Hungria Community members attending One community member attended in person, and approximately 244 viewed online. Order of Business City Clerk’s office performed a swearing-in ceremony for board members: Teresa Burks, Mike Marlett, Richard Ruth, Vanessa Christophersen, Stephanie McCurdy, and Elaine Stephen. Meeting called to order by Chair, Vanessa Christophersen. Approval of the minutes of January 2020; Minutes were not previously posted online but will be soon. 1. Staff Reports • Lieutenant Santiago Hungria, Director of Animal Services, gave an introduction • Staff report on Wichita Animal Shelter 2020 1st quarter statistics present by Captain Chester Pinkston. The report is attached. • Richard Ruthth asked: Are the bites just where the teeth are actually causing a wound? • Captain Pinkston: "Yes, that is correct." • Public Question: "Are stats kept for what euthanasia rates would be without rescues taking animals?" • Captain Pinkston: "We don't keep stats individually for rescue numbers, or owner reclaims specifically. We just do it as a total number." • Discussion on stats and how these numbers can be calculated. • Captain Pinkston and the board reviewed "The Reasons for Euthanasia" stats from the attached report. • Teresa Burks asked: On the Others listed under testing, rabies testing, are you including skunks and bats in that wildlife, or is it just domestic animals. • Captain Pinkston: Just domestic • Discussion on non-domestic animals that Animal Services processes. • Richard Ruth: In the January meeting, you said that a 2019 statistics overall there was an 11% euthanasia rate. Does that sound right because the current numbers also show 11% for 2020 1st quarter. • Captain Pinkston: I don't recall that, but typically the cat rate is a little higher than that. If it were 11%, it would be a coincidence, but it usually is a little higher than that. • Teressa Burks: So we had a total of 122 dogs deemed dangerous only 54 of those dogs were euthanized. Which means 78 of those dogs were reclaimed. When they are deemed dangerous, they have to have signage, special housing, microchip, and muzzled, not allowed in public, individual insurance,  and they pay an annual fee. The owners have to do a lot more than put up a sign and microchip their dog. • Captain Pinkston agreed. • Public Question: What happened in June in District 3? (Spike in attack statistics) • Captain Pinkston: If you look at the timeframe June is when we really got away from the restrictions, more people were interacting, more people have their animals, and there were more opportunities for these events to occur. • Public Question: Can Animal Services start tracking the number of dogs taken that would otherwise be on the Euthanasia list? Many are on the Euthanasia list at the time of being taken? • Can Animal Services track the number of animals that would be euthanized if it weren't for the rescues? • Captain Pinkston: Normally, the rescues would typically track that number. New Business 1. Reinstate Animal Services Board meetings to a monthly meeting as opposed to quarterly. • Board discussion - on meeting frequency. • Motion – Animal Services Advisory Board will meet every other month, odd months, third Wednesday of that month. • Board Action – Voted 7-0 (Motion Passes) • The city of Wichita will need to amend the by-laws for this. 2. Adjust questions and comments from the audience to the beginning of meetings rather than the end of sessions. • Board Discussion - time frame and meeting placement of Public Comments. • Motion – To move the public discussion segment to the start of all meetings with 3 minutes allowed per speaker. • Board Action – Voted 7-0 (Motion Passes) 3. Relocation of board meetings. • Board Discussion – Possible move of meeting location to allow more time for meeting and space for the public. Specifically, the Wichita Transit Center was discussed. • Motion – To table the topic of "Relocation of board meetings." • Board Action – Voted 7-0 motion passes (Relocation of board meetings has been tabled until next meeting.) 4. George Theo Harris - presentation to explain the new Gold Standard Pilot Program. • Presentation – Many Wichitan's have had their peace disrupted by barking dogs. This new pilot program could help resolve this problem. Currently, citizens must jump through several hoops. The Gold Standard Pilot Program would be headed by a Wichita Police Department Sergeant, possibly Sergeant Maurice Mitchell. The Sergeant would assign a community police officer to go out to specific dog barking complaints. The community police officers AXON video would be used in court to support the complaint. • Board Discussion – Could this be provoking to the dogs? Can the Wichita Police Department handle the additional load? • The Complaining party will need to provide a history before their complaint is sent to the  Sergeant. • The officer also can change their hours to go out and check on a complaint. • The complaint will be handled as an investigation. Currently, the Animal Control Officers go out and monitor the situation from their vehicle to see if they can hear anything. This is done to ensure we aren’t provoking the animal by our presence. The cases that George Theoharris is bringing forward are the more extreme cases. • Public Question: Can citizens do the same thing for the anti-tether law to prove that a dog remains on a chain for longer than an hour for animal control to be able to enforce the law? • Captain Pinkston – Any evidence they want to provide, particularly where they are not interfering, we will gladly take into consideration. • Board Discussion: To add tether, water, and shelter to this program as well. • Motion – To approve the Gold Standard Pilot Program with the additions to other cruelty items of water, shelter, and tethering. • Board Action – Voted 6-1 motion passes Old Business 1. Captain Pinkston provides an update on Potentially Dangerous Dog (PDD) • Captain Pinkston: Apologized to the board for the volume of emails they received while they were unaware of what was going on. This is a topic that was tabled from the January meeting. Advised Wichita Police department has been busy with the pandemic and nationwide protests over the last six months, and they have not been able to do anything on this topic yet. WPD has not forgotten about this topic. • There was an incident a couple of weeks ago with one of the rescues where one of their dogs had bit one of the volunteers. It was a horrific bite. • WPD was going to sit down and discuss this with the rescue group, but they haven't had time. It was somehow misconstrued that the agenda item was going to be about them. That was never the intention; it was a tabled motion; WPD is only updating the board. Then social media posts and emails followed. There is no truth to the allegations on social media. • Rescues are still able to pull PDD. • Elaine Stephen: Looking at the ordinance and the definitions, there is quite a bit that is subjective. It would be wonderful to come up with a committee or to consult with an animal behaviorist and/or to consult with some of the rescue groups or KHS to come up with a flow chart for assessing. • This might help with the determination and help eliminate as much ambiguity as possible. • Stephanie Fisk McCurdy: Back in October 2019, when this started originally, this board voted 5-0 to leave this in Wichita Police Departments' purview. 2. Issues and Updates: • Teresa brought up a concern in her community about a city ordinance that prohibits a citizen from having two intact female dogs unless the citizen has a breeder's license. • Board Discussion – Possible move of meeting location to allow more time for meeting and space for the public. Specifically, the Wichita Transit Center was discussed. • Board discussion on city ordinances and how this could impact the city. • Public: Wouldn't it be easier to introduce a new license category? • Mike recommends this go to the city council to amend the ordinance.  • Motion – To remove the requirement for two females to require a breeder's license. • Amended Motion: To table this topic • Board Action – Voted on Amended Motion 7-0 motion passes (Removing the requirement for two intact females to require a breeder's license has been tabled until next meeting.) Next Meeting Sept. 16, 2020, 4:00 PM at the Kansas Humane Society Adjourn Meeting adjourned at 5:46 PM.