GRACE: Genesee Residents for Animal Control Evolution

01/02/2022

Happy New Year pet advocates! We hope that you have all had a great 2021 but know it has been difficult for many. No matter how much our world has changed, one thing that remains stronger than ever is our love for the animals in our lives and in our community. In a world that can be so divisive, this love unites us and makes us better people.

You may have noticed that you haven’t heard from us in a while. This is because the need for our group has almost disappeared. When we started GRACE, it was August, 2011. Back then, Genesee County Animal Control was a horrible place. The death rate was extremely high, with hundreds of wonderful animals needlessly losing their lives there every year. The animal care was horrific.

Genesee County Animal Control is a county agency that is managed by the Genesee County Board of Commissioners. Through trial and error, we came to the realization that in order to change GCAC, we needed new Genesee County Commissioners who cared about the animals in the shelter and wanted our shelter to be a true safe haven for our lost and homeless pets; we needed leaders who could see the benefit of a compassionate shelter in our community who desired better outcomes for the animals who ended up there through no fault of their own. It was a very long road, but by 2015 we had a Board of Commissioners who hired a Director of Genesee County Animal Control who was committed to positive change. There were tremendous challenges ahead, and it was not always a smooth ride, but from that day forward we were finally on the right path.

The results? In 2015, GCAC saved 76.25% of the animals they cared for. This is a terrible number, but much better than it had been in previous years. In 2016, GCAC saved 88.52%. 2017 – 89.8%. In 2018, GCAC reached no-kill status, saving 90.9%. This is what we had worked so hard for! In 2019 the save rate was 91.44%, although we were disappointed to see that the dog number (separated from cats) had dipped slightly below 90%. In 2020, the save rate was solidly back in no-kill territory at 92.66%. We are so pleased to report that through September, the 2021 save rate is 94.18%. In these 9 months, 1,741 animals left the shelter alive and well. Just think of all those happy tails!

Looking ahead, we feel we have finally gotten to the place where GRACE is no longer needed. It has been a very long time since someone from the community or a GCAC volunteer has reached out to us with concerns. The shelter Director (new in 2020), Jay Parker, is one of the most dedicated and compassionate people we have ever met. He and his team are doing fantastic things for our lost and homeless pets every day. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we have confidence that this team is committed to continuous improvement and will do the additional work necessary to reach role model status for our state.

So, for the first time since 2013, GRACE will not be getting involved in the County Commissioner elections. We will not be interviewing candidates or telling you which candidates we think you should vote for. However, we caution that the wrong people in these Commissioner seats could very quickly erase all of the positive changes we have been able to accomplish these past 10 years. 2022 is an election year. Any Commissioner with a challenger will have to run again to keep his/her seat. The Board make-up can change quickly. You will start seeing signs and flyers this summer for the primaries and again in the fall. We are counting on you to talk with the Commissioner candidates in your area and let them know how important GCAC is to our community. We are counting on you to ask the hard questions, and to continue to vote for animal friendly candidates. The Commissioners need to know that disrupting the good work being done at GCAC, cutting the budget or lowering expectations for positive results would damage their political careers. We need the animal friendly Commissioners to know we support them and appreciate their good work.

We are not going entirely away. GRACE will continue to monitor and support our shelter whenever and however needed. Hopefully, the road ahead will be smooth and there will be little to no need for posts from us. We wish you all the best in the coming year and are grateful that you have been a part of our mission all these years. Thank you all for coming together with us to make such an important and beautiful change. We are forever grateful for this awesome community!

Pictured: Milwaukee and Casper are available for adoption at GCAC

02/01/2021

Today is the day for the big online fundraiser for GCAC! Kris Rotunda, founder of "Jordan's Way" will be at GCAC today from 10 until 2. This is all VIRTUAL, so you can tune in anytime during this time to join in the fun. Click here to get to the GCAC page to check it out!

https://www.facebook.com/adoptgcac

Official GCAC page

01/30/2021

EXCITING NEWS MONDAY FEBRUARY 1st!!! You are invited to be a part of this!! 🐾🎉

Founder of "Jordan's Way", Kris Rotonda, just added Genesee County Animal Control to his route as he travels cross country personally visiting and hosting a fundraising event for select shelters in 50 states. He will working to help GCAC raise awareness and fundraise to make sure they can find loving, forever homes for everyone that comes through GCAC. He will be at Genesee County Animal Control THIS Monday February 1st from 10-2pm and has a goal of helping us raise at least $10,000.00!!

Kris was featured on The Dodo when he spent 72 hours in a shelter, learning what it feels like to be a dog without a home. We have a link to that video in the comments. He really gets what it’s like from the time he has spent with shelter animals and staff. We are so excited and we hope you'll consider joining in virtually this Monday 10-2pm with Kris and helping GCAC save lives! 🐾

Don’t forget to share this amazing news with your friends and family.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR JOINING VIRTUALLY ARE IN THE COMMENTS 🐶❤️😸❤️🐰

01/27/2021

Well Happy New Year pet advocates! Genesee County Animal Control just released their December reporting, so we now have all of the numbers from 2020. And the numbers are really good!

Nearly 2,000 dogs, cats, rabbits and other pets had a lifesaving experience at Genesee County Animal Control in 2020. These animals were adopted into new homes, returned to their owners, or transferred to a trusted rescue partner.

In order for a shelter to be considered No-Kill, they need to provide positive outcomes like these for at least 90% of the animals they care for. In 2019, GCAC was No-Kill for cats, but missed it by a hair for dogs. In 2020, the cat save rate was 95.5% and the dog save rate was 91.5%.* We are thrilled to report that GCAC has earned no-kill status for 2020!

We also wanted to update you on some good work that is going on in the shelter under the management of the new Director, Jay Parker and his team.

The shelter has partnered with the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and other local philanthropists to have a pet food pantry at the shelter. Anything that is donated is either used to help the animals in care at GCAC, or it is shared with local outreach groups or individuals in need.

The shelter has set up a straw station on the property. Director Parker donated a large tent that is keeping the straw dry, and he personally drives out to pick up more straw to replenish the tent every week or so. This straw is used in our community to keep outdoor cats and dogs as warm as possible over the winter.

The shelter staff has been focusing on pet retention more than they ever have before. This is still in the beginning stages, but staff is asking more questions at the counter to see if a solution other than surrendering the pet to the shelter can be suggested. They are offering food and other resources to help people keep their pets.

The shelter is now utilizing a couple of community rooms for our more timid cats that tend to do poorly in cages. This has helped these kitties feel more comfortable, and has improved their adoption rates significantly. Yay!!!

For the first time ever, the shelter is focusing on “length of stay”, which is the average time an animal stays in the shelter. Best practice shelters are hyper focused on this statistic because they know that the faster they are able to move an animal to a positive outcome, the better for that animal, the lower the cost involved, and the more able they are to focus their resources on other animals. When they can identify the animals that tend to stay longer, they can take proactive steps to create programs and procedures to help those animals reduce their stay. This is a big area where knowledge is power.

Director Parker has gotten very involved in working with the prosecutor’s office on the animals that are at GCAC because they are part of a court case. Did you know that there are some animals at GCAC that have been there for nearly a year because they are considered "evidence"? That kind of thing will really impact an overall length of stay calculation! It’s also so unfair to the animals, and it is costly to the tax payers. Because of Director Parker’s efforts, the forfeiture of these animals is now being escalated. This should result in the animals being released much sooner in the process going forward.

You may recall that over the summer there were several shelter shutdowns due to disease. Under Director Parker’s leadership, there has been a more tightly focused approach on diligent daily cleaning. He has taken steps to improve containment when the unavoidable sick animal comes in. For example, he has labeled and assigned cleaning equipment to every room in the shelter. The mop and squeegee in one room is never used in other rooms. He also researched and purchased a dispenser gun that sprays disinfectant cleaner as a mist, allowing them to sanitize vertical surfaces much more effectively and easily. The shelter would like to have the larger capacity backpack unit, but that one costs about $1,700, which is not in the budget. We would love to see a fund raiser for this in the future.

The entire shelter staff is working on being “Force Free Certified”! This is an education process designed to help shelter professionals identify and eliminate fear, anxiety and stress for the animals. Force Free methods are all based in positivity, focusing on reward based training and interaction and eliminating anything that may scare, startle, intimidate or punish. One change that Director Parker implemented in his very first days in the shelter was to play soothing music throughout the shelter using the PA system. It has been wonderful to see the positive impact such an easy, small change has made on the animals.

The shelter has been working hard on improving their behavioral assessment process for the dogs. They want to make sure that dogs that are truly not safe to be pets are humanely euthanized, but others who may just need some more time or training get the chance to be a loved family member. They are videotaping assessments and reviewing the videos to see if they can determine what may have triggered a negative reaction from the dog. They are spending a lot more time on those dogs, giving them every opportunity for success.

The shelter is taking on more and larger Trap Neuter Return (TNR) projects. They do not have a public program, but they are using shelter resources to handle targeted projects as they can. The shelter has TNR’d 148 cats between June 1 and December 31. This needs to evolve into a robust program that is open to the public, but it is a good start.

There are still a ton of areas where GCAC needs to improve. Some examples include developing a public TNR program, implementing a robust foster program, developing a routine dog play group and implementing a day trip program. However, we think Director Parker is has done a great job with his first 4 months. He is taking a very hands-on approach and all of the changes he has implemented have been progressive. Director Parker is very quick to remind us that "without Deputy Director Renea Kennedy, Volunteer Coordinator Danielle Macko, the staff and volunteers, none of these changes would be possible". We send a big high-five to the entire GCAC team!

We are hopeful that Director Parker and team will take this shelter from good to GREAT, and eventually to ROLE MODEL status. Stay tuned!

*The shelter will audit their reporting for 2020 and submit an annual report to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The annual reports are usually available to the public late spring/early summer. If there are significant changes to the numbers, we will alert you.

12/09/2020

Dog lovers! Did you know that there are more than 30 communities in Michigan that have outlawed or restricted certain breeds of dogs, regardless of the dog’s behavior? There is a very important bill trying to become a law in Michigan that would make that type of senseless discrimination illegal. 22 other states have already banned breed discrimination, adopting much better legislation that focuses on dangerous dogs and irresponsible owners instead.

You can help by sharing this post and encouraging all Michigan residents to click on the link and ask their Senator to support the bill.

This is urgent because if the bill does not get called for a vote before year end, it will die.

Please click on the link to reach out to your Senator, and please share with your Michigan friends and family.

Thank you!!

Urgent action needed: Use your voice to protect pets, people, and property rights in Michigan! House Bill 4035, which would eliminate breed discrimination in municipalities throughout our state, has passed through two committees and the House floor vote with strong, bipartisan support. It has been u...

11/04/2020

Hello pet advocates! We have been told that although there is still some ballot counting going on, the County Commissioner races have been finalized. The animals had a really good night! We are very pleased with the Board of Commissioners who will be serving our communities in the 2021-2022 term. Great job and big thank you to all the voters! Here is the summary:

District 1: Bryant Nolden – Endorsed, Animal Friendly, Incumbent

District 2: Charles Winfrey – Endorsed, Animal Friendly, First Term

District 3: Ellen Ellenburg – Endorsed, Animal Friendly, Incumbent

District 4: Dominique Clemons – Endorsed, Animal Friendly, First Term

District 5: Mark Young – Endorsed, Animal Friendly, Incumbent

District 6: Shaun Shumaker – Has not gone through the endorsement process. We will continue to encourage him to do so.

District 7: Meredith Davis – She was a surprise! Commissioner Davis was not a registered candidate this spring when we conducted our endorsement process. She worked for write-in votes during the August primary election and was so successful that she was added to the November ballot. This is a challenging way to go. We are impressed with her work ethic! Other than that, we do not know her at all yet. We will be reaching out to her to congratulate her, introduce ourselves, and talk about our goals for GCAC. Commissioner Davis replaced the incumbent, Martin Cousineau, who was an animal friendly endorsed candidate.

District 8: Debra Newman - Endorsed, Animal Friendly, First Term

District 9: Gary Peppin - Endorsed, Animal Friendly, First Term

11/04/2020

The polls are now closed. We at GRACE want to send a big thank you out to everyone who took time to vote, whether you did that by mail or drop off, or today, in person.

An extra big thank you to those of you who crossed party lines to vote for the animal friendly Commissioners. We know things are extra sensitive right now and this could not be easy. We are always so proud to be part of this animal loving tribe! There are no better people on the face of this earth. At a time when people are so divided, it is heartwarming to see people come together for the good of the animals.

We will report results as we see them finalize. In past elections that might mean 11pm or maybe 2 or 3am. In this case though, we aren't sure what to expect. Should be interesting! ☕️🐶😸🐷🐰☕️

11/03/2020

There is still another hour to vote! Get in line before 8 PM.

Need help figuring out who your animal friendly county commissioner is? We are here to help!

11/03/2020

Haven't voted yet? The dogs and cats are counting on you!

Not sure who your animal friendly County Commissioner candidate is? Message us, we can help.

Thank you!