The answers provided below were from Matthew Pepper. Make sure you read 2010 as that is what is most important here. 2009 is here to just show little to no improvement for 2010.
For the year 2009
1. Number of Intakes. 16,256.
2. Number of Adoptions. 1506.
3. Number or Transfers. 94.
4. Number of people that fostered pets for this year and how many animals total were fostered. Not a report that we readily keep. The reasoning is that when an animal is classified as ‘fostered’ it can be tracked but when it gets a final disposition (transfer, adoption, etc.) its outcome changes and is tracked by that new outcome. This makes no sense to me. I have requested a straight answer. How many foster in 2009?
5. Number of rescue groups you had and how many total animals were taken in. Records are not available from 2009.
6. Number of animals spayed/neutered in the community by spay neuter vans. Memphis Animal Services does not have “spay/neuter vans”.
7. Number of Adoption events and the numbers of animals adopted through them. Not specifically tracked in 2009.
8. Were animals killed 7 days a week or on specific days? And if so what days and how many were killed on average on each day of the week. Not tracked per day: The euthanasia for 2009 was 13255.
9. Did you charge people to surrender an animal? No.
10. What were the reasons each person turned in an animal and numbers. ie. Moving. Behavior Issues. Stray that was found etc. Not a record that can be retrieved in report form.
11. Pet Retention Program: Did you council people and provide aternative resources to not turn in their animals? If so, I'd like to see those records. Not a report or document.
12. Means of advertising utilized. Unclear.
13. Names of Corporations and Businesses that helped support the MAS financially. Not a document or report. We are a government entity and operate on governmental funds and not donations.
14. Total Budget and Expenses for the MAS in 2009 broken down by how it was spent. Total budget: $2,559,786 (refer to attached budget page).
15. Number of animals online for adoption. Varies.
16. Hours of operation in 2009. (Tue - Fri, 9-5, for example). Monday (10:00-3:00), Tuesday (10:00-5:00), Wednesday (10:00-5:00), Thursday (10:00-5:00), Friday (10:00-5:00), Saturday (10:00-3:00).
17. Did you have a TNR program and barn cat program? We do not have a specific program through Memphis Animal Services.
18. Did you have a medical and behavior rehabilitation program? We have a veterinarian who determines the medical course of action. Behavioral issues are addressed on a case by case basis depending on the type of behavior.
19. Outline process used to reunite animals with their owners. An owner identifies their dog and is required to provide proof of ownership and pays any applicable reclaim fees.
For the year 2010
1. Number of Intakes. 15,401.
2. Number of Adoptions. 1616.
3. Number or Transfers. 243.
4. Number of people that fostered pets for this year and how many animals total were fostered. Not a report that we readily keep. The reasoning is that when an animal is classified as ‘fostered’ it can be tracked but when it gets a final disposition (transfer, adoption, etc.) its outcome changes and is tracked by that new outcome. This makes no sense to me. I have requested a straight answer. How many foster in 2010?
5. Number of rescue groups you had and how many total animals were taken in. We have 46 placement partners.
6. Number of animals spayed/neutered in the community by spay neuter vans. Memphis Animal Services does not have “spay/neuter vans”.
7. Number of Adoption events and the numbers of animals adopted through them. Not specifically tracked in 2010. We hold off-site adoption events the first, second and fourth Saturday of every month. We also partner with several organizations for off-site events: Memphis Redbirds, Woofstock, Tennessee Week for Animals, Immaculate Conception Church, First United Methodist Church, Hollywood Feed (Broad and Poplar locations), Petco (Poplar location),
8. Were animals killed 7 days a week or on specific days? And if so what days and how many were killed on average on each day of the week. Not tracked per day: The euthanasia for 2010 was 11662.
9. Did you charge people to surrender an animal? No
10. What were the reasons each person turned in an animal and numbers. ie. Moving. Behavior Issues. Stray that was found etc. Not a record that can be retrieved in report form.
11. Pet Retention Program: Did you council people and provide alternative resources to not turn in their animals? If so, I'd like to see those records. Not a report or document.
12. Means of advertising utilized. Unclear. Advertising for what purpose? This blew me away. "for what purpose" is asked. To save lives, which obviously is not the current mission.
13. Names of Corporations and Businesses that helped support the MAS financially. Not a document or report. We are a government entity and operate on governmental funds and not donations.
14. Total Budget and Expenses for the MAS in 2009 and said broken down by how it was spent. Total budget: 2,507,395 (refer to attached budget page).
15. Number of animals online for adoption. Varies The answer is "varies." I will tell you what it is. It is from 10 - 22 animals out of a possible 400 at any given time (in the last 5 months). That's pathetic and inexcusable.
16. Hours of operation in 2010 (Tue - Fri, 9-5, for example). And, why are you closed on Mondays? Tuesday (10:00-7:00), Wednesday (10:00-5:00), Thursday (10:00-7:00), Friday (10:00-5:00), Saturday (10:00-5:00). Mondays are closed to allow us to offer expanded evening hours and weekend hours.
17. Did you have a TNR program and barn cat program? We do not have a specific program through Memphis Animal Services.
18. Did you have a medical and behavior rehabilitation program? We have a veterinarian who determines medical course of action and behavioral issues are addressed case by case depending on the type of behavior. We are currently working with a local animal behavioralist to develop a systematic form to identify behavioral issues which would allow us to address them accordingly.
19. Outline process used to reunite animals with their owners. An owner identifies their dog, will then provide proof of ownership and subsequently pays any applicable reclaim fees.
What I was looking for, and knew was not there, was some love and vision and a real effort to reunite pets, like this: We place all our animals online (all 400 of them or so) to our own site. We also upload them to petfinder and other lost dog sites. We put them on morning TV shows on all the local networks weekly as we promote adoptions and we advertise the site across the spectrum of TV and radio stations. We do all we possibly can.
The fact is that was not said and has not been been thought of. See above (question 12) when, I believe it was Matthew Pepper, says of advertisong "for what purpose?" Can you believe it?
The Bible says, "where there is no vision the people perish." It is also true that "were there is no vision the animals perish." As it is now, there is no vision at the Memphis Animal Shelter, nor is there love.
