The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Cities, county meet to find solutions to shelter By Michelle Ku Last month, the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley announced plans to phase out its sheltering, code enforcement and animal control contracts. On Jan. 14, the affected cities met to discuss the issue. Representatives from Cupertino and Sunnyvale were among those who gathered to formulate a plan of action on how to handle the changes. The Humane Society decided to phase out the contracts because of state Sen. Tom Hayden's Senate Bill 1785, which increases the mandatory holding time for animals in shelters. Shelters now decide what animals are likely to be adopted; ones that aren't, they can euthanize quickly. Since the bill requires all animals be held, space for adoptable animals will be eaten up, resulting in a higher overall number of deaths, said Christine Arnold, shelter executive director. The bill will be implemented on July 1. In light of the bill, the Humane Society will become a "no kill" shelter with a focus on adoptions, spay and neuter education, community outreach and cruelty investigation. As a result of the Humane Society's action, individual cities may have to build shelters or find alternative methods to house strays. Bill Woska, director of animal control services and human resources manager for the city, said at this point nothing has been decided regarding a Cupertino shelter. "In February, after the city managers meet with San Jose's contacts with the state Assembly, we'll have a much better handle as far as where we're going on this," he said. At the Jan. 14 meeting, the cities and Santa Clara County chose a plan of action that includes looking into the legislation and the possibility of delaying the implementation of the bill, drafting a report assessing the needs of the cities and composing a letter to inform the City Manager's Association of the situation. San Jose has taken the lead in exploring legislative options. Roxanne Miller, San Jose's lobbyist, has begun the process of contacting Hayden's office to inform him about the impact his bill would have on cities that contract with the Humane Society. Since the cities have a scant six months before the implementation of the bill, they would like to amend the bill to delay its enactment by at least a year. "From a law standpoint, even if we were to identify a site for a shelter and identify the funding--which nobody has yet--there's the process of designing, building and operating," said Kay Winer, San Jose deputy city manager. "We need time to meet the void once the Humane Society is no longer providing the services, and that will take at least a year." The Humane Society has offered to continue its services if there's a delay in the implementation date of the bill. If the amendment is not approved, the Humane Society will not abandon the cities if a shelter is not in place yet. "The target date for the transfer of the program is July 1; however, it is not the Humane Society's intent to drop the program unless there actually is a shelter in place," Arnold said. "So citizens will always have a place to take their animals--whether that's the Humane Society or whether that's a city-sponsored shelter--and the transition will not take place until the shelter's built." In the meantime, Sunnyvale has volunteered to draft an informational report on the sheltering and animal control needs of the city. The report will be used to educate the city's government and other command-level people on the situation, said Captain Kirk Sanfilippo, director of animal control with Sunnyvale Public Safety. Of the other cities affected by the Humane Society's decision, Sanfilippo believes Sunnyvale is in a better situation because it has two full-time officers who aggressively enforce animal control. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 27, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.