An independent evaluation of Irvine Animal Care Center has only just begun, but city officials have already made some changes in the wake of allegations by shelter volunteers of inhumane treatment of pets and euthanasia of treatable animals.
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Irvine Animal Care Center's Volunteers Claim the Shelter is a One-Way Pet Motel
Dr. Lawrence Kosmin, the shelter's chief veterinarian, is out. Dr. Bradley Brunskill, a veterinarian who worked under Kosmin, is taking over as the shelter's licensed vet.
City Councilman Jeff Lalloway reports policies that shelter volunteers challenged are being reevaluated or changed. Staff is being informed a day before an animal is put to sleep. Donations being reviewed to ensure they are getting where they are supposed to go. And the lauded Third Chance Adoption program, which recruits dogs from high-kill shelters and adopts them out, is getting a hard look to ensure it's still on track.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jyothi Robertson, a JVR Shelter Strategies consultant, has begun her evaluation that could lead to further changes, including a clear euthanasia policy that ensures no treatable animal is euthanized and protections for whistleblowers who report management failings.
It could take four to six months to implement all of the changes, Lalloway recently told the Orange County Register, adding that more personnel moves could be among them.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.