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DASAB Minutes 09/18/2024Page 1 of 4 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY DOMESTIC ANIMAL SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Naples, Florida, September 18, 2024 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Collier County Domestic Animal Services Advisory Meeting in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 6 PM in REGULAR SESSION at Growth Management Department, 2800 N.Horseshoe Dr., Naples, Florida, 34102 with the following members present: Allen Schantzen, Animal Rights Group Kelly Hyland, At Large Michelle Antonia, At Large Susan Mehas, At Large Sherry Rego, Law Enforcement Laurie Harris (via phone) Also present: Meredith McLean, Director Alexandra Casanova,Manager Domestic Animal Services Commissioner Burt Saunders Michael Stark, Director Patty Teulet, Public Speaker 1. Call to Order 2. Roll Call Quorum established. 3. Pledge of Allegiance 4. Approval of Agenda ▪ 1st Kelly Hyland 2nd Michelle Antonia 5. Approval of Minutes A. To be approved at October 16,2024 B. Discuss the previous meetings and be able to supply the last three official meetings that were signed and filed with the Clerk of Courts. ▪ Motion to request last three official meetings - 1st Susan Mehas 2nd Kelly Hyland ▪ Motion to get them promptly without violating Sunshine Law- 1st Kelly Hyland 2nd Sherry Rego Page 2 of 4 6. Staff Report A) ▪ Update on opening intake of cats on daily basis ▪ August we took in 524 animal, 328 cats ,192 dogs, 1 horse, 2 rabbits, 1 tortoise ▪ 122 animals out in foster, including foster to adopt ▪ Animal Ambassadors 17 dogs and 1 cat. ▪ 176 adoptions not include out in foster ▪ Actively seeking to hire veterinarian, vet technician, animal specialist, customer service,some not available until October ▪ Kelly Hyland asked “Out of the 122 in foster to adopt, how many are not fixed?” ▪ Meredith McLean answered “I will get you that number to you “ ▪ Susan Mehas asked “Are Naples Vets helping?” ▪ Meredith McLean answered “Yes, Gulf Coast Humane Society, Naples Humane Society. Miami vet has helped out.Vet scheduled to do surgery every weekend in October.” ▪ Update on Panloop, no cases of panloop.Cleaning schedule ,disinfecting. 7. Old Business ▪ None listed. ▪ Last meeting we spoke of stray hold and first adopter, staff is doing research on what others are doing. Will have more for the next meeting. ▪ Cats that have no microchip can go into adoption or 4 months young. ▪ Sub committee - Michelle approved to be on ordinance committee 8. New Business ▪ Reference Binder done by Heather and Michael from Growth Management. Gives good detail, ordinances, regulations, phone numbers. Use as a working copy. Legal gives definition of something in binder, Roberts Rules and Sunshine Law. ▪ Update on renovation: ▪ Michael Stark- moving along, moving forward with AC, permits for floor plans.Ordered and waiting for the dishwasher to sanitize. Building 3 pop breakers. A lot of things in the works. Looking by the end of December. Consolidating, organizing inventory.Food pantry still in plans. ▪ Sub Committee meetings will be sent out for review. 9. Public Comment ▪ Commissioner Saunders- “Thank you, all the members, for the dedication to this. DAS was in a bit of a pickle eight or nine months ago, and everything has been corrected. And it's really largely because of the dedication of you and the volunteers that are out there all the time. I will say, when you're a member of the subcommittee, you can't separate yourself from who you are, so you're representing the board because you're a board member, but you're also a member Page 3 of 4 of the public, so there's no real distinction there. But anyway, thank you for what you do. And congratulations, Meredith, on your work as well. Thank you.” ▪ Patti Teulet, DAS Volunteer- “I'm going to read because I get too tongue-tied up here. I know you are researching the stray holes, but if you are not considering removing them completely, I had some thoughts for your consideration on the subject. The first thing is, currently, volunteers are not allowed to put a dog on first hold. A volunteer, in my opinion, is a citizen first. And because they donate their time to care for the DAS dogs, they should actually be given first choice. Also, with a volunteer adopting, we know that the dog or cat, sorry, will have a good and loving home. So that's one thing. With regard to first holds in general, a potential adopter can call in and put a dog on first hold without even meeting the dog. Meanwhile, the dog sits there until stray hold is up and misses all the visitors in front of them. Maybe first hold should be requested to come and meet the dog within 24 hours after they make the call for the first hold. Some of the first holds come in and they decide they are too old, too big, too many things wrong with them, or they're too active. And one side request, because the weight thing comes up a lot, oh, I thought the dog was smaller. Can the weight be added to the DAS website? You have everything else there. Approximate weight would help people say, oh no, this dog is too big with all the HOAs, et cetera. Some first holds have been known to find another dog totally and forgot they put the dog on hold and never inform the shelter. When the dog does become available, Calls have to be made to find out if they are coming to adopt the dog. I'd also like to know if there's a system in place wherein staff knows when each dog becomes available and at what time and makes the call. That's a lot of consideration. Coordination, as they are all on different dates. Finding out the status as soon as possible would enable the dog to be put back into adoption. I just have a comment about Building 5. In the past, I mean, we were overflowing with dogs, but it used to be for sick dogs or dogs on five-day hold, whatever. I know we are getting a lot of adoptions due to the elimination of the adoption fee, but I also believe that the dogs on stray hold allows potential adopters to see them in person, even meet with them, increasing adoptions. Building five, in my opinion, could go back to being used for bike cases, injuries, recovery, safe keeps, until and unless the kennels are needed for overflow, which we don't, ever happens again. Thank you.” ▪ Meredith McLean- “Yeah, so the volunteer staff and the first approved policies are something that we're looking over now, so I don't really want to comment exactly on where exactly they're going to go. The first approval for dogs and cats in general is something that we're going to bring to this committee to discuss along with that straight hold. I'm still looking for the volunteer staff hold policy and I'll review that and that's something that we can discuss for more. I will check to see if the weight can be added to the website, and if it can, maybe we can at least indicate small, medium, or large dogs.” Next Speakers Pass on speaking: Chuck Danilian,Heidi. 10. Advisory Board Member Comments Items spoken ono Surrendering of animalso Publicationo 30 day retumo Animal Abuse Ordinance o Hobby Breeders Ordinance o Building backups o Do not adopt policies in review. 11. Adjournment Allen Schantzen meeting adjoumed Time adjoumed: 7:08pm DOMESTIC ANIMAL SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE Allen Schan Chairman These minutes were approved by the Chairman of DOMESTIC S E RV IC ES ADVISO RY CO M MITT E E ar \\2D (check one) as submitted or as- tmended. NOTE: Get the word out to the public to attend. Check on options for a public Zoom meeting. Page 4 of 4 ?