four legs good

king county council proposes closure of animal shelter

2009-08-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

our king county council members--in particular executive kurt triplett--in response to the recent budget deficit, have decided to put animal care and control on the chopping block. while i have sympathy for those tasked with deciding where our funds should and shouldn't go, it is my opinion that the care of our animals is a county mandate and as such should be off limits. This budget is not finalized until September 27th, so we have until then to let them know how we feel about putting hungry animals out on the street.

i've included a copy of the letter i wrote and to whom i sent it. feel free to copy it and sign your name if you don't feel like writing your own. however you choose to show your support for keeping the shelter open will be greatly appreciated.

thanks guys!! :-)

council@kingcounty.gov;
kcexec@kingcounty.gov
opinion@seattletimes.com
editor@thestranger.com
weekday@kuow.org

As a King county resident, I am distressed by the recent decision to close Animal Care and Control. I believe it is an essential function of a compassionate society to care for its animals. By devaluing organizations dedicated to the welfare of companion animals, the council is sending the message to voters that abused and abandoned pets are not worth prioritizing.

There are an estimated 600,000 dogs and cats in KCACC’s service area. Between June 2008 and May 2009, KCACC handled 10,600 animals, and spayed or neutered a combined 3,390 dogs and cats*. Without animal services, where would those animals have gone? Without surgery, how many litters would those animals have produced? By removing the KCACC funding, the potential increase in the stray animal population will create a larger problem than the budget cut would solve in the short term.

We cannot responsibly shift the entire burden of animal rescue to our local private shelters, who are themselves underfunded and overworked. Moreover, private shelters have the option to refuse sanctuary to any given animal; KCACC's open door policy increases the chances of those animals receiving care.

In the past year, animal cruelty prosecutions have increased over 300% with the addition of a dedicated Animal Control Officer working full time to gather evidence and recommend charges to prosecuting attorneys**. By closing the shelter, King county will be shirking its duty to the community to investigate animal abuse cases and enforce cruelty laws.

Council member Dow Constantine said: “We have an absolute obligation to the animals in our shelter to provide humane care, medical treatment, and the best chance to be adopted into a loving home. Nothing less is acceptable.” If we close the shelter, we will be depriving the animals who depend on us that chance.

I urge the council to reconsider their decision. I will encourage my friends and family to express their opinion through their votes as well.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,
Abbie Deleers. LVT
2149 N 89th Street
Seattle, WA
98103

* KCACC records
** http://www.kingcounty.gov/safety/AnimalServices/news/2009/August/07Cruelty.aspx

hey, you got your kayak in my camping

2008-09-18T17:41:00.000-07:00

this rules the planet. last year it was blind island, this year strawberry island. everyone should do this at least once, if only because floating thru a kelp bed from which you can see the bottom 60 feet down is sweet as h***. also because boat-in only camping means more nature for us! we are not quite rich enough to own our own kayaks, so we rent them from moss bay boat rentals. more pics live here.

strawberry, as seen from cypress

could we BE more p.n.w.?

abbie as 1960's movie actress hiding out in rehab

2008-09-14T11:54:00.000-07:00

autumn and jeremy got married last weekend on the beach. it ruled. here are all the pictures.

(thanks, keith!)

isla holbox: mucho calor, muy tranquillo, y mucho cojones

2008-06-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

my bug bites have finally stopped itching. as usual, there are many more pictures at my kodak gallery. here's an overview of the first annual holbox spay/neuter clinic. the group was organized by kim morgan from the feral cat spay neuter project and included 5 vets and 4 techs from washington, oregon, ohio, and one vet from merida, near cancun. we also had non-veterinary v'teers (including thad!), so if anyone is interested in helping out next year, you don't have to be a vet or tech.

isla holbox is at the tip of the yucatan peninsula, northwest of cancun. because of its relatively remote location and small size, it's a great place for a relaxed, non-pretentious vacation (no big resorts, no chain restaurants, no cars). also because it's kind of a pain in the butt to get to, it currently remains a great place for a relaxed, non-pretentious vacation. travel to holbox includes a flight to cancun, then a drive north to the town of chiquila (2 hours by car, 4 hours by bus), then a 30 minute boat ride to the island.

with marilyn on the boat from chiquila

we arrived at night and took a taxi/golf cart to our cabinas at los mapaches. since the island is longer (25 km) than it is wide (1 km across), a ride from the dock to our place was about 3 minutes long. needless to say, subsequent trips to the dock were made on foot. los mapaches was a great choice: close to el centro, close to the beach, and relatively cheap at about $40/night for a kitchenette. they gave us a discount because we were there volunteering -- i think their regular prices were more.

our cabina, the "blue" house

day one was spent sleeping in, eating breakfast, and proceeding to get a brutal sunburn. who knew that noon was the worst time to go swimming? we should have gotten a clue from the complete absence of any other people outside and from the relentless, amazingly hot hot sun. on holbox, everything shuts down from noon until 4 or 5 when the weather is decent, then stays open till 9 or 10.

the beach in front of los mapaches. so ugly.

thad and guy (pronounced "ghee") from quebeq return from some mediocre snorkeling

conga, a resident german shep, goes fishing from the jetty

this sign went up in el centro the night before the 1st clinic (thanks anna for the pic!)

Day 2 started off early in the morning in a local house donated to us for surgery. some folks checked animals and did exams on the porch,

while the rest of us set up inside and did surgeries. we had three tables with three vets working at once in the living room, so it was a little snug, but we managed just fine. at least we had an enclosed space and running water. luxury!

thad, marilyn and dr.tony from nearby merida wait for our first client

and here they come!

local kids volunteered to help us move animals and wash instruments. They rocked!

Day 3 took us back to the mainland via ferry, then further inland to the town of solferino.

transporting the heaviest surgery table ever across to the mainland

chillin with dr tony. i got some bad lens
solution so i was wearing my glasses the entire
time down there. talk about sweaty!

in solferino we had a larger space (the schoolhouse), but no water and things were decidedly less clean. we got some tables from the local bar and wahoo! surgeryfest continues.

marilyn needed a booster log to reach our ghetto surgery table.

what is thad doing to that dog . . . ?

apparently we're entertaining the locals who watch from outside

Day 4 in kantunilkin, a larger town further inland. this was the best location despite the ugly tagged building -- we had shade, running water and 2 rooms for prep and surgery. wahoo!

the other side of the house is all tagged up

guys, this is my rockin' cart to which you can return me after you take my balls.

with my favorite tech caitlin

'ritas, anyone? nothing hits the spot after a long
day of blood and guts like frozen booze!

baby raccoon (mapache) found by
local kids. aaawwww.

we had the next day off, so went river kayaking with caitlin, anna, and new friends melissa and paul. no crocodiles but plenty of pretty scenery and feeesh.

who's that gringo saboroso in the camo hat?

best rescue group ever

2008-05-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

the world of animal rescue is rife with tricky acronyms (PAWS, EARS, NOAH, et al) and cute animal-related names (Meow, Purrfect Pals), but my current favorite organization and name is RESCUE INK. these guys, a bunch of tattooed badass bruisers who crusade for adoption and against abuse, make me want to give them all big hugs. i can't stand it! i'm ordering my t-shirt today.

Big Ant says "please spay or neuter your pets."

ron sims, rat lover

2008-03-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

recently, king county executive and shelter advocate ron sims stopped by to give some props to the kcac employees and volunteers. besides being a big hugger, we also discovered that he's a fan of pet rats, which he had as a kid. yay for ron, and yay for rats everywhere.

a birdalicious afternoon

2008-03-19T17:39:00.000-07:00

the quince bush in front of our house was chock full of these little finches this afternoon, all singing and hopping around. it was so neat, especially because we'd just gone to see the jean-luc mylayne exhibit at the henry and all his photos contained birds. a nice little diversion.

your tax dollars at work

2008-03-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

i know that few of you, friends and family of mine, have been spared my ranting about the recent citizen's advisory committee/witch hunt evaluating conditions at king county animal control, in which shelter employees were portrayed as negligent, animal-abusing retards, even though none of us were given the opportunity to tell our side. we were recently treated to another reaming at the hands of nathan winograd, a private consultant that the county hired to investigate the shelter, for which the county paid him just shy of $50,000. winograd is the author of the book redemption, in which he claims that there is no pet overpopulation problem, and that the blame for the tragic euthanization rate of our country's unwanted pets lies in the hands of shelters, not with breeders, puppy mills, pet stores or lack of spay/neuter.

mr. winograd was at the shelter a total of 5 days. the staff he spoke with were the shelter director, two of the supervisors and the shelter vet. he did not interview the officers who work in the trenches with the animals, nor did he bother to verify many of the claims he made about what negligent retards we are. while it is true that the shelter is in need of a makeover, winograd's report contained exaggerated, sometimes fraudulent claims, some of which i know from personal experience to be untrue. call me crazy, but wouldn't that 50 grand have been better spent on improvements to the shelter? x-files conspiracy theory moment: the council has been talking about shutting us down for some time, so isn't it handy that the consultant they hired to condemn us had a preexisting bias against open-door shelters? hmmm.

i won't go on here: if anyone has questions i'd be happy to discuss it further. if you happen to be chatting about this--or the inflammatory article that just came out in the PI--with your friends and neighbors, please reassure them that we at the shelter are doing the very best with our limited staff and tiny budget. we care about the animals, that's why we work there! if anyone is in a civic-minded mood, feel free to contact the council and urge them to help us by allocating us more staff and resources. thanks for listening.

what the??

2008-03-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

this tiny puppy came in to the shelter yesterday and we all fell in love with him. he never made a normal puppy noise even though he talked a lot -- i think at one point he even said "redrum"...

my new favorite thing

2008-03-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

i may be the last frequent flier on the planet to use this, but how sweet is farecast? it analyzes trends and notifies you of the best time to buy an airline ticket. for example, in its infinite wisdom (confidence 80+%), it is telling me to wait to purchase a flight to isla holbox in mexico for an upcoming (may) spay/neuter clinic. okay, psychic farecast, i await your direction . . .

howdy, pardner

2008-02-21T23:58:00.000-08:00

yay for horses! today lise took me out for a trail ride at beautiful lang's ranch near mt. vernon. perfect weather, nice horses and a great guide. many options, especially in summer, for various rides, classes and overnites. and of course they gladly accept volunteers . . .

wahoo

yummy fern snack

lise and digger share a laugh

i'm walkin' here

300 acres of trails in the woods

the rider becomes the ridee

a gorgeous president's day in the PNW

2008-02-18T21:26:00.001-08:00

perfect for a hike! this is for the poor saps that don't work for the county and had to go to the office today. Here's what y'all missed . .

the first mosquito of spring! like a little bloodsucking groundhog.

bruno on lookout, scoping the scene for something to pee on

jupiter loves cougar

ava, hold still so i can take a picture

could that sky be any bluer?

i love fungus!! tastes nasty but looks so cool. this one is growing in the hair moss on the side of a tree.

these fungi are just around an inch tall. beautiful!

back and tan

2008-02-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

today my friend marilyn the shelter vet and i were discussing our next trip, and it got me to thinking about why people like to volunteer. not only do we opt to work for free and cover our own expenses, we're often willing to pay an extra fee to the group we're helping out. are we martyrs? animal lovers? looking for a life less ordinary? or, as marilyn's son puts it, just "do-gooders"? maybe a little of all. ultimately--at least for me--it's self-serving, because knowing i played a part in bettering a life feels pretty sweet. and of course how totally cool it is to make friends with a monkey?!

"Altruism is selfishness out with a pair of field glasses and imagination." - Christina Stead

hola mazatlan

2008-02-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

it's 80 degrees, so why are we cold? must be the wind and the cold ocean water. this place is bizarre; hotels and resorts along the beach are huge, and the whole golden zone (along the beach where we are) feels like it was created for tourists. lots of tan gringos wearing senor frog's tee-shirts and drinking beers. not so tropical, feels more like vegas, a manufactured oasis in the desert.

it's our hotel! not. this is one of the swankier places on the strip. we're just pretending that we live here.

the shelter! amigos de los animales is small but surprisingly clean and pretty well functioning -- kennels for the dogs, a communal cat area and a tiny treatment/surgery area. they have a full time vet (they're called "medicos" here), a shelter manager and 2 employees who feed/clean cages/take dogs for walks. also volunteers help when they are available. we met 2 women from canada who fundraise and take some animals back to canada to find them homes. of course since it's latin america it's not as hectic as shelters in the states. they take in about 35 dogs a month and adopt out 25, cats 10 - 15 out and 100 in per month. many of the cats are feral or semi-feral so they do a lot of spay & release, and euthanasia of very old or sick cats. the staff are dedicated and nice and seemed glad to see us, but i felt a little redundant -- i was doing stuff the medico could easily have done himself and he just sat back and watched me, so it seemed like they didn't really need help. hmm, a little confusing. either way they're a good group and their goals are admirable, especially in a town where animal welfare is not a big priority.

el perro azul! this dog and her sister were owned by a local artist who painted them blue.

soaking up some rays

cat room

medico juan surveys the meds i brought

checking the incision of the previous day's neuter

treating an anemic pit mix. sweet dog with white gums. when we left she was still tired but doing alright.

giving IV fluids and glucose to laika, a street dog who had been in residence for 2 weeks and was depressed and anorexic. sometimes when street dogs are brought to the shelter they become depressed because even though it's safe and warm and there's food, they aren't used to being indoors and it weirds them out.

another day at the office

2008-01-26T15:22:00.000-08:00

couldn't resist posting pics of these little freaks who came into one of my clinics for dentals yesterday. seriously, don't you just want to eat them??

"we're up to no good"

professional driver on closed course. do not attempt at home.

walk like . . . well, you know

2008-01-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

more fun in the spay/neuter clinic! shelter vet and fellow costa rica v'teer marilyn just got back from egypt and she brought us gifts, including these fetching beaded head adornments.

dr. m brings glamour to a cat neuter

officer elvis isn't afraid to wear gold beads with a white tee while i make like the bangles

oh, the humanity

that's me, lazy magoo

2008-01-23T21:49:00.000-08:00

since i'm home with a cold today and didn't take any new pics, here's from our fabulous 40th bday party 2 weekends ago.

foxy hubby thad the DJ

collectively we're 160 years old

we're hung over, let's go get udon noodles with fresh straw!

in the meantime, a nod to my pals

2008-01-21T20:02:00.000-08:00

to pass the time between v'teer gigs, i'm taking a page from friends and fellow bloggers chris and autumn and posting a picture (or a few) a day. these are from today's hike off the middlefork road in the north cascades.

sheesh, whatta view! the weather was perfect.

we rescued(?) this spider from the snow in the middle of the road. always with the rescuing.

the boys love snow!

primeval-y

lichen meets ice

more crazy lichen

tiny vertical ice on the ground. it's tiny superman's ice fortress.

remember that TV show "tales from the darkside"?

a little further north this time

2008-01-18T18:14:00.001-08:00

we're going to mazatlan, mexico next month for a delightful vacation with the family. and what better to do on vacation than volunteer! i'll be at amigos de los animales, helping with surgeries and . . . we'll just have to wait and see when i get there.

bust!

2007-10-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

aww, best friends requires full vaccines to go to peru, and my fabulous doctor whom i trust completely says i need another hep B to be full, so no trips south for me this year. oh well, good to know, and good to be prepared. with that in mind, i discovered that the cdc recommends travelers to peru get typhoid and yellow fever vaccines as well as tetanus and the heps. whew. at least some of them are oral.

peru or bust

2007-10-14T15:37:00.000-07:00

okay, so i'm waiting to ask my human doctor about hep A & B vaccines so i can maybe go to peru next month. best friends has a satellite clinic in ica (about 300 km south of lima) to treat animals from the recent earthquake.

if you can't get to peru but want to help, you can always send moola.

i also just found this place -- vacation, anyone?

proyecto asis, costa rica, 2007

2007-10-06T16:11:00.001-07:00

welcome to asis! a small private wildlife sanctuary/education center near la fortuna in central CR. volunteers work directly with animals and help out around the property. they also offer private spanish classes and do environmental educational outreach to the local community and schools. their goal is to encourage locals to learn to live in harmony with nature and focus on conservation. when we were there they didn't have facilities to house volunteers so we stayed with a host family down the road. all my many pictures live here.

the main asis building as seen from across the pond. the whole place looks pretty much like this, carved out of the jungle so as to make as low an impact as possible.

the porch/classroom/nature viewing/afternoon nap/work table/lunch/coffee break area

resident lora (parrot) giving a lesson in the main room.

dr. marilyn and alvarao del castillo, owner of asis, greeting the 3 resident spider monkeys. locals sometimes take baby monkeys from the wild because they're cute, but then abandon them when they grow up. releasing them is tricky because they become comfortable around humans who use them as target practice. in the case of these guys, they have a better chance of making it in captivity than getting shot while going through someone's garbage. asis's long-range plan is to build bigger more naturalistic exhibits for all its residents.

the home of our host family, sabrina and carlos. they didn't speak a word of english and our spanish is not great, so it was a good thing they were such cool people. we managed to communicate pretty well, with lots of smiling and laughing and looking stuff up in our dictionary. sabrina made all our food, yum. the house was sweet and comfy, and very intimate. the walls didn't reach the ceiling so none of the rooms were soundproof, which was fine except when we came home after they went to bed and had to tiptoe around the house. certainly not a choice for those who aren't comfortable in close quarters with relative strangers, but a great way to experience local culture and make new friends.

sabrina, the cutest woman in costa rica

sabrina's nephew jose-andreas, the cutest kid in costa rica

nena the young howler monkey. her parents were killed and she came to asis as a baby. my baby . . .

helping to build a new ranchito for an outdoor classroom in the jungle on the asis property. the little parrotlet on my shoulder is telling me which big rusty nails to pull out this splintery wood. the red dots on my arm are bites from tiny little black ants that thought i was delicious.

framing the new ranchito

hubby thad the wheelbarrow king

this is benjamin the kinkajou, a nocturnal prosimian. during the day he sleeps in this cat carrier on the upper floor of the central building and at night he gets let out to climb around in the jungle.

hi, we live at asis! raccoon and caiman.

dr. marilyn, me, alvaro and thad

2007-09-28T22:07:00.001-07:00

best friends animal sanctuary
kanab, utah
2006

BFAS is the biggest animal shelter in north america, on 2000+ acres in angel canyon in southern utah. they have all kinds of animals -- domestics, farm, exotics -- both for adoption and in sanctuary. also they have a fully functioning vet hospital for the shelter animals and the public. this place rules.

during the recent lebanon/israel conflict, best friends went over to lebanon and rescued a ton of animals, upwards of 100 cats and 200 dogs, some who lost their families and some from the lebanon humane society. they flew them all back to the sanctuary in a big cargo plane and set up a quarantined area (called "little lebanon") on the property away from the main shelter for them to stay and receive medical attention. that's where i worked. these are only a few of my pics; feel free to check out all the photos if the ones below aren't enough.
___________________________________________________________________

the drive from seattle to kanab is about 18 hours if you drive like me, but keep in mind that i got a speeding ticket in northern utah. some of it is really flat and boooring like this . . .

. . . and some of it is really beautiful like this.

little lebanon! these two yurts are full of cats.

the dog runs. so many dog runs.

this was my commute every day from my motel to little lebanon. if only it were scenic . . .

this was my motel, the delightful bob bon inn! nice people, good location, small but clean and cozy rooms. best friends reimbursed me for the room, but i was invited to come out and i don't know if they do that for all volunteers, so i'd check first.

welcome to your clinic! we put together a veterinary truck by rooting through all these random supplies.

our "clinic" before . . .

. . . and after. note the cutest/tiniest gas anesthesia machine ever, aawwww. one prep table and one little sx table, and portable cages for patients. not fancy but certainly adequate. we closed the back of the van during procedures, then opened it because the lights we used were super hot and the van would get like an oven.

i'm ready to get spayed, guys.

took a day off to go hiking in zion nat'l monument. holy cow, that place is amazingly beautiful. i could only go on 2 hikes but could have spent the whole time there and still not seen it all.

hike #2 in zion. imagine this all around you with hawks calling and yummy fresh mountain air and little disney animals on your shoulder...

hello, i'm an anole

inside the cat yurt. generally we'd do surgery in the morning, then after lunch do med checks and random treatments on the dogs, then the cats in the afternoon/evening. here we're cleaning ears.

time out for a little kitty party! all the animals we treated were put into adoption after their surgeries and quarantine.

hurricaine katrina rescue, mississippi, 2005

2005-12-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

welcome to winter in tylertown, MI. cold, humid, flat and pretty. best friends animal society, with the help of st. francis animal shelter who let us use their space, set up a rescue center for hurricane victim animals retrieved from new orleans and surrounding areas. long hours, crazy weather, less-than-cushy living conditions -- a great time! the work and the people made it fun and rewarding.

tylertown is about 2 hours drive from new orleans.

at the compound with pal and BF employee carey at the clinic yurt at the rescue center. gotta love those yurts. this one housed hospitalized animals and medical supplies.

medical supplies in the yurt

dogs generally lived in the outside yards unless or recovering from surgery, cats lived in one of 2 cat houses. here are some post-surgical patients in the clinic.

young puppies hanging out under a heat lamp in the mash unit. these guys had to be hand fed because their mom was sick and couldn't take care of them.

doing endless fecal exams in the lab -- they called me the princess of poo. lots of hookworm and whipworm, which i hardly ever see in the northwest.

the cat house, meow.

treating feral cats with vaccines and antibiotics. many had upper respiratory infections, and all were cranky. we had to net them inside the cage.

yay, field surgery! we did some spays and neuters in the extra yurt when we had more than one vet. otherwise, surgeries were done in the Neuter Commuter van.

dr. deb and sean in the Neuter Commuter

my friend jenn from atlanta who came to volunteer with me! we're at "the store", a bunch of supplies under a tarp where you take what you need and leave what you have extras of.

"the heights", one of the dog housing areas.

it's jenn scooping poo in the heights! such glamorous work.

it's grilled cheese day in the lunch tent.

shower, anyone? most of the volunteers camped out on the grounds, or slept in their cars. a few brought their own RVs, some stayed in local hotels down the highway. employees stayed in shared trailers on grounds.

winter in the south = rain and mud

a little downtime around the campfire after a long day.

hi, i'm cute

hi, i'm your pal! want to see more pictures?