Bonney Brown Is Leaving NHS, In Worse Shape Than She Found It.

As many readers know, I left the shelter a while back, unable to continue watching animals turned away.  Everyday I had to face the overcrowded conditions. My understanding is they, she and Diane Blankenburg, will be giving seminars on institutionalized hoarding. I did look online to determine just what the "Humane Network" could be.  A consulting firm no doubt. 
How can you give lessons about something you cannot do ?  I do know that Diane was conducing interviews prior to her public resignation from NHS and my thoughts were not charitable.  How can you possibly give advice on a subject you have failed so miserably at.  I won't bore you with numbers here. Delawarecapa.blogspot.com/ does a far better job than this old man for laying out the numbers.  Suffice it to say, Bonney Brown and Nathan Winograd ran a wonderful shelter completely into the ground.   They have lost over a million dollars a year while giving animals away free on Craigslist and overburdening our foster network.  NHS used up SPCA's share, Animal Control's share, any rescue in 100 miles was jammed to the max with NHS dogs that were poor candidates for adoption.  Our return rate was close to 70% if you looked at it honestly.  Anything over 3 weeks was not considered a return, it was an owner surrender.

When NHS reached the portion of the contract where they began to repay the county by taking in owner surrenders sans compensation, they bailed.  The people who are publicly bemoaning the loss of of Brown should make the County audit required reading.  We currently have solar panels on airport property,; that was a poor idea when Krys Bart was CEO, but with her resignation, what will the new CEO think of having solar panels for a non profit that provide power to a Washoe County building ? I hope risk management takes a look at that one. Krys served on the board of NHS and may have mixed up her principles and loyalties.  If the solar panels go down and there is damage to the building who is responsible. ?  Who will clean up the cats held in the back building with ringworm ?

 I went online and looked the the requirements for the new director which indicate the BOD have learned nothing. What is the mental aberration within the board of directors for the Nevada Humane Society that they cannot tolerate an experienced shelter director ? They can't clean that mess up with the same thinking that created it.  Ms Brown created a legacy of destruction and distrust. Her behavior cast a pall over any future partnerships because the entire country was watching our shelter. And they watched us fail with distinction.  I am embarrassed for the County commission who allowed the travesty, and shamed by the board of directors that allowed such a disaster.
My estimate is the county has a good two years worth of work to try to pull out of the damage done by this misguided No Kill folly by the Nevada Humane Society.  The idea of their continued exploitation of the general public love for animals is beyond the pale. Good riddance to a very bad CEO and shame to those who hired and protected her, at the expense of the animals.
For the love of Christ
Chap

The People We Meet On Our Journey..

Burley Dog got a new groomer to come to his house, he was thrilled.  She was a little stunned...He continues to look for Carla, but he welcomed his new friend with open paws.  We could learn from our friends with extra toes and no thumbs.  Letting go of the past is not forgetting the past, it's embracing today. Life is better when we bloom where we are planted, and sometimes the reason we leave things in the past, is because they have no place in our future.  Life is to short to dance with ugly men, or go to lunch with crazy ladies.  I would give a rough estimate that 95% of the people in my life today are damn decent folk, doing the best they can, but the other 5% can be a real bugger.... the animal world people are a breed unto their own. One thing I have learned is the difference between people who talk about " furbabies & "furever homes" and people who truly care for animals.
 I've watched Burley dog and Miss Priss in public, and they have totally different reactions to body language.  If someone freezes up at Burley's approach, he turns around and walks away, boom, he's gone. Miss Priss on the other hand " gushes" she rolls on her back, puts her head down and does the full body wiggle.  That will  bring even the most stanch "blue hair" to her knees....in her best white pant suit, no less.  Learning to read body language in the animal world is a survival skill, those of us who volunteer in that world should take lessons.  I have met people with whom I totally disagree, and yet because of our love and respect for animals , we work together just fine.. I've tried to work with others who are using animals to meet their own needs and found them rigid.. As we worked our way through a prolonged search effort,  the diference between those two mind sets came to the fore.  The unhealthy ones never spoke of the dogs feelings, only how much the owner wanted the dog back.  There was no mention of how frightened the dog would be, there was no empathy, only " I want "  That turned a lot of the searchers off, and pretty soon the worst of people were the loudest voices in the room. the decent people left the search.  But a new group of caring people formed, and that is never a waste in animal welfare.   One person has great experience in trapping dogs.. I would like to learn more about that, another has a horrible shelter and I have helped turn a few shelters around so maybe I can help there. I have been in animal welfare 50 years, I have learned a great deal, I hope to learn more.. Look at Burley Dog's body language, relaxed happy face, ready for a new experience, yep I want to be like Burley Dog when I finish growing up.

Leaving Stormy Behind

The past few weeks have been hectic, I got involved in a search for a missing dog, that may be better off not going home from what I've seen.  I also left the shelter field after several years  This old man is working very hard to keep any faith in human beings.  We met a few good folks on the search, where Oreo goes good things grow. She has a way of keeping balance.  People just annoy the daylights out of me.
I didn't see any sign the NHS has a plan to work with the Animal Control people, nor do we have any place for people to surrender their animals. Getting weary of writing that.
The news has been all over a bite case and the local hand wringers are out in full steam.  First we had the pitbull club " Pimping Their Breed" was their title , taking over public parks and letting their dogs run and poo on the beach.  Next comes the Dude The Dog  FB page.  Really ? The case has been proven. The dog proved it would bite and the owner proved she couldn't keep it under control.  How much more proof does a sane man need ?
It's good to be off the search case though, a group of people digging holes in the ground  and covering them up with chopped down trees seems a little odd.  I know the hills of Oregon are full of anti government  survival types ( mostly living off government checks ) but Oreo really needs to leave these people to their own devices. I did a great deal of research and not everybody is nice.  I will continue to write. Just not sure about what since I am no longer at the shelter, Kevin is a going to work as a volunteer for AC when they start a program, maybe I will join him. I miss the animals already. 

The Most I Can Offer You Is A Promise,

And, in a world shattered by broken promises; can I ask you to believe me...?  When I first talked with Stormy's family about spearheading a national, search and recovery effort, for their lost Newfoundland Dog, I told them I would lead the search for as long as they wanted me .  I honored that promise.  I left the search because the family thought they could create a more effective search on their own.   I am comfortable with that, and I wish them well.  I hope they move on to find peace, and the poor dog.  I have been called names that I didn't even hear in 24 years as a military dog handler, I have laid those slurs to grief and frustration, as well their strong desire to take over my personal account .  At the request of over 200 readers I am keeping the page open as a place for animal lovers to gather on FB and chat in a safe, friendly environment. For years Oreo's readers have urged her to create a FB page, so we did that using Miss Priss's account,  now she can finally post as a Facebooker, and not just a "blogger" ..She feels very " trendy" in her role as Admin on the Stormy pages, and takes her responsibility seriously.
It was inspiring to have so many people come together on my page.  I've seen incorrect things posted, I'll take this time to put some of them to rest. I am not a " non-profit 501c " I am not a rescue, I would not allow the page to become monetized for any reason.  I do understand the others wanting to raise money, but I didn't want that on my page.  If we couldn't find the dog without "paypal" then I didn't want to continue, so it was really rather easier on me when family wanted to take the reins. ..
In organizing the mail programs I used in that search, I was amazed again at the caring from various persons, and tons of municipal shelters I dealt with . At the beginning of the search I contacted every gov. shelter on the west coast, Nevada and Utah by email.. sending a flyer containing Amy's cell phone, and my email.  That way there were people in two states who could be reached quickly.
 Just gathering & organizing the email addresses took 5 working days.  Most of those shelters responded saying they had printed out the flyer for the employee breakroom.. That generated a desire to reply and thank them:)  I handled almost 5,000 emails on the search.   At it's high point the weekly reach for my page was 128,000 people.  Oft' times, with so many readers on the east coast, my day would start at 6 a.m. my time, and end at midnight, I don't regret a single minute of it .. I learned so much.  This was my first time of doing this type of search, but I" learned by doing", and sometimes readjusting my approach.  Some rescues were surprisingly secretive about the purebreds they had for adoption, and  used message machines with preemptive announcements that all their dogs were held the full stray period before being " pulled" and to leave a number for call back.. In closing my work on this dog, I've come to the sad conclusions that if a dog cannot be found with that type of saturation, without identification, it's hopeless.......I pray if someone has Stormy in their home that they treat her well, I wish there were someway to get Stormy's picture into peoples living rooms, because that's the only stone my search left unturned.  I know other people posted on Craigslist, and some folk, lit candles.  To all of you who followed, blessings..to those of you who continue to search with the family, blessings...
Pictured is Miss Priss with her Daddy..