Animal center's health conditions fall below par

Austin’s Animal Advisory Commission has found the Town Lake Animal Center in violation of the Texas Health and Safety Code by confining healthy animals with sick, injured or diseased animals.

The commission voted unanimously last week to find the center in violation and urged the center to bring its facilities to compliance with state law.

“We have no governing authority or enforcement authority. We can only advise and recommend,” said Larry Tucker, chairman of the commission. “Our next recommendation is for the center to move sick cats to a separate location [from healthy cats], meaning don’t just throw up a curtain. Move them to a different location.”

The commission advises City Council and the Travis County Commissioners Court on compliance with Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 823, which focuses on animal shelters.

FixAustin.org, a local grassroots organization against the killing of lost and homless pets, works with the commission to help improve the outlook for Austin’s pets. The group did not have a role in the commission’s finding, said FixAustin founder Ryan Clinton.

“Our main goal is we want Austin to be a no-kill city, and the current shelter manager is incapable of achieving no-kill,” Clinton said. “It is time to hire a new progressive animal shelter manager.”

Dorinda Pulliam, director of the Town Lake Animal Center, could not be reached for comment, and inquiries were redirected to Carole Barasch, spokeswoman for the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department.

Barasch said in a statement through e-mail that the center meets state requirements.

“Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services is very confident that the Town Lake Animal Center is in compliance with state law,” Barasch said. “Our facility is regularly inspected by the state, and we passed inspection as recently as October 16th. We have a full-time veterinarian on site who is very knowledgeable with respect to disease control in a shelter environment.”

Clinton said he thinks City Council, the state and the residing judge in a lawsuit between Pulliam and Cats Across Texas, an organization aiming to halt killing of animals at the shelter, can bring the shelter into compliance.

Comments

2 comments

Another poster

Tue Oct 27 2009 13:00

I was in the stray cat building about 2 weeks ago when a TLAC employee was giving the cats nasal medicine of some sort. An Austin Pets Alive volunteer and I noticed that she was using the same dropper on every cat she went to. That spreads sickness!!! The employee said that's just how they do it. Mixing sick animals with healthy ones is only part of the problem. Using the same eye and nose droppers on all of the animals compounds the problem x10 and only ensures the spread of illness. TLAC euthanizes pets that are sick very swiftly. What the hell!!!???!!! The APA volunteer started flipping out and said she was going to talk to managers about it or something. I had faith in the passion she had about it that the issue would fly up the ranks, so to speak. I'm not shocked at all that this is the result. They wonder why the have so many sick animals, but they do stupid crap like this that anyone would know is wrong!

Your name

Tue Oct 27 2009 00:53

If, as was reported to the Animal Advisory Commission at its October 21 meeting, the Town Lake Animal Center was housing sick cats with healthy cats in its stray animal building, such an occurrence is a direct violation of Texas Health & Safety Code section 823.003(c):

§ 823.003. STANDARDS FOR ANIMAL SHELTERS; CRIMINAL PENALTY.
* * *
(c) An animal shelter may not confine healthy animals with
sick, injured, or diseased animals.

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out