Council approves switch back to weekday schedule after adoption
rate drops, euthanasia rate rises
Reversing a schedule adopted 17 months ago to increase
adoptions, reduce euthanasia and provide greater public access, the
Hollister Animal Shelter will reinstate Monday hours and no longer
be open on Saturdays.
”
It looks like the Saturday openings did just the opposite of
what we were hoping for,
”
said Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller, whose department also
oversees animal control.
From March 2009 through February 2010, while shelter admissions
jumped nearly 10.5 percent, the adoption rate decreased by 4.5
percent and the euthanasia rate jumped more than 8 percent.
Council approves switch back to weekday schedule after adoption rate drops, euthanasia rate rises
Reversing a schedule adopted 17 months ago to increase adoptions, reduce euthanasia and provide greater public access, the Hollister Animal Shelter will reinstate Monday hours and no longer be open on Saturdays.
“It looks like the Saturday openings did just the opposite of what we were hoping for,” said Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller, whose department also oversees animal control.
From March 2009 through February 2010, while shelter admissions jumped nearly 10.5 percent, the adoption rate decreased by 4.5 percent and the euthanasia rate jumped more than 8 percent.
“People expect government offices to be open Monday through Friday,” Miller said. “This caused calls to stack up for Tuesday because people called in on Monday when the staff was not there.”
Despite promotion of the new days of operation last year, including mention on the city’s website and a note on the door of the shelter, “there appears to have been insignificant public utilization of the Saturday opening,” Miller wrote in a report to the City Council. He said the weekday-only schedule will also allow his department to offer more administrative support to the shelter.
Mayor Victor Gomez, who voted for the change in days last year, said he “expected different results. That’s the good thing about these numbers – they don’t lie.”
Miller said that people who did visit the shelter on Saturdays tended to be “looky-loos” who were less likely to adopt an animal.
The switch in operating hours “didn’t accomplish what we hoped it would accomplish,” he said.
Gomez said that while he was “really supportive” of the idea when it was first proposed, “I’m not convinced it was the best decision.”
While council members Pauline Valdivia, Ray Friend and Eugenia Sanchez supported the switch back to the Monday through Friday schedule, Councilman Doug Emerson said he didn’t agree that the numbers showed the new schedule was inherently flawed.
“Data on the number of people visiting there each day would be more valuable,” he said. “I think it takes a considerably longer amount of time for the public to be aware” of the schedule change, and he would have preferred to leave it as is.
“I’m still not convinced it’s in the best interest of the public to close on Saturdays,” he said. “I think it’s in the best interest of the staff and the administration.”
Still, as the lone dissenting council member, he said he would “respect the rule of the majority” and approve the switch back to Monday through Friday hours.
Julie Carreiro, Hollister’s animal control director, was out of the office and unavailable for comment before The Pinnacle’s press time.
