Audit: Low staffing bad for shelter animals
Chicago’s lost, stray and impounded dogs and cats are not always being cleaned and fed properly — or getting veterinary exams within 24 hours — because of “significant” understaffing at the city’s animal shelter, according to an internal audit released Thursday.
Inspector General Joe Ferguson also concluded that five animals adopted more than a month before the audit were shown in the shelter’s data system as still housed at the David R. Lee Animal Center, 2741 S. Western.
In a news release accompanying the audit, Ferguson noted that managing city shelters can be “difficult and thankless work” but that’s no excuse for neglecting the 300 to 600 animals housed at the city pound at any given time.
The audit recommends that animal care fill vacancies “as soon as possible” to alleviate a nearly 30 percent shortfall in its feeding and cleaning staff. The $4.9 million-a-year agency has the “full-time equivalent” of 72 employees, but only 56 of those positions were filled at the time of the audit.
John Norton, a nine-year veteran animal control officer who worked at the city pound until February, said the conditions described in Ferguson’s audit don’t begin to explain those he worked under.
“Dogs and cats the animals were lying in their feces and urine quite often because there wasn’t enough staff to clean the cages properly and other people didn’t care,” Norton said Thursday.