Broward

No Will for No-Kill

Animal association to review county’s animal care division  

By Jonathan Del Marcus

A national animal association will soon be scrutinizing Broward County’s Animal Care and Regulation Division in light of allegations of animal abuse and mismanagement.

The Broward County Commission agreed in an 8-0 decision Feb. 27 to pay $30,000 to the National Animal Control Association (NACA) for an independent assessment of the department. 

Both NACA and the Humane Society of the United States submitted applications to the county in early January.

Animals under the county’s care “have been abused,” County Commissioner Ken Keechl said.  

Commissioners had debated whether the county should consider a “no-kill” policy for its two animal shelters.

“If you want to go down the no-kill shelter trail, it is never going to happen, especially now with the budget situation we’re in, because I’ve looked into it,” Keechl said. “But at a minimum, you’re going to see an agenda item forcing sterilization, neutering and spaying of animals.”

Both Commissioner Ilene Lieberman and Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin disagreed with Keechl, arguing that the benefits of operating no-kill animal shelters were worth the few weeks necessary to research the issue.  

“We can do no-kill shelters,” Lieberman said. Ultimately, a proposal to table the item until the commission’s next meeting died with a 4-4 vote.

Animal advocates Dawn Wagenknechd, Lil Sayre and Susan Winn pointed out that the No Kill Advocacy Center in California has a successful track record of establishing cost-effective no-kill animal shelters, even in large metropolitan areas such as San Francisco. 

“Commissioner Keechl said it was impossible to do no-kill shelters in Broward County because it’s too expensive, but where it has been done, in many instances, it has been less expensive,” said Sayre, a member of the Animal Care Advisory Committee, an independent body that makes recommendations to the commission on countywide animal issues.

An internal county review last year revealed numerous incidents of animal neglect and questionable practices, Sayre said.

“My problem with NACA is its philosophy is the same as what we do now,” she said. “Their philosophy regarding cats is to round them all up and kill them.”

Eventually, the commission agreed that staff, led by the division’s acting Director Beth Chavez, could consider a no-kill option only if it can be implemented within the parameters of the conclusions in the NACA report.