The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has been hearing a whole lot from animal lovers in the county lately regarding major challenges at the Guilford County animal shelter, and, at an afternoon work session on Thursday, Nov. 21, the board heard, for the first time in a long time, from Guilford County Animal Services Director Jorge Ortega, who spoke of some of the challenges – as well as the successes – at the animal shelter.
At a meeting of the Guilford County Animal Services Advisory Board one week earlier – on Thursday, Nov. 14 – board members, shelter staff and volunteers spoke of the immense challenges of handling the large number of animals at the shelter without sufficient funds or staff.
At that meeting, two of the primary concerns expressed were the lack of the shelter being able to use its donations effectively due to county regulations enacted in the spring of 2024, and the fact that a highly prized part-time employee who has successfully run and grown the Dog’s Day Out program was informed that her position had been recategorized as “seasonal” and her job with the county would end in December.
At that Animal Services Advisory Board meeting, several board members were concerned the end of that position essentially meant the end of the program. They expressed their fears regarding the viability of the program going forward since the woman running it would be gone and there wouldn’t be anyone to train new members.
There was a chance that the woman could reapply to get the same position again at some point in 2025, though that was up in the air.
“It depends on the funding,” one shelter employee said at the November 14 meeting.
At the November 21 work session with county commissioners, Ortega made it clear that, while the program would change, it would not end. Animal shelter staff now plan to continue to run using already trained Dog’s Day Out volunteers – though several animal lovers after the work session expressed doubt that the program could remain viable since the time of the existing shelter workers is already stretched too thin and there would be no one to train new Dog’s Day Out volunteers.
At the Thursday, afternoon Nov. 21 work session, it was announced that the county did find $100,000 for the shelter, which will help it get through a funding pinch – and, fortunately, now everyone in Guilford County government seems laser-focused on addressing a host of problems at the shelter, including a big one that prevents the shelter from using donations effectively.
At the commissioners’ regular evening meeting held right after the work session, Commissioner Pat Tillman thanked all of the county’s Animal Services workers and and volunteers and said that he wanted them to know that the county commissioners were hearing their pleas.
“This is a serious issue,” Tillman said of the challenges the shelter has been facing in recent months. “We’re taking it seriously and we have a plan. I answered personally all of the emails that came to me directly in the last few days. And it’s important to know that there is an issue and we are all committed to being a part of the solution. I know the [county] manager and everyone is.”
Tillman added that he wanted to be perfectly clear about this: ‘We hear you.”
Some animal lovers had been bending the commissioners’ ears on the problems at the shelter and, in the days leading up to the work session, there were a number of behind-the-scenes meetings between county administrators, shelter staff, shelter volunteers and county commissioners.
Those discussions helped the county manage to find $100,000 in additional money for the shelter in the middle of the 2024-2025 budget year – which will help bridge the gap in services until a more long-term solution can be found.
The Dog’s Day Out program at the Guilford County Animal Shelter has been – and will now continue to be – a terrific program that gives the dogs at the shelter a day of peace and sanity. It gets the animals out of their cages for a day or two and lets them have some love and attention in a quiet environment rather than be stuck in a loud and overcrowded facility.
Dog’s Day Out has been helping reduce instances of euthanasia at the shelter because animals that come into the facility as adoptable often become emotionally damaged after being there for too long – making them unadoptable and a candidate for euthanasia.
One problem with keeping the part-time employee who was running the Dog’s Day Out program is that, if the county hadn’t reclassified her job as “seasonal” and not told her that her employment with the county was ending soon, then she would have too many hours and, by law would need to be reclassified as a full-time employee with benefits.
Ortega said at the November 21 work session that the Dog’s Day Out program would continue despite the departure of the part-time female employee who’s led that program for years and grown it into a big success and attracted a lot of volunteers.
After the meeting, some animal welfare advocates who volunteer at the shelter said one problem was that, even if the shelter keeps the program going with volunteers or by using other shelter staff, the former employee knew the ropes, had the necessary experience and had grown the program – while current shelter staff and volunteers are already exhausted and overworked.
They said they worried that the program would necessarily be conducted on a smaller scale, and they added that, since no one would be training new Dog’s Day Out volunteers, the program would lose people over time without recruiting replacement volunteers.
Another issue that county staff, county commissioners and others have been working on is the fact that current county policy does not allow the shelter to use donations effectively.
The shelter has been using the breakroom and other rooms in the building to store inventoried and donated items while waiting to hear back from the manager’s office as to what to do with the donations.
One possible solution now being discussed is keeping a truck at the shelter that could act as a storage bin.
The county is also looking to work with the Guilford County Division of Social Services and other parts of the government in order to find a rational way to provide donated supplies to pet owners in the community who are in need.
The good news for animal lovers in the county is that the Guilford County commissioners and county administration have now moved animal shelter concerns to the front burner and collectively seem determined to address these problems in a timely manner.
Mr. Scott, Good article…I do not buy that Part time jobs have to become full time jobs…never heard of such Blarney. Something smells. Keep truckin’
Thank you so very much for continuing to report on this very important topic. Everyone at the shelter is praying the animals continue to receive the support they deserve.
Thank you for this coverage.
County commissioners have no problem finding money to start a Minority women in business program in High Point and totally staffing it. Or finding $1.7 million for special interest.. Too many bureaucrats.
I agree. What the Guilford County Board of Commissioners need to do is plan a tour of the shelter. They will see depression in the animals’ eyes, some who have lost hope of finding their forever home. Doggie Day out can’t be terminated for the sake of these animals. On another note, Christmas will soon be here.PLEASE don’t adopt an animal to be used as a gift if you can’t commit to have this pet for its lifetime. Animals need love, basic needs, and humane treatment. They have feelings. I am begging the Board of Commissioners to take that tour of the shelter and commit to the funding of the shelter for the sake of these precious animals.
Riddle me this…you can and have gone to the taxpayers regularly to tax (read squeeze) money from them for schools, an important service, while failing to point out how much they have (1 to 2 BILLION dollars) sitting in a fund (IMO a slush fund) they say is for future projects. Please show me where it’s going to cost that much to build and staff a school. How about publishing, in the Rhino and the N&R a list of all the positions in the school system along with the salaries (not names, just positions and salaries). Please show us, the humble taxpaying peons.
Oh, and for those who want an idea of how “efficient” these people can be on spending OUR money, go to the Rhino Archives, to the article “Guilford County Toots Its Own Horn During National County Government Month by Scott D. Yost | Apr 4, 2024”
Thanks for shining a light on this issue Scott. This is simply one more case of bureaucratic male bovine excrement.
Why does any bureaucrat have to have control of donations?
I think it depends on who is running it, and weeding out those who have a different perspective than the faithful. This is Guilford County at your service. Name something our govt does well.
Austin & Miller have put it very well.
There are other solutions….
Cut back on socialist propaganda and programs. Open up more volunteer positions at the shelter. If the woman wants a part-time or full-time job working with animals, the jail is always hiring. Maybe a spay/neuter program would be beneficial there as well? Cut out grant matches for feel good nonsense & use those funds to support the shelter. We could go on for months carving unnecessary fat out of the county budget, but common sense will be the last choice as long as the board is ran by democrats & rinos. Don’t miss your chance to vote for 9 competent replacements in the coming elections. In the meantime, I think our manager and county staff could use some testosterone therapy to grow some gonads and stand up to the nonsense.
Donations given to the shelter was a filter to the community. The shelter wasn’t using it for themselves. The community knew to come to the shelter for assistance to feed there animal, so the animal is not surrendered for lack of. Not sure why there is a law to stop the shelter from hiring full time staff that is greatly needed. The county has the money pay the people. The shelter needs the staff to take care of animals 24hrs of the day not just 8hrs of the day. Give them the right staff that they need to take care of the animals of Guilford County. If not, then these animals we love so much will have to be euthanized like every other county. And the Government doesn’t want that. HELP THE SHLETER OUT GIVE THEM WHAT THEY NEED.
Thanks Scott. Great info in this article. I like how magically $100k was found in the budget considering all the DEI and other racists BS these commissioners come up with. I don’t believe this county will ever change/vote for different leadership. We will continue to stay in the toilet so don’t look up.
Be forewarned, any government body that reacts to public outcry is an insincere government body. They feel the pressure and believe they must react. But the reaction is not genuine; therefore, there will be a return to the previous position of lack of regard for the animal shelter. To understand what Skip Alston and his minions care about, look at what they support with taxpayer money: DEI, select nonprofits, failing schools, raising taxes, enlarging government. This will continue as long as there is the current district voting. Change the current district voting system to at least five (5) at-large (countywide) seats and reduce the number of districts.
The issue with donations is a state one and more complicated than it seems. Government employees can’t take “gifts” from the public because of state laws, and I suspect these donations are seen as gifts and therefore have become, as stated in a previous article, “property of the County” which is why they must be inventoried every day (like items on an ambulance, fire truck, or police car). It’s a stupid regulation, but because of complaints about government employees receiving “gifts from the public” in exchange for “favors” here we are, bad people cause good things to go sideways, and regulations cause huge problems for legitimate people who just want to do good deeds.
The solution would be to ignore the rules, but someone would gripe, lawsuits would be brought, stupid money would be spent, and more rules would be written. Life would be easier if people would be logical and reasonable. Alas.
Same issue with the “Seasonable employee”. Perhaps she didn’t want to work full-time, or maybe she did and they didn’t have the funding, or maybe her job originally was a grant that was funded for only a few years and then had to be picked up by the County. Anyway, now they have to figure a way to fund it so the program can continue which frequently happens because good things that the County does often are temporarily funded and then lose funding when the budget needs to be tightened (I know because that’s how I lost my job with the County, and it was an important job, se la vie). You can’t tell from the info provided because the County, the Animal Shelter, no one will tell you the truth.
Keep on them about this. It’s still stupid that they built a new shelter smaller than the old one with fewer employees, not enough supplies for the animals in it, and have always discouraged volunteers, and don’t pay for a vet on staff. The place is underfunded for the number of people living in the County as the Commissioners and Council continue to bribe more businesses to relocate here with the same tax money they should be spending on the Shelter (and other underfunded services too).
I also was incredulous that they built a shelter with a SMALLER capacity.
What were they thinking?
They weren’t thinking.
Hey! I can fixit. Just like people “fix” their animals.