Inspector questioned about problems at St. Louis County animal shelter
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The St. Louis County Council sent subpoenas to 11 people to attend a committee of the whole meeting on Thursday to answer questions about the troubled county Animal Care & Control Adoption Center.
The animal shelter has struggled since the county took back control from the Animal Protective Association (APA) earlier this year. The shelter lost its license after 3 failed inspections and 19 dogs were euthanized amid a parvo outbreak.
Councilman Michael Archer questioned Missouri Agriculture Department Inspector Olivia Bennett about the inspections.
“When you say they did not receive total compliance within 90 days, what specific things were they not complaint on,” he said.
Bennett said on a Feb. 13 inspection, she found an accumulation of dog hairs on enclosures, dogs in enclosures that were too small, expired medications and medications that dogs hadn’t consumed.
She said on a follow up inspection March 17, those problems had been corrected but she found new problems. She listed the new issues as a drain backup and feces in an outdoor enclosure.
And then on a 3rd inspection on May 14, Bennett told the council that she found additional issues that deemed the shelter non-compliant. She listed those as puddles in an enclosure, open food containers, dogs in enclosures that were too small, expired medications and some animals were not identified.
The county’s Public Health Department operates the shelter. Health director, Kanika Cunningham, has said she wasn’t told about the failed inspections for weeks and that former shelter veterinarian, Dr. Douglas Pernikoff, was responsible for the decision to euthanize 19 dogs during a parvo outbreak. She itted the shelter has systemic problems.
“Our animal intake has increased and what I’m seeing is we don’t have capacity to care for the animals in St. Louis County. We have serious spacing issues. It’s just not set up to function and flow like an animal shelter should,” she said.
Cunningham said county executive Sam Page has asked the council for $3 million in additional funding for the shelter to deal with space issues, and recently launched a dog fostering program to reduce the time animals are kept at the shelter.
A supervisor with the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Mike Rold, told the council that the state could ultimately take the county to court to force the shelter to close. But he explained that wasn’t an outcome that the state wanted to see happen.
“The animal control is an essential function of municipal government. Particularly in larger cities. And so, we hope that we can work this out, amicably. And get the facility in compliance and get a license issued,” he said.
The council didn’t have enough time to question all who’d received a subpoena. Dr. Pernikoff and several others are scheduled to answer questions at a council meeting on June 26.
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