Audit finds serious problems at Sacramento's Front Street Animal Shelter
Sacramento's Front Street Animal Shelter is in the spotlight after a new independent audit made allegations of poor management and regulations not being followed.
Front Street takes in about 10,000 lost and abandoned animals each year, and it's often overcrowded. Now, auditors are making more than two dozen recommendations to help improve operations.
"This review was really prompted by rising public concerns and organizational challenges," said Sacramento city auditor Farishta Ahrary.
Ahrary says a number of improvements need to be made. She found that some rabies prevention measures, required by city regulations, are not being followed.
"They have not been able to really keep up with coordinating with veterinarians in the area to make sure that they're collecting rabies vaccination information," she said.
Auditors also found that animal information released online by the shelter is incomplete and risks confusing the public.
"This is an area where they had lost track of what they were reporting," said Julian Metcalf, audit project manager.
Ahrary added that improving that means the shelter "could improve public trust."
A look at management found there's a lack of documented policies, which can lead to inconsistent practices. The report also reveals that only 14% of dogs and 7% of cats have been licensed in Sacramento, which is legally required and helps raise revenue for the shelter.
"When you're super busy and you're over capacity and you're short-staffed, unfortunately, sometimes those things do get missed," said Phillip Zimmerman, director of Sacramento Animal Care Services.
Zimmerman welcomes the independent review.
"It's really helpful to sometimes get an outside perspective to be able to say, 'We see some room for improvement.' Now we can move forward to do better," he said.
Zimmerman said that over the last five years, there have been improvements.
"We were struggling," he said. "We were close to 2,000 calls pending every day, and that number is down to less than 500 right now."
In total, the audit has 31 recommendations, and some are already being implemented.
"We are held accountable," he said. "We have to report back to them on each of the findings and where we're at and what we're doing."
Last year, a separate report found that the Front Street shelter is too small and has no room to grow, but building a new shelter could cost up to $60 million.
The findings from this new audit will be presented to a city council committee next Tuesday.
