Why are dog euthanasias on the rise in San Diego County shelters?

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. A new KPBS news investigation uncovers problems within San Diego County's animal shelters , now leading to a spike in dog euthanasia. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Euthanasia rates are skyrocketing in San Diego County. Animal shelters. A new KPBS investigation finds that volunteers and former employees claim dogs are being put down unnecessarily. We wanted to sit down with the journalist behind the investigation to get the full story. I'm joined now by Scott Rodd , KPBS investigative reporter , and Elaine Alfaro , KPBS journalist. Welcome to you both.

S2: Thank you for having us.

S3: Thanks for having us , Jade.

S1: So glad to have you in studio. So , Scott , you found that the euthanasia rate within San Diego County shelters has recently spiked.

S3: It's a complicated question. Before diving into that. I want to sort of set the table a little bit. We looked specifically at shelters run by San Diego County. The county runs two shelters that serves the unincorporated areas of the county. It's different than the San Diego Humane Society , which serves a number of the cities in the county. So the San Diego County Shelter system has a bit of a smaller footprint. And that question why ? Again , it's a complicated one. Essentially , what the data shows us is that going back maybe to about 20 1718 , the euthanasia rate started to drop and it dropped leading up to Covid and then into Covid , which other shelters around the country also saw. But coming out of the pandemic , it just jumped and it basically more than doubled from before the pandemic , this euthanasia rate. And when we say euthanasia rate , we mean we look at all of the outcomes for all the dogs that are coming through the shelter. And we look at , well , what percentage of them is euthanized and euthanized , specifically as a decision from the shelter. There are some times where owners come in and they say , my dog is sick. I'd like to euthanize them. We didn't look at that. We we specifically looked at the cases where the shelter made that decision. And we found that the euthanasia rate last fiscal year got up above 12%. It's since come down a little bit , around 10%. But again , that's a big jump from in previous years. It does mean that the majority of dogs , most dogs that come through the shelters , they do leave alive. But this trend of a sharp uptick is a concern that a number of former employees , a number of volunteers told us about. And that why , you know , we wrestled with that a bit. I can't say that we came to a clear conclusion as to this is the reason why. But what we did see is that the increase in euthanasia was largely came from the decision where the shelter said this dog has a behavioral issue. We can't treat that behavioral issue. So we're going to put the dog down. And that ranged from sometimes aggression , like if a dog bites someone else or another dog. But a lot of times it also was , you know , a dog growled at another dog. A dog growled at someone or something. A dog had separation anxiety. A dog was fearful and fearful to the point where they said , we need to put this dog down. Those latter examples are the ones where volunteers and employees said to us , that's a little concerning.

S1:

S2: So the shelter follows these guidelines. Uh , they're called these similar accords , and they're basically these standards or a standard handbook of definitions in animal welfare for shelters to follow. And , um , a county spokesperson said that those accords or guidelines inform the decision making around the euthanasia that we were seeing in the shelters. And so if shelter staff decide that , you know , a dog must be euthanized , they pull this label from that , from that standard , that handbook , and they label the dog as untreatable. And that could be kind of getting back to your question , what makes them a candidate ? They could be euthanized either for medical reasons or behavioral issues like Scott mentioned.

S1:

S3: Our request was denied. So we got a number of statements , actually from a county spokesperson. I'll read one in part. He said , quote , euthanasia decisions in animal shelters are among the most difficult and emotionally challenging responsibilities in the field of animal welfare. He went on to say , these decisions are never made lightly. They involve careful assessment by veterinary staff with behavioral training and management teams. And I want to go back to something that Lainey had mentioned , which is really important to our reporting , which is they're beyond the labels of , well , what issue might a dog have ? There's also these labels of like , healthy has an issue but is treatable , has an issue , but is untreatable. And these labels , they seem hard and fast , but they're actually pretty subjective especially that's what we heard talking to experts in this field. And the county has said in the last ten years that they have not euthanized a single dog with a treatable health condition , and they actually made a commitment to this ten years ago. And from that date , the number dropped to zero. So it's either a remarkable story where they've achieved this from day one without ever slipping. Or as one of the experts we spoke to from Cornell , Cornell University's veterinary school , she said most likely the definitions here are just shifting. She said these are vague enough , she said. This is Leena Datar from Cornell University. She said , I've seen this before. Shelters do this all the time. These terms are vague enough that if an animal has a condition and it's set for euthanasia , well , that treatable or untreatable definition , there's quite a spectrum there.

S1: It's very fluid. It sounds like. Yes. Well , Laney , you did speak with nearly a dozen former staffers and volunteers.

S2: And like you said , it was a pretty large group of people that we spoke with. And a lot of them were repeating similar stories and similar experiences. They say the county euthanized many dogs with mild behavioral issues that could have been treated with proper training and with time spent with these animals. One former staff member even told Scott and I that she was told to stay in her stay in her lane when she tried to work with dogs who had this label of , you know , having behavioral issues. Um , when she tried to work with them , she was told no. Um , and so basically , just these mild behavioral issues were kind of becoming a flag or maybe a , a tell that they might be on the track towards euthanasia.

S1:

S3: Um , the there are two shelter locations. There's one in Carlsbad , which is a little newer , one in Bonita , which is decades and decades old. The county is looking to build a new one to replace that old shelter in Bonita. But between those two shelters , there is it appears to be sufficient space in terms of physical space , enough kennels , but the number of staff and , um , funding and , you know , sort of trained and prepared staff , that seems to be the issue staff that is ready to work with dogs and has the time to work with dogs. That appears to be the issue.

S2: There is also this element of staff turnover to turnover. Rates were super high last year. I'm sorry , I'm forgetting the number right now.

S3: Nearly 70% of the staff turned over at the shelter system just last year alone , and a lot of it was the people who are coming into contact with animals on the day to day basis , sort of on the front lines of things. Wow.

S1: Wow. Um , well , one person you spoke to , Christina Smith , was a former animal care attendant at the Carlsbad shelter , and she spoke up against management and eventually resigned last year. Here's what she told you.

S4: When multiple of us would vouch for a dog and say , like , don't do this because this is workable. The decision was still made. So I feel like we had no choice.

S1:

S3: Um , again , we spoke to nearly a dozen former employees and volunteers. On the employee side , we heard things such as , you know , I left because I lost faith in the shelter system. I left because my , you know , background and training and animal care and veterinary care was not being utilized. Um , animals being put down where they shouldn't have been. These were things that we heard from a number of them. And I give a lot of credit to Christina Smith because , um , of all those nearly a dozen people that we spoke to , she was the only one that was willing to go on the record. We understand a lot of these people try to remain in the animal care industry and speaking up and speaking out , that comes with a certain risk. So we understood that. Why many wanted to speak on background , but Christina Smith did go on the record for us , and she she pulled back the veil on her experience , and it really did open our eyes to just how challenging this shelter system was for , for employees to work in , especially and for volunteers. And I'll note that animal care attendants , those are the folks who are on the front lines of things. They're typically the ones doing the euthanasia , so they're the ones administering the injections. They have to get a certificate for that. It's not necessarily a veterinarian. And so when you have um , last year there were over 400 dogs euthanized where the shelter made the decision to to euthanize the dog. These animal care attendants , they're going in and , you know , euthanizing dogs day in and day out. And that's a big emotional weight for a lot of them. Mhm.

S1: Mhm. Well , and another really powerful voice in your story is actually a dog owner , Jeannie Miller , who was really honest about her experience with this. She adopted four year old Franklin a Great Pyrenees , late last year.

S3: Franklin did great. These Great Pyrenees , they're bred to be kind of like livestock guard dogs , essentially. Um , very , very responsive , very loyal and very alert. And Jeannie Miller had a chicken coop. She wanted this dog to patrol the neighborhood. The problem was she had a Great Dane already that didn't get along with Franklin barked at Franklin , growled that Franklin Franklin should've just walked away. But Jenny said , this isn't going to work. Really sort of tore her up , but she said , I need to bring the dog back. She brought the dog back , was pretty emotional , and she filled out the paperwork , gave a glowing review , and said , this dog is great. I mean , in the paperwork , she literally said , quote , very , you know , very nice. Good boy. Um , and she was told that giving that kind of positive feedback would likely result in this dog being adopted out again. The dog had been previously adopted in returned again. The family said , well , this dog was a little territorial around food , growled at a family member , so he brought the dog back. And so she was. Jeannie Miller was told , look , this is really good feedback. Likely that this dog will be adopted again. At that moment , Franklin was in the back being put down , and Jeannie actually didn't know that until we went to her and wanted to talk with her for this story , and she was astounded to hear that Franklin was put down immediately. And so this caused a lot of confusion and frustration internally at the shelter where staff was saying , why was this dog put down ? We have a glowing review here for this dog and it was put down immediately. So it did cause quite a bit of frustration internally. Yeah.

S1: Yeah.

S2: So when he was brought back to the shelter internally in the paperwork , it shows that he should have been held for several days after his return. And if the shelter had followed this rule , Franklin would almost certainly still be alive.

S1: Did they say why they ultimately decided to euthanize him ? Yeah.

S2: So actually , I think it came from Chuck in the statement.

S3: We got the county spokesperson.

S2: The county spokesperson. He had said that , um , Franklin's history included biting and , um , Franklin basically could not be safely adopted.

S3: And we should note , we actually went back to the spokesperson and said , there's no evidence here in the history of this dog that it bit anyone. What are you talking about ? They couldn't produce evidence of that. And they said , well , he the Franklin attempted to nip someone , which is kind of a more playful bite and was territorial around food. And so it still didn't give us a clear indication as to why this dog was euthanized right away in. I'll add to what Lainey said when she says that the that Franklin almost certainly still be alive. She says that because Jenny Miller went back a few days later and she , uh , said , I'm going to I'm going to get Franklin , I'm going to make it work. And she was told , oh , Franklin's gone. And she was led to believe that , oh , Franklin was adopted out. Um , but Franklin was actually put down. And again , if the shelter followed its own rule and held the dog for a few days as it was supposed to , then Franklin again would likely still be alive in a happy home.

S1: Well , and here's what Genie said about Franklin.

S5: He was a great dog , so I don't see why what happened had to happen.

S1:

S3: The issues here , at least , have been floating around internally and discussed internally among staff , especially ones that have been departing. And we know that at least one staff member put together , like essentially , you know , a whole report and said , look , here are the issues. This is a problem. Um , from here , I'll be curious to see if any elected officials take notice. If any county board of supervisors take notice if there are any , um , any instructions from the top down at the county to say , look , we need to make some changes here if there are any funding changes. Again , this issue of the 70% staff turnover rate at shelters last year that was actually flagged in the county budget , and it was something where the department was instructed , hey , you need to make some improvements here. So if there's any further scrutiny of that , I'd be curious to see.

S1: You can find their full investigation@kpbs.org. Thank you both for sharing your story.

S2: Thank you. Thank you.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.