We got 6:00 on the dot. So, are we on? >> So, we're going to call the animal services advisory board to order. So I call this meeting Sim County the Seminal County Animal Control Advisory Board to order. Please silence
all your cell phones and other electronic devices. And we're going to stand for the pledge of allegiance. The flags are up here by me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. And as per usual in our meetings, we read the function of the board of the board and about public participation. The functions of the animal control board are as follows. We make recommendations to the chief
administrator of the office of emergency management regarding animal care and regulation consistent with Florida statutes chapter 20 of the seminal county code. These recommendations must first be approved by a majority of the animal control board prior to the submission to the chief administrator of the for the office of emergency
management. The animal control board shall meet at least three times per year. Special meetings may be called by the chairman or vice chairman or by any three members of the board upon 48 hours notice to all members and to the animal control official and chief administrator of emergency management. A majority of the animal control board will constitute
a quorum. Public participation pursuant to Florida law. The chair. The public has a right to be heard on all propositions. Public comment on propositions shall be limited to three minutes for individuals and six minutes for group representatives. The public will be advised I'm sorry. The
public will be provided with the opportunity to be heard on non-aggenda matters at the end of the meeting. Property decorum will be observed. So we have a roll call. >> Brian Wilson >> present. Gail Hair,
>> present. >> John McGrath, >> present. >> Kathy Hood, >> present. >> Jennifer Laney, >> present. >> Sergeant Monk, >> present. >> Tracy Fleming, >> absent. Mr. Chairman, we have a quorum.
>> Okay, thank you. >> The next item we have is the minutes. Has everyone had a chance to look at the minutes from the September or from the the March meeting? Any questions, addendums, comments, corrections, retractions?
Okay. Do I have a motion to accept them? >> Accept. >> All right. Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> I. >> All right. Motion passes. Old business. So, we have a few ordinance changes are going to be brought forward and Alan Harris, the
director of emergency management. Is it? >> Yes. I will go over them. Uh, for the record. Alan Harris, the chief administrator and director for the office of emergency management animal services division. As discussed uh last meeting, uh we have finalized the county code chapter 20
changes. Those are all in your uh materials that were provided to you uh as well as they were provided online for anyone. Uh the first is uh some changes of definitions. Uh so we added some definitions in section 20.01. I'm not going to go through each and every one
of them, but I'll I'll kind of gloss over a little bit. Um, chapter 206, uh, we broke down, uh, clarifi and clarified rules for cruelty to animals. This will help us better with, uh, animal control, uh, field services. In
2022, we have added a ban or prohibition on the declawing of felines, cats in uh, section 20.2. 24 through 20.28. Uh we clarified some information on dangerous
dogs hold times. We also added um some requirements for uh the declaration of dangerous dogs including the proof of rabies vaccination, proper enclosures, warning sign uh warning signage, microchipping, spay, neuter, liability
insurance, and registration fees uh to be updated. And we'll talk about that in just one second. Uh in 20.31 uh we clarified uh some factors uh in aggressive dogs and how aggressive dogs
are to be identified. Uh and then we added some additional requirements for those that have an aggressive dog and that was uh posting of signage for the aggressive dogs. And then uh as discussed in the last meeting that the individual must monitor the aggressive
dog while the dog is in the backyard. In uh section 20.32, sorry, 20.32, we added a new definition called propensity to be dangerous. This is a lifetime designation. It meets uh
it's in accordance with Florida statute 767.01. Uh this would be if a dog is declared aggressive and has an aggressive act within the two-year period or uh we added after the meeting. Uh a so this
was not approved by you, but we're looking for approval on this with the changes. We added this after the meeting, but if a dog attacks once and kills another canine without provocation, they would immediately skip over aggressive dog and they would immediately go to propensity to be
dangerous. a lifetime uh designation. Uh with that designation, there is a liability insurance required for the uh animal and then proper enclosures in accordance with Florida statute 767.01. Uh there was a change in section 20.139.
This is a clarification uh in the order to show cause and a recording of final judgment against the individuals. Uh and this just helps us uh when we are when we go to civil court in section 20.151
uh it is we added the or I'm sorry we removed the shining lights from vehicles and bro boat pro prohibition. Uh this is already covered by the semino county sheriff's office. Uh so we don't see a need for us to have this in our code
since it's already covered in uh in what they do. And then section 20.182 through 183 in the retail sales of dogs and cats. We added the prohibition of uh rabbit sales excluding for agricultural
and livestock purposes. And I will pause there. That's it for the oh uh one other thing. Uh we took out uh if you'll look in 20.04 04 the uh composition appointment and terms
for the member of the board as well as the functions of the board and everything else. The only thing that remained in was 20.03 and we removed that because uh we've moved it to uh the administrative code. So we're going to add an administrative
code. It's that up there on the screen right now. Um so let me jump into administrative code. So this administrative code actually it's 4.1. We just changed that this morning. So that'll go to the board. It's 4.1 uh in animal control advisory board. So
everything that was in 20.04 is going to live where it should live, which is in the admin code. That's where all the other boards are. The library board, the parks board, u development services, building and planning, all those boards live in admin in the admin code. Our
board for some reason remained in the county ordinance for some reason, but now we're going to move it to where it should be with the rest of the boards. Nothing was changed in that. Uh the other admin code changes. Um we
changed uh the uh we added a an an administrative code 32.5.15. Do you have that one? >> I don't think I have that one. >> Okay. So I that's an easy one though for me to explain. So this delegates authority from the board of county
commissioners to the county manager in collaboration with the county attorney's office to file petition for a custody for animals due to neglect uh cruelty or other type of event. Uh right now for us to do this we have to go to the board of county commissioners. Born county commissioners meets every two to three
weeks depending on how the calendar lays out. uh because of the requirements of court it sometimes the board of county commission doesn't meet in time so this uh just delegates authority to the county manager so we Chris or myself uh
can go to the county manager and ask for to him to file for petition on behalf of Simino County and the board of county commissioners and then the final one is administrative code uh to change the fees so um and
there's a whole list of all the adjustments to the fees, but they are exactly what we talked about last meeting. So, nothing nothing really substantial change. So really the only major changes from our last meeting to this meeting were the finetuning that you all had moving the animal control
board to the administrative code and then um the adding of if a dog kills another K-9 without provocation as being one of the ways that a dog is declared propensity
to be dangerous. And that's that's it for me. I know that we have some public comments, but that's it for me. And if y'all have any questions, I I pretty much what Okay, >> it's great. >> Yeah, I
>> I think we're >> And I I I you know, I do want to come in you guys what you guys did from the legal side of you. We just said declawing and you went out and like really like researched all of the the terms and everything with it. I I it was it was well written. Thank you for that. >> Well, I used some other ordinances
around the state and I uh I took the best parts of those. >> So, I let other people do the hard work like any good attorney would. >> Some of my best work was someone else's work. Absolutely. >> Absolutely. But thank you. >> Okay. So, we do have two public uh
speakers. Uh the first one will be Mity Vargas. Dr. Mitsy Vargas. if you want to come on up here to this person right here and state your name and address for the board, please. >> Hi everyone, my name is uh Dr. Mitsy
Vargas and my address is 7700 Thompson Nursery Road, Winter Haven, Florida 33884. And um coming speaking on behalf of a veterinary driven uh nonforprofit called the POP Project uh which we we stand for
a banning of decline uh nationwide. So we stand here to commend you for your amazing u advocacy for all the cats in your county and you know I really in support of the declawing um as a
veterinarian I have 32 years of experience and this personally um I have seen the damages uh the decline procedure um there there's no uh board that that oversees that is uniformly
done uh taken care of. So a lot of the cats suffer um even when done with laser um and with utmost care um the cats uh you know the cats are are made different
than dogs, right? The the cat the the claws are detractable and they enjoy uh a lot of it just stretching. If you ever had a cat or watch a cat, they have a lot of joy of of scratching. You know, that's a a normal behavior for cats. And
so when you take the amputate the the third of the digits, which is what the clawing is, um the cats shift the weight to the back. It causes polyarthritis, um chronic pain, and behavioral changes.
A lot of people declaw thinking that they are going to stop a cat from um biting or scratching uh or they stop from scratching but they actually increase the propensity for them to bite and the bite wounds are way worse than
the scratch. That's where the bacteria that causes that causes cat scratch fever is uh transmitted. So there are a lot of uh myths and I am just so happy that you guys look through the facts and
and there is enough science and enough studies available that support the banning of this uh awful barbaric mutilation of our pets. So, I'm I stand here to to be witness that you guys are
doing the right thing and encouraging anyone uh the rest of Florida to follow your example and and the POP project stands uh as a friend to the board if they in in need
of any you know if you need anything uh we have um a lot of uh materials organiz you know a lot of veterinarians and we can definitely ally be a resource for you guys. So, I just stand in friendship
and in again in support of your move. >> Thank you, Dr. >> Thank you. >> Our next public speaker is Carla Wilson. Go ahead and state your name and address for the board, please. Carla Wilson, uh, 702 Heather Lane, Winter Springs. And I
just like would like to thank the board, um, for working on this and legal for writing it, putting it all together. And I'm thrilled to see Simol County join other communities um, to ban this cruel practice. Thank you. We have no other speakers.
>> Okay. Uh any comments from the board about the thought changes, suggestions for changes to the language? Questions for >> Okay. Uh do we have a motion to accept these changes and advance them to the board of county commissioners?
>> Accept. >> All right. Do we have a second? I second. >> All in favor? I >> I. >> No opposed. So, we recommend these to go forward. Thank you so much for all your hard work to to get this written out. It was not It would be easy just typing it. So, forget actually researching it and everything else. So, we really
appreciate you guys. >> Well, I want to thank Andrew and the team uh for getting together. We had multiple meetings on this. So, thank you. Um for the board's information, I uh Chris and I plan to bring this to the board of county commissioners on July 28th. uh we'd like to bring it a little
earlier, but right now we're in the budget and a few things have happened this week. Uh that could make our budget a little bit different. So um we that's the earliest that I can get it on. So July 28th is when I we plan to get there. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> So new business. >> All right. So, um, you want to you can >> So, we're we're working on a project right now to address the collection of citation fees. Our collection rate right now is about 25% unless I stand
corrected. Um, that's a problem, right? So Allan and I have uh and Lauren has participated in this heavily have met with uh the clerk of the court who is uh partially responsible for the the collection of the fees and we're coming
up with a a multiaceted solving method to to get this problem solved. Uh so uh one of the things we've started doing uh a few well almost a month ago now is sending collection letters uh to people. we actually let
them know how much they have uh how much they owe um and and uh and go about it that way. And we've had some some fairly positive response from that, haven't we, Lauren? I mean, we've collected a little bit. Um we met with the clerk of the court and came up with a plan for some
things that they can do on their side to uh facilitate uh collection and some things that we can do on our side. Uh we're ultimately trying to move to an electronic citation delivery program similar to what law enforcement uses to get citations to the clerk of the court.
Uh that will uh that will streamline a lot of the existing problems when it comes to data entry. There's a lot of manual data entry right now involved in this and and we need to remove that, make it electronic, uh make it faster and um and and just get rid of a lot of
the manual entry problems that are involved with it. So, um, >> this is this is sending the citations to the clerk or the court, not sending it out to the people who have committed the infractions. >> The people get the citations. It's them paying the citation. That's that's the issue. Okay. >> And there's there's it's not so it's not
tied to anything, right? If you don't pay your driver's license or or your traffic ticket, it's tied to your driver's license. Your driver's license eventually gets suspended, right? So with a with a civil citation from us and and code enforcement for that matter, >> well code enforcement, you can do a lean on the home, but you can't lean we would
lean a dog, right? >> Right. Because that's the property that's being discussed and >> that's not >> it's not something that we move or something then. Yeah. >> Yeah. So there's there's a lot of there's a a lot of pieces to the puzzle
to to fix it, but the the clerk was extremely receptive. It was a great meeting. Uh, and we're we're working on all those issues right now. Um, and we can uh when we start solving them, maybe we'll present it under old business, what what we've actually accomplished and what we still need to work on. But
that that's the the general idea of what we're doing. And and uh I think I think we're going to end up with a a much higher collection rate right now. What were the numbers, Alan? As far as >> it was about 25 26% of the citations that we issued. Now, we we did a few
years ago. We did the three three citations of the same type and you have mandatory court appearance and that helped a little bit for those types of uh habitual issues. Um, one of the
challenges we have is that exactly what Chris talked about and that is that we're we're manually senting over um citations to the clerk of the court and then the clerk of the court's staff has to type them in. So, you get your citation on Monday and you go to pay it
because you just received your citation, like if you got a red light camera or whatever, and you just go right online real quick to I I'll pay it. I I didn't mean to have that, but the dog was loose. I fully admit the dog was loose. He got I left the gate open. I'm going to go pay this whatever. And I go to try
to pay it and the citation's not there. So, Tuesday, I'm like, "Okay, well, now I want to pay it." So, they go on there and it's not there. and then Wednesday they go on there and it's not there and they're like, "Okay, I guess that they don't want me to pay it." And they throw it away. And that's our thought anyway.
So, this letter reminds them, hey, it's still there. Here's the citation number and you need to pay it. Um, it it could end up with a court appearance. So, we want to prevent that from happening. So, here's your your they have a court case
number, a court uh court of the court case number. So, uh, they could look it up that way as well. >> That's the challenge of a manual entry. So, hopefully when we do electronic, they'll be able to get it at least much faster and input it much faster. And a
person is is truly trying to pay, >> they'll be able to pay >> well and and accuracy. having to like you don't have two people making the opportunity to make a typo or >> sure he can and we've identified a discrepancy in the the actual case numbers that that needs to be corrected. There's there's a lot of things we
identified that were just small little items that if we correct them and get them corrected it'll it'll increase the payment um the frequency of the payment or the percentage of payment. So >> what are the when the fees are paid what does that money go towards?
>> So that's a a good question. So uh in the code it says that it comes back to animal services for animal care. It goes to the general fund but the general fund of course funds animal services. So uh it goes back in in a means in a way to
back to animal services. Uh animal services is primarily funded by property taxes and if we have if we provide fees. Uh the fees, as you saw just a moment ago, you know, $20 for a cat or dog, you know better than anyone that that didn't
pay for the people that took care of them every day, that fed them every day. It doesn't even come close. >> Yeah. >> So, um you know, property taxes are how we handle this and then a little bit from animal field service calls and fees, >> but but all the money we collect, no
matter what it is, other than a donation, goes back into the right the general fund. Mhm. >> So, >> and do you have a lot of repeat offenders that >> I bet >> there there are um you know, and that's for next for next meeting. We'll do a
percentage that's because I'd like to know. Thank you for asking the question. How many of our citations and I'm sorry, Lauren, to do that. She loves >> Well, and I asked that. >> We we we actually have most of that. I think we just >> Do you know how many uh citations of the citations issued how many are
repetitive? >> I don't have a number right off the top of my head. >> So I'll bring it we'll bring it back. >> It's in a spreadsheet. We just haven't extrapolated that. We'll >> bring it back to because if if they're at some point paying this fine, is that
making them more compliant and better to their >> Are we seeing that change? >> 50% at best. >> Yeah. Okay, >> saw the first. >> It was worth an ask. >> And another interesting fact about the the money, too, is that it's about 50%
of the actual fine that goes back to the animal services um general fund. So, the clerk of the court collects $10 upfront on any citation that we submit. And then on top of that, they take what's the percentage, Lauren? They take if it's a
$50 fine, they get 30. >> We get 3175. >> Yeah, we get we get we get about half of it, you know, a little less than half. So, and and if we go electronic, that that'll actually decrease because I don't think we haven't brokered a deal
with the clerk yet to cut off their $10 fee to pay for the pay for the electronic transfer yet. So, we have to figure out what the electronic transfer is going to cost us. So, Anything else on the citation, please? Okay. >> No.
>> Uh, we were just going to do a little update on um 2026 uh laws and proposed law uh regarding animal cruelty. John and Lauren did some research on that. And Lauren, if you want to So, I don't know if many of you have
heard me say before, but but animal cruelty law in in at least my opinion, I'm sure John will back me up on this, it's it's behind, right? It's very behind it. Um, and sometimes it takes time for law to catch up with actually what's happening criminally, right? We
see it with financial crimes. We see it with other types of crimes. I think the animal cruelty stuff is starting to catch up. I I think it's it's a slow start, but we are seeing some additions to the laws to help, you know, uh to help us uh with the cases
and get better prosecution on these cases. So, it's a good thing. Lauren, take it away. >> Um so, just to kind of review 2026 laws. So, we already have troopers law and Dexter's law. Those were put into place. um technically last year, beginning of
this year, um troopers law makes abandonment of animals during natural disasters um basically a higher crime if to put it into layman's terms. Um and then Dexter's Law is just the statewide registry that that came into play. Um,
for October 1 of this year, um, the governor has put in signed two bills, a house bill 559, uh, that's going to create a thirdderee felony for anybody that entices a minor or commits animal cruelty or animal fighting in front of a
minor. And then Senate Bill uh 104 um is going to give consumer protections uh kind of expands the pet lemon law. Um puts in voluntary uh breeder
uh standards. Um, and then also both of those bills are going to expand on the statewide registry that FDLE is putting together, which actually is going to be given the information by our county
clerk. So, we don't do anything with the statewide registry. That all goes through the clerk's office. >> There's been some discussion about the registry, about the vagueness of the information that's in it. It's not very helpful to law enforcement because it's not very detailed, >> but they're adding they're adding more
detail to it based on some of the things that law enforcement and animal control and services units across the state have had to say about it. So, >> they're listening. That's >> that's important. That's better than not listening >> because we had seen county had already started
>> something very similar to that. >> We did. Yes. up back four years ago, we had an animal cruelty registry that we added to ordinance um that is available to anyone that wants the u the registry >> and we hope that nonprofits will use the
registry before adopting animals. That's the purpose. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To keep the repeat offenders, >> right? Deny them the animals. So, >> good to see the state of Florida. If anybody wants the actual copies, I know the Senate bill Denise is what 31 pages.
>> Yeah. >> And the House the House bill is a little smaller. >> Yeah. One is is 35 uh 25 pages and the other is six. >> Right. So if anybody wants that, Denise can email it to you. Just email or ask for it and she'll she'll send it to you if you're interested in the whole the whole copy. >> Interesting.
>> So where it came from? That's that's your thing. >> All right, sir. So you're the guy. >> So animal services. Uh so the way the emergency operations center is established, we have emergency support functions. Each emergency support
function is a task. So uh ESF1 for example is public works. ESF4 is fire rescue. ESF17 emergency support function number 17 is animal services. So animal services expands uh just from the animal services
campus in field services to a lot larger during a hurricane. They're responsible basically for every for every animal that's in Semino County. So if there is a need in Semino County, it doesn't matter what the need is, it goes through ESF17. So if we hear that a shelter is
damaged, um you know, we'll just use Pet Alliance. So if we heard that Pet Alliance was damaged in Sanford, it's ESF-17's job to respond to that particular uh event and help those animals. If we heard uh that the uh
Geneva Emos were loose, ESF-17 would respond. There is Geneva Emos. You all know that, right? Okay, good. So they're on Facebook. They're on Facebook, too. Yeah. So, um I think we've even talked about it here before them running around, but um we would be ESF-17, uh animal services being the lead agency
for ESF7 would be responsible for that. So, uh in your on your agenda, uh it talks about Central Florida Zoo. So, the Central Florida Zoo has animals and uh has some wonderful sloths now, too. And uh they're doing the the ones that are remaining, knock on wood, are doing are
pretty good. So, that's really cool. But, um we met with them. We meet with them each year to see what their needs are. Uh what their ride out crews will look like. Uh they have a great emergency management plan. They have a ride out crew for all of the animals.
They do evacuate a few animals. Uh all the other animals are moved into protected buildings and structures. Um and if there is a need, we fulfill that need, whatever that need is. So in Hurricane Ian, post Hurricane Ian, the
front entrance to the zoo was flooded. So for a little while, we got them in on high terrain vehicles to feed, to vet, to medical, to everything that we needed to for the exotic animals that are at the zoo. And then we uh made them a path
uh through the rail station uh to the zoo as well uh with walkers from the rail force uh railroad to get them in there. So, we talk about all the different types of things that can happen if an animal gets loose. Uh, how, you know, there's a tran uh team that
can go out and tranquilize the animal. Uh, and we work with them. So, we go through that whole process. They actually get a portable radio of ours during the hurricane so that we can communicate with them. So, they're on our channels just like our animal service officers are, our pet friendly shelters are. So, we're all
communicating uh back and forth. So, um, we had a great meeting with them. uh they're ready to move forward. Uh certainly this they're going to have a lot of attention this year if a hurricane approaches because I'm sure everybody including myself and during the meeting I even mentioned that I will
want to know how those sloths are doing. Um they're just the you know the current marketing thing they hit they had 1 billion hits on their website uh just from the sloths. So, uh, we we are all looking out for them as well as the
giraffes and the bears and everything else that's there. Uh, we will be, uh, protecting them during the hurricane season and responding to whatever their needs are. Uh, we have, uh, gone over our emergency pet friendly sheltering plans. So, Simino County has pet friendly shelters uh, for our special
needs shelters as well as our general population shelters. We went through our inventory, look at all of the logistics that goes out to make those. Those are in schools. uh they are normally in another side of the building. So people in one side of the building and then pets in the other side of the building.
Uh we put this queen down. We protect the you know the the school itself uh as best as possible and keep it very very clean. The family members can always come in to visit with their pets. They they don't sleep with their pets most of the time. I mean there are occasions
that some of them stay there all night but uh you know we they traditionally don't sleep there all night with them uh but they can come visit with them and you know take them and and you know play with them and all that stuff. So uh we went through that whole process and then
uh we have uh our own just like the zoo has a write out team we have a write out team. So we have a writeout team that stays at the animal shelter. uh on any on any hurricane we can have 150 to 250 animals at the shelter. Uh so they're still being taken care of even while the
hurricane is there. So um that's kind of our hurricane preparedness, but I don't know that we've ever really talked about what we do uh when it comes to hurricanes. So our our role in animal services, my role expands a little bit too. Uh it's not just public safety,
it's everything. um and their role expands too to all animals. So um and veterary clinics, we just had a um meeting with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for veterary clinics, feed stores, those types of things as well. If we start to
see that feed stores are out of inventory and there is a need in Geneva and Chiliotas from some of our farmers, we fill that need. We're going to have to fill that need. Uh, and we even get into vector control and mosquito control and things like that and working with
them to to make those requests so that we can do spraying and stuff like that. >> The pet friendly shelter response looks like, so you know what it looks like. It's it's trailers full of equipment. >> We show up to the school with the trailer for each school set up. It's
regular staff that that sets up, stays there, sleeps there. They're there for the entirety of the time that the shelter is open. So, um, these folks work really hard during that time. They don't get a lot of sleep. Uh, they don't eat real good sometimes. So, it, uh,
>> decent. >> It's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, it's a lift, you know. It's, it's a lift, but we're, we're prepared, ready to go. I did a lot of that kind of stuff. John knows. He was there at the sheriff's office as well for disaster preparedness. So, it was just kind of a good carryover. And, uh, I think we have
stuff set up pretty uh, pretty efficiently and and we're ready to go. I mean, this stuff's packed and ready to roll. So, that's kind of how we uh that's that's what it looks like. >> I hope we never need it. >> I was going to say keep your fingers crossed. I hope so. >> Dodge another bullet.
>> Now, they have forecasted an El Nino season, but for me, that means absolutely nothing because 2004 was an El Nino season. In 2004, we got hit by three hurricanes. So, when someone says an El Nino season, that does not provide me comfort. Uh just because there's less hurricanes, that doesn't say how many
hurricanes are going to hit us or where they're going to line up. >> Big ones. Yeah. >> So, we always have to be prepared for hurricanes. So, if if anyone listening uh whatever that on TV or whatever, if you hear El Nino, there's going to be less hurricanes, that does not mean that
the hurricanes aren't coming here. So, we always have to be prepared for the hurricane that is going to come and knock on our door. Any other questions, comments? >> I got a question. So, going back to the hurricane thing, you guys are doing this
big training thing tomorrow, right? >> I wish I could be there. I really that's different. That's >> hard training. Yes, that's uh that that's uh it's actually a disaster shelter. It's a it's a hurricane shelter prepare or any kind of >> So, anybody can come. It's like a volunteer thing.
Yeah, it was open to the >> I saw it online. I was going to think about it, but I'm busy. But, you know, if you're free, come on. >> Well, you guys going to do another day cuz I saw some people post online there. >> We were contacted about it. They use different geographic areas in the state every year and we were on the list and
when they when I saw Simol there, I stuck my hand up and said, "Hey, we'll do one. Can no problem." So, you have to kind of be selected. >> Oh, I got you. >> To do it. But maybe they will again next year. I I don't know. And we could probably request another one. I I don't know if that's an option, but I would be shocked if it isn't. You guys have a big
turnout tomorrow. You have a lot of people signed up. >> 22 something like that. >> Not bad. >> Very decent. >> So, I just have a question. Number one, I think it's amazing that you guys are doing all that. Like that's a huge big job. So, Alan, I don't know how you're
do. Chris, I mean, you have a a little part, but Allan, you're amazing. So, >> um, but I do have something new that I just wanted to ask a question about. Sure. >> In-house animal enrichment. Do you guys
have anything for the dogs to and cats, but more so dogs to prep them like a behavioralist? And what does your in-house animal enrichment look like? >> So, are you talking about for hurricanes? Are you talking about blue? >> No, just in g or hurricanes or in
general, what does it look like um as the dogs are brought in and what does enrichment inhouse look like? I know you get a lot of volunteers, but is there a process for >> We do. We have a program. I'll let Bri explain the program. >> Um, yeah, we have we have a wide variety
of things that we do for the dog, all the animals in the shelter, but specifically the dogs in the shelter. We had a group um called Dogs Playing for Life come into the shelter and teach our staff how to conduct dog play groups. Um, so we'll get a number, it's really cool to see a number of dogs go out into
the our play yards and exercise yards where they will get upwards of I think the biggest group we had was about 22 dogs out at one point just playing happily together. Um, so that was really cool. Um, since staffing and our numbers have gone down,
our dogs we I mean we're still we still have quite a few dogs, don't get me wrong. um but not as nearly as many as we had about a year ago. But we our numbers as far as those play groups have gone down. Um I think we last week we got out about 12 to 14 dogs at one point
to go out and play. So they're they're still pretty large play groups. Um we also do just in kennel enrichment. We'll give we'll the staff will freeze Kongs for them and give them those especially in the summer months to kind of cool them down. and a couple we don't have
necessarily a behaviorist or a enrichment specialist or anything like that. Um it is definitely something that we would like but due to resources >> due to resources um we are hopeful eventually one day we can have something like that in place but the group of people that we have working at the
shelter is awesome as far as researching different things that they can do to help with the animals. Dogs that don't necessarily get along with each other. We have volunteers that come in on a daily basis. They come in seven days a week um to come in and exercise the dogs. On Sundays, even when we're closed, we have volunteers come in, walk
the dogs, and take u photographs of them so we can post them on our social media and have proper photos of them. So, we rely heavily on our our volunteers to assist us with enrichment as well. >> Yeah, I've seen your social media is amazing, but I didn't know if there was
anything specific as far as enrichment. And >> there's a few more things, too. Uh we've got uh run and paw comes. >> Oh yes. >> Okay. >> Treadmill. Dog treadmill program. >> Mobile every other week. Right. >> Yeah. Every other week. Um and they get out I think between six and 12 dogs
every visit that they come. So every other week um they get individual dogs out on these slat mills that are just paced by the dog themselves. So if they want to run, they run on them. If they just want to leisurely walk, but they'll um our staff will help get those dogs out for them to do that as well.
>> It's really neat to watch. We've got some video of it up. I think online and some old posts where some of the dogs don't want to walk and they just stand there and then all of a sudden they'll start walking a little bit and then they get comfortable and then they start going and they they you know you can tell they're enjoying it. I mean they really they're really enjoying it. Um so
just on just for some numbers uh on average we walk with the volunteers about 175 dogs a week and that is we don't have that many housed, right? But it's sometimes it's the same dog twice, the same dog three times. So around 175
dogs with just volunteers. Wow. >> And then staff will will walk anywhere between, you know, 10 and 20 dogs a week depending on what they have going. A lot of them, I mean, we have one uh one of our dispatchers right now takes two dogs out every day at lunchtime and walks
around the lake. I mean, it's, you know, she just something she likes to do. And it gives us the the real benefit to that, especially the staff doing it, is it gives you information. It gives you information about the dog. You know, does it walk good? Does it, you know, does it do what it's supposed to do? Is it nice? Does it try to come back up the
leash? Does it, you know, all those things that um that and and they can enter those notes in our system and then we have that for when adopters come in, you can have give them more information. So, it's it's um it's very helpful. It's very very helpful. >> So, we also do that with Around Town,
right? So around town, it's the volunteers that can take the dogs out for a little while and then we get a report card back >> and then >> the latest >> the latest I love the staff sometimes does not like Monday mornings and I just said this the
other day I will sometimes say I have an idea and they all kind of sink in their chair. So there was an idea I watch Saturday morning uh animal shows and sometimes I get an idea. Uh, so we launched uh dog doggy sleepover.
>> I love that. >> Thank you. >> Uh, we have had uh four successful adoptions. We've had >> It's 11. We're up to >> 11 to 11 now. >> We have one going out tomorrow. Uh, a little 2B Chihuahua that we hope will uh
work uh well with the family of Chihuahua there. So, and one cat. So, hopefully the cat's nice. um but um and gets along with the Chihuahua. They get along well, so they should get along with that Chihuahua. But what's great about that particular program is there's no commitment, but you bring the animal
home so they can hang out and see if there, you know, works. If it works, wonderful adoption. We call that adop a foster success. People sometimes call it foster fail. We call it foster success. >> Uh so, uh but if it doesn't, they get the report card just like counts around
town, right? And then we can do more. uh Bri and her team can do more >> information >> or or work on the the issues. So if a dog has some type of issue, right, then you know what to work on. You know what it needs. >> The time you get to spend with enrichment, you get to spend it directed, >> you know, versus just walking.
>> Yeah. >> Or something. So the last thing I'll say, and I'm going to say it because of you, um and so um Pet Alliance has changed a little bit. They have their brand new building down uh in Orange County, but they've transferred their
Sanford office a little bit. So, uh which has been really nice. We've had a few dogs that were on the threshold of behavioral type of concerns and they've made that a focus uh to get those that are right on the edge there that we're
not sure may be able to adopt or not. and they uh they will take those dogs from us and then they do even more enrichment across the street. So, it's been a wonderful partnership. Thank Kathy and her team uh and everybody at uh at Pet Alliance. They they've always been a wonder around very long. That
hasn't been around. >> No, it's been two weeks. >> Send two there so far. I think one or two. >> Well, they hired two behaviorists. So, they're doing training classes too for the public. Yeah. So the public has been a great sign up >> the two that we sent over there of the
two I know they did send me a a response an update one of the two that we sent over has already found they has done great over there he's completely turned around um and he I believe he already found a home >> it's a cool cool partnership
>> another enrichment idea I know we had a hookup with a location that had a swimming pool so they would take dogs to swim. >> Yeah, that would be neat. >> They just get kitty pools at our place. They don't get >> No, it was it's pretty cool watching
watching get in the pool. >> Any any other questions? >> No, I just I didn't I wanted to hear more about the enrichment and if there was anything that we as a board could just like the swimming pool idea like if there's any ideas that we could pawn on. >> There's a lot of that information. You
can go by >> go by there sometime when you get a chance and just see what they're do. >> If you watch Saturday morning animal shows and see something >> we are always open for ideas. >> Yeah, >> we had the kids kids come and read too. I don't know if yall were doing that.
>> Yeah, that's a cool program. We haven't done that. That would be a cool >> but we're open to whatever. I mean it it I will certainly have the discussion and if logistically we can make it happen, we will we will make it happen. >> We do that with our summer camps. Yeah. >> So they could read the dogs, but they would also could read to the cats, too.
>> So, I got a question, Chris. So, I just saw that you guys are doing the bright future thing again. I taught several classes for you guys in the past. You're going to do volunteers in the shelter. What is the age? Because I know like some they might have you guys might be good at this or you're the but is it 16,
17, 18 >> for volunteers? >> Yeah, because I saw post it was talking about bright futures >> other than BFF right now. It's still 18. I got >> we are trying to work toward and Andrew and I have had some very preliminary discussions about this. Uh we are trying
to work towards 16 and up with their own transportation. >> Okay. >> Because what we don't want to have happen is left kids left behind, >> right? And you're waiting on mom and dad. >> People have to wait for mom and dad to show up. >> We had that with the class with the class for a little bit sometimes, but I mean most of the kids were driving.
>> So that is that is coming. We're just trying to figure out the logistics of it and legalities of it and want to make that happen. >> People always ask me and I was like, "Well, I don't really know." >> BFF can volunteer. >> Sure. I mean, they could do that now >> and um that's no problem at all. It's
just the uh the actual regular volunteering, you know, would be it's a little tougher. You'd have to and nowadays you'd have to have the the right >> 16year-old, 17 year old to do that stuff. >> So, it's um because a lot of times the volunteers are unattended. I mean they they do you know they work on their own.
>> Mhm. >> So >> okay. >> Any other questions? >> Um I just want to ask how is M McFlurry the the rabbit that was on for >> rabbit? I think he's still available for adoption. But he's doing well. The staff says that
he's extremely friendly that he loves to cuddle and hang out. He's a very friendly rabbit. Um but he is still currently available for >> We actually have an interest. There may be somebody coming to get him tomorrow. I I saw the Memorial Day post and I was like, "How did y'all get the first off the cats to like tolerate a Jezebel for more than like the click of a camera?" I
noticed that McFlurry did not get a a Jezebel. I was like, "Oh, he was he was left out. Sorry, dude. Any other questions, comments? Okay, so on to the upcoming the past events." >> So, some of the past events we had, we did um attend Pints and Paws, which was
in uh Sanford back in March. Uh we also attended Pups at the Plex where we partnered with uh the UCF softball team. We brought adoptable animals out to one of their games out there which was a whole lot of fun. We had great success out there that day. >> That's why Judy was there as well. It
was couple couple different people there. That was a I I went to that event. That was a very fun event. That was a neat neat event. Um, we also attended the Red Bug Lake 50th anniversary, um, where they had a, I believe it was a runw walk event, um,
where they celebrated 50 years of the park. Um, that was pretty successful as well. We also hosted a volunteer appreciation breakfast for all of our beloved volunteers where we thanked them and gave them little goodies and stuff and had some fun games for them to do.
We participated in the Semino County Citizens Academy alongside of emergency management, telecommunications, and emergency 911. Um, we I think it was we had one of the out of the whole county, we had one of the best turnouts. We had a lot of part community participation in it.
>> The best we had the best turnout. >> Um, >> um, we also >> beat the fire department. >> It's our little brag. Uh we also participated alongside emergency management with their touch a truck event um which was hosted in Lake
Mary this year uh which is always fun. We love to attend that one. Uh we did something a little new this uh past month. We had a we attended a cat cafe hosted by the central branch library in Castleberry uh where we brought adoptable cats out where they were free roaming. The library cleared out a whole
room for us where the cats were free roaming in the room and the public came in and got to kind of enjoy a cat cafe for the day and so that was a lot of fun. It was a huge turnout. >> I keep cutting Bri off but logistically that was a very uh interesting event because it was a first number one and
number two it really went very well. I mean we we basically we did groups of um like it was roughly seven. We would let up to 10 because there were children go in the room. The cats were there was 20 cats in the room with various toys and and different things going on. In one
corner there was uh uh for everybody that knows Diane, our foster coordinator, uh she was doing story time. She had some kittens in the corner and the kids could come over and she would, you know, read stories to them with the with them, let them play with the kittens. Um and then every I believe it was 20 minutes, we would rotate out a
group and bring another group in and we did that for uh two hours. >> It was really It was a neat event. Yes. How big was the room? >> It was a decent size room. It was probably 3/4 of the If you squared this off, it was 3/4 of the size of this room. It was a large >> large room. It was fun though. It was interesting. I mean, I've
>> been in a cat cafe in St. Augustine. It's kind of cool. I mean, all the cats ro around. >> I think we brought about 15 cats. We had two successful adoptions. >> Got having a co space was nice. >> So, you guys going to do that again? >> Oh, yes. >> Cuz it sounds like it'll be a hit. >> The library is already
>> We go somewhere else, too. Veto library. And there's >> Yeah, we may rotate branches. It just a lot of it has to do with the room. They have to have space. I do service dog training there. And so I know how they were set up. O veto is kind of just wide open. I think it'd be hard in there almost have a private room.
>> Yeah. I would just be worried about the cats hiding under you have to remove all that, right? You have to remove everything from the room. Everything's got to come out of the room. >> Um you know, only what we brought in the room was was there. So >> Okay. Um, and then we also hosted a check the
chip event. Um, I believe that was in uh we went back to Redbug Park and we hosted a check the chip event where we scanned the community's uh pets for microchips just to update it in our system. If they didn't have a microchip, we went ahead and gave them vouchers for next uh upcoming vaccine clinic so they
could go ahead and get their their animals microchipped. Some of our upcoming events that we have, we have our monthly protect your pet microchip and rabies vaccine clinic. Um, we host those monthly still. Uh, we also have another check the chip event
coming up. Uh, in July, I believe, is our kitten shower where we'll be hosting a kitten shower at the shelter. Um, it is kitten season, so we'll have plenty of kittens ready at that point. And then we have our annual clear the shelter event, which is a national NBC ran uh
big uh adoption campaign that we will be participating in in as well that usually runs, I believe, August through September. Any questions on the events, comments? >> Thank you guys so much. That's awesome. The amount of work you guys are doing. So that's >> great to hear. We we love hearing about
the the good events and the upcoming stuff. >> The statistic reports, anyone have any questions on them, comments? Do we have any speakers for non non-aggenda items? No, we have no speakers for non-aggenda items.
>> Okay. Um, do I want to confirm that the he who wants to make a motion for confirmation about the next >> uh the next the next scheduled meeting is September 3rd, 2026. >> Yes. Sorry, that's a typo on the screen.
That was my bad. It is September 3rd. >> It is September. Okay. So, I was I was looking at the paper on the screen. So, okay. Uh, so do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> have a great night. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you everyone for coming out.