Fresno County’s pets deserve ‘best practices’

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors has much to investigate and contemplate as it seeks to build a new animal shelter – cost, size, location and a potential gift of $3 million plus four acres of land from Derrel Ridenour being the biggest considerations.

But there should be no doubt about the attitude that guides the supervisors through the process: The new shelter must be designed and built so that it incorporates the best practices of animal care and pet adoption.

Supervisor Brian Pacheco zeroed in on this key issue at the April 12 board meeting when he said, “Mr. Ridenour will not donate to a bare-bones facility. If you don’t want to do it the right way, the best-practice way … then he’s not interested.”

The county shouldn’t be interested in a bare-bones facility, either. It’s past time to retire the “good enough for us” philosophy that has stopped many Valley cities and communities from realizing their economic potential and creating a higher quality of life for residents. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

The county desperately needs a new animal shelter. The facility at Nielsen and Teilman avenues, operated under contract with Fresno Humane Animal Services, is inadequate given the magnitude of the Fresno area’s well-documented problem with abandoned and surrendered pets and high “kill rates.”

The Fresno Bee’s Marc Benjamin reported, “Some county supervisors are worried that Ridenour’s shelter site, on about 4 acres he owns near Grantland Avenue and Highway 99, would not be centrally located, and that shelter costs could eat into money set aside for other county projects. Supervisors voted to keep the project at $6 million or less.

“Supervisors also will consider a county-owned site on the Juvenile Justice Center campus near Malaga. Board Chairman Buddy Mendes said he prefers the Juvenile Justice Center site because of its location.”

We don’t see the Juvenile Justice Center site, with its more central location at Highway 99 and American Avenue, as the superior proposal. If anything, the Grantland location is more advantageous because it is near the HOPE Animal Foundation spay/neuter clinic.

HOPE is a vital player in efforts to reduce the county’s unwanted pet population. It educates residents on how to be responsible pet owners and it has altered more than 125,000 dogs and cats since its clinic opened in June 2006.

The big question, of course, is cost. Ridenour proposes a 24,000-square-foot shelter and adoption facility that would cost $9 million or more. The supervisors’ concerns about construction costs taking money away from other essential projects are valid.

But there is a way to protect the county and build a shelter and adoption center in which all county residents can take pride. Just look to what was done to make the Miss Winkles Pet Adoption Center in Clovis a reality.

Retired Pelco owner David McDonald donated $2 million in honor of his dog who died after being bitten by a snake. The Clovis City Council, addressing resident worries that the shelter at Sierra and Temperance avenues would harm the neighborhood’s tranquility, added a 15-acre park, which raised the project’s cost to $6.2 million.

But, with the nonprofit Friends of the Clovis Adoption Center pledging $1 million, the state-of-the-art, 14,000-square-foot facility opened in 2013. Thus the Clovis City Council leveraged $3.1 million in taxpayer funding into both a first-class shelter and Sierra Meadows Park.

Animal lovers are passionate and generous. County supervisors should understand this. No one will donate for a bare-bones facility. But many people will contribute toward a center that promotes adoption by being clean and attractive, and significantly reduces the spread of kennel cough and other diseases.

Ridenour’s offer provides a wonderful opportunity for the supervisors to do right for animals that all too often are mistreated.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Fresno County’s pets deserve ‘best practices’."