KC DOG BLOG

Update on KCMO's new "performance standards"

On Wednesday, I posted about a new "Performance Standard" that Kansas City, MO  is implementing that is requiring animal control officers write at least 15 citations each month and intake 20 animals.

When, Kansas City Dog Advocates sent out the notice on this to their members, I expected it to cause some waves, but I didn't expect the feedback we've gotten.

News of this has spread throughout the city, and around the country. We've been contacted by national and local organizations (I plan to post some of the feedback sometime next week). So far, the only people that think this is a good idea have been city administrators. Apparently none of them are all that great at math.

The media has also picked up on the story (we never even got a chance to do a press release). First, a reporter from The Pitch (our weekly alternative paper) picked it up and put it on the Pitch Blog (PLOG). On Thursday, I did an interview with KSHB news (SweetP and Grommit were the stars of the interview), and on Friday, MichelleD and a representative from the Pet Connection met with Fox4 for their story.

TV news isn't exactly the best delivery vehicle for actual statistical analysis, so KCDA has a reaction to most of the city administrator's comments on their site.  A lot of their comments have made me chuckle with political doublespeak  like:

"It's not a quota, it's a performance standard".  Um. OK.

"The policy isn't new....it just hasn't been enforced."  Um, yeah.

But the biggest thing to me is the blatant misuse of statistics to try to mislead the public. 

In the interview, Mike Schumacher, who handles many of the policy decisions for animal control, said that the new "performance standards" won't increase the number of animals brought into the shelter. According to Schumacher, the new standards require each of the 18 animal control officers to bring in (a minimum of) 20 animals per month (360 total animals).  He says in the Month of July, Animal Control responded to 1100 animal control calls, and there were 800 total impounds -- which is well above their stated minimums.

All of that information is technically true, but doesn't tell the whole story.

First off, every animal control call should not require an animal to be impounded. Many times they'll respond to barking dog calls, neussence calls, calls about a dog without a dog house, a stray dog that is gone by the time they get there, etc. So 1100 calls is essentially meaningless as most of them shouldn't require a dog to be impounded.

Meanwhile, of the 800 or so impounds in July, nearly 300 of those impounds were made by the public. These consist of owner surrenders to the shelter, returned adoptions to the shelter, and strays that are found by the public and taken to the shelter.  Of those impounds, only 506 of them were made by actual animal control officers.

That's still over the new "Performance standard", so that's not a problem, right?

Still wrong.

Animal control is a seasonal business...and summer is their busiest time. So let's look at the monthly animal control intake over the past 7 months:

July: 506

June: 509

May: 402

April: 383

March 396

February: 311

January: 295

So, if animal control officers are required to bring in 360 animals per month (and keep in mind, these are MINIMUMS), where are the animals going to come from in the winter months? And it is ridiculous to say that this new "performance standard" system won't lead to more impounds in January/February when, in order for AC to meet these standards, they HAVE to impound more animals.   And honestly, March/April/May are all way too close to the minimum for my taste also. And the numbers don't even touch on the negative impact the policy will have on sending the message to animal control officers that bringing animals back to the shelter is the most important thing you can do for your job. 

It's just amazing that they are using the year's busiest months as the baseline for the news minimums without any thought (knowledge?) of what it will look like in the winter months.

We can, and must, do better. This is a slaughter waiting to happen. And everyone seems to know it except the people who set the policy.

More to come on this I'm sure. But go check out KCDA's site -- there is more response to the city reaction there, as well as a note sent to the city council by city manager Wayne Cauthen that tries to justify this decision to our city's policy-makers.

KCMO Incenting ACO's to Seize Pets

Some of our folks over at KC Dog Advocates just released some news last night about some very disturbing news coming out of Kansas City, MO animal control. While some progress is being made in adopting out animals with the newly privatized KCMO shelter, some new animal control policies are going to make things even harder.

Here's the scoop:

On August 1st, the animal control department in Kansas City, MO implemented a new policy when it comes to evaluating their field officers. Effective now, animal control officers in KCMO will be required to issue a minimum of 15 summonses and impound a minimum of 20 animals per month.   

These minimum standards are being used as a management tool to address Animal Control Officers (ACOs) who are not performing their duties.  Getting GPS devices installed in the trucks was also considered but there was no room in the budget. 

With 18 full time field officers, 20 animals per month is a minimum of 360 animals per month (4,320 per year) that will be brought into the shelter.

Through July 21^st of 2009, Animal Control had impounded 4,137 animals – of those 1,636 of them were killed in the shelter.  With 1 out of every 3 animals that enters the shelter being killed, any increase in pets coming into the shelter – along with the new shelter management’s decision to increase fees for recovering an animal from the shelter during the biggest economic crisis of our lives -- will undoubtedly lead to an increase in kill rates in KCMO. 

We’re making too much progress to allow this to happen.

While yes, animal control needs to pick up stray animals, and animals that are suffering from cruelty/neglect, 384 animals (most marked as healthy, normal seeming animals) were confiscated in the first ½ of this year for basic (non-aggressive) animal control ordinance violations – nearly 3x the number (134) that were prosecuted for cruelty/neglect. We at KCDA keep hearing stories of animals getting confiscated from owners due to inadequate housing (even though Spay/Neuter Kansas City’s outreach program has free dog houses available to needy families), animals confiscated from owners because they are not altered under the mandatory spay/neuter ordinance for pit bulls, and others that are confiscated because they cannot afford the fine associated with having not licensed their dog.

The new evaluation criteria will further increase the number of animals needlessly taken from homes for minor animal control violations.  Just this weekend numerous well fed, up-to-date on shots, altered cats were seized for nothing more than being over the city’s pet limit of four animals. For each of these cats that entered the shelter this past weekend, others in the shelter died to make room for them. This isn’t an acceptable option.

Instead of rewarding animal control officers for creating good outcomes for the owners and animals by offering assistance when needed or for scanning for microchips in the field so animals can get back home, the rewards system is now put in place to encourage animal control officers to bring animals back to the shelter where a large percentage of them end up dying.

If we are to seriously decrease the number of animals killed in our shelters, we must not only work on adoptions on the back end, but also on lowering the amount of dogs coming into the shelter whenever possible on the front end. This evaluation system runs counter to that goal.

Instead of evaluating officers on how many animals they bring in, how about these for better options for evaluating the quality of work for ACOs:

-- The number of low cost spay/neuter vouchers they have redeemed at Spay/Neuter Kansas City

-- The number of unvaccinated animals that get updated shots at low-cost shot clinics

-- The number of cruelty/neglect cases prosecuted

-- The number of animals without proper shelter that they were able to get proper shelter for using already-existing relationships with Spay/Neuter Kansas City’s Outreach program

-- The number of pet owners they got to license currently unlicensed animals

All would be far better alternatives to the current program...

We cannot continue incentivize animal control officer actions that unnecessarily lead to the increase in killing in our shelters. While animal control has a role and responsibility to get animals out of abusive and neglectful situations, and needs to do work to pick up truly stray dogs, there must be an emphasis on getting pets back into their rightful homes, and to keep them in their homes when possible. ACOs that have already proven themselves inept should be fired.  They should not be encouraged to go out and pick the low hanging fruit in order to meet some arbitrary quota.  Being rewarded for behavior that leads to more killing is a completely unacceptable form of ‘management”.

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So how about it?  What other incentive/performance goals make sense to monitor ACO activity without encouraging them to take pets and bring them into the shelter? Please post some of your best ideas.

Update on New KCMO animal shelter

The Star today has a new article with an update on the Kansas City, MO animal shelter which recently became privatized. "Half Way Home Pet Adoptions" is being run by Dr. Wayne Steckelberg, who quickly went to work cleaning up the shelter, and creating new spaces for animals.

"The old facility was in terrible shape," said Steckelberg, who estimated it took a month to get the building clean. 

One of the great things that they are doing is creating more space for animals.

The cats have been moved from a cramped hallway with poor ventilation that was leading to resperatory problems for the cats into a large caged area in the once-dusty basement that is now the home for about 75 cats - - complete with old furniture to climb on.  Executive offices have been turned into exam rooms. The men's locker room has been converted into a haven for the smallest puppies and kittens.

The shelter is being very aggressive about adopting out animals. While under city control, the shelter adopted out about 75-100 animals a month. In only 4 months of operation, Half Way Home is now adopting out around 300. 

While under city control, the shelter averaged killing around 565 animals per month. They are now making serious dents in that number.  Winograd has been talking a lot about the importance of good leadership in saving the lives of animals -- and the change in leadership at the Kansas City, Mo shelter has worked wonders.

We're not to where the end goal should be -- but in a few short months, certainly making huge strides in the right direction.

Catching up

I'm way far behind.

I have two weeks of weekly roundup stuff that may or may not ever happen. If you are loyal to the weekly roundup, sorry. I'm going to try to at least hit some of the highlights.

Things have been really, really busy. We have a LOT of great things going on in Kansas City right now.

The Greater Kansas City Humane Society (among others) is doing a lot of work with the Kansas City, KS Shelter and has brought their euthanasia rate from around 50% to 4% over the past 5 months.The laws in KCK are as bad as they could be anywhere, but it goes to show how having people working their butts off to get animals into homes makes all the difference in the world when it comes to saving the lives of animals.  They had one of their biggest fundraisers of the year with their Dog and Jog.  They had around 1,000 people who signed up to run with their dogs in either the 1 mile or the 2 mile race.  They probably had another 500-1,000 more who showed up just to check out the vendors and hang out with their dogs.

While the event was great for GKCHS, it was a really good event for KCDA also as we got a chance to meet with a lot of people who care a lot about their dogs -- and care a lot about the laws that are having an impact on their daily lives living with their dogs.  And even though many were not actively involved in rescue, or sheltering, they cared a lot about creating a no kill community in Kansas City.  It was uplifting to talk to so many great people at the event.

Yesterday, we spent 1/2 the day at LollaPAWlooza. Many of the people there were getting very involved in trying to get more dog parks in Kansas City.  As our city continues to have people who dedicate more and more time to their dogs, our city leaders have been slow to react to the increased needs and wants of the dog owning community -- which is the majority of the population in KC.  I also got a chance to meet with our local Dogs & Storks presenter, Suezanne Law.  She's great - -and an awesome asset to the KC area.  She gave a great presentation on canine behavior signs that was designed for kids.  

The event was set to raise money for Half Way Home Pet Adoptions -- the new privatized shelter in Kansas City, MO.   The new privatized shelter has put an emphasis on adoptions and has more than halved the kill rates in KCMO in 2 short months.

Last night, KCDA was recognized as a finalist for Animal Welfare organization of the year at the Pet ConnectionPet Humanitarian Awards banquet. We didn't win (nor do I expect that we got more than even a token vote), but I thought it was fun to be recognized. KCDA started as a grass-roots organization, with just the hope of helping people to learn how to work with their city governments on legislative issues that deal with dogs (and cats, despite our name).  As a group, we have (by almost design), gone pretty well unnoticed in the animal welfare community in KC -- so it is nice that people are staring to notice what it is we're doing.

I met a few folks at the event that I didn't know - including the Pet Humanitarian of the Year winner who was the one responsible for builidng out the feral cat program that sends feral cats out to farmers in Kansas as barn cats to help with Trap/Neuter/Release programs for feral cats.

It is great how many awesome programs we have going on in the Kansas City area. We don't always work so well together at times (although we're getting better), but there are a lot of different pockets of great things going on in Kansas City for pets, it's hard not to get excited.

So that's been my week. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get caught up this week. No promises....but we'll try.

Spay/Neuter Kansas City Opens New Facility

Last week, Spay/Neuter Kansas City had an open house for their new facility at the corner of 59th and Troost in Kansas City.

For those of you not family, SNKC is largest (I believe) of several low cost spay/neuter programs in the Kansas City area, and serves mostly the lower-income areas of Kansas City, MO.

Last year, SNKC altered 5,600 dogs and cats. This year, with the help of the new facility, their goal is to alter 8,000.  They are currently altering about 35 animals a day on normal days with their 2 on-staff veterinarians, and about 100 once a month at their large MASH clinics.

Last week, the folks at thePet Connection posted numbers on who alters and doesn't alter cats by income.   At least 70% of the unaltered cats that live in homes live in homes with less than $35,000 income. While their numbers are specific to cats, most statistics would indicate that the numbers are similar for dogs as well. With over 17% of the residents of Kansas Ctiy, MO currently living below the poverty line, their services are very much needed.

Two of the main reasons people say they do not alter their pets are because 1) they really don't understand benefits to altering and 2) they cannot afford the proceedure. SNKC provides a huge resource for both of these - by not only providing the low cost spay/neuter proceedures, but also providing an outreach program where they go into the city's urban core and talk to owners about better ways to take care of their dogs, proving food, proper collars, straw and dog houses for warmth in the winter, and information on their low cost services.

About a year ago, they found out that they were going to be kicked out of their former building at 35th and Main because the landlord there was going to convert the building into condos. With the help of the city, they were able to find a new location -- a former auto-repair building that was owned by the city that has been retrofitted nicely for their operation -- I think the pictures tell a good story. 

On top of being a great new facility, I think the location is going to serve SNKC well. The location is now even closer to the community that they are serving, and is an equally high-visibility site right along Troost (which has the city's 2nd busiest bus line).

There was a lot of community support that made this possible -- from the city, to free-lance architect design work, to countless volunteers and donations from throughout the city.  This remains another good example of what can be done when different groups of people unite to do the right thing in the city.  The multiple low-cost spay/neuter options in the KC area are a big part of the overall picture in making Kansas City more humane for the dogs and cats in our community. There is more work to be done, but there is a lot of good progress being made.

Building a No-Kill Kansas City (part 2)

So last night, I posted about some of the great work our friends at Animal Haven were doing on the west side of our state line.  I think having the shelter in KCMO privatize will help also.   And while we are making progress, there is still a lot that needs to be done in the other counties (and states) in our metro.

There are a couple of big obstacles that are standing in our way from becoming a completely No-Kill community.

1) Public shelter managers who are unwilling to make changes that will lead to the ending of the senseless killing of healthy dogs and cats.

2) Laws that have been put in place that are getting in the way of No-Kill.

I think we can overcome the first issue if enough people demand it.  If the public outrage over senseless killing becomes loud enough, the shelter managers who are NOT interested in saving lives will be removed. 

The second issue is one that Kansas City Dog Advocates is attempting to tackle head on.

There are many laws in the Kansas City area that are getting in the way of No-Kill. Some are hurting pet retention, because pets are removed from homes. Some are hurting adoptions, because there are fewer homes to adopt to. Some are hurting foster programs, because people cannot take in the animals.

In short, we need to change a large number of these laws and policies and how we view animal control laws.  This is the focus of our group.

One of our focuses has been on repealing breed discriminatory laws (BSL).  Breed bans throughout our metro have made it very difficult to find homes for bully-breed dogs. Currently, about 1/3 of the potential homes in our community are not options for these dogs. This is why dogs like Gramby, from Animal Haven, spend an inordinate amount of time in shelter care instead of in homes. Breed based laws also makes owner retention even more difficult, as perfectly great dogs like Nikko, Fleas and Brutus(and dozens of others) are removed from homes because of the way they look, not because of the way they act.  The last 3 examples were all victims of BSL in Kansas City, KS.  It is so bad there that Boxer, Mastiffs, anything brindle, short haired or short muzzled has a target on their head.

Arbitrary pet limit laws, mandatory spay/neuter laws, breed bans, outdated vaccination requirements, laws that prevent trap/neuter return programs and punish caretakers of feral cat colonies all have a hand in removing animals from homes, give AC more tools to seize and kill, keeping animals from going to good homes, or eliminate potential foster families that can provide better homes for animals waiting for forever homes.

And all of these laws can be replaced with policies that are better for animals -- all can be done with no decrease in public safety.

We are stepping up our efforts in this arena. Two weeks ago, the community of Greenwood repealed their BSL.  We are getting involved in the politics of more communities in the Kansas City area by posting political ratings on candidates on a variety of pet-related policies in cities throughout the metro (you can click on "politics" at the top, and find your individual city - as always, this is a work in progress).

There are a lot of reasons to go to the polls and cast your votes. But as a pet-owning population, the desires for pet friendly policies have too often been ignored. According to the AVMA pet owner census, 60% of the US population currently owns pets. We are the majority. While we should demand a lot of things from our public officials, pet-friendly policies shouldn't be too much to ask.  Why is it be that 60% of the population that owns and cares for pets, has to settle for politicians that institute oppresive policies that increase the number of our pets killed in our communites and compromise our safety?

Short answer: They don't.

Additionally, KCDA is going to be kicking off some programs in the Kansas City area to help others learn how to get involved politicaly in their communities -- so their voices can be heard. We understand that getting involved in politics is a little scary for some. We want to help provide some simple structure and some peace of mind about diving in.  And it starts with one simple rule -- your city council members are voted on by you, hired by you, to work for you.

We're kicking this off with a KCDA Happy Hour on April 1st at 75th Street Brewery. The event kicks off at 5:30 (it is not a fundraiser, so the only cost you incur is whatever you eat and drink).  We'll be in the sectioned off area in the back of the restaurant.

Following this, we will be having a KCDA 101 meeting. The meeting is designed to be a community forum on the different laws that affect the no-kill model, ways to get involved and hopefully the knowledge and enthusiasm you need to go out and affect positive change in your communities. The first KCDA 101 meeting will be held on April 25th, from 3-5 at the Trails West Library (6242 Swope Parkway)- Room A - in Kansas City, MO. 

Complete information on these events can be found here.

More info to come from me on these events -- looking forward to seeing you there.

Building a No Kill Kansas City

A couple weeks ago, Animal Haven, the largest No-kill shelter in the Kansas City metro, met with the public to talk about their vision for moving Kansas City toward being a No-Kill community.

"What it means is there will be a home for every animal," explained Dr. Sheila Dodson. "We want to eliminate all the euthanasia of animals in shelters just because there is no space. So we want to be able to provide homes for all the animals that are homeless".

Animal Haven has done just that.  They handle all sheltering responsibilities for 11 Johnson County (KS) communities. In spite of a lot of elements working against them including an old (tiny) shelter and many laws that make their jobs a lot harder. And yet, in spite of that, they have become virtually no-kill for the communities they serve.

In 2008, Animal Haven took in 3,695 animals.  Of those:

2,117 were adopted (a 31% increase over 2007)

1074 were reclaimed

222 were transferred to other shelters or rescue groups (217% increase)

282 were euthanized for behavioral or health  reasons (a 44%% decrease)

Not only are they adopting out more animals - -they are also completely open admission to everyone in the communities they serve - -they also now have the resources to treat animals with most health problems. They are now treating all animals with the exceptions of several forms of untreatable cancers.

They've done it in part to great leadership, and a strong volunteer group. In total, AH has 583 volunteers that served 8,377 hours of service time last year. 

Animal Haven is a part of a growing coalition in the Kansas city area that has a goal of making the entire Kansas City metro a no-kill community by 2012.

"How do you take 30 cities in 2 stats and make them all No-Kill?" asked AH executive director Brendan Wiley. 

On Animal Haven's part, they are working on adopting out more animals. They have plans to move from their current 4,800 square foot facility into a new facility that would be 70,000 square feet. You read those numbers right. The goal is to not only make the facility larger and able to hold more animals (so space isn't so limited), but to also create more areas where the space will be more inviting for potential adoptors.

While Animal Haven (and a host of other rescue organizations) works on adoptions, other organizations like Spay/Neuter Kansas City and No More Homeless Pets KC are working on low cost/no cost spay/neuter and Trap, Neuter, Release policies. Meanwhile, my group at Kansas City Dog Advocates, is working on the legislative issues that will make achieving no-kill possible.

More on that tomorrow.

KC Council approves contracting out animal control

Yesterday, the city council of Kansas City approved an ordinance that will privatize the city's animal shelter beginning March 1st.  At that time, the shelter will be run by Veterinary Management Corporation (which is run by 74 year old Dr. Wayne Steckelberg).

The contract calls for five, one year renewal option. This provides some stability for Dr. Steckelberg -- and yet, provides an "out" if for some reason things aren't going as hoped.

I haven't read the final contract yet -- but we have been assured that all of their records will be made public.

Over the past 3 year (plus), KCMO has killed around 65% of the animals it has brought in.  While one person quoted in the article said it wouldn't be easy to reduce the number of animals that have to be euthanized, I think it will be. Just being OPEN when people can adopt would be a start. Scanning for microchips would be another start.  Getting to no kill won't be easy -- but getting a pretty sharp reduction in animals euthanized should be fairly easy.

I'm looking forward to meeting with Dr. Steckelberg to see how KCDA can help.  This should be good news for KC.  Hey, and it's saving them money too.

Here are my initial thoughts on this from last week.

KCMO Hearing on Shelter Privatization

Announcement :  ***PLEASE CROSSPOST***

The hearing for this Wednesday, Feb 11, at 10 am on the 26th Floor of City Hall. This is the Public Safety and Neighborhoods Committee meeting. The committee is made up of:

Cathy Jolly (committee chair):  dyanne_bean@kcmo.org; (816) 513-1602

John Sharp:  ariane_coleman@kcmo.org; (816) 513-1615

Cindy Circo:  gina_boucher@kcmo.org; (816) 513-1633

Melba Curls:  melba_curls@kcmo.org; (816) 513-1605

Please attend to show your support of privatizing the KCMO shelter.  It may not be a perfect arrangement, but definately a 1000% improvement over the current situation!  If you cannot attend please call or email.  As always, be professional and courteous!

Please don't worry about making a big speech if you attend (but of course feel free if you'd like).  Just stand up and voice your support. 

For more info click here:

KCMO Shelter Looking to Privatize

Well, I've been hearing a lot of buzz about this -- but without knowing if it was public info or not I've decided to hold off on saying anything -- but if it's in the Star, it's pretty public at this point.

Kansas City, MO is making moves to privatize the city's shelter facility.  About a year ago, the city sent out a request for bids on taking over the shelter facility. They received 2 bids back.

Today, Councilwoman Cindy Circo plans to introduce a bill that would turn the shelter over to Dr. R. Wayne Steckelberg -- a 50 year veterinarian who most recently has been working at a local rescue shelter.

I've never met Dr. Steckelberg -- but the people who know him seem to think pretty highly of him. And if you watch the video of him talking about the shelter, it's not hard to realize that his heart is in the right place. Even without knowing him, I am thrilled about the posible (Likely) transition. There are really appear to be no drawbacks.

According to the article, Steckelberg will get about $600,000 from the city for staff, utilities, etc to run the shelter. This will save the city about $200,000 for the costs of doing it themselves. Meanwhile, the move will free up quite a bit of staff that will then add to the number of animal control officers out on the streets -- which will be a huge plus for the under-staffed department.  This savings comes at a time when KCMO is facing a projected $85 million budget shortfall for 2009 -- so the savings will be well needed.

Meanwhile, the shelter, which is a remote location, has had almost no access for adoptions. The shelter is open for adoptions Monday - Saturday, Noon-4pm, and to 7 on Thursdays.  To the best I can tell, the average person in KC would have about 5 hours a week that the shelter would be open when they could actually get to it.  Steckelberg has already pledged to improve the shelter hours.

Steckelberg has also pledged to work with local rescue group Wayside Waifs to help get more dogs and cats out of the city facility and into a better adoption facility.  At the same time, he has some ideas for improving the city shelter to make it more adopter-friendly -- including getting rid of some of the offices to create more room for animals so they can be housed longer (most are there the minimum of 5 days now) to give them a greater chance of being adopted or their homes found.

The city shelter has not attracted many volunteers to work there over the years -- primarily because volunteers got tired of the management's lack of response to ideas that would save animal lives. I would expect that Steckelberg would be able to attract a healthy crop of volunteers that could significantly help the facility.

In 2007, the KCMO shelter euthanized 6,769 animals -- about 62% of the animals that came into the shelter. In 2008, the shelter euthanized 4,912 animals. 

In fairness to a couple of people I know that have worked at the shelter, there are a couple of people there that honestly care about animals -- however, have never had the support of the managment to make the changes necessary to improve the overall situation down there. I am very excited about this change in shelter management and hope the rest of the animal welfare community steps up to help them in every way possible.

I have a couple of small suggestions, that if they aren't on the plan, I would love to see them added to the proposal:

1) Make sure contract states that all shelter records will be public record subject to the state's Sunshine Laws. I don't think it will be a problem with this particular managment, but I do think it is good policy to make these records public, even if they are a non-profit group.

2) They may want to do year 1 as a trial year -- but I really hope they look at making this a long term contract (with some clauses if things somehow go terribly wrong). The shelter facility needs a LOT of work to make it friendly for adopters, and I think this group could raise a lot of money to make the improvements if they know they are going to be there for the long-haul. But making the necessary shelter improvements may be difficult if we string them along with a series of 1-year contracts.

Meanwhile, I'd like to make a note on this about Councilwoman Cindy Circo. I spoke with Cindy a lot during her campaign about animal welfare issues - -and she has made it one of her missions to improve this situations - -not only because she is an animal lover, but also because the shelter resides in her district. I've been really pleased with her continued presence in this area and want to give a shout-out to her for working to make this a better situation.  Kansas City is in the middle of the Animal Health Corridor -- which has garnered us mention among some of the world's most innovative cities.  What a great way to show off the benefit of being in the Animal Health Corridor by becoming one of the most animal-friendly cities in the country.  

I believe this will be a good step toward making that a reality.