The following is a press release from an organization unaffiliated with Voice of OC. The views expressed here are not those of Voice of OC.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2016
Contact:
Katie Ingram at katie.ingram@occr.ocgov.com
(714) 796-6413
Orange County Board of Supervisors Approves JVR Shelter Strategies, LLC for a Veterinary and Operational Review of OC Animal Care
(Orange, CA) The Orange County Board of Supervisors has enlisted the help of JVR Shelter Strategies, LLC, for veterinary and operational consulting services at OC Animal Care to make recommendations for best practices at the current shelter as well as at a new shelter that will be built in Tustin.
Supervisors approved a contract with JVR Shelter Strategies on Tuesday, February 23, 2016. The company will review OC Animal Care data to determine staffing and capacity needs for the new animal shelter at the former Tustin Marine base, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2017. JVR also will complete a thorough review of programs at the shelter and make recommendations for best practices to meet the requirements of the new facility. Upon completion, the final recommendations will be shared with the staff, city partners, Board of Supervisors and community partners as part of an outreach effort to develop an implementation plan.
JVR Shelter Strategies is owned and operated by Dr. Jyothi Robertson, a veterinarian who is board qualified in Shelter Medicine, a relatively new and complex veterinary specialty. She specializes in large-scale population dynamics, including outbreak management, infectious disease control and shelter statistics. Dr. Robertson previously reviewed OC Animal Care’s veterinary clinic and surgery departments to ensure compliance with state and federal guidelines.
In 2015, Dr. Robertson completed a comprehensive review of the City of Irvine Animal Services utilizing a scope of work that is similar to that requested for OC Animal Care. JVR Shelter Strategies comes highly recommended by the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program.
“Our hope is to implement recommendations provided by the vendor to become the model animal shelter the board seeks and the community expects,” Dr. Jennifer Hawkins, Director of OC Animal Care, wrote in an email that was read at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting by Supervisor Todd Spitzer, in whose Third District the current and the new shelter site are located.
Supervisor Spitzer encouraged OC Animal Care to engage in outreach with animal advocates and cities that contract with the County to process animals through the OC Animal Shelter to incorporate their insights, concerns and recommendations. JVR Shelter Strategies will assist by setting up an email account for comments, feedback and suggestions to the JVR team on operational aspects for the shelter. These emails will remain confidential among the JVR team. Though not all emails may yield a response, all comments will be reviewed to assist in the recommendation phase of the consultation. The email address for this process is ocac-comments@shelterstrategies.com .
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