KCACC Whistleblower Speaks Out
BY: Co-chairs, KCACC Exposed 10/10/2009
Over the past two years, many different individuals and organizations have spoken out about the inhumane treatment of animals at King County Animal Care & Control (KCACC):The KCACC Citizens’ Advisory Committee. Shelter consultant Nathan Winograd. A team of veterinarians from the U.C. Davis Shelter Medicine Program. Local veterinarians who donated their services to KCACC. KCACC volunteers and foster parents. Rescue groups that work with KCACC. Friends of KCAC, an organization started to support the shelter. A majority of the members of the King County Council.
Now, a KCACC officer has finally had enough and is speaking out. Last week, a KCACC officer released to the press a letter filed with the King County ombudsman under the county’s whistleblower protection law, alleging that the whistleblower has witnessed behavior at KCACC that constitutes criminal animal neglect, abuse of authority, and a gross waste of taxpayer funds.
In the face of such failures, the whistleblower insists that KCACC should not be allowed to continue to provide any animal care or sheltering functions – whether it does so as KCACC, or by another name.
“I want to make sure that the public knows that allowing a new ‘private’ KCACC to take over animal sheltering would be horrible for the animals. Even allowing KCACC to keep the animals for a 3-4 day stray hold would be a bad result, because the animals would get stressed during that time, and KCACC's poor practices would allow them to be exposed to any number of diseases before they were transferred to an adoption center,” the whistleblower said in an October 5 email to council and the media, to which was attached the formal whistleblower complaint filed on August 14, 2009. The whistleblower explained that he or she was going public now because KCACC and Guild leadership seem confident that they “have a special deal” in place with King County Interim Executive Kurt Triplett to continue to provide animal care and control services, despite Mr. Triplett's announcement that the county would stop providing these services by June 30, 2010.
Shocking as the stories told by the whistleblower are, they are sadly familiar to anyone who has read the reports from Mr. Winograd or the U.C. Davis veterinarians, or the articles containing comments from the volunteer veterinarians, rescue groups, and KCACC volunteers. What is most shocking is that despite the infusion of millions of dollars over the past two years, and the recommendations from several shelter experts, nothing has changed.
The whistleblower's letter (read full letter here), recounts the despair of watching animals left to die in their cages without medical attention, seeing animals suffer from diseases contracted at KCACC and allowed to worsen because of inadequate care, and observing healthy, well-adjusted pets come in the front door of the shelter –and then go out the back door as corpses in trash bags. The whistleblower supplied a few photographs illustrating this suffering attached to the email to the media (see email and photographs here; warning, photos are graphic).
“Conditions at the shelter are inhumane, and should not be allowed to continue any longer,” said the whistleblower’s August 14, 2009 letter. “The animals are suffering and dying, and there is nothing that the officers there can do about it except do our best to help them, and then watch helplessly. Night after night, I go home and cry for these animals.”
The whistleblower recounts specific incidents of a nursing kitten whose mouth was glued shut by mucus and medication, and who went a whole day without being discovered; a severely ill kitten who was starving, could barely lift his head, and was going into shock, but who experienced more than a day of “unnecessary and unthinkable suffering” before being checked by a veterinarian and eventually euthanized; and aggressive dogs who are confined for several weeks without any attempt at rehabilitation or chance at adoption, until they are finally killed for going cage crazy.
The whistleblower indicates that animals are left to die in their cages so that they don't show up on KCACC's euthanasia statistics, so that KCACC leadership can “pretend” that they are doing a better job and present better statistics to the public.
“That doesn't take us any closer to saving more animals – it just puts the animals in a different column of deaths,” the whistleblower's letter reads, recounting the whistleblower's frustration at not having enough time to provide proper animal care, and being turned down in efforts to get veterinary attention for sick animals.
“I've tried to care for cats that were too sick to eat, and had not eaten for days, maybe weeks. I've been ordered to force feed cats whose throats were swollen shut and were unable to swallow. They can't eat, so they just starve – and maybe get fluids if the officers have the time. I've seen cats that were too sick to lift their heads up, covered in their own feces and barely able to breathe, left in their cages for days to die – and been told to ‘put them on the list for the vet to see.’ I've had cats with infections so bad that their eyes exploded in my hands as I was trying to treat them. I was told of a dog who was so sick that he nearly drowned under a running stream of water in his kennel -- he was too weak to lift his head out of the stream of water, but nobody noticed until he was almost dead.”
The whistleblower letter indicated that these conditions have been constantly recounted to KCACC's supervisors, but that they do not seem to see the suffering in front of them, and refuse to take any action to correct conditions. The letter indicates that the county has wasted a lot of money on new supervisors who do very little, and who refuse to implement protocols that would keep animals healthy, such as basic isolation procedures, and as a result “you can count on pretty much every cat who comes in the shelter to break with some illness within 7-10 days, and there is no effort to keep this from happening.”
The whistleblower first submitted the letter on August 14, 2009 to the King County ombudsman and the King County Council. On September 28, the ombudsman issued a letter closing the investigation with the consent of the whistleblower, because of the expectation that some of the concerns would be addressed by the upcoming report from the King County auditor. The ombudsman also indicated that the issues may become moot as a result of policy changes by a new county executive, and the need to vacate the Kent shelter by November 1 in advance of potential flooding from the Green River. The ombudsman’s letter noted that the office had verified that the whistleblower was a KCACC employee and that the ombudsman had no reason to believe that the complaint was not filed in good faith, and indicated that the complaint may be re-filed if the concerns are not addressed by the auditor's report and the political process.
The ombudsman also reported that the investigation was terminated because of the whistleblower's concern that a full investigation would compromise the whistleblower's confidentiality and lead to serious reprisals. Although King County’s code attempts to protect whistleblowers from retaliation, the whistleblower nonetheless expressed grave concerns that these protections would not be adequate.
“I know everyone from the Guild to the Executive will be after me as a result of this letter,” the whistleblower wrote, mentioning two officers who were punished for filing an animal cruelty complaint against KCACC after it housed sick cats outside during freezing weather last winter. “I not only fear for my career, but my safety. There is a very scary, violent atmosphere down here. It has become 'us' against 'them,' and anyone who speaks out for the animals is viewed as a traitor. The Guild is supposed to stick up for us, [but] they won't help if we are unfairly punished for speaking out, since they are siding with management to keep KCACC in business no matter what. It seems that everybody is on the same side, including management and the Guild, but none of them are on the side of the animals.”
Because of this fear of retaliation, the whistleblower released the letter through Claire Davis, co-chair of KCACC Exposed, and has not revealed his or her identity to the public. However, the whistleblower has met with the ombudsman's office, members of the county council, and staffers for the county council – and has offered to meet with additional council members at their request.
“I want to protect myself if I can, but the animals have to come first,” the whistleblower wrote in the August 14 letter. “Somebody has to do something, and since no one else is standing up to help these animals, I guess it has to be me. Most of [the officers] love animals and we can't stand to watch this anymore, but we feel that we can't speak out or we will be punished.”
The whistleblower's letter ends with a simple plea: “Please help us. Please help them. Please.”