A dog bled to death over three days in a California shelter. Could new laws help? | Opinion

It is a true story sure to bring tears to the eyes of any dog owner:

A Siberian Husky ended up in an animal shelter in Orange County after being hit by a vehicle. It was injured and bleeding, but there were no notations from a veterinarian on treatment, like administering pain medications. According to a lawsuit against the county, the animal received only a minimal amount of pain medicine, and kept bleeding and suffering for three days until it died.

State Sen. Janet Nguyen recounts this sad tale as she promotes a bill that would recommend key veterinary practices at shelters across the state to ensure such a lack of treatment does not happen again anywhere else.

The Huntington Beach Republican is also sponsoring a second bill that would standardize reporting by shelters in California’s largest counties when it comes to how many animals get taken in, how many get placed and how many end up being euthanized. With this information, the public can see how well shelters are performing.

Every year in California nearly 600,000 dogs, cats and other animals go into county shelters, according to the advocacy group Best Friends. Thankfully, over 450,000 get adopted. But nearly 10%, or more than 60,000, get put to death.

Nguyen’s Senate Bill 1478 would recommend guidelines for veterinarian notations on charts for such things as treatment plans and pain control.

The bill would establish how quickly shelter staff would need to see an animal that comes in. Protocols for treatment of injuries and infectious diseases would be set forth, as well as how to manage pain and guarantee proper communication between vets and staff.

“Animals have no voice,” Nguyen says. “So we are their voice. We must treat dogs, cats and other creatures in our shelters with care and dignity.”

A second bill, SB 1459, would mandate that counties with populations over 400,000 report on their websites how many animals come into shelters, how many get fostered or adopted, and how many die naturally or by euthanasia. More than 200 animal shelters operate in California, but there are no standardized reporting requirements.

SB 1459 would also clarify that trapping, neutering and returning feral cats would not constitute abandonment under the California Penal Code. This would be particularly helpful in addressing the state’s feline overpopulation problem .

Shelter reporting varies greatly

The need for standardized reporting becomes readily apparent when checking online reports from county animal shelters. There is wide variety in the timeliness and detail of reports.

Sacramento County animal services , for example, has a robust collection of data. Numbers are current and updated on a monthly basis. There are up to date annual summaries as well. The yearly totals break out canines and felines, and even detail whether euthanasia was done for medical reasons or behavioral issues.

By comparison, Stanislaus County is updated just through the 2022-23 fiscal year and does not include as much detail as Sacramento.

San Luis Obispo County reports “animal shelter outcomes” — adoptions, redemptions and euthanasias — over a 10-year period through 2020, but does not break out specific rates for dogs and cats.

Fresno County has annual statistics just through 2022, and also does not break out canines from felines.

Bipartisan support

Nguyen has Democrat co-authors in state Sen. Josh Newman and Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, both of Fullerton. With their backing, the bills have a better chance in the Legislature, where Democrats are the supermajority.

The measures recently passed out of the Senate’s Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee and now head to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Lawmakers there, and in both the Senate and Assembly, should back the bills as common sense.

Some counties have already pushed back on Nguyen, complaining the reporting requirements would be a burden. But reporting standards for animal shelters, at least in the state’s largest counties, would be a valuable step toward transparency that will help the public know which facilities operate properly and with integrity. The data are worth the effort.

California trails other states on these animal-welfare measures. It is time to catch up.