What we found
The Auditor’s Office follows up on audit recommendations to support county government’s accountability. Multnomah County Animal Services (Animal Services) implemented 8 of our recommendations and 7 are in process. We added a new recommendation that animals should be spayed and neutered prior to adoption.
What the statuses mean
- Implemented – Auditee has fully implemented, or auditee has resolved the issue to meet the recommendation’s intent.
- In Process – Auditee has started implementation.
- Not Implemented – Auditee has not implemented, or does not intend to implement.
Status of audit recommendations
Implemented
Recommendation #1: Establish a policy that provides parameters for when it is safe to re-home animals.
Auditor's note: Animal Services adopted a Policy for Placement Eligibility and Pathway in December 2023. The policy describes the behaviors and health factors that determine whether an animal is eligible for adoption, foster, or transfer to a partner organization. When we reviewed documentation on dogs with a bite history over a year period, we found that the policy is being followed. We focused our review on dogs because, while cat bites can be serious, there are far more deaths resulting from dog bites than from cat bites nationwide. Dogs that were euthanized had more severe bite incidents and/or multiple bite incidents. Dogs that were transferred to a partner organization or fostered had medical and/or behavioral issues and did not have severe or multiple bite incidents. Dogs that were adopted following a bite incident had a minor bite incident and/or the bite was provoked.
Recommendation #2: The new animal database should include mandatory fields that must be completed for every animal.
Auditor's note: Animal Services worked with their database provider, ShelterBuddy, to include mandatory fields when adding a new animal to their database.
Recommendation #3: Conduct manual checks to ensure that there is not conflicting information in the animal records.
Auditor's note: Animal Services created a process to check for errors.
Recommendation #4: Ensure that all euthanized animals are recorded in both the drug logs and the animal records database.
Auditor's note: Animal Services has established a procedure for reconciling the euthanasia drug logs and their animal records database, ShelterBuddy. When we compared the drug logs to the database over a six-month period, we found only four errors out of 232 animals, and that the reconciliation process identified and corrected these errors.
Recommendation #5: The new animal database should produce reports that are accessible online by the public.
Auditor's note: Animal Services worked with the Multnomah County web team to have found animals that are entered into ShelterBuddy automatically posted to the Animal Services website.
Recommendation #12: Provide a comprehensive enrichment program to all cats and dogs in every section of the shelter to ensure each animal receives daily social contact, mental stimulation, and physical activity.
Auditor's note: Animal Services implemented an enrichment program, which includes:
- Music
- Species-specific toys that are rotated
- Scents that change daily
- Species-specific objects filled with food
- Playgroups
- Dog walks
Our remaining concern is related to enrichment documentation (see Recommendation #11).
Recommendation #13: Provide cats and dogs at the shelter for longer than 1 week with enrichment that increases as their length of stay increases.
Auditor's note: Enrichment now begins when animals enter the shelter. Additionally, there is a rounds program where animals’ needs are reviewed daily by a team of people. The enrichment program, combined with the daily rounds, meets the intention of this recommendation.
Recommendation #15: Institute a daily rounds program that includes, at a minimum, a rounds team involving people from different shelter units, daily decision-making that is clear and specific, and documentation of rounds’ observations, decisions, and actions.
Auditor's note: Animal Services implemented a daily rounds program. Staff from different shelter units meet daily to discuss animals with medical and/or behavioral needs. Healthy animals, who are likely to be adopted quickly, are usually not on the review list. The Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters say that every animal should be reviewed daily. However, given the staff limitations, it is not realistic to spend staff time reviewing healthy, adoptable animals. Many staff on the daily rounds review team have important roles elsewhere in the shelter, and their time is best spent only reviewing animals with the greatest need.
In process
Recommendation #6: Document all behavioral concerns and discuss them with potential owners before adoption.
Auditor's note: We observed some positive trends related to documenting behavioral concerns. We spoke with some staff who said that they received training about documenting their observations of animal behavior in ShelterBuddy and that adoption counselors disclose this information to those who want to adopt pets. Additionally, as part of their new enrichment program, staff document animal behavior during dog play groups.
We also found that there is room for improvement. A couple of staff mentioned being hesitant to enter information about an animal if they thought it could lead to the animal being euthanized. Also, some staff said they do not have enough time and access to computers to enter detailed information about animal behavior. Pet adopters echoed this sentiment. We sent a survey to people who adopted pets from Multnomah County Animal Services from March 1, 2023 through February 29, 2024. One of the questions was, “Did Animal Services staff tell you about any serious behavioral issues before adopting your pet?” Most people said their pet did not have serious behavioral issues. However, 39% of those who said that their pet had serious behavioral issues stated that no one from Animal Services told them about it before they adopted their pet.
Recommendation #7: Provide ongoing training to employees and volunteers on workplace safety issues, ranging from managing difficult conversations to workplace violence scenarios.
Auditor's note: Animal Services is working with their department leadership on a new department-wide training initiative. While this has resulted in a delay of implementing this and related recommendations, management stated that making training improvements as part of the larger initiative will result in a more effective training program. As part of the department training initiative, management has identified required and optional trainings for employee onboarding as well as ongoing trainings for each staff position. These trainings cover topics relevant to workplace safety issues.
Animal Services now has a security guard on duty seven days a week, and a couple of employees that we interviewed said that the guard’s presence was helpful for workplace safety. They also felt staff would benefit from de-escalation training.
Recommendation #8: Provide shelter employees, particularly management employees, with training on County personnel rules, which require that the workplace be respectful, professional, safe, accepting of cultural differences, and free from inappropriate or abusive workplace behavior.
Auditor's note: During an audit follow-up in 2018, we heard from multiple staff members who expressed concerns about their workplace. We did not hear similar concerns during this follow-up. Employees that we interviewed did not raise any concerns about workplace behaviors, and reported finding their workplace and managers to be respectful. However, we found that managers and employees have not completed many of the available trainings on fostering a respectful workplace.
We reviewed the training history of Animal Services employees for available trainings on county personnel rules, respectful workplace, and equity. We found that all managers have completed the required policy review for county employees, which includes reviewing the policies regarding harassment and discrimination. However, the county offers additional optional trainings for managers on workplace culture that could address the concerns we saw in our previous audit. Two managers have not taken the “Maintaining a Harassment Free Workplace” course, and no managers have taken the “Creating a Harassment Free Workplace for Managers and Supervisors” course. In addition, no managers have completed courses in the Department of Community Services’ equity training series, and less than 15% of staff have completed a department equity training.
We understand that time for training is limited; however, staff and managers need to be provided opportunities to complete trainings that support a respectful and equitable work environment. Department leadership recently hired an Equity Manager, who is responsible for improving employee access to trainings and has begun promoting equity trainings to employees.
Recommendation #9: Establish contingency housing to ensure that the shelter can accept all animals brought to it by County residents and Field Services’ Animal Control Officers.
Auditor's note: Animal Services staff significantly increased their foster home capacity, have held steady with the number of transfers to community partners, and there are some areas at the shelter that can be modified when they need additional housing.
However, this does not appear to have created enough capacity so that Animal Services is able to accept all animals. Animal Services’ website states that it “is limiting shelter intake due to current limited staffing levels” and “only accepts sick or injured cats, and does not admit healthy adult cats.” This appears to be a violation of Multnomah County Code 13.505, which states that Animal Services “shall operate, maintain or provide for an adequate facility to receive, care for and safely confine any animal.” Some members of the public reported that Animal Services would not take stray cats they found, some of which were healthy, while others appeared unwell.
Recommendation #10: Implement a formal training program for new staff as well as ongoing training.
Auditor's note: Management stated that full implementation of a training program has been delayed due to the wider Department of Community Services training initiative (see Recommendation #7). Animal Services has developed training plans for staff that were recently onboarded.
Several staff that we interviewed said there is an onboarding training for new staff in place, but mentioned a few areas for improvement including:
- more formal and thorough dog behavior training, as the current training is done externally via video and feels insufficient
- having onboarding training more spaced out, as staff receive a lot of training in their initial weeks on the job and may not be able to absorb all of the content effectively
- more ongoing refresher trainings
Recommendation #11: Maintain documentation of all enrichment provided, and track this information to ensure all animals receive enrichment consistently.
Auditor's note: Animal Services created an enrichment program (see Recommendation #12), but management said they do not document enrichment because the large number of tasks would create a burdensome level of documentation. We understand management’s concerns and do not want to create an onerous documentation requirement. However, there needs to be a mechanism for managers to keep track of gaps in enrichment tasks. Animal Services created laminated lists where staff can check off when they complete an enrichment task. This is a good system for tracking enrichment because it requires minimal staff time. However, we observed that not every enrichment activity was checked. When we asked management about it, they said that it was unclear if staff simply forgot to check the box or if the activity did not occur. This poses a problem because management does not have enough information to determine if they need additional staff to complete the work or if staff need to be reminded to check the box.
Recommendation #14: Comprehensively study total staffing needs, and advocate to the Board of County Commissioners for increased staffing as necessary to help protect the health of the animals in shelter care.
This includes:
- Increasing staffing for cleaning and feeding to meet National Animal Care & Control Association guidelines.
- Ensuring adequate staffing to provide the shelter’s animals with daily enrichment and consistently prompt behavioral health care.
Auditor's note: At the request of Animal Services, the Board of County Commissioners approved 10 new full-time positions for the fiscal year 2024 budget.
We looked at staff and volunteer hours dedicated to cleaning and feeding for the months of May and June 2024. We found May to be, on average, adequately staffed to meet national guidelines, but when animal numbers increased in June, Animal Services did not have enough staff.
In May, Animal Services typically had more staffing hours than needed on Wednesdays, and was typically understaffed to meet the guidelines for Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays.
Animal Services did not fully staff their Animal Technician 1 positions, which are largely responsible for cleaning and feeding, until June. The number of animals in care typically increases beginning in the summer months, and even with the additional staffing Animal Services did not have enough staff to meet the guidelines. Animal Services was typically understaffed every day except for Wednesdays.
The Animal Technicians that we interviewed said that they generally have enough time to feed the animals and clean their housing, but mentioned challenges when understaffed.
See Recommendation #12 for enrichment.
New audit recommendation
Spay and neuter all eligible animals prior to adoption
This was not a recommendation from our previous audit, but it recently came to our attention that Animal Services is not spaying or neutering all animals before being adopted. In our previous audits, Animal Services was spaying and neutering animals prior to adoption. According to the Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters, animal shelters should spay and neuter all pets before adoption. If a shelter is unable to do so, they must have a system to ensure the surgery is occurring soon after adoption.
Animal Services’ has had fewer veterinary staff in recent years and has been unable to spay and neuter all animals before adoption. They began giving vouchers to pet adopters that could be used to have their pet spayed or neutered at participating community vet clinics. Animal Services does not follow up with pet owners to make sure they have spayed or neutered their pets. Animal Services is expected to increase vet hours this year, but it will still be well below vet hours in 2021 and earlier.
To determine how well the voucher process is working, we sent a survey to people who adopted pets from Multnomah County Animal Services from March 1, 2023 through February 29, 2024. We asked if people’s pets had been spayed or neutered at the time of adoption. Only 48% said yes. Of those who adopted an unaltered animal, 68% said they used the voucher to have their pet spayed or neutered. Some pet owners experienced difficulties with the voucher, such as long waiting lists, which may have contributed to a lower spay and neuter rate. Additionally, some said that they did not receive a voucher.
We recommend that Animal Services spay and neuter all eligible animals prior to adoption by March 1, 2025.
Objectives, Scope, & Methodology
The objectives of this evaluation were to determine the status of recommendations from the 2016 Audit of Multnomah County Animal Services and the 2018 report Animal Services: Important issues still need to be resolved.
Auditors evaluated the status of recommendations based on interviews, documentation, and visits to the Multnomah County Animal Shelter.
Updating the Status of a Recommendation
During each audit our office conducts, we develop recommendations intended to improve government operations, particularly with regard to effectiveness, transparency, accountability, and equity. Our goal for evaluating the status of recommendations is to help ensure management implements these recommendations for improvement.
We recognize that after we publish an evaluation on the status of recommendations, management may fully implement a recommendation that we reported was in process or not implemented. Management can then provide evidence to the Auditor demonstrating why the recommendation’s status should be changed in the Auditor’s future reporting. The final decision on whether to change any recommendation’s status rests with the Auditor.
Staff
Dani Bernstein, Management Auditor
Nicole Dewees, Audit Director
