Public Meeting Assignment #2

On September 25th 2008 I was able to attend the Animal Services meeting held in downtown Tampa. During these gatherings they must have at least one member from the Humane Society and at least one member from the Veterinary Medical Society on hand. Connie Johnson was the Chairwomen of the event I attended and presided over the various discussions that were had. In attendance were several of the commissioner’s delegates including Joni Stokes, and Megan Hendricks along with Holly O’Brien, President of the Human Society. Dennis Mccullough, the active director of the Hillsborough County Animal Services, was also in attendance and provided a lot of the information that was discussed at this meeting.

Mccullough started things off by talking about a van that was recently purchased, at no cost to the tax payers, and was on it’s was to Philadelphia for a new paint job. This van, paid for by the The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, will be called 9 lives and will go around providing various animal services needs in the community. He also stated they have recently got some volunteers that are trying to find out why the vaccine vouchers are not being used throughout the community. Those volunteers will be speaking at the next Animal Services meeting to go over their findings and try to help correct this ever growing problem. Also announced was that on October 1st they are hosting a kid safe program at an elementary school in Wimauma aimed at teaching kids how to approach animals correctly as well as how to take care of animals. Also staring on October 1st the days to drop off either abandoned or stray pets will be narrowed down to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. In addition to that, going forward all persons dropping off a pet will be asked to filled out a form stating weather it is a stray or not. This will help determine how many people are truly giving up their pets versus bringing in strays. Mccullough also let it be known that TruTv, formerly known as Real TV, is shooting an episode of Animal Court here in the Tampa Bay area. They did not let it be known when it will air but the dates and times will be posted online once provided. Lastly Mccullough stated that every kennel ran by animal services now has a bed. Over three hundred beds were bought and paid for by Bob Rainer and the animals are trilled with not having to lie on the floor anymore.

Holly O’Brien then presented Sherri Silk, Executive Director of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, to talk about a free shot clinic for cats and dogs on January 10th 2009. This clinic will be at Sulphur Springs Park and will include free pet licenses, which are required in Hillsborough County. The announcement of this event lead to some lively debate about how they are going to verify that they are only offering these “free services” to people that really need help. This was not the idea of the city or the county it was the result of a study done by the University of Florida and they stated this is something that this area really needed. The argument of the veterinaries in attendance was that their clients do not access to this free service so why should others get this special treatment. The board ultimately stated to them that this was going too happened regardless of what they thought and that this would not hurt their business in any way as no money would be driven away by this event.

Once the proceedings ended I was able to interview several members of the board along with some attendees. Most notably I was able to speak with Joni Stokes who revealed to me that every time they try to do something good for the community the veterinarian society makes it difficult by interjecting how their actions would negatively impact their bottom line. She did not express any private concerns that this free shot clinic would be in danger of not happening because it is out of the veterinaries control. Sherry Silk also took the time to talk to me and expressed excitement about this upcoming event and revealed that she was a part of an event just like this in Detroit and it was a huge success. She provided me with her phone # (813) 774-4309 and told me to give her a call if I knew of anyone that could ever use her services at the Humane Society. All in all it was a unique experience and it is really refreshing to see that there are so many people willing to give their time, effort and money to such a worth cause. I really enjoyed my experience and look forward to my next opportunity to sit in on a public meeting.