Saskia Boisot, founder of NKSA, criticizes the killing of dog A1441672 at OCAC despite many dogs being adopted at a recent event. Boisot argues OCAC inaccurately labels dogs as aggressive and unsuitable for adoption. Additionally, Supervisor Bartlett has personally rescued dogs labeled incorrectly by OCAC as showing aggression. Despite evidence provided by NKSA of issues at OCAC, the organization continues to kill animals while having almost 200 empty kennels. Boisot calls for a moratorium on empty cage killing at OCAC as the only meaningful change that will engage the community and shift the shelter's paradigm.

1. My name is Saskia Boisot, and I am a physician, and I am here today as the founder of NKSA. This past
weekend, a heavily publicized adoption event sponsored by you, supervisor Spitzer, was held at OCAC. I
believe something on the order of x dogs were adopted during the two days, and by the beginning of the
week, only 3 dogs were left on the available for adoption list. Yet despite this, OCAC felt the need to kill
A1441672, a 2 year old female pitbull mix we posthumously named Sia, while you were right in the
vicinity socializing with your constituents. OCAC will tell you she was aggressive, and therefore not
suitable for public adoption, and even possibly a threat to public safety. However, we have supplied you
with countless examples of the staff's incompetence in accurately ascertaining animal behavior. In fact,
you, supervisor Bartlett have personally been involved in rescuing 3 dogs that were inappropriately
labeled by OCAC as aggressive, and not one of these dogs have subsequently shown signs of said
behavior challenges upon leaving the shelter.
Since our first appearance at the BOS meeting in September, not only have we provided a litany of
examples of egregiousness and incompetence by the OCAC management, but we have bombarded
supervisor Bartlett's office with a slew of educational materials from progressive shelters and animal
welfare organizations. Additionally, we have orchestrated introductions with the heads of two of the most
innovative shelters in the nation, San Diego and Austin. Yet despite offers of free evaluations by both,
you chose to move forward with a $150k contract with JVR shelter associates, in the absence of any
RFP, and have completely ignored our vehement written objections to this.
When are you going to start actually looking at the mountain of evidence and raw data we and countless
others keep putting in front of you? How much longer are you going to continue to indulge Dr Hawkins
touting a live-release rate of 94% when it has been clearly established to be false?
It doesn't matter how many adoption drives or spay/neuter events you sponsor, and most of all it doesn't
matter if you build a fancy new facility. As long as the killing of animals continues while the shelter stands
with almost 200 empty kennels at any given time, it will always be perceived as a killing machine, and you
will NEVER succeed in engaging the community. As I mentioned last time I was here, a radical paradigm
shift is required at OCAC, and as far a we are concerned, not a single concession towards this has been
made thus far. At this time, the only meaningful gesture would be a moratorium on empty cage
killing. Until this occurs, there is no more open discussion to be had.