Category: Personnel

Training Made Possible by SASF

Posted on by Carol Eicher

By Ann Graves, SAS executive director. Published 2018/04/06.

With the new year a memory and 2018 unfolding quickly before us I wanted to pause for a minute or two and express my gratitude to the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation for the training funds made available to our team in 2017. Training brings us information, builds new skills and when it is combined with meeting people outside of our own shelter or workplace, is instrumental in exchanging information and building relationships.

In October 2017, I attended the National Animal Care & Control Association Conference in Virginia Beach, Va. There I had the honor of opening the conference at the invitation of the NACA Board of Directors. While I was acting director of SAS, I had asked them to host a roundtable at some point during the conference where others who were interested could simply meet and converse about our profession, experiences, challenges and opportunities in an open forum. I made this request because in my new role I continually found myself wishing I knew what others were experiencing and felt the opportunity to connect with colleagues and peers at the conference was too good to pass up. The NACA board was so receptive to the idea they invited me to open the conference in lieu of a keynote speaker and we had a group discussion that included animal care and control professionals from across the country. It was an amazing opportunity and to hear a few hundred people talk to each other about their experiences, challenges and opportunities was an experience I will treasure. Throughout the rest of the conference I was approached by people who expressed appreciation for the dialogue as we all attended classes and learned from the experiences of our peers.

In November 2017, I attended the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators Conference in Miami, Fl. This was the first SAWA conference I have attended and while there I found myself surrounded by leaders in the field of animal welfare including Lisa LaFontaine, President and CEO of Humane Rescue Alliance, Matt Bershadker, President and CEO of the ASPCA, Steven Feldman, Executive Director of the Human Animal Bond Research Institute and many others. I was also able to spend time with colleagues from Washington and worked to renew and build relationships with colleagues from PAWS in Lynnwood and the Humane Society of SW Washington. Some of the topics presented at the conference included “Beyond Labels II: The Future of Animal Welfare”, “Evolution of the Animal Welfare Movement: Meeting the Needs of Rapidly Changing Communities” and a day long symposium covering topics of current research capped off the most informative, inspirational conference I have attended in my career.

These are two of many opportunities for our team at SAS to attend various trainings locally and nationally in 2017. We also brought training directly to our team, so all could benefit including Crisis Intervention Training specifically tailored to our professional needs. On behalf of all of us at SAS I want to express our gratitude for your support and our commitment to bringing the information, skills and knowledge with us each day that we come to work as we continue to strive for excellence in all we do to serve our community and for the benefit of the animals in our care.

Gratefully yours,
Ann

Meet Dr. Jenn

Posted on by Carol Eicher

This month we get to meet Dr. Jenn who is helping set a new course for animal care at SAS. Back in December, we introduced her colleague Dr. Sarah, and this veterinarian duo is bringing the Shelter Clinic and Spay and Neuter Clinic together to best serve the animals in the care of SAS and the greater Seattle community.

Jennifer C. Bennett, DVM, MS, Medical Director/Senior Veterinarian

How long you’ve been with SAS and role:
I started the end of October 2017, just now into my 4th month here!

What was your path that got you to animal welfare work?
I started out in private practice for the first 5 years after veterinary school in an area near my hometown in northern California. This area is very rural and suffered from one of the highest shelter kill rates in the state. My local county animal shelter was looking into forming a veterinary service team and a spay/neuter clinic and I was asked to come in and get things off the ground because of my ties to the local community and experience with animals of all species, which was important in a rural area. I started at Lake County Animal Care & Control in 2013 and spent two years there helping to build the surgery and medicine program as their Medical Director, and we were very proud to have dropped our euthanasia rates down by more than 50% and it continued to drop. We also started a free TNR program for community cats and an ASPCA and other local grants allowed us to have ongoing very low cost pitbull spay/neuter surgeries. In the spring of 2015 I relocated to the Seattle area with my family for my husband’s work and immediately began to seek out the local shelter and spay/neuter groups to become involved with. I spent over a year as the Lead Veterinarian at Purrfect Pals in Arlington, and became a regular surgeon at NOAH in Stanwood and full-time relief Veterinarian for the City of Everett in 2017. As a relief (fill-in) shelter veterinarian, I was forture to also be able to provide surgery and medicine services to Emerald City Pet Rescue, PAWS, Wenatchee Valley Humane Society and the Feral Cat Spay/Neuter Project, while getting to know so many of the folks in our field that make shelter and rescue possible in the PNW. For me, shelter medicine is so rewarding because it allows me to provide immediate care and assistance to animals in need and put my skills to use on a level that often requires fast and practical thinking with creative use of resources. I also love surgery and this is a large part of a shelter veterinarian’s job as well.

How did you get to SAS?
I spent last year as a full-time relief veterinarian, taking time to learn about the local organizations and opportunities. When I heard about the opening at SAS last fall, I was excited about the opportunity for some new directions here, merging the shelter medicine program with the spay/neuter clinic program and bringing together a new veterinary team to serve the animals. I was excited when Ann brought me on board and we’ve been working closely together on this goal every since.

What is a typical day like?
I rotate my days on the surgery service with days on the medicine service. In surgery, we usually start at 7:#0am checking in animals, doing pre-op exams and getting them prepped for surgery. Then I am typically in surgery from 9am until 2 or 3pm, whenever our schedule is completed and everyone wakes up. I work on surgery reports and aftercare instructions, usually have a few management meetings and projects to work on into the evening. On the medicine service, we usually start at 10am, start by answering foster and shelter emails, refill medications and food requests, look over and interpret lab results, update Pet Point notes and plans. We hold shelter wide health rounds at noon, where we go through all animals in the shelter and make notes of any healthcare needs with the Animal Care team. Tehn from about 1-5pm we perform exams, see shelter animals, perform treatments and procedures as needed, see foster animal appointments when scheduled, and answer lots of questions! End of the day is usually more emails, notes into Pet Point, ordering stock for the clinic, and many other administrative tasks. It’s not unusual for me to leave late into the night.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Finding ways to make our services more accessible, more efficient, and more effective for all parties involved. And lately, adding new equipment to our repitoire!

As you are relatively new to SAS, what are you looking forward to most?
Getting to the point where our spay/neuter clinic joins the ranks of “high volume” in terms of surgery capacity and where we have a fully functioning in-hosue set of diagnostic equipment, which we are actively working on setting up and installing, with creative use of space.

Who are your pets at home?
I have one older horse, a 27 year old fjord gelding named Spanker who is now retired from parades and 4-H demonstration days, an alpaca named Teddy, two Border Collies (Califa and Panda) and an Akbash named Scout. I also have two cats, Sampson and Edgar, who are both from rescue groups. We used to raise and breed Cheviot sheep until this past fall, so our dogs are all working ranch dogs. We are currently downsizing our furry family in order to focus on all the activities our human family brings. My husband, Leo, and I have two children: Liam is 6 years old and Lorelei is 15 months. We have a 5 acre ranch in Monroe.

What are favorite activities outside of SAS?
Vacations to visit family, especially to southern Chile where my husband is from. We also love road trips and seeing nature. I am a life-long horseback rider and enjoy trail trials and team penning work. We also spend a lot of time at our local YMCA being active together as a family.

In closing…
I’m really excited to step into this new and challenging role here at SAS. I know there are a few uphill climbs ahead and I want to ask for and continue to thank you all for your patience as we go through some staff changes and growing pains in how we do things. We are working hard to streamline our veterinary services for the benefit of our shelter animals.

New Medical Team at SAS

Posted on by Carol Eicher

With the retirement of Dr. MaryEllen Zoulas and Dr. Nick moving back to the east coast, it opened the door for a new team of veterinarians to come aboard at the Seattle Animal Shelter and set a new course for animal care. Now under the care of new veterinarians Dr. Jenn and Dr. Sarah, the shelter is bringing the operations of both the Spay and Neuter Clinic and Shelter Clinic together to best serve the animals in the care of the SAS and the community. They will also be guiding the buildout of Ziva’s X-ray Suite which was funded at SASF’s Annual Raining Cats & Dogs gala event and we’ll share more about that soon. This issue, we’ll meet Dr. Sarah and in the first issue of 2018, we’ll introduce Dr. Jenn.

Sarah Mantovani, DVM Associate Shelter Veterinarian

How long you’ve been with SAS and role: 2 ½ months

What was your path that got you to animal welfare work? I worked alongside the vet at San Francisco Animal Care and Control prior to going to Vet school. I also did externships while finishing vet school at San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, San Diego Humane and Yolo County Animal Services. For the last 10 years, I worked with the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (HSVMA) Veterinary Field Services, which is known more commonly as Rural Area Veterinary Services (RAVS).

How did you get to SAS? We relocated to the Washington area for my husband’s work and I started looking at openings at local municipal shelters.

What is a typical day like? Busy busy busy. Somedays it’s spay and neuter in the morning and taking care of shelter animals in the afternoon. Some days it’s all working on medicine with the shelter animals. We do our best to make their stay more comfortable and safe.

What is the most rewarding part of your job? Seeing an animal walk out healthy and happy with their new adopted family. Being able to take in animals from public with no where else to go and make them feel better, giving them a new lease on life. And also being able to take pain and suffering away in a peaceful, loving and humane way. As hard as it is, I don’t take it lightly that sometimes I am the last face this animal will see. I always try to make it as stress free and kind as I can.

Who are your pets at home? Guinevere (Guinny) a Golden Retriever from Homeward Bound Golden Retriever Rescue; Leonadis (Leo) a GSD from Bay Area German Shepherd Rescue; IT a domestic short hair cat who showed up in our bushes at 6 weeks old and couldn’t find an owner. We named him IT because we didn’t think we were going to keep him and were certain he already had a home. This was 6 years ago.

What are favorite activities outside of SAS? Music, theater, snowboarding, scary movies

Mary Ellen Zoulas DVM: SAS’ Pioneering Veterinarian Retires after 35 years of Service to Animals

Posted on by Carol Eicher

Just 4.2 years is the median time people stay with an employer today according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Given that, it’s with a bit of awe and a lot of thanks that we recognize the August 2 retirement and the 35 years of service of the Seattle Animal Shelter’s medical director Dr. Mary Ellen Zoulas DVM. She was a true pioneer in the world of spaying and neutering and shelter medicine in general.

For a bit of history, on Nov. 8, 1978, the voters of Seattle passed by a large margin, Initiative 16, relating to a City Spay and Neuter Clinic. Despite opposition from veterinarians, the clinic was opened in 1982. Dr. Zoulas was hired July 13, 1982 by the Seattle Animal Shelter, and was the only permanent, full-time veterinarian since.

When Dr. Zoulas helped open the SAS Spay & Neuter Clinic in 1982, the shelter was euthanizing more than 8,000 animals a year. At that time, only animals over 6 months of age were altered when they were adopted. Animals younger than that were sent home unaltered with a request to come back for surgery when they turned 6 months of age. You may not be surprised to learn that at least half of the female cats had a litter before they came back for surgery.

Dr. Zoulas’ early career was during a time when shelter veterinary medicine and shelter spay/neuter programs were not well supported within her own profession. In 1989, under the care and guidance of Dr. Zoulas, SAS started its prepubertal spay/neuter program for dogs and cats, one of the first in the country. According to Dr. Zoulas, “Fortunately SAS went ahead with the program, learned that not only we could safely perform the surgery, but the animals recovered much more quickly than adult animals. Plus, euthanasia rates dropped by 75 percent and the rate has continued to fall year after year.”

In 2001, Dr. Zoulas proposed the Pet Population Control Fund as a tax-deductible donation fund for charitable giving to help subsidize spay/neuter surgeries for those in need of assistance, ensuring all who seek spay/neuter surgeries for their animals can have it done. Every year, she promoted and supported World Spay Day. In the past, the clinic has offered free spay/neuter surgeries for the entire week.

Dr. Zoulas’ three and a half decades of pioneering service, innovation and commitment to the care and wellbeing of shelter animals will be a tough act to follow, but sets the course as the Seattle Animal Shelter looks to continue to drive progressive change in the shelter world. And thanks to generous contributions from donors like you to the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation, SAS has been able to support more community outreach programs and spay/neuter services to pet owners and animals in need. This important work will continue, and we thank and recognize Dr. Zoulas for her countless contributions to the Seattle community, animals too numerous to count and to the greater US shelter and veterinarian communities by championing the importance of spay/neuter and shelter medicine programs.

Humane Officer Ride Along Experience

Posted on by Carol Eicher

Delivering unexpected and unique experiences is a key part of the live auction at the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation’s Raining Cats and Dogs event. The Seattle Animal Shelter Humane Officer Ride Along is one of those items offered and the lucky winner in 2016 was Pete Segall who took time to share about his experience. Pete and his wife Heather Dolin have been supporters of SASF for years and really enjoy coming to the Raining Cats and Dogs auction year after year and supporting the work of the foundation to benefit the cats, dogs and critters of the Seattle Animal Shelter.

Pete was teamed up with Kevin Mack, SAS Humane Animal Law Enforcement Officer since 2014, for the opportunity to experience first-hand the vital work the team does every day. Officer Mack is one of 11 current officers who work to rescue and keep Seattle’s animals safe.

“Officer Mack provided a very interesting ride along experience as he was so knowledgeable about animals as well as wildlife and was great at sharing that with me,” said Pete Segall, ride along winner. “Plus, I didn’t think I’d get to see a bald eagle in person.”

Before the eagle rescue though, Pete caught up with Officer Mack at SAS to review the call sheet for the day. After prepping the truck, the first assignment was to take a shelter dog to a partnering veterinary clinic for some care. One thing to note here is that with the continuing build out of SAS’ shelter medicine program, thanks to funding from SASF grants, in the future, dogs won’t need transport to outside clinics. And this is because of generous SASF donors.

Next on the list was to do a follow-up visit regarding a bite quarantine. They visited the family where the neighbor’s dog had bit a young boy. Despite repeated guidance not to stick his hand through the fence, the boy did, and he was unfortunately bit as the dog felt the need to protect his yard. They took statements from the parents and neighbors. The parents of the boy felt that it was their son’s fault and not the dog’s. After getting updated statements from both parties, it was time to move onto the next case. But Pete and Officer Mack were rerouted to the View Ridge area of SW Seattle, for what proved to be the most unexpected case of the day: rescuing a majestic bald eagle. For background, a woman was driving and heard a thump against her door and saw what she thought was a bald eagle. Turns out, it was.

After arriving on scene, they found crows pestering the stunned eagle on the side of the road. Officer Mack suspected that the eagle was likely tracking prey and was so distracted, he didn’t see the car. Through his past work with PAWS, Officer Mack has extensive experience with bald eagles and returning them to the wild. Pete shared a fun fact he learned from Kevin that male eagles are 30 percent smaller than female eagles. After getting the eagle stabilized, they took him up to PAWS which takes wildlife cases from SAS. Fortunately, he didn’t have serious injuries and was able to be released into the wild after a few days.

“It was a fun experience, especially seeing the inner workings of Humane Officers daily life on the road,” said Pete. ‘’My expectations were surpassed and I learned a lot.” He’d recommend people keep an eye out for the Ride Along experience at the Raining Cats and Dogs auction on October 14.

In addition to supporting SASF, Pete has volunteered since 2009 with another shelter close to his work where he’s part of the adoption support team. He and Heather have also fostered dogs and had their own. After losing their dog Angel at age 18.5, a terrier mix who ran the house, in December 2016, they found their house was too quiet without a dog. They recently adopted an 11-year-old half-blind dog named Porter, a Havanese mix. Pete described him as a sweet guy who’s very smart, acts like a Roomba, is cuddly and just wants to hang out with them. Porter’s previous family had a change in circumstances and had to give him up and through friends and Facebook, he thankfully found his forever home with Pete and Heather. And SASF is thankful to donors like Pete and Heather who are great supporters of the foundation’s work as well as give their time to support shelter and rescue animals.