Category: Personnel

Meet Arlene Ehrlich, an Account Tech III at the Seattle Animal Shelter who has a 20-year history with the shelter. With a tenure starting as a volunteer in 1998, Arlene has dedicated decades to the animals. Next time you’re at the shelter, say hi to her at the Licensing office.

Time and roles with SAS:

I started working at SAS in 2006, but I started volunteering here in 1998; I think I was one of the first 10 volunteers! I started out on the digital team (not sure if it was even considered a team yet), and then was a matchmaker and dog walker. After taking some kittens home to foster, I became the first official foster cat team leader. What was supposed to be a temporary assignment of getting the foster cat program up and running ended up lasting a couple of years. Coincidentally, Sandy Hansen, who just retired from SAS, was also a volunteer at the time and became my co-team leader. At some point I started fostering dogs. I took home a sweet little pit bull puppy to foster, fell in love and subsequently adopted her. She changed my life because I also fell in love with the breed. I became more and more involved with pit bull rescue and advocacy. I fostered for other local rescue organizations and volunteered for Pit Bull Rescue Central. I screened adoption applicants, served on a committee that granted money to low income folks for veterinary care, and served on their board as treasurer. After a little hiatus I came back to SAS and case managed the SAS foster pit bulls and fostered a few more SAS dogs myself. In 2006 there was an opening in the licensing department at SAS and the timing was right. It seemed like the perfect combination of my accounting skills and passion for animals. I fortunately got the job and have been there ever since.

Path that got you to animal welfare work:

I’ve always been a big animal lover, especially dogs. I actually have some old school work where I drew a map of the dog boarding kennel I hoped to open someday. I also remember being the one that trained one of our family dogs, a rescued German shepherd named Penny. I live very close to the shelter and decided to stop by and visit and became very interested in volunteering. After several unsuccessful attempts to contact someone about becoming a volunteer, I decided to stop by again. This time I was asked if I could start volunteering right there on the spot! I helped photograph some animals for the website and the rest is history.

A typical day:

My typical day involves a variety of tasks, which is one of the things I really like about it. The licensing office handles all of the financial transactions involving the shelter. If it has anything to do with money, it’s processed in our office, including all of the licensing payments that we receive, whether it be via the mail, online, other city offices, or one of our many other sales partners. I also process all of the bills we receive for payment. The mornings before we open are quiet and a good time to focus on things that require uninterrupted attention. Once the shelter opens at 1PM, the day is sometimes crazy busy as we also process all of the payments for adoptions and redemptions, and our phones often ring off the hook. We also frequently reunite pets with their owners when the only identification they’re wearing is their pet license. The finders call us to see if we can identify the pet.

Most rewarding part of job:

The most rewarding part of my job is seeing how excited people are when they’re adopting, or how thankful and relieved they are when they’re reunited with a lost pet. I love watching the adopters walk out of the building beaming as “new parents.”

Memorable animals:

It’s hard to say because each animal is special in its own way. One of the most memorable was Bessie, who my previous co-worker Suellen ended up adopting. She was an older pit bull that hung out in our office prior to being adopted. She had a lot of physical challenges, but she was the sweetest dog ever.

Personal Pets:

I have a cat named Rocket that I adopted in 2000 that just turned 18. I took him, his siblings and his mother home to foster during the time I was running the cat foster program. The others got adopted but he never left. He’s literally the best and sweetest cat ever!! My dog Mia who I took home to foster a year later and she just turned 17! They are both hard of hearing and a little senile and I’m cherishing every day I get to spend with them.

Favorite activities outside of SAS:

I love to travel, and planning the trips are almost as much fun as actually going on them! Warm weather beach vacations are probably my favorite, but I love big cities and history as well. My husband has a lot of relatives in Sweden so we try to do a “combo” trip to Sweden along with another destination in Europe. With my animals so elderly I haven’t been traveling much lately, but we operate a vacation rental, so I get to help other people with their trips instead.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I am so proud to work for an organization that keeps striving to improve the lives of the animals and community that we serve. I’ve seen so much change over the past 20 years that even when we have little setbacks or things seem to be changing slowly, I think about how far we’ve come. I would also like people to know that it’s important to license your pets! Not only does it keep our pets safer in the event they get lost, the licensing revenue also contributes to the daily operations of the shelter.

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.

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

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.