FRUIT HEIGHTS — The expanding population base isn’t the only sort of growth that’s got Davis County officials searching for answers.

With an uptick in stray animals and owners surrendering their pets, Animal Care of Davis County, the sole animal shelter in the county, is crunched for space and money. It’s prompted plans to build a new $15-million shelter and has Davis County commissioners weighing a property tax hike to keep pace with the rising cost of caring for the critters.

County Commissioner Lorene Kamalu pointed to the doubling up of dogs in kennels at the shelter at times, which is just one indicator of the issues at play. That isn’t ideal for the canines and also prompts distress among their human caretakers.

Animal Care has new facility in the works. Click here for more information

Please view Press Release here.

Please view Press Release here.

Associated images can be found here:

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With an amazing community of caring residents and a robust TNR program, Animal Care of Davis County gained "No Kill" status in 2022 by Best Friends Animal Society. Click here to read more!

Are you ready to make an animal's summer dreams come true? Host a dog for Summer Camp in your own home! Click here for more information!

The pets in our community need your help now more than ever. Please click here to see how you can answer this call to action!

We're excited to announce significant updates to our adoption process that'll help make us even better at saving the lives of dogs, cats, and other adoptable pets in Davis County. Click here to read about the exciting changes!

Lost dog and cat numbers are currently up in Davis County over previous years. Please click here to find out how to help!

Last week, Lead ACO Winberg and Field Supervisor Smith responded to a welfare call in regards to 50+ birds in poor conditions. 

You can read more about the situation here.

Sydney Larrabee Named Deputy Director of Animal Care of Davis County

“I’m excited for some of the changes we’re going to work toward in the coming months.”

FRUIT HEIGHTS, UT- On May 13th, Sydney Larrabee (pictured left, with shelter dog "Diggie") was appointed as the new Deputy Director of Animal Care of Davis County (ACDC). Her role is to support the Director, Ashleigh Young, and oversee operations of the department in addition to managing the Field Supervisor, Shelter Supervisor, and Office Manager.

“Some of the changes to look towards include increasing the amount of support we’re able to offer the pet owners in our community. Like many animal welfare organizations, we’re looking at moving toward a more community-based model. We’ll be working hard to provide things like low-cost vaccine clinics to the areas of our community that need it the most. We also want to equip our ACOs with support tools when they respond to calls in the community.”

Deputy Director Larrabee started out at Animal Care of Davis County in high school where she was involved with a six-month internship program. She worked alongside the shelter technicians and staff members at ACDC. She was then hired on as a shelter technician in 2017 and moved within ACDC to become an Animal Control Officer in 2018. For the past three years, her role was the Shelter Services Supervisor. Throughout her ACDC journey and years, she spent time covering for the adoptions’ specialist, dispatchers, and performing duties as front desk personnel. Looking at her robust resume, she has worked in just about every position of the shelter in some capacity. 

“We are enthusiastically looking forward to the talent, expertise and leadership that Sydney will bring to Animal Care in her new role," said Ashleigh Young, director of Animal Care of Davis County. "Her years of experience in the animal welfare industry and strong collaborations with community partners are key elements that will contribute greatly to our efforts of achieving innovation and best practices in the near future."

Sydney lives in Davis County with her 9 and a half year old American Staffordshire, Dublin. She actually adopted Dublin from ACDC in 2014. Ever since, she has spoiled him and spent time with him every chance she gets when she isn’t working. 

To all our wonderful volunteers,

        Every day I am inspired by your dedication, commitment, care and love for the animals that you work with at Animal Care of Davis County. Your passion and focus for each of our animals can be seen in their behavior, wellness and their playfulness while in our care. Our high adoption rates are greatly in part to your commitment and dedication to the homeless pets of Davis County and words cannot express our appreciation! 

To our Animal Care Volunteers, thank you for taking such good care of our animals. We so appreciate our volunteers who go above and beyond to make sure our animals are in a safe, clean and welcoming environment. Your focus on their health and happiness comes through everyday as we see our animals enjoying their temporary homes. Our cats curled up in personalized condos, our dogs enjoying that extra toy chosen specifically for them or the bunny interacting with the enrichment you provided.

To our Dog Walking Volunteers, thank you for the time, dedication and care you give to the dogs at our facility. We can see just how much of an impact you have on each of them when you go to their kennel doors, leash in hand, ready to take them on a fun walk outside. Seeing the impact that you have just sitting in the hallway outside a shy dog’s kennel and watching that dog grow ever more confident is such a great experience.

A special thank you to our Cat and Small Animal Volunteers for taking the time to learn what each cat is working on and being there with them as they work their own journey on the way to adoption. It is such an important role. We may see you sitting outside a condo of a nervous cat, you may not see them as they are still hiding, but just being there, talking with them can make such an enormous difference. Thank you for being there with them!

To our Foster Volunteers, thank you for helping the pets in our care find the perfect fur-ever home. Your attention to the needs, personality and care of each of your foster pets is admirable as it helps our animals find the perfect family match. Thank you for going above and beyond, always ready to help and always focused on giving each of our animals’ extra attention. The animals in Davis County are so lucky to have you there helping them find their homes!

To our Community and Events Volunteers, thank you for always being open to helping at our many events, and callouts. Our events would not be able to run as smoothly as they do without your help and dedication. Whether it is behind the scenes planning and prepping to being front in center answering questions and providing support. We see you and we appreciate everything that you do!

To our Marketing and Photography Volunteers thank you for lending your creative spirit to our organization!  From helping with social media, taking beautiful photos of our animals, or designing programs and marketing materials for us, we are so thankful that you have offered to lend your time and talents.  You answer our call outs for help and are always keen to jump in - we are so thankful!

To all volunteers on behalf of all of our staff at Animal Care, we are forever grateful for the work that each of you do. We are one team, one family, focused on providing the best care for the animals in our communities! Our Shelter could not do what we do without each and every one of you and I thank you for choosing to be part of our family. We are so lucky to work with each of you.

Talk soon,

 ---

Ashleigh Young

Director | Animal Care of Davis County

Ashleigh Young started at Animal Care in June of 2020 as the Operations Manager. In April of 2021, she was promoted to Deputy Director of Animal Care after an intensive nation-wide search and interviewing process. She then served as Interim Director in June of 2021 when previous Director Rollin Cook resigned. She was then appointed to Director by the Davis County Commission just last month.

Prior to working at Animal Care of Davis County, Ashleigh served in numerous capacities within shelters over the past ten years, including as a Kennel Manager, Foster Coordinator, and her very first role in animal welfare as a Shelter Technician. Ashleigh has really "earned her stripes" working up the ranks in animal welfare.

'" have come through the organization and have touched a lot of different functions within Animal Services as an actual doer. A really wise leader once told me that every single day is a job interview. I have taken that to heart and will continue to work hard for the animals entrusted in our care and the staff/volunteers here at Animal Care."

Ashleigh hopes her tenure will curb what has been a recent history of rapidly-rotating leadership at the shelter, build better community and city relations, and open the door to an improved facility.

She has stated that "at the core of current needs is a new animal shelter. The physical structure of the present facility (built more than 50 years ago) is a 'huge constraint'. While the entity's scope has expanded, it's space has become metaphorically smaller. The more things that we're trying to do, the less space we have to do them".

There are new programs the shelter has implemented or wants to implement. This includes the new community cat program, a Foster Care program, and a very strong volunteer program.

"And just the logistics of trying to figure out where to stick all these new people is also an issue".

She explains that the other problems within the current facility include the air conditioning systems, which are currently not conducive for the Utah summers and that the facility becomes too hot for the animals and staff.

Young says she knows stability and transparency is essential to Animal Care of Davis County's success, as is building - or in some cases, rebuilding - the community's trust.

"One of my biggest goals is to make sure the public knows what we say is what we're doing, and if they have any questions about why we're making decisions, then I have an open door".

Ashleigh said she wants the relationship between Animal Care of Davis County and the community to be one of mutual support.

"It's not an animal services issue that we're in, it's a community issue. And without community support, and community help, we're never going to succeed. That's something that I think we really need to build on".

 

As an open-intake municipal shelter, we are mandated to take all domestic pets that come to us from within Davis County. Unfortunately, sometimes the animals that come to us require extensive medical treatment, like little Fisher here.

Fisher, the 6 week old Doodle puppy (pictured) came to us as an owner-surrender. He was attacked by the resident dog in the home, resulting in a ruptured eyeball and multiple skull fractures.  His treatment and care was a little more than his new family bargained for and he was relinquished to ACDC.

ACDC rushed him to the vet and after four days of hospitalization at Mountain West Veterinary Specialists, and with a long list of medications for his foster parent to administer every few hours, Fisher came home. 

Instead of being in a kennel, we moved Fisher immediately into a caring foster home where he could be monitored and given tons of TLC. Fisher still has a tough road ahead of him and the reality is, he may be completely blind - but he's in a home environment, not a shelter, and he’s thriving!

The best part? Euthanasia was never an option for Fisher. If our Interim Director, Ashleigh, couldn't take him, we were prepared to contact other foster families or rescue groups to take him and provide care for sweet, little Fisher. 

We are dedicated to doing the best we can for the pets we serve, and we give thanks to our adopters, volunteers, rescue partners and community advocates who help us make a difference for homeless pets in Davis County. 

If you'd like to follow Fisher's progress, check our Facebook page, Animal Care of Davis County, for weekly updates and information. 

Farmington, Utah – (September 03, 2019) Today, a vote by the Board of Davis County Commissioners approved a resolution supporting Davis County Animal Care and Control (DCACC) moving towards Socially Conscious Animal Sheltering as a new expression of their operating practices.  The best practices in this model were developed in part as a response to the negative consequences that no-kill sheltering practices can create.  Socially Conscious Sheltering can be viewed as a Davis County county move to ensure public safety and improve the lives of pets and animals.   

“While most people mean well in their attempts to change public policy around how we care for homeless pets, sometimes good intentions lead to unintended suffering for the very pets that people are trying to protect.”  (WWW.SCSHELTERING.ORG/ABOUT)

In order to meet an arbitrary live-release rate in the no-kill movement, shelters are often forced to refuse the admission to animals that they cannot subsequently adopt or transfer.  One of the primary tenets of Socially Conscious Animal Sheltering is to ensure every unwanted or homeless pet has a safe place to go for shelter and care. DCACC has and will continue to admit every animal that comes from within our jurisdiction into our care and is committed to finding the best path forward for that pet.

For these reasons and others Davis County Animal Care and Control has adopted this model as an expression of its operating goals.  Socially Conscious Animal Sheltering was initially conceptualized by animal welfare leaders in Colorado, and subsequently endorsed by the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association. It is part of the broader Socially Conscious Animal Community and lays forth responsibilities that strive to create the best outcome for all animals by treating them respectfully as individuals, and alleviating their suffering. 

“We applaud the efforts of all local animal welfare agencies that bring awareness to sheltered homeless pets and are grateful for their willingness to give all pets that come into their facilities the opportunity to receive basic care and the platform by which they can find their future homes,” said Rhett Nicks the Director of Davis County Animal Care and Control. “As we continue to adopt and adapt to the Socially Conscious Animal Sheltering model, which embraces the tenets of responsibility and care that we already practice, we will continue to improve outcomes for homeless pets through innovative programs like our Sniff About day fostering, volunteer, and foster programs.”

“The Socially Conscious Animal Community is a framework that allows each of us to understand our role in creating best outcomes for pets. This concept is based on respectful treatment of animals … We must work together to create the best outcomes for all animals while nurturing the human-animal bond.” (WWW.SCSHELTERING.ORG/ABOUT)

8 Responsibilities of Socially Conscious Animal Shelters

• Ensure every unwanted or homeless pet has a safe place to go for shelter and care. DCACC is committed to accepting every pet from within our jurisdiction and providing the appropriate level of care for each animal’s individual needs.
• Making every healthy and safe animal available for adoption.
  DCACC will not offer for adoption animals that are dangerous to the community and will seek to ensure every pet available for adoption is medically sound.
• Assess the medical and behavioral needs of homeless animals and ensure these needs are thoughtfully addressed.
  DCACC, through our medical team, along with a robust team of volunteers will work to ensure enrichment and provide an all-encompassing approach to ensuring the physical, emotional and behavioral needs of our homeless pets are met.
• Align Davis County Animal Care and Control Policy with the needs of the Community
  DCACC will continue to act as a community partner promoting public safety and responsible pet ownership through events, appearances, and humane education programs.
• Alleviate suffering and make appropriate euthanasia decisions.
  DCACC accepts all animals brought to it from Davis County regardless of condition; some animals are beyond remediation from health ailments, behavior issues, or long-term suffering. Sometimes, in these situations and after thoughtful consideration, the most humane option to relieve the animals’ suffering is through compassionate euthanasia.
• Consider the health and wellness of animals for each community when transferring animals.
  DCACC works with several shelters throughout Utah. Transfer programs save the lives of pets that might otherwise not get a chance at a home. Each individual case is considered thoughtfully and with the Davis County citizens, and animals’ best interests in mind.
• Enhance the human-animal bond through thoughtful placements and post-adoption support.
  DCACC is committed to providing families with a new furry family member for life. As we hone our skills and adoption program DCACC will work towards matching the appropriate pet with the right home. DCACC will continue to improve post-adoption programs and outreach to those who adopt.
• Foster a culture of transparency, ethical decision making, mutual respect, continual learning, and collaboration.
  DCACC remains committed to the highest ethical standards in meeting its mission to protect people and animals.

DCACC’s live-release rate year-to-date for dogs is 96.02%; for cats 89.07%; for other animals 92.90% for an average live-release rate across all animals of 92.38%.  “Working with our community partners, other local rescue groups and the citizens of Davis County we have shortened the length of stay of our homeless pets, increased our adoption referrals and bolstered the placement of pets into caring homes,” noted director Rhett Nicks.  “We remain committed to continuing our efforts through Socially Conscious Animal Sheltering to save animals’ lives and protect our communities.”

For more information about Socially Conscious Animal Sheltering please see:

HTTP://WWW.SCSHELTERING.ORG

Press Contact for Davis County Animal Care and Control
Rhett Nicks
Director
Phone: 801-444-2200
email: dcacc-press@co.davis.ut.us

About Davis County Animal Care and Control:
Davis County Animal Care & Control is committed to providing premium service for residents and compassionate care for animals, working tirelessly to support public safety, find homes for homeless animals and educate the community about responsible pet ownership. Both the Shelter and the Animal Control Field Officers remain committed to protecting the lives of animals.  Our field officers responded to over 14,000 animal related service calls in Davis County in 2018.  The shelter receives and facilitates adoptions for thousands of homeless pets each year.

KAYSVILLE—Every Sunday Karen Seifert drives from her home in Tooele to Animal Care of Davis County (ACDC) to photograph cats. For the past year, she’s put in more than 147 volunteer hours. Seifert is one of 275 active volunteers who give their time to help animals in Davis County.

“Our service volunteers gave 4,324 hours and above in 2020,” said Maria Bingham, Volunteer and Events Coordinator for ACDC. “It was super surprising, especially with COVID. In the past there’s been four or five volunteers but in the last two or three years it’s really grown.”

Bingham said dog walking is the most popular, contributing 50 percent of the volunteer hours. “A lot of people have a lot of fun. They do clicker training and give them a treat to reinforce good behavior. It helps with potential adoptions.”