Of pups and PR

It's a curious financial coincidence:  according to reports, the amount that League City's contentious Christmas party cost taxpayers is virtually the same as the amount that the League City Animal Shelter over-ran its budget last year:  about $30,000. 

And whereas the City exhibited no qualms about paying for that party (at least, not until the mainstream news media, legitimate bloggers, and rogue political upstarts all drew attention to it), the extra money consumed by the shelter was apparently seen as grounds for a re-alignment in ordinance enforcement priorities that is expected to result in fewer animal adoptions and increased euthanasia. 

If muni budgets were tight and all you could muster in the way of discretionary spending was thirty thousand bucks, would you rather blow it on a one-night materialistic employee orgy featuring forty-nine door prizes including computers, an iPod, electronic games, and a 42-inch flat-screen TV, or, would you rather spread that sum of money out over an entire year to maximize the humanity and compassion of an indispensible public service that impacts the entire community?

Well, yeah, that question is framed from a loaded perspective, so let's not discuss it rhetorically.  Instead, let's poll it, but before you click the poll at the end of this post, you may want to consider how animal management services do impact the entire community.  Even if you are not an animal lover, chances are good that the general issue will eventually affect you personally - for instance:

Exhibit A, animal management Poster Boy:
My child named him "Guava" because of
the translucent greenish cast to his eye color.

As best as any of us can determine, this dog was dumped in Centerpointe about ten days ago.  Could that have had anything to do with League City's announcement that it will enforce euthanasia of animals within five days of receiving them?  "We are not a rescue facility" ran the tag line in Houston Chronicle.   Guava can't tell us what transpired in his specific case, but with a public relations attitude like that, who wouldn't dump their unwanted animals in a prosperous subdivision like Centerpointe?  Better to let those animals loose in the streets where they have a chance at survival. 

Correspondingly, many of the neighbors on our side of the subdivision are distressed by the idea of taking Guava the canine dumpee to LCAS, because they fear that would mean swift and certain death for this wonderful, happy dog. 

And so we're working as individuals to get him medical attention and find him a home.  Essentially what this amounts to is that a public service function has been transferred in part to the public.  The city is not handling the situation the way many people see fit, and so it falls back on the people.  Meanwhile, it wouldn't surprise me if there were an increasing number of pet dumps in subdivisions like ours - that would be a predictable response to "we are not a rescue facility".  And who among us would want more dumped animals??

Hopefully some improvement in direction will come of the decision to increase the number of individuals on the shelter's Advisory Committee, and the upcoming meeting to further address this issue. 

And while I'm at it, let me issue this disclaimer:  I'm not affiliated with the Friends of League City Animal Shelter and I have no earthly idea why League City chose to cut ties with this local nonprofit which, in 2010, reportedly donated about $27,000 worth of supplies to the shelter (almost enough for a Christmas party!).  This severance is yet another in a long list of perplexing management and PR moves that the city seems to have made.   

With all that said, here's the poll: 

If you were a League City manager with a discretionary $30,000 available, how would you spend it to best serve the public's interest?