On July 5th, 2007, I was informed that earlier in the week, people had been calling the Shelter repeatedly about cats they had seen on our lists that are distributed to the local Veterinarian's offices. These calls became so frequent that they were interfering with the staff's work and some of the callers were becoming rude to the staff. This letter was sent to show that FGCAS takes their responsibilities seriously and that we took immediate action to prevent it from happening again because of something we did.

July 5, 2007               

To: Genesee County Animal Control

Cc: emailed to Lloyd Gerhardt, Commissioner Bailey

To all the Staff of the Genesee County Animal Shelter,

            Earlier this week, I was informed that an overzealous, concerned pet owner kept calling the shelter about a cat listed on a list of Shelter animals that was at her vet’s office. While there was some confusion as to who’s list this was, it was indeed our list. The webpage list was not updated until early Tuesday morning, however, the emailed list was sent out some time on Sunday. It was this emailed list that caused the woman to call your Shelter repeatedly.

We constantly tell people that if they think an animal on the list may be theirs, they need to go to the Shelter instead of calling, as only they can truly tell if it’s their pet. However, there will always be someone who can’t or won’t understand. Perhaps it’s an elderly person who’s homebound or a young mother with small children who can’t come in right away.

 Since it’s not our desire to have people constantly call and harass the staff while at work and interrupt their duties, we’ve taken immediate action that should stop something like this from happening again because of our information. We’ve removed the Shelter phone number from our website and emailed lists. We’ve also updated the instructions to include a more strongly worded “do not call the Shelter” and “go to the Shelter”.  Now, if someone wants to call you at the Shelter, they will have to look up the number in the phone book, online or get it from your Petfinder site.

Sincerely,

Becki Williams, FGCAS