Contra Costa Herald

News Of By and For The People of Contra Costa County, California

Residents call for reforms to Contra Costa animal shelters in Martinez and Pinole

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An online petition requesting an audit of the Contra Costa Animal Services (CCAS) Department was delivered this week to the Board of Supervisors. CCAS maintains animal shelters in Martinez and Pinole.

The petition cites problems of inadequate veterinary care, unsanitary conditions, insufficient staffing, substandard behavior assessments, and cramped conditions that negatively impact the well-being of the housed pets.

Currently the shelters are experiencing outbreaks of highly contagious and often fatal diseases – canine parvovirus and feline panleukopenia. Dogs have been exposed to distemper with wards shut down to the public.

The several thousand petition signors maintain that CCAS and the County have been notified of the severe, chronic problems but have not provided or implemented a meaningful response.

An audit will identify the urgent problems, recommend immediate corrections and provide a roadmap to guarantee that the dogs and cats housed at the shelters receive adequate care.

The petition reads as follows:

“As reported on by the ABC7 Bay Area News Team  on June 1, 2017 at http://abc7news.com/pets/i-team-exclusive-critics-say-contra-costa-co-animal-shelter-overwhelmed/2061936/, Contra Costa Animal Services (CCAS) is drastically failing in its stated mission to provide humane care for the dogs and other animals at its Martinez and Pinole shelters. CCAS is a taxpayer funded local public agency and its failure is both obvious and inexcusable.

  • Healthy dogs are becoming sick and even dying unnecessarily due to chronically understaffed, insufficiently monitored and inadequate veterinary care.
  • Stressed, scared, shy, anxious and/or untrained dogs are being deemed unadoptable due to invalid and outdated behavior evaluation methods.
  • Dogs are suffering in cramped conditions and are not being provided with adequate walks, exercise, interaction or other stimulation all of which lessens their chances for adoption.
  • Far too many dogs are being euthanized purely due to overcrowding and kennel stress, with inadequate steps being taken to improve or relieve these conditions.

The dog pictured at the top of this petition, Thompson #A872494, is a single example of an animal who arrived at the CCAS shelter in good health in January 2017 then was dying of untreated pneumonia only days later.

Community members, volunteers and other concerned citizens have repeatedly contacted CCAS staff, the county administrator and members of the Board of Supervisors about the severe, chronic problems and shortcomings including failure to properly evaluate animals; failure to provide animals with needed veterinary care and basic humane housing conditions; failure to institute and follow reasonable and appropriate procedures for the care and housing of animals; failure to comply with applicable State of California laws requiring the release of animals to appropriate rescue groups; and euthanizing dogs unnecessarily and arbitrarily.

As signors of this petition, we share these grave concerns about this ongoing, intractable failure to provide an acceptable level of humane treatment to the homeless animals of our county which CCAS is mandated to shelter.

We therefore request that a thorough assessment by a qualified independent third party be conducted forthwith to ensure that all animals in CCAS custody are cared for in a proper and humane manner. This assessment must include a complete audit of CCAS policies, procedures and current practices leading to specific recommendations for change, with mechanisms to ensure that the recommendations will be prioritized, implemented in a time manner and maintained in full effect going forward.

The residents of Contra Costa County need, want, deserve and demand a shelter that takes full advantage of modern methods for animal care and sheltering including appropriate efforts to save the lives of our companion animals. We the signors of this petition insist that our public officials act seriously and expeditiously to bring Contra Costa Animal Services to a place where it will be the same kind of compassionate, transparent, efficient and accountable lifesaving shelter that is being achieved in other jurisdictions.”

The petition and comments can be viewed at https://www.change.org/p/contra-costa-county-board-of-supervisors-request-for-investigation-audit-of-contra-costa-animal-services-martinez-pinole-shelters

Fundraising goal for new livestock scale at county fairgrounds exceeded during annual Heritage Foundation dinner

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County Fair Board Member and auctioneer Steve Limrite takes bids on one of the tasty cakes that helped raised thousands of dollars during the annual Heritage Foundation dinner benefiting the Contra Costa County Fair on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2017.

This peanut butter cup cake went for $2,000. That’s almost $300 per peanut butter cup!

Cake sells for $2,000 during live auction

By Allen Payton

Hundreds of supporters of the Contra Costa County Fair came out for the 3rd Annual Heritage Foundation Membership Dinner on Saturday night, January 28, 2017 and contributed thousands of dollars toward a new, digital livestock scale and operations for the year. The scale is used during the fair for the animal auctions and the current one is 30 years old.

Folks enjoyed a dinner of tri-tip, beef brisket, tasty chili and baked potatoes with all the fixings, cooked by Tom Hartrick and a team of volunteers and served by young people who are members of Contra Costa County 4H clubs and Brentwood Future Farmers of America (FFA).

This carrot cake donated by Jeff Warrenburg was auctioned off for $200.

The foundation’s goal has been to raise $7,000 by March 1, 2017 for the new scale and they more than met their goal with $16,695 raised, that night alone.

The most generous supporters of the fundraiser were the folks at the table hosted by Les Schwab Tires of Martinez. They not only outbid many others during the lively cake auction led by auctioneer and Fair Board Member Steve Limrite, but one of them donated back the $520 he won during one of the 50-50 playing card raffles. Plus, they donated a set of four tires as an auction item, which was won for a price of $800 by outgoing Foundation Board President Jeff Warrenburg.

Jeff Warrenburg foundation Board President for 2016 hands off the oversized gavel to 2017 President Felicia Cursi.

But, the most generous, individual contributor of the night was Bob Sherwood who out bid the competition in the most exciting part of the cake auction, spending $2,000 for a peanut butter cup cake. Other cakes, like a gluten free cake with the Heritage Foundation logo on it sold for $90 and the carrot cake, also with the Heritage Foundation logo on it donated by Warrenburg, went for $200.

Another $1,500 was raised when one of the Platinum Tables for next year’s dinner was auctioned off to a guest sitting at one of those special table, at this year’s dinner. Platinum Table guests get to served appetizers, unlimited drinks and dinner service without standing in line.

Warrenburg thanked his officers and board members for their service over the past year, including Vice President Bill Chivers, Secretary Tami Daniels, Treasurer Laurie Limrite and Board Members Tom Hartrick, Laura Glass and Felicia Cursi.

The annual fundraising dinner was well attended by supporters of the County Fair.

He then introduced Cursi as the new Board President for 2017, handing her an oversized gavel to help her in running the meetings. Warrenburg also introduced Joe Brengle, the new Chief Executive Officer for the County Fair.

Also announced was the winner of the winner of the Heritage Foundation’s 2017 Scholarship award, Bailey Newlin of Tassajara Valley 4H. She has been an active member of 4H since she was nine years old and this year marks her ninth year involved in horse, market lamb, market goat, market hog, CCC Camp leadership and finance, with the organization.

Bob Sherwood takes the cake, literally. A volunteer delivers his peanut butter cup cake for which he had the winning bid of $2,000.

Next year Newlin will use her scholarship funds to attend the University of Tennessee at Martin where she will be studying veteran science. She plans to specialize in large animal care and nutrition. Newlin is also excited that she will be a member of the NCAA Equestrian team and competing in western horsemanship and reining, against top, Division 1 schools in the country.

Membership in the foundation is available for as little as $125 per year. Download the form, here. For more information about the foundation, visit www.ccheritage.net. For more information about the Contra Costa County Fair, visit www.contracostafair.com. This year’s fair will be held May 18-21.

Furry Friends Food Relief Program to hold Roaring 20’s benefit dinner, Feb. 11 in Brentwood

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The Furry Friends Food Relief Program (FFFR) will hold their second annual benefit dinner Saturday, February 11, 2017. Just in time to spend a wonderful evening with family, friends or that special someone for Valentine’s Day.

We assist families in need in Contra Costa County with dog and cat food.  We now have our food pantry open every Monday from 7-8 pm and Wednesday from 6-8 pm, located at 1300 Central Blvd, Brentwood. We do low cost vaccine clinics and food distributions to the public every four weeks. Please check our calendar on our website for the next upcoming clinic.

We are always in need of donations of medical supplies, flea treatment, food, bedding, collars, leashes, crates, anything to assist families and their furry friends.

The theme for this year’s dinner will be The Roaring 20’s and it will be held, once again at the beautiful event center at Shadow Lakes Golf Course in Brentwood, located at 401 W Country Club Drive from 5:00 to 10:00 pm.  The evening will be filled with music, dancing and wonderful silent auction items.

Cocktail hour from 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm. Appetizers and salads will be served along with rolls. Dinner choices are pork tenderloin, salmon, the vegetarian option is Eggplant Parmesan with sides of mashed potatoes and mixed veggies.  The pork tenderloin has a creamy Dijon-wine sauce and Salmon is topped with garlic, lemon, butter and onions. No-Host Bar.

We have wonderful raffle and silent auction items to bid on. Stop by to have some fun at the Photo Station. It’s going to be a great night of fun to raise money for this organization who helps families keep their pets out of the shelters.

Get your tickets before February 3, 2017 and join us in a fun and different way to spend time with friends, family, or that special someone.  Each table seats up to 8-10 people.

Ticket sales are going on now at http://furryfriendsfoodre.wixsite.com/fffr/roaring-20-s-benefit-dinner-2017.

Furry Friends Food Relief Program – “Helping those in need feed their Furry Friends.” Tax ID 47-2163583.

For more information visit us online at www.furryfriendsfoodre.wix.com/fffr,  “Like” us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FurryFriendFoodReliefProgram or you can contact us by phone or text at 925-240-3178.