TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Animal advocates said Friday's firing of Kern County Animal Control Manager Kimberly Mullins leaves the future of reform efforts at the agency in question.

"We have to keep going for the welfare of the animals and the community," said Kern County Animal Control Commissioner Susan Madigan.

But she said she was at a loss for just how to do that in the wake of Mullins' exit.

Mullins said she was let go because she pursued change too aggressively, challenging the field euthanasia practices of city of Bakersfield animal control officers. That opened a rift in the relationship between the city and county that her exit was aimed at fixing.

Animal advocates say that has cost them a leader who was motivated to step up the pace of animal care reform.

Kern County Public Health Director Matt Constantine, who terminated Mullins on the final work day of her new-employee probationary period, said progress will continue. He wouldn't comment on why he fired Mullins.

"We are going to continue our positive movements and the collaborations we have with the community and other groups," he said. "We will not stop until we can provide the most outstanding service to the community. They deserve nothing less."

But for animal advocates who have prodded and railed and supported and volunteered to help the county better serve the public and animals, the plodding pace of progress is frustrating.

Call for change

Kern County has struggled for nearly a decade to transition from a catch-and-kill organization to a humane agency that advocates for responsible pet ownership, licensing and helping lost and unwanted animals find people who want them.

The call for change had long been made, but momentum built after the city of Bakersfield moved all its animals into the county shelter after a bitter 2003 breakup with the Bakersfield SPCA, its former shelter.

With the animals from much of the unincorporated county, and the county's largest incorporated population center, in one place, the scope of Kern County's animal problem came into focus.

Constantine, who ran Animal Control at the time, faced overcrowding.

The percentage of shelter animals euthanized by Kern County Animal Control hovered around 80 percent.

Tens of thousands of animals died at the end of a county syringe every year.

And media reports brought the toll in animal lives into sharp definition.

Unchanged challenges

In many ways, not much has changed since 2003.

Kern County still has a massive overabundance of unwanted companion animals and the burden of dealing with that population problem still falls on animal control agencies.

Judi Daunell, president of Friends of the Kern County Animal Shelters' Foundation, said living under that burden makes it hard for shelter staff to think about the bigger picture and how reform of the system might be accomplished.

"They're always so overloaded it's all they can do to get through the day," Daunell said.

It has fallen to the leaders of county Animal Control -- each of the past three have had a different title and reported to two different bosses -- to envision the future and try to make it happen.

Madigan, Daunell and shelter volunteer and animal advocate Liz Keogh said Mullins was a breath of fresh air in that progression of new faces -- an Animal Control boss who was looking for ways to make the fate of animals better and wanted to collaborate with rescue groups, animal advocates and the community to make reform happen.

"It was really nice to see someone coming into the job who wasn't treating the job like the last couple of years (before) they were going to retirement," said Daunell, referring to the previous top dog at Animal Control.

Madigan said Mullins opened up those "bogged down" lines of communication with the community.

Keogh said Mullins took "the bull by the horns" and recruited diverse voices from the community to give her practical advise about how to change things.

Then she got things done.

She pursued a major grant that had been sitting, ignored, on the Animal Control boss' desk, Keogh said.

She worked to bring in work-release prisoners to clean bathrooms and do other janitorial tasks so animal care workers could concentrate on the animals.

"We were making leaps and bounds of progress in the last six months," Madigan said. "I know there are going to be a lot of people at the Board of Supervisors (next meeting) talking about how we don't like this decision."

Pace of change

Constantine said he understands the feelings of community advocates. But Animal Control faces further cuts as the county struggles with its third tough budget year.

"It can be frustrating that we can't see change in a short time frame. There may be those that want quicker change," Constantine said.

But those groups have motivated, and will continue to motivate, change at animal control, he said.

"It is only because of those interests that we will get to a point where we're happy with where we are," Constantine said. "We have engaged the participation of a wide range of groups -- volunteers, nonprofits, rescue groups and the animal control commission. We are continuing to evaluate the services we provide."

Constantine argued that the public also carries a level of responsibility to fix things -- to properly care for, license, and spay and neuter their pets.

"It took us many, many years to get into the position we're in now and it will take us many years to get out," he said.

Keogh isn't one to ignore community responsibility.

But she said the bureaucracy of the county is part of the problem, too.

When Animal Control was its own department, even though it reported to the Resource Management Agency, the Kern County Board of Supervisors had a greater hand in how it was run.

Animal Control is "the red-headed step-child when it is under another agency," Keogh said. It's now under the Public Health Department.

Daunell applauded Supervisor Zack Scrivner for visiting the Kern County Animal Shelter recently and spending hours touring, visiting the kill room and helping clean up.

"I do think more of the public needs to go down there. I think the Board of Supervisors needs to go down there and spend some time with the staff," she said.

Then, perhaps, the pace of change would quicken.