| Posted on Thu, Feb. 24, 2005 |

Stu Bykofsky | PACCA blistered in expert's study
LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY CITED

MASSIVE problems at the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association revealed by the Daily News last year can be explained by one big word - accountability.

There is none, says Nathan J. Winograd, the animal shelter expert brought in by the problem-plagued agency to analyze its operations and write a report guiding PACCA to "no kill" status within 10 years.

The day before he left Philadelphia after a 15-day immersion in PACCA, Winograd gave me an exclusive review of what he found.

"There are incredible inefficiencies here that result in killing too many animals," says Winograd, a former California deputy district attorney who lives in San Diego with a wife, two kids, two dogs and eight cats.

Over and over he repeated "PACCA has to clean house," and he wasn't talking about the oft-dirty animal cages.

In how many ways is PACCA deficient? Let Winograd count the ways:

"No written protocols, no adequate staff training, no adequate staff supervision, no accountability, no integrity in the data or operations, an inadequate adoption program, no pre-adoption sterilization," he ticks off.

Quite a laundry list for what's been called the PACCA House of Horrors, where some animals are put down within minutes of their arrival, where others vanish and where animals and the public routinely are abused.

Narrow it down, Nathan.

"Accountability is Number One. It's the thread that runs through every aspect of shelter operations," the 44-year-old Winograd says.

PACCA deserves credit for hiring Winograd to write a prescription for what's likely to be bitter public medicine for the shelter, especially since management was in denial for a long time. The Nov. 4 City Council hearing requested by Councilman Jack Kelly probably provided a wakeup call.

One of PACCA's biggest flaws is the computer system, which lacks integrity, says Winograd. "Right now, virtually any employee can go to any computer terminal and delete records."

That lends credibility to the suspicion that PACCA staffers have taken animals for either personal use or for sale to a pet shop.

"It's more than possible. It's easy. It's not that I saw it - I did not see it'" Winograd says. "There is very little stopping a dog or cat going out that door at 2 o'clock in the morning."

There's an "easy fix," starting with password protection "so that only key personnel" can get into the computer system. Other protections include making files impossible to delete and duplicating data to create an "audit trail," to avoid cases such as Dutchess, reported in the Daily News, where one PACCA worker told the owner the 4-month-old black poodle was in the shelter and another said it was never there at all.

Fixing the long-broken videotape system also would promote accountability, says Winograd, who will ask that it be fixed and extended into two additional rooms.

Videotaping should curtail the practice of hosing cages with dogs still in them and other evil practices, such as battering cats and kittens. Even without videotape, bad staff behavior could be reduced if supervisors got off their butts and walked around to supervise, he says.

During his PACCA stay, some employees were written up and one was suspended.

"Whether that is the new culture or because I am here I could not tell you," says Winograd, who declined to name names.

He acknowledged the two-headed monster of nepotism and favoritism still exists and will suggest cures in his report.

Shelters where he previously worked - San Francisco and Tompkins County, N.Y. - set the "new standard" by moving to "no kill." PACCA needs to do the same.

Winograd asks, "Are they killing animals? Yes. Do they have to kill animals right now? Yes. Are they saving enough given all the constraints? No.

"They can save more."

E-mail Stu Bykofsky at [email-masked] or call 215-854-5977. This column normally appears Tuesdays and Fridays. For recent columns, go to http://go.philly.com/byko.

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