HomeMy WebLinkAboutPatricia Kimble - Fwd_ Get Macomber Out of the Shelter and Open I...From:Patricia Kimble
To:Public Comments (publiccomments@sbcity.org)
Subject:Fwd: Get Macomber Out of the Shelter and Open It for Surrenders
Date:Wednesday, May 20, 2020 3:41:06 PM
I request these comments be read aloud at tonight's city council meeting.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Patricia Kimble
Date: Wed, May 20, 2020 at 3:34 PM
Subject: Fwd: Get Macomber Out of the Shelter and Open It for Surrenders
To: <council@sbcity.org>
I request these comments to be read aloud at tonight's city council meeting. Thank you.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Patricia Kimble <>
Date: Wed, May 20, 2020 at 3:26 PM
Subject: Get Macomber Out of the Shelter and Open It for Surrenders
To: Patricia Kimble <>
Let me share a quick story with you of the ramifications of our shelter closure for found
animals.
Last Thursday, one of our residents posted on Nextdoor, Pawboost, and Lost My Doggie his
shepherd, Booze, who was lost. I saw his post on Nextdoor and began looking. Within hours,
a post on Pawboost of a found dog, his dog, was seen by me. It was seen by the owner as
well. Both of us sent emails to the finder. Neither of us ever received any response. There
was no address or phone number given on the post. The only address given was that of Home
Depot. They posted a photograph of the owner's dog. Upon receiving no response, the owner
went to Home Depot, asking around if any of them were the finder. He drove around looking
for the gate shown in the finder's photograph of the dog. The owner and I were
communicating. I asked him to call Pawboost and see if they had any information on the
finder. They gave the owner the name and phone number. After the owner talked with the
finder, he learned that she had reached out to Faces of Devore for guidance as she didn't know
whether she had posted correctly on Pawboost. They told her to take the dog she found to
Advanced Pet Care as tell them it was a rescue drop-off for Ginger's Dog Rescue. Advanced
Pet Care is the vet with whom the city contract for our city animal shelter and, in my opinion,
an overpriced vet who doesn't care much about the animals, only money. In fact, they've lost
several dogs from the shelter. Anyway, the finder did as directed. Keeping in mind, this is all
on the same day the dog went missing. Because of the information the owner got from the
finder, the owner was in the parking lot of Advanced Pet Care at 9:00 a.m. when they opened.
He went inside with his proof of ownership and asked if his dog was there. He was totally
given the runaround by staff who took his photographs and said they would have the rescue
call him. He called me and told me this, so I called Advanced Pet Care to see if I could find
out more. The first girl I spoke with was courteous; but, when she realized I was asking
specifics about a certain dog, she put another girl on the phone to speak with me. I began
asking questions about whether the dog was still there and the name of the rescue. The
receptionist, as she stated she was, would not even let me ask any questions, only talking
loudly over me and being very demeaning. So, I told her goodbye. I made contact with the
owner again and told him to call the SBPD and see if one of them would go within him to the
vet as he was pretty certain his dog was still there. They refused to go with him, which was
sad to hear but not a surprise to me. Through perseverance on Monday and Tuesday, the
owner and made contact with anybody and everybody we could trying to get more
information. We started texting and using social media to find out more about Ginger's Dog
Rescue and tried to speak with someone. We finally found a phone number and were able to
speak with a receptionist who offered a little more information. Our texts were being avoided
and we were being put off. Finally, this morning, Wednesday, I called Officer Padilla who
had helped me with different animal scenarios before. I asked that since he was a person of
authority would he mind contacting the rescue and see if they would return the owner's dog.
After a day of back-and-forth texts with all of us and threats of a lawsuit, Officer Padilla was
able to have them agree to bringing the dog, who was now in L.A., back to our Humane
Society for release to Officer Padilla. The dog had already been chipped and neutered. All of
the above were due to the fact that our shelter was not accepting surrenders and, when the
finder called, she was told to release the animal to the streets. I'm not sure, but I believe this
could be a crime. If not, it is certainly not what I would expect an officer being paid what
Officer Macomber is paid to tell a resident of this city. This is animal cruelty, among other
things which I won't mention here. If he is not taking animal in, get him out of there. He
cares nothing about our animals. What happened to Josue Duran, the owner of the dog, is
totally unacceptable. His dog was removed from the city in a couple of days after him getting
out. Mr. Duran found his dog hours after his disappearance; but, because he could not be
taken to a shelter, he was turned over to a rescue who removed him from the city without
looking for an owner. That, too, is against the law but would not have happened if our shelter
were available. I am appalled that our city lets direction for the animals to be turned loose on
the streets of San Bernardino take place. This is not what I expect of my city police
department. I hope you are going to remedy this direction given to people trying to reunite
animals with their owners immediately because I'm sending this chain of events of our ever-
worsening case of animal abuse in this city by Officer Macomber to anybody and everybody.
Dogs get out, especially while all children are home. This has never happened to Mr. Duran
before and this city owes him a deep apology. Thanks to Dr. Padilla, Booze will be home at
5:00 p.m. Wake up San Bernardino. Get him out of there. This could have ended up badly
for Mr. Duran and for Booze.
A deeply concerned resident of San Bernardino for 73 years,
Kathy Kimble