Animal control officers took an average of 29 minutes to respond to Priority 1 calls in Seal Beach during the last six months, according to data provided by Long Beach Animal Care Services.
The Long Beach agency has the contract to provide services to Seal Beach.
The response time was five minutes faster than responses to Priority 1 calls from July 2011 to January 2012.
The issue of the quality of animal control service provided to Seal Beach came up at the Monday, April 28, Seal Beach City Council meeting. Patti Sallicos, of College Park East, told the council that a Doberman, probably frantic, was at large for a week.
Ted Stevens, manager of Long Beach ACS, voluntarily provided the information.
The roaming Doberman was apparently at large for five days.
“This should never have happened,” Campbell said. “It needs to be looked into.”
Campbell said it was time to review Seal Beach’s contract with Long Beach ACS.
“We review the contract with Long Beach regularly and hold joint meetings with our officials and those from Long Beach Animal Control,” said Seal Beach Mayor Ellery Deaton in a Tuesday, May 6, email to the Sun. She said Seal Beach officials met with Stevens the previous week.
“Mr. Stevens has always been very responsive to our concerns and has reworked his team to respond to the most common animal problems we experience,” Deaton said. “Unfortunately College Park East had an incident they have cited where they did not get the service needed and a Doberman was loose in the neighborhood. It is imperative that we review all our contracted services to be sure we are receiving the services we need.”
According to Stevens, the problem was that this Doberman was running all over the place.
“We certainly did respond,” Stevens said.
At the April council meeting, Campbell said that if ACS responded, no one saw them.
“We responded four different times at four different addresses,” Stevens said.
He said that, nine times out of 10, a dog goes home or someone corrals it in their yard.
He said there were no reports that the animal was aggressive.
Renee Carlton, of The Pet Food Bank, said the female Doberman in question was a sweet animal.
Carlton has been involved with Doberman and Weimaraner rescue for 17 years. Carlton said the lost Doberman was sweet.
“I think she was dumped,” Carlton said.
Carlton was at the Seal Beach dog park when Campbell came out to ask her if she could help with the Doberman. Carlton said the Doberman Rescue group spent two-and-a-half hours that first night looking for the Doberman. The group had four people in the neighborhood looking for the dog.
According to Carlton, dogs usually come up to you. This one did not. “She was fast,” Carlton said.
For information about the Doberman, call Fillmore Doberman Rescue at 805-524-5102. Carlton described her as a big lap dog.
Lara Anderson, the Sun’s Harbour Views columnist recently wrote about the subject.
“One of the most frustrating issues for residents and animal services officers alike are dogs running loose,” wrote Anderson, former mayor of Dana Point. “By the time an officer can get to the area where the dog was last seen, unless someone caught it and secured it, the dog is long gone with new calls of a loose dog in a different area coming in.”
Anderson’s column may be found on the Letters to the Editor page at www.sunnews.org.
A look at response times
The animal control response time data was based on 572 total calls for service, from Oct. 1, 2013, to April 30, 2014.
Of those, 24 were Priority 1 calls, meaning that a human being was in danger from an animal.
A Priority 2 call is when an animal is at risk.
The policy goal of Long Beach Animal Control Services is to respond within one hour to Priority 1 and 2 calls.
In Seal Beach during the last six months, ACS officers took an average of 29 minutes to respond to 24 Priority 1 calls. The minimum response time was less than a minute and the maximum response time was 58 minutes.
From July 1, 2011, to January 31, 2012, Long Beach ACS responded to 726 calls in Seal Beach. Of those, 15 were Priority 1 calls. Average response: 34 minutes.
During the most recent six month period, ACS answered 71 Priority 2 calls. Average response time: 37 minutes. Minimum response: 7 minutes. Maximum: 2 hours and 1 minute.
ACS responded to 22 roaming stray animal reports. (Coyotes were classified separately.) Average response: 3 minutes 38 seconds. Minimum response: 5 seconds. Maximum: 21 minutes 17 seconds.
There were seven roaming animal reports. (Again, coyotes were classified separately.) Average response: 2 minutes 58 seconds. Minimum: 17 seconds. Maximum: 9 minutes 53 seconds.
There were 27 bite investigations. Average response times: 4 minutes 1 second. Minimum: 25 seconds. Maximum: 16 minutes 17 seconds.
