Lucas County Canine & Control director pushes for new building

A large white board in Richard Stewart’s office at the Lucas County Canine Care & Control features dozens of write-on magnets with color-coded tasks, ideas, and goals aimed at improving the shelter’s operations.

“We’re moving the right direction,” he said. “There’s obviously still room for improvement.”

Richard Stewart, who has been director of the Lucas County Canine Care and Control for three months, appears outside the pound in Toledo with Robin, a 9-month-old ‘pit-bull’ mix that is available for adoption.

The shelter’s new director has been on the job for three months. His predecessor, Julie Lyle, left in July for a position with Humane Ohio.

Mr. Stewart recently discussed his ideas and plans with the Lucas County Commissioners. He said the most obvious and significant issue facing the shelter is the outdated and deteriorating building. The limitations and overall poor state of the facility are the biggest impediments to progress, affecting nearly every aspect of shelter operations.

“It never was meant to be a shelter, and that’s apparent,” he said. “This may have been fine 50 years ago when it was more of a euthanize and move on kind of thing. But that’s not how it’s done anymore.”

In 2010, the American Humane Association evaluated the building, constructed in 1965, and declared it unsuitable and substandard. It has undergone several updates in recent years to address some problems, but remains a very high-stress and generally unhealthy environment for canines.

“It’s just not conducive to what we want to do here,” Mr. Stewart said. “I’m going to push as hard as I can to get a new building sooner rather than later. We’re at the point now with what we do that we’re not going to continue to progress unless we get a new building.”

The county has discussed a new shelter for several years, and completed a feasibility study in 2015.

“We know the building is past its workable days,” Pete Gerken, commissioners president, said. “There’s no disagreement about that. We are past the contemplative phase and taking action.”

Mr. Gerken said the county is in active discussions regarding possible locations for a new facility, and is working to bring various partners on board to help make it happen.

Mr. Stewart gave credit to Ms. Lyle for her work getting the discussion about a new building to this point. He plans to create a public fund-raising campaign, and said he would love to see a donor seed the effort with a significant contribution to kick things off and spark public interest.

“The community is passionate about animals,” he said. “We’ve got to do it one way or another.”

Mr. Gerken said the county is aiming to have work on a new building begin yet this year, and Mr. Stewart has shown he will hold county officials’ feet to the flames.

“He’s going to press us on this building, and he should,” Mr. Gerken said.

Because the shelter is funded primarily by dog license fees, Mr. Stewart is examining ways to boost compliance with state-required licensing.

“I spend a lot of time looking at the numbers and trying to figure out what we can do,” he said. “We want to bring some more value to the license as well, so people are motivated to get it.”

One potential avenue is to update the Lucas County Loves Dogs program, whereby area businesses provide discounts and other rewards to current dog license holders.

“I thought it was a great idea when I heard about it,” Mr. Stewart said. “It just seems like it’s died off a little bit and we need to revitalize it.”

Mr. Stewart wants to increase outreach to help identify the community’s needs, provide education, and foster a better relationship with the public. The shelter is still working to undo years of damage under former dog warden Tom Skeldon, who was known for aggressive tactics and hostility toward “pit bull”-type dogs before he was ousted following a public outcry in 2010.

The shelter killed 72 percent of all dogs in 2009 under Mr. Skeldon's administration; that number had fallen to 29 percent in 2016.

“We’re leaps and bounds ahead of where we were years ago,” Mr. Stewart said.

Among many improvements made under Ms. Lyle’s administration was the creation of a volunteer program. Mr. Stewart is in the process of revamping the program to add structure and relieve some pressure on staff. He is establishing a tier system and bringing in a software program to help track volunteers’ activities.

“It will be a nice way to pass on information to people, and we can communicate to volunteers what we need at the time,” he said.

Mr. Stewart is also working to boost employee morale in a difficult field where compassion fatigue is common.

“We see a lot of the bad stuff without getting to see the good outcomes,” he said. “They need wins. They need to have moments of happiness in what they do and be able to see the impact they are making. We are trying to find those opportunities to do that, and get us out of that rut of just getting through the day.”

The shelter has already improved how it communicates with the Toledo Area Humane Society, which enforces animal cruelty laws in the county, when staff encounters a dog with potential signs of abuse or neglect.

“We’ve really stepped up that game,” Mr. Stewart said. “We’re kind of the front line and we’ll see a lot of these things before they would. We have to communicate with them and be able to pass on that information.”

He said he may ask the commissioners for additional staff to help the shelter’s various operations run more smoothly and reduce the intense stress on existing employees.

“It’s something I’m working toward,” he said. “I just have to have the good reasons and be able to communicate that to the commissioners.”

He also will meet with the newly formed nonprofit Friends of Lucas County Dogs to discuss the various ways they can help support the shelter. The group could apply for grants, raise funds, and sponsor veterinary care or adoption fees among other possibilities.

“They could be a big help for a lot of different things,” Mr. Stewart said.

Mr. Gerken said the commissioners are pleased with the direction the shelter is going, first under Ms. Lyle and now reinvigorated by Mr. Stewart’s fresh leadership.

“We’re gonna go from being mediocre to the best,” Mr. Gerken said. “That’s our goal.”

Contact Alexandra Mester: amester@theblade.com, 419-724-6066, or on Twitter @AlexMesterBlade.