I am just as shocked as the next person over the dismissal of Amy Cooper as director of Sonoma County Animal Care and Control. I come with no special information as why she was let go by the county.
It was just over a month ago that several, fairly new animal shelter directors and managers gathered for an informal round table discussion on the challenges of operating a shelter. Cooper sat to my left and bantered to the right of me, with Jeff Charter, the manager of Petaluma Animal Services. There was give and take and frankness about the extremely challenging issues of dealing with unwanted pets. Cooper appeared to be forthright, honest and she was able to cut through the labels and detail her hopes for an agency, that has long been the brunt of negative coverage.
It was a personnel decision and because of that, we may never know if Cooper was on the right track with her mission. She came from a fund raising background and had managed a shelter in Idaho, before taking the post in Sonoma County, exactly a year ago. She came on board fully aware of the agency’s bad history of holding barbecue dinners with seized emus. She knew the shelter was old, outdated and run by a dedicated staff who just wanted more support. Cooper was also fully aware of the political power of volunteers and from some accounts, that is where she ran afoul.
Whatever the reason, losing another director is disheartening because so much needs to be done in this county when it comes to dealing with our homeless pets. Cooper was faulted for not given enough emphasis to spay/neuter programs in the under served population of the county. On the face of it, that seems like a huge stretch to can someone. Spay/neuter is one part of controlling overpopulation and the surrendering of animals.
If Cooper was supposed to right all the wrongs detailed in a highly critical Grand Jury report, that wasn’t fair. Her or any director would have to be super-manager and pull magical money out of who knows where to get ACC back on track.
One suspects it would take more than a year.
