FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Wendy Schugar-Martin has been advocating for change at the Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center in Fort Lauderdale for years. She said a recent list of recommendations issued during an ongoing audit confirmed her complaints.
In 2010, Schugar-Martin co-founded The Freckles Freedom Fund, Inc. to sponsor animal adoption fees. The attorney has more than a decade of experience advocating for animals and has volunteered at the Broward County shelter.
Schugar-Martin has been working with Broward County Commissioner Mark Bogen to make sure animal care there improves. They both agreed with a Broward County auditor who issued recommendations on April 23 requiring “immediate corrective action” by management.
″We need to make major changes to our animal shelter," Bogen said. "We need to get rid of the management there ... people who are running that shelter are not using the best practices that there are.”
Robert “Bob” Melton, the Broward auditor, had concerns with the sanitary conditions.
Because the facility is closed Mondays, the report found animals are left unattended too long.
“Our shelter leaves the animals alone for 16 to 18 hours," Schugar-Martin said of the county-run facility.
Schugar-Martin referred to one of the findings, where the 16-page report cited employee’s schedules were inadequate.
“Cleaning is still in process upon opening resulting in hoses within walkways, and wet floors which increase the risk of injury to volunteers and members of the public,” Melton wrote in his report.
Melton also reported kennels and cages at the shelter are not secured during the hours the shelter is open. This, he wrote, increases the risk of injury to the animal, public, volunteers and employees.
“Volunteers have been bitten while attempting to handle a suddenly aggressive animal,” Melton wrote.
The auditor also reported the shelter does not have “an adequate number” of veterinarians, a certified animal behaviorist or trainer or a formal enrichment program.
After several months of pressure from Bogen and animal advocates, Broward Animal Care executive director Lauralei Combs resigned in March.
Broward Animal Care’s leadership has been in trouble before. In 2017, former Broward Animal Care executive director Thomas Adair resigned after a Local 10 News investigation showed he and other county employees changed records to make it appear as if pet owners had requested for animals to be euthanized.