 Okay. All right. Well, while we're getting that figured out, welcome, Councilman Bailey to your first. Today it's the Animal Affairs Committee, but typically it's the Health, Social and Environmental Affairs Committee meeting. We cover a lot of different topics that are related to those things and we have some great, exciting work going on that and so I know we'll jump right in. So just to provide a little bit of background, since my time on Council, obviously we've seen a decent amount of attention given to our current Animal Services, both in terms of some of the challenges that they have faced in terms of overcrowding and, you know, the general trend of more pets coming and being surrendered post COVID as well as our euthanization rates not being where we want them to be. And so this committee really became the home for figuring out ways in which we can improve some of our programs and policies to help support that work. And I want to, I want to caveat this entire, you know, Animal Services and Palmetto Lifeline and Final Victory Discussion with the reminder that we also serve greater Richland County. We don't just serve the city limits and we continue to see the largest number of animals come from the county, not the city. So we need to keep that in mind in terms of when we're thinking about the impact that any of our work will have and how we must align with county efforts and be really on the same page if we want to see, you know, the work that we'd like to do to be effective. So I'd like to invite Ms. Victoria Riles up to give us an update on some of the work that we had been doing. Councilman Bailey, we had been talking about revamping our licensing program and how it's been really hard to enforce in its current form. But this potential revamp would allow for, you know, a better idea of the number of pets in the city and, you know, some other benefits as well and some of the things that we'd like to see change. So I'll pass it over to you. Good morning. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. My name is Victoria Riles. I am the Animal Services Superintendent and I'm here to talk to you about some ordinance changes we hope are coming and a spay-neuter mandate. You may or may not know, the city actually looked at implementing a mandatory spay-neuter date, spay-neuter mandate approximately two years ago. Initially, we started out wanting to implement this for all pets and city limits. But we quickly, through legal discussions, ran into legalities pertaining to professional and responsible pet breeding in combination with pro-business agendas. And we also learned that it's not supported legislatively or on a national level. So we shifted gears a little bit and said, well, why don't we focus on bully type breeds as these do get targeted to be the problem, especially in shelter environments. But through our research in that regard, we found that without DNA testing, there's no real way to verify what breed the dog is. We found several studies that show that dogs that encompass terrier or bully characteristics per DNA test did not have any terrier in their genetics. Dogs that did look terrier type or dogs that did not look terrier type did have terrier or bully genetics in their lineage. We also, again, saw significant resistance on a legislative level. Animal welfare groups like the Humane Society of the United States, ASPCA and best friends are not supportive of these mandates. We do have a best friends representative here today, Gina Burroughs, if there are any questions for her about their organization. The biggest reason the city shifted away from this mandate is we feel it's an unfunded mandate that criminalizes poverty. It will contradict positive community engagement efforts for animal control, and it could potentially increase shelter intake. We obtained this map that you see here on the screen from the Humane Society of the United States for a census tract. And what this map showed us is that in Richland County, there are over 30,000 unaltered pets and households making less than $25,000 per year. With only 31 clinics in the county, which is what those yellow dots are reflective of, each clinic would have to do 989 speed neuter surgeries to get these pets into compliance. Again, this is just households making like $25,000. What we also learned through the Humane Society's pets for life program is these systemically under resourced communities have a percentage of speed neuter pets that is 89 when resources are offered to them. That's almost equivalent to the national percentage of altered pets, which is 91. So ultimately, what we learned is that these national groups recommend municipalities support an infrastructure that incentivizes the speed neuter procedure and provides vetting to these folks in historically marginalized communities. And we have two proposals for how we can make that happen. One would be a modification to our differential licensing ordinance. This would allow the pet owner of a speed neuter to microchip pet to have the option to do a one time lifetime license at the cost of $25 versus an annual fee of $100 if the pet is not speed neutered or microchipped. We have already had this ordinance reviewed by council on our requesting in an estimate date of July one. We also sat down with Richland County, who you know is a large county part of our organization to see if this is something they'd be interested in following suit on. And we are very optimistic that they will they are having those conversations during their budgetary review process, which is now sorry, I just want to pause for a second. I know that was a lot of information. Any any questions so far? Okay, one thing I will note, one of the things that we had asked for was enforcement mechanisms. And we had talked about. So right now, I mean, unless you are someone who takes the initiative yourself to register your pet, we don't have an online option. So you have to do it manually. And then also, there's a missed opportunity around veterinarians helping us, like when you go in for the checkup, they can already, you know, assess the license fee and, and, you know, maybe have a pass through to the city that way. Have we been able to make any progress on that? So where we are in our very next slide, we'll show we're at the tail end stages of the online licensing project. It's ultimately right now, we are just down to chameleon, which is our shelter software having conversations with the city's IT department to finalize the non disclosure agreement. We have completed all the the beginning steps of this project. We are hoping that this will ultimately make pet licensing easier for the citizen, but also generate revenue for another program and incentive that we are proposing, which is called pet picks in return. This is a program that encompasses the idea of increasing spay and neuter within zip codes that most contribute to shelter intake. These are systemically under resources, under resource communities. Our goal and our performance metrics of this program would be to spay a minimum spay and neuter a minimum of 150 animals within these targeted zip codes to prevent approximately the birth of 600 puppies. And that's based on the math of 150. Going back to the data that we received earlier knowing that when resources are offered to these communities, most of these pet owners want these resources, they just don't know how to get them. So we may see more engagement or higher numbers than 150. Those are just starting metrics. We also feel that a program like this can help to increase public safety. Studies show that 60 to 80% of dog bites are by intact males are pregnant or nursing females. They also show that intact males have a higher tendency to roam, particularly if you have an in heat female in close proximity. And dogs one and a half to two years, which is sexual maturity, male dogs are more likely to display aggressive behaviors or have dog bites. Ultimately, the ordinance modification in combination with a pet that with a program like petfics in return would create positive community engagement, resulting in increased trust and willingness to comply versus police mandates. And I think I might have interrupted when you were talking about your meeting with Richland County. I saw here that you said that they are in support of the Lysington changes and you were meeting with Lexington as well. We feel optimistic that Richland County is going to policy. We actually did have a meeting with Richland and Lexington counties at the same time. So we know that Richland County is entertaining this, they're having those conversations. I can't speak on behalf of Lexington County, but they were involved. They know that we would like to make this a collaborative effort between all counties. Okay. Was there any feedback from Lexington at all today? So, so, Councilman, they they they understood the predicament and we're going to take it back to their elected officials and have some discussion. I don't know that they had talked a lot about mandatory spay neuter yet or the licensing. So we gave them a draft of the ordinance that we have, which also I think we've got a copy of the ordinance we wanted to hand out the August to refresh your memories or bring Councilman Bailey up to speed. So they weren't they weren't ready to commit one way or the other. They want to take the information back. Richland County staff, I think very supportive. Of course, they've got to work with their elected officials to their budgeting process. But we think there's some support there. And again, the whole the whole goal being to rather than police it to highly incentivize spay neuter microchip responsible pet ownership and through the licensing also generate that revenue stream that we can do the online type opportunities, do these these programs to to reach the communities that we need to. We feel pretty positive about it and are going to be meeting quarterly with Richland and Lake Sington County and several of the other animal service providers in the the area as well just so that we're kind of syncing up our efforts. And I would just reiterate that, you know, I think that July 1st goal is achievable, but I would want Richland to be on a parallel timeline. So that it's happening in tandem if possible. Absolutely. I think that that's on us to to stay in communication with them and to determine what path they're headed down before we do take this to if y'all were to to concur to take this to full council. Yes. Yeah, I think you you're asking for perhaps an amicable way that the county might deal with this whole issue of animal services. Yes, sir. Really a collaborative way. I think it would be unwise for us to move in one direction in the county to move in another direction. And so we want to try to sync up those efforts and the collaboration and conversations have been very good. And we're all pulling in that the same direction. Try to move toward that no kill status and which is our goal. And and so I'd say the communication is probably as good as it's ever been Victoria and good again. Good. So it's doable then. Very doable. We think so. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. So our ask here is do we want to take this bring this up to all of council? Do we want a little bit more time or you want to I think we need to get some clarification with the county before we bring it. And if I might allow us to do that, Dr. Bussles, then and I'm I'm speaking with Eric Jensen, who's their assistant administrator and administrator Brown frequently about this. So I think we should know their posture here fairly soon. I'm hopeful as they go through their process. So perhaps a March timeframe. That'd be great. Maybe April. Yeah, so if that's a quicker, we can just keep this on the agenda for the next meeting. That would be great. Any other questions? Rev or? None for me. All right. Thank you. Well, we will then move on to hearing from some of our community partners. I'd like to invite up Miss Denise Wilkinson, the CEO of Palmetto Lifeline. To provide us a brief overview of some of the work that they've been doing. And of course, they have a long started standing partnership with both the county and the city. Take it away. Thank you, Dr. Bussles. First, I want to recognize everybody that showed up today to sit and to advocate for humane changes. So every end of the end of the municipal shelter or any shelter for that matter has a positive life release room possible. So thank you so much for that. Everybody here I think is very very grateful. What I wanted to do because I haven't spent a lot of time with everybody here today is I'm going to give you a quick overview of Palmetto Lifeline. And I do want to reiterate that we are here to partner with you. We want to. On the conference panel, we're not reading data. Sorry. So we're truly here today because we want to partner with you. We want to help the city and the county have better outcomes. So I wanted to just share a little bit about public life when we started in 1999. We had no staff. We had no facility. There were over 20,000 dogs and cats entering our two shelters and over 90% of those dogs and cats were being euthanized. And we began to work on a relationship with Richland County in Lexington County. And I think we are very, very proud of our public private partnership with them. In 2012, we opened our new facility on Bower Parkway. We each put up over one million dollars to build that facility. We now have 78 employees over 250 volunteers. And last year 2023, we saw over 60,000 companion pets. Our budget is $6.2 million. We do not get any funds from Lexington or Richland County for our operations. And we take a very, very comprehensive approach to addressing the homeless pet problem. So we have a Spangler clinic. We do 70 to 80 surgeries a day, Monday, Thursday. On Farrell Tuesdays, we do on average 90. We have a wellness clinic. We can offer any medical services that a private clinic offers. We also travel to 33 different counties in South Carolina. We offer vaccinations because we know there are women that cannot go to a private bed. And we want to make sure they have access to prevent preventive measures like vaccinations. Of course, we do adoptions. We do kids camps, educational programs. But since COVID and so many changes in our society, we have truly moved away from our top priority being in health adoptions. We are now all about pet retention. And we are about home to home adoptions and community based sheltering, which I've heard your staff talk about before. So that is a little bit about public life line. We are a no kill organization. If you come home on a life line, dog or cat, we're going to do our very best to give you life, whether it's a medical service. If there's a behavioral issue, we're going to bring in a trainer. We can work with those animals. Here is the pet retention. Pet retention. We, you know, family struggle. They may have a dog or a cat and they're having issues with medical or maybe they don't have the ability to provide food or sheltering or maybe they're having behavioral issues. And so what we do, we're trying to help families keep their pets so they don't get so frustrated that they end up taking the pet to a municipal shelter or shelters that are already overwhelmed with too many animals. So that pet retention is all about helping people honor the commitment that they made to their dog or their cat when they first got it. So I don't know if y'all know this in 2023. South Carolina was the number one state in the country that people moved to. South Carolina. So 62% of all households have pets. So not only is the human population increasing in the state, the animal population is also increasing in the state. And then you had COVID. During COVID, I don't know if you realize this, but a lot of clinics close here in COVID, especially the high volumes Bay Mooder clinics, they never reopened. A lot of families adopted dogs and cats when they were staying home or working from home. So they didn't have access to medical services. They didn't have access to get those pets altered. And we think all of this was the perfect storm. And that is why we are seeing such a huge issues, not just in Colombia, but statewide with large breed mixed dogs. They are overwhelmed in our shelters. And it is virtually impossible to adopt all of these dogs. And that is why we want to make four recommendations to the city. And we're making these same recommendations to the county. We believe we need to work on this on a regional level. So we're talking with Lexington County, we're talking with you, and we're talking with Richland County. So first, we believe that we do need a mandatory spay mooder microchipping ordinance for cats and dogs complaint driven only. There are plenty of responsible pet owners out there. We are not targeting those people, but we are looking at individuals that get a complaint. I have spoken to your animal control officers. The number one call the number one complaint they get is for large breed mixed dogs is for dogs that are roaming the streets is for dogs that have no shelter, no food, no water, they're living on chain. And so the animal control officer is called out, they go to the home. And once that complaint is filed, we want it to be mandated that that dog or that cat has to be altered. And that's a little bit different than what maybe originally we we had discussed, right? So we'd love to learn a little bit more. I mean, I think that's a really good balance between the responsible pet owners, some of the concerns on the state level, of course, of not wanting to have a blanket policy that may not work for some of the more rural districts. So we'd love to hear a little bit more about how you came to that. Well, because as Victoria said earlier, we first started talking about all dogs, all cats, then we went to bully breeds, then we said less identify large free mixed dogs, then we sat down and we talked about all dogs and cats. But as we met with people in the community and we got feedback, they said, you know what, that's not fair. I'm a responsible pet owner. I'm not the one that's causing the issue in the municipal shelter. So that's why we felt like complaint driven was the way to implement this ordinance and to hold people accountable that are really creating the problem for the city in the in the county. Now, Yorkies aren't the problem. Noodles aren't the problem. It's your large breed mixed dogs. And and and and I'm not just staying in the city of Columbia or Lexington County. The kennels and intake have two, three, five dogs per run. It is almost virtually impossible to provide the exercise, the enrichment, the training for those dogs and give them a good life outcome. And so they sit there and many times they deteriorate just because you don't have the resources to give them what you need, what they need when you have so many animals in your shelter. So we think it's very important to have a mandatory Spaniard ordinance. And we want these dogs microchip. So if they ever get out, we know who they belong to because a lot of times the dogs never get returned if they come to the shelter and they are not microchip. But hold the people accountable that are creating the problem. Denise, do you have a definition of complaint driven? Any complaint that the officer will go out to a home, whether it's even even a noise complaint at two o'clock in the morning. Well, that's getting, I mean, that's really key for us to understand what complaint driven is. And I would love to work with you all on what that what that really means. Yeah. And I know there's concern about capacity. This is what public life line is willing to do. If somebody gets a citation and they go, I don't have transportation. I don't have the money. I can't get in to see a clinic because they're all booked and they want seven hundred and fifty dollars to spend my female boss. We're going to put them to the front of the line. We're going to commit to you that they can come to public life line. They can get their surgery done. We will do it at a greater discount rate than now or we'll do it for free for any large breed next dog. Yeah. Yeah. We've done that for the city and the county. So there is no excuse. I want to believe that most people want to do the right thing and they want to be responsible people. I tell our staff all the time, just because people are poor, it doesn't mean they don't love their pets. It might just mean they need a little education and they need a little help and we want to help people so they never have to take that dog to a municipal shelter and say, I can't take care of it anymore. I can't have another litter of puppies. I don't know what to do. I'm frustrated. So we will commit to the city and to the county to do that. We also have talked about assisting the city and Richland County with implementing the pet licensing program. One of the things that we're always told is there's no funding. Where are you going to get all this money to spay a noot or all the dogs or cats that need to be altered that maybe don't get a complaint or don't get a citation? What about those people? Well, this is your revenue source right here. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars that's being left on the table where if this was enforced, you'd have the money to do the spaying and neutering. Five, six years ago, I had a vet that was a lady that was going to vet school. She did us some research for us. We learned how to implement this program properly and we have been endorsing this and advocating for it to be implemented. It needs to be done primarily through the vet clinics. That's where most people take their pets annually. And if we were going to implement it for you, we'd have a mobile app. We'd make it very, very convenient. But if we do this for the city or the county, if you're willing to allow us to do this, just say a pilot program for three years where you're asking that you restrict those funds for spaying and neutering and not the general fund. So that's the second thing we wanted to advocate for and just offer as a way to help the city and to help the county. Then managed intake. Managed intake is not easy and I know Victoria will agree with this. The one thing people would love to do is when they want to get rid of their dog pet, they'd love to just come and say, here, take it or here, come get it. That is not how it works. Not proper managed intake. Managed intake means that you don't take any more animals into your facility than you can care for. We are asking the city, the county and Lexington to establish a staff to animal ratio. That ensures certain standards of care. They do it for daycares when it comes to staff and children. They do it for nursing hunts. They do it for hospitals. We should have a staff to animal ratio. If you have one staff member to 30 or 45 dogs, you can't really expect the staff to achieve high standards of care or grade outcomes because they're absolutely overwhelmed every single day providing food and medical services. And they don't have the time to exercise those dogs the way they need to be exercised. So I'm asking that y'all consider establishing a staff to animal ratio in your shelter. So I mean, what happens if we have managed intake and number four, I think goes along with that. If you have a moratorium, where do the pets go? Could it the argument be that they're safer in a shelter than on the street? Now you'll be surprised. We do managed intake and we do home to home adoptions and everybody said it will not work. 80% of everybody that contacts us participates in this program. Now they're not happy at first. We have to educate them. They will point blank say I do not want this dog to go to a municipal shelter or this cat if there's a chance it's going to be euthanized. And we have to talk them in to be in a part of the solution. This is a community problem. This is not a shelter problem or it's not your staff didn't create this problem. So what we've got to do is we've got to hold the community accountable. We've got to convince them to step up and we have proven through our home to home program that they will step up, but it takes effort and it takes long conversations. And once they agree to be a part of the program that's when we say, okay, let's get the first medical assessment set up through our wellness clinic. We bring the animals in, we do a medical assessment. We bring them up to date on their medical. If there are any behavioral issues we have trainers that work with them. We make sure they're spayed and neutered. We start marketing them. We put them on our website. We have people that set up meet and greets at our facility. So the dog or cat comes into the facility and they meet the potential family. So it can work, but until we tell people it's not okay just to dump your dog and cat in a shelter because you no longer want it, they're gonna keep doing it. Mr. Neeson, I think one issue we would have is picking up strays when the shelters fall. And this happens throughout the county, it happens throughout the city. We were four o'clock in the afternoon, here comes a van and we picked up a pack of large breed dogs and shelters full. Those instances make adhering to number four very, very difficult for us I would think in terms of what do we do when we do have a full instance. And I understand picking up strays that are running the streets, but many people call the strays or in their backyard or on their property. We ask the people to hold on to those strays until we can help them find a home or a foster. And we give them food and we give them a crate and we give them all the supplies that they need. So there's no excuse for taking them to your shelter. I mean, there are always gonna be emergencies. Who are you gonna have to take a dog in? Do you know of any other cities or counties that have similar ordinances that you're all recommending? Well, Beaufort County has mandatory spay-neuter ordinance for pit bulls, they passed that in 2014 and their numbers were really starting to come down until COVID hit. And then once COVID hit and the climate's closed and there was this explosion of the large breed dogs breeding and what have you. So they've kind of got their numbers back on track, but there are communities throughout the country. But now we're not gonna target a breed. We're making this complaint driven for dogs and cats. Reverend McDowell, I think you wanted to chime in. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a personal experience that happened yesterday. Yesterday I called in for dogs that were operating in the Stendish Acres area. And the dogs were similarly the dogs were behind a guy who lived, who walked, who was on a bicycle and the dogs were following him, but they attacked when other folk were present. Now, I know that there are some variations of what happens there and in that particular community. But there needs to be something that, and I think you're dealing with that, there needs to be something that's familiar with the dog and the person that has to be perhaps an educational process that if you arrive in a bank and have three dogs following you, something's wrong. You're absolutely right. They should, if those dogs belong to somebody, then the owner should be held accountable. And that's why we say once animal control goes to that home and they find the owners, that dog needs to be microchipped. So if it ever gets out again, it can be tracked back to its owner. And you are right, the issue, the other population issue of large breed dogs is really becoming a concern. We just had another child in the Clinton area attacked by four large-breed dogs. He's in the Grainville hospital. He was almost mauled to death, y'all. And let me tell you something, we love these dogs. We go above and beyond to protect them. We want to help y'all so you don't have to euthanize these dogs, but there's another population issue and the more dogs you see outrunment on the streets, the more the risk is. We've had six people killed since January of 2021, 10 people critically injured by stray dogs running around and attacking people. All we're saying is let us help you get this problem under control. We don't want these dogs dying in your shelters. We don't want your shelters over. Well, with so many dogs at your staff, that it's not possible for them to give them a live release because they've deteriorated to the point that they can become aggressive even in your shelter if you're not doing the enrichment and the exercises that you need to be doing. And the temporary moratorium on antics, and what we are asking is until you can do some more adoptions to open up space for other dogs to come in, close it. Even if it's for a couple of days, do some type of special adoption event. Right now, what you're having to do is your staff is having to go through and pick out 10, 15 or 20 dogs that have to be euthanized. Let's just say today at five o'clock because you're full and you've got two and three and four dogs per run. So with proper managed intake, establishing that staff to animal ratio, it gives them the time to work with the dogs so they're more adoptable. And then if you just close the shelter temporarily, now you're gonna need to hold a few kennels for that extremely aggressive vicious dog or someone that comes in that's critically injured, you've got to deal with those. But that's not the majority. That's a very, very small number, y'all. And a common lifeline can do it. And again, we're not getting any money from the counties to run our operations. If we can do it, I know y'all can do it. And I know your staff wants to do it. But this is the way you do it. This is the way you can be successful. Any questions about the form? So at what point at your facility then are you deem full? So, and you're right, we probably could do it. But we haven't been in that posture. So you've always been in that posture where you only take so many, or I know there's contractual arrangements too with the counties. I'm not sure if you all are doing that. But how are you? I guess I hear what you're saying. We would have to get there. You're there because you never were doing that, right? So let me share this with you. We took over the Lexington County Community Cat Program in October of 2017. Prior to October of 2017, they were taking in 3,100 cats and euthanizing 76% of those cats. We took over that program on October 1, 2017. On October 2, 2017, they were a no-kill community for cats. It's all based on our values. Our values will not allow us to euthanize a dog or a cat that has a treatable medical issue or needs some training or just needs some help. So we've always done it that way. And so I know that we could, let's just say, public life line, y'all said, all right, public life line, come in, I want you to do this. We would immediately become a no-kill shelter. Now, it would take a lot of thinking out of the box right now to make that happen because I'm sure y'all are full and busting at the seams. So it would take a lot of thinking out of the box and a lot of additional fundraising on our part to make that happen, but we don't believe sheltering animals. These large breed dogs, we don't believe that's the answer. We don't believe it's a good option for them. Most of these dogs are working dogs. They don't belong in a four by seven or four by 14 kennel for weeks and months at the time. And the ones that we have identified as sanctuary dogs at public life line, I have certain staff that works with them. We have those enrichment programs every single day. We've got areas for them to be exercised. So there would be a lot of changes that you would have to make, but you first have got to commit to this is how we're going to do things. These are our values and our values won't allow us to euthanize dogs or cats unless they are truly vicious and unless they're so sick that it's impossible to save them. Right. But you were never taking in the dogs or cats to your point that we would have to stop. So you were never doing that anyway. Oh yeah, we did. We used to house them all at public life line or a lot of them. And we would also house them in foster homes. And what we started to see around 2019, 2020 is a lot of those large breed, mixed dogs were staying long-term. There were being returned at the highest rate. We were also encountering quite a few lawsuits because no matter what, no matter what anyone signs, unfortunately they were able to find an attorney that would follow a lawsuit against us and hold us accountable. So what we did was say, uh-uh, we're not doing it like this anymore. We're going to home-to-home adoptions because they need to be in a home learning how to be a family member. A lot of them have lived on chains. They've lived outside. They need to be in a family member being socialized and being trained. And then that way it makes them more adaptable when we have a family that says, I'm interested in that dog. Can we set up a meet and greet? Yes. We bring them to public life right now. Before, we used to have at least 150 animals in the facility at all times during kitten season. It could get as high as 300 because kittens weren't loading at the time. So we did used to shelter in the model. We changed the model. And now we changed it. I mean, we kind of, we were forced to change it. Otherwise we were going to be a sanctuary. We were just going to fill the shelter up and you know, animals were just going to sit there for months and months and months. So didn't he just, one other point of observation, I think you touched on this right as you started, y'all had moved away from the adoptions as much and more toward pet retention. Exactly. So I know in Victoria, I think you've got the numbers but it's been a pretty precipitous drop in the number of animals that you're pulling from our shelter at least. And obviously that doesn't help us when we're trying to move toward no kill. And y'all aren't pulling as many as you were. I understand your model has changed and the thought process has changed. And I hear what you're saying there. Yeah, let me respond to that. When we first started working with Lexington and Richland County and the cities always been a part of this, there was everything coming through, small, medium, and large. And our local shelters weren't doing a whole lot with adoptions. So I want to commend the local shelters. They're doing a much better job with their adoption program. It's not that they're not doing a good job at getting these animals out. It's what they have in their shelters and they're absolutely overwhelmed with large breed dogs, 45, 60, 75 pounds that haven't been trained, that aren't socialized, they're extremely hard to place. So what we got Richland County to do and Lexington County is what we want to do is we want to work directly with families in the community so they don't overtake the animals to your shelter. And so that's how it changed. So we still are serving over 2,400, 3,000 animals a year. It's just they're not ever going through your facility. They're coming straight to public life when they're working with us. So instead of going to your shelter, pulling them away, taking them, we're working directly with families. And we want to do more of that. Sunday, I got a call from a business owner on Divine Street. They called, I can't remember if it was City or Richland. Nobody would come out for an injured cat. They called the police department. They wouldn't come out, called the fire department. Fire department said call, public life line. So I sent somebody out to try and get this injured cat, couldn't get it, we sent a trap. So we want to work directly with people. So your staff doesn't have to feel like, how can we handle all this? This is just too much. But y'all, the first thing we've got to do is we've got to change the mentality in this community. You can't keep dumping animals at the shelter and then beat shelter staff up for some of the outcomes. Right, that's right. And that's what they're doing. And I've said that from day one, no matter what you friend, no matter what you've seen posted, we have said this is a community problem and don't go beating the municipal shelters up when you're the one taking all these animals to the shelter. You're not getting the animals fixed. We have, and we put this in place a number of years ago, it's called the PIP priority program. If you have a bully breed, if you find a bully breed and you need help with medical services, you need to have them spayed and neutered, you call us, we'll do it for free. We'll do it for free because we know they're in promises and we love this breed. Whatever you want to call them, call them whatever you want to call them. But that's the breed that we are really focused on that and the cats, but your staff is doing a good job with TNR. That's the answer. Trap, neuter and return. And so they're doing that. We're helping. And so we've just got to do things differently and you're going to get beat up. I called the police often. They were in the building last week. We get cussed out for some reason. This inappropriate behavior seems to be acceptable with some people. If we don't say yes, they get angry. They get mad. We're not going to change our position. We've got to work together. But you can see y'all look, 1999, 90% youth and age rate, it was looking fantastic. 2021, 15%. And then COVID hit and all the private clinics started selling out and a lot of vets started retiring and you couldn't get into the high volumes, favorite clinics. Thankfully, now we are going to have a vet school at Clemson. We are so excited about this. The first class will be 20, 26. The first graduating class will be in 2030. So hopefully we're also addressing the vet shortage as well through by having a Clemson vet school. They're going to stay at school and invest about $275 million in that school. So you can see we were doing great. Things happened in the world that we never saw coming. We didn't have any control of it. We didn't know all these clinics were going to start selling out to all these national companies. We didn't know a lot of clinics across the state of South Carolina were going to have to close their high volumes, favorite clinics. What are we doing? We're now partnering with Saluda County, Newbury, Fairfield. We're sending a big box truck to their communities. We pick up 35 dogs and cats. We bring them back to Pompano Lifeline. They get a day or two a month. We alter their animals. They spend 24 hours with us. We get up the next morning at 6.30 in the morning, load that truck and we take those animals back home. Newbury County, what are they doing? When we partner with them, they'll pay all the $20 for any private citizen that has a dog or cat that needs to be altered. They pay the balance. The private citizen pays $20. We send our truck there. They load the animals up. We bring them back to Pompano Lifeline, do the survey, send Newbury County an invoice and they pay the balance. That's working with the community and helping people do the right thing. Unfortunately, the person that named our building, he was not excited about TNR. He says, I'm libertarian. I don't believe you need to be telling me what to do. I said, unfortunately, sometimes it takes laws to motivate people to do the right thing. The people that own these dogs are fighting them. I don't know if you saw the link I sent out in December of 2023. A CNN did a story on how dog fighting is alive and well in South Carolina. Some people pay $200,000 to fight their dog because you can sit in your home and you can watch it online. We have got to do everything that we can to protect this building dog. You can adopt your way out of the problem. You've got to change the way we do it. Just in closing, I know I've probably taken up too much time, but again, Dr. Boussens, thank you. Thank you from everybody in this room. We are so grateful to you. You're the first one to let us come in and talk to you. And it means a lot. People standing on the streets, we are grateful to y'all. What we're talking about, Victoria's already said, biggest issue is large breed dogs in the shelters. Spang and neuter will create a balance between supply and demand. Licensing will create the revenue stream that we need to help people spate and neuter their pets. Public lifeline is going to alter those large breed mixed dogs, either for free or at a discounted rate if the family gets a citation. The citation stands until the dog is altered. The dog can't disappear. That is what some people do. Oh, I don't have the dog anymore. And then the citation gets up. Citation stands until you prove the dog has been altered. So we believe if we can work together, make these changes that may not be easy because it's sort of a mindset that we've got to change that together we can solve this problem. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Yes. Dr. Russell, Dr. Russell. Yes, please go ahead. Yes, let me ask, let me ask one question. And because I think the percentage, the percentage on these larger breed dogs are, it seems like it's high, 60 to 70% of our dogs being euthanized in shelters are pit bulls and other type dogs. Give me some explanation for that. The majority of the dogs being euthanized in shelters statewide are dogs, larger breed mixed dogs. There are dogs over 45 pounds and there's data to support it. It's not your little fluffies that are being euthanized in the shelter. They're in very high demand. I have a waiting list for all of those highly adoptable dogs. It is your larger breed mixed dogs that are dying at the highest rate in shelters all over South Carolina. And they're also- Yeah, that's statewide, what about city? Oh, it's Victoria's here. So I don't have a breakdown of the large breeds. In front of me, I can tell you that we are running our numbers on a monthly basis and announcing them. And last month, I believe our euthanasia rate was at 18%. That is going to be predominantly large mixed breed dogs. So it is lower. It's a little bit lower, Rev, in our case this month. But that can change. All right, it's lower in the city. State-wide is 60 to 70%. Okay, thank you. Well, I guess, Reverend McDowell, the clarifying point there, our overall euthanasia rate would be 18%, but the majority of the animals that are euthanized are probably your large breed mixes. But we just don't have the data point to share. Anecdotally, I think that sounds correct, the numbers that you're citing, that's 60, 70%. So Victoria's nodding that I didn't mistake. Victoria, if it's 18% today, what was the last year? Again, I don't have those exact numbers in front of me. I do believe our euthanasia rate by fiscal year is going down. It typically is going to hover between 17 and 19%. Okay, thank you very much. May I say something? You're not getting to the root of the problem until you get the population under control. Yeah, I've used this example all the time. If there are 10 alligators on Lake Murray, not a big deal. If there are 1,000 alligators on Lake Murray and they start attacking dogs and children, we got a big problem and we've got to get it under control. And right now, this is a crisis. This is a crisis. I don't want to see another, I mean, I don't want to see another child that's been hurt because of a stray dog. And we need to make sure we hold people accountable that aren't taking care of their dogs and need to get those dogs altered in microchip. And for people that want to do the right thing, we need to have the funding to help them do the right thing. Whether it's medical services or spaying a neutering. Well, thank you. Madam Chair, one question. Yes. We are sure there are no alligators in Lake Murray. Well, now somebody told me there was an alligator. Oh my gosh. I have to say that. ACM, Shealy and Team, Victoria, Robert, everyone, and TK, and I think to City Manager's point, it will be worth exploring what a, I don't see it as complaint-driven but maybe citation-driven if there's an actual citation issued. I think it's easy to complain and there not be an issue but exploring what that would look like with some of these proposed changes. I feel more comfortable with that than a blanket spay and neuter. And I think those were the discussions that we had with Councilman Duvall and McDowell as well. So it would be worth seeing what you all think and come back with some recommendations. Absolutely. I think we'll get together and talk. We'll also share with Richland County and thank you for the information, the recommendations. I think possibly folding any changes we're doing with licensing in with some of the ordinance violation, citation-type driven is good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank y'all so much for the opportunity. All right, well, we will move right along and hear from another community partner, Final Victory Animal Rescue, Miss Katie Cohen. I hope I said that right. Yeah. Thank you, Dr. Bussles. It's an honor to be here. Thank you so much. Yes, so my name is Katie Cowan. I am the founder and director of the registered nonprofit, Final Victory Animal Rescue. And my background has been in horses and I got into animal welfare through the thoroughbred industry in central Kentucky. Then when I moved to South Carolina, I got into the whole rescue and fostering dogs. I was a director for two years of the Heart of the Midlands program at Palmetto Lifeline, which is where I learned to do what I do, which is amazing. And my job was to make sure that the dogs that Palmetto Lifeline was not able to adopt through their program, those large breed, hard to place dogs. My job was to make sure that they were meeting their quota with Richland and Lexington County of the 1,200 animals per year. And I would place them with rescues throughout the Northeast US, like-minded nonprofits. And we did a great job. And we always met our quota. And so I left there in 2017, thinking I could do more and expand and started my nonprofit. I also spent a few, a couple of times working for Columbia Animal Services as a technician and just sort of a part-time employee filling in as they were filling their staff. And so I have this really great unique perspective of Palmetto Lifeline and the shelter and the rescue world. And I now currently have really great young people that are really doing all the hands-on running of our rescue and I'm working with the HSUS and working on reaching out to lower income communities throughout South Carolina and their shelters. Okay, so 2017, we primarily focused on rescuing dogs throughout South Carolina, not just Columbia and Lexington, but throughout South Carolina and placing them with our rescue partners. In 2020, COVID was really our friend. People were looking for a way to get engaged and be involved and do things that were safe during COVID. So it was awesome. And we began doing a lot of our own adoptions, getting a ton of community support. USC holds curriculum with us, which is awesome. They do a dog walking class. It's actually on their curriculum. And we just started getting a lot of community engagement. In 2022, we did 585 plus adoptions plus placing of over 200 with rescue partners. Last year, we did 1200 adoptions and pulling cats and dogs from 15 different South Carolina shelters. However, we pulled about 350 from Columbia Animal Services and another good chunk from Lexington. Having worked with Columbia Animal Services since 2015 and different, whether it was Pomellia Lifeline through my rescue or as an employee, I have to say that it has just been the transformation. It's amazing. The energy, the volunteer program, Mike, and they're just killing it. And it's so great, all of us working together with rescues to pull these animals out so that we're able to youth in Asia less. And it's really just a huge community effort. And our magic is that we adopt probably 75 to 80% of our dogs in the Northeast US. And through Pet Finder and the expansion of their program, they're able to, our dogs are placed everywhere, Quebec, Toronto, on down. We've had a couple of different locations. Right now we're at 919 North Lucas Street from West Columbia. We have kind of an old dilapidated warehouse, doesn't matter, but we're on three and a half acres and we have some great yards. All of our dogs, we focus on those. We do very few small breed dogs. We mostly do those big, hard to place dogs. Those hounds, those pit mixes, the shepherds, the whatever. And we take in a ton of ferrules. We work with some great, our area for the love of street dogs. We help, we take in dogs that have been trapped. We work with animal transport companies and we transport between 15 to 25 animals a week to adopters in the Northeast US. We have a whole volunteer community that process our application. We're getting such a huge local support and out at, we are also doing a ton of local adoptions. And these are all these big, harder to place dogs. So our goals are expanding the reach of our now, we now have a 40 foot spay neuter van that has been given to us indefinitely. As long as we're using it, we can use it forever. So it has two surgery. We have one vet who volunteers her time, two other vets that are doing it at extremely low cost. And it's maiden voyage was on a feral cat colony and life would. And we work with our friends at the animal mission, Jen and up in Evelyn society to help raise funds for these spay neuter events. We've, I think we have about appointments set up for our spay neuter van. When space and resources allow, we take breeds and conditions of dogs and cats into our care for municipal shelters, owners and rescue transfers. So here's the thing is, we have really tried to meet the community where they are because they can come to us and there are dogs and not everyone can keep those stray dogs. And they also can't, not all of them, you know, can pay to care for them. We ask them, yes. But we take in a lot. We have probably a hundred in our building at any given time than we also have between 50 and 60 and foster homes. And our length of stay is short. So anytime somebody comes to us with a stray dog, our goal is to keep it and do what we can to get it and not have to send it to Columbia or Lexington shelters. And the community has really stepped up just a tremendous outpouring. And we, so we've got the, we collaborate with USC, we help people trap animals. We partner with a large operation Delta dog, which is in Maryland. And they take tons of large breed dogs for their veterans program. And so the goal is, I mean, just getting them, you know, the supply is low and the demand is high in the Northeast US for adoptable dogs. And so that's what we're doing is we're getting them out of the state. We're, you know, we've just, and we're trying to meet the people where they are and really being as compassionate as possible. I mean, it is, it's hard sometimes when you feel like people are just ditching dogs for no reason. And we've all been there where it's really hard to not pass judgment. And we've really taken the, the stance of taking the people, talking to them individually, trying to work with them. But knowing not everybody can keep those stray dogs and we're gonna take them and we're gonna do our best. And we're gonna do our best to, so they don't have to go to the Columbia shelter. I mean, sometimes they have to because there's something that's, you know, more aggressive or has some issues. But the words of the HSUS is that mandatory spay neuter is both ineffective and harmful. And yes, I think that there are amazing things for us to strive to do, but we also need to live in the reality of the day-to-day, the immediate problems of these people. And we only see a little tiny snippet of these people that need to re-home their animals. We only see a snippet. We see them needing to come in, surrender their animal. We don't know that, you know, they have one kid that's having trouble and they can't buy the diapers and they can't, whatever. And the last thing on their list is to be able to spay neuter their pets and they want to. And we just tried to provide a judgment-free Zoom, giving them all the resources and not making them pay for it. You know, if they can't, that's fine. We put out a plea for anything on our social media and we get it and then we provide it. And it's just been a joy to be able to serve the community. And we're just, we're going places. What we really need is more space. Like I said, we have kind of our old dilapidated warehouse. We're looking for a second location because we have the adoptions. We have the placement for the dogs. We've got the support. It's just a matter of more space. So on the next slide where you talk about your partners, can you talk a little bit about who you partner with with some of this work that you're doing? I know you mentioned USC and the municipal shelter. So you work with us as well as Lexington? Yes, okay. I work with Lexington. I work closely with them. I have met with some of the council members of Lexington County and also with Eric Jensen and working on how we can build and grow what we've done and continue to serve the community. Because ultimately, yes, we pull from 12 to 15 different shelters throughout South Carolina, but this is our home and this is where our main focus is. And this is where we take the stray dogs in is the Richland and Lexington stray animals. So yeah, we're looking for more partnerships. We're looking to be more involved. We're looking to be a real asset to the city in the county. And, you know, we're just very grassroots. We're in the trenches. We're more dealing with just the actual dogs and the actual people in the day-to-day, you know, what's really needed. And, you know, people, it's really, when people say one of the biggest reasons for people having to give up their animals is we have to move. And that is so true and the HSUS has a whole program and I've brought a packet of information I can send home with you guys for the Pets For Life program. But since COVID, rents everywhere are up 32% and the pet restrictions are crazy. So it's very real. So yeah, and I just, you know, what can we do for you guys is ultimately we're here to help. And, you know, we're very passionate about what we do. Well, I appreciate you coming and giving us an overview. And I think this is, and I know you probably already have a relationship, but would love to explore ways in which we can continue to get some of those larger breeds into their pipeline, especially because of their specialized focus just on dogs, which continues to be, you know, our biggest challenge. So I think I would just ask requests of staff to explore any partnerships there as we make some of our own process changes as well. And, you know, would love to continue to stay in touch if you have any ideas for as we continue to address some of the overpopulation and some of the challenges that we're seeing, we're all ears in terms of that. So I appreciate you coming today. Yeah, and I'm working with some of the other rescue groups that pull from the Columbia Shelter and Mike Young here, who's just a huge asset as a volunteer through the shelter is, a bunch of us are working together and just we're turning and burning them and we're real proud and happy for these dogs. Thank you. I'll have to come in here. You can come in here. You can come in here. You can come in here. I do want to mention, Miss Cohen, I believe you're going to be part of our quarterly coordination meetings as well. I think Mr. Jensen's reached out to me. Yes. So we're looking forward to that and to furthering the partnership we can. So thank you very much. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any other questions from the committee? No? Not for me. All right. Well, we will shift gears from our animal related topics to now environment and pass it over to ACM Shealy and Miss Mary to talk about our Climate Protection Action Committee bylaws. Yes, ma'am. She's on the way. Here comes Mayor Pat, going to brief us on that. We're ready, Mayor Pat. Thank you. Good morning. I'm Mary Pat Mollop. I'm the Sustainability Assistant for the Office of Public Works. And I deal with the Climate Protection Action Committee, which is where we see that. Hey y'all, we're continuing presentations. Can we keep it down, please? CPAC, the mission statement for CPAC is to develop and advocate for effective strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change, conserve natural resources, and otherwise protect the environment at a city level, while also fostering a quality of life for the citizens of the city of Columbia. I'm here today to talk about changes to some bylaws, our bylaws, and I've got the copies here. The red line and they're kind of messy. Thank you. Thanks. What I'm going to do is just give y'all a big picture overview of why we're changing them and the changes that were made. They're going to have to scroll through all that stuff. The changes basically were drafted to go into effect with the handbook for the boards and commissions. And they include several things, the removal of non-voting appointees and advisory members, the adoption of city residency requirements, and per email that went out last week, once this is passed, we'll be in alliance with that standard. The increase in number of changes to 11, and we changed the attendance requirements to match with the handbook. And after your review and endorsement today, these bylaws are going to counsel for a vote. Do y'all have any questions? No, I'm glad that you all are making this change. I know some of our boards and commissions operate a little bit differently. So we spent a lot of time creating those attendance requirements and all those other things listed there in the handbook. So Reverend McDowell, I know you led some of that work with the boards and commissions handbook. Any questions here? No, I'm fine. Thank you very bad. Any questions? All right. Okay, great. We're good to go. Yeah, that could be forwarded to counsel, yeah. Next, Emily is doing this for me. Yeah. Okay. Next, we have an update on the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant, which is the CPRG. You'll know with the environmental folks, if it's not an acronym, it's not a real program. Because we have a lot of acronyms. To give you a refresher, to give you a little bit to know about the grant, it's a million dollar grant from the EPA. And it's to refund them, to fund the reduction of greenhouse gases and also to encourage climate action planning. You'll remember when I was here last in the summer, when we were talking about this, we were hoping to get the Central Midlands Council of Governments board as the lead. And I'm happy to say that they've been taking the lead since August. And this is not a city of Columbia grant. It's a regional grant. It's for the Columbia, MSA Metropolitan Statistical Area. And that includes the counties of Calhoun, Fairfield, Blacksington, Hershaw, Richland and Saluta counties. Mary Pat, I'm going to interrupt you just a minute because you're being humble. The city of Columbia did bring this forward. Mary Pat brought this to our attention, along with our CPAC folks. And then we all felt that it would be more effective if it was applied regionally and it would be more effective. And that's what we brought in our partners with the council of governments and they completed the grant application and have been administering from there. But you were a big part of that. Well, the city of Columbia is the largest city in the MSA. So that was the reason we were able to take advantage of the opportunity. But also your relationships that brought it to, you have to give yourself a little bit. That's right. Okay. Our full-time program coordinator, Jorie Fleming, started December 1st. And Jorie is with us today. Welcome. We've had a good time catching up while y'all are doing business. And we have a part-time intern from Benedict College who's now assisting him. And he's been, he hit the road running. And he's been busy. Robert Anderson, I represent the city on the advisory committee. And we have been and will continue to be actively involved. There's a regional committee that met, first met in early December. And it consists of the six counties and the municipalities. And this group meets on a monthly basis. There's some days of interest coming up. This seems like this whole grant has been pre-app and wait. But we've had a short timeframe to get things done. March 1st, which is Friday, our priority climate action plan, or PCAP, is due. That includes near-term items, near-term action items, to prepare for implementation grants. It can focus on specific sectors or greenhouse gas sources. It is a first draft with a limited set of simple requirements. And it can be built on previous climate planning efforts. The city has always been forward-thinking and we've been working on climate action since 2006. So that's given us a look up. On April 1st, the regional implementation grant is application is due. These competitive grants will range from two million to 500 million dollars and will be used to fund measures in the PCAP. And then we'll have a gracious plenty time. So mid-2025, do you submit a comprehensive climate action plan? That's like the priority plan, but it's on steroids. We'll have a GHG inventory, greenhouse gas inventory. Reductions and reduction targets and a larger list of measures to reduce greenhouse gases and hit the targets. It's more of a long-term action plan. When we started working on all this, we gathered input from organizations and individuals in the MSA about a list of possible grant project ideas. This is not a full list. It's only a sampling. You can see, I don't need to read all these regional waste energy plant. You can see all the different ones. These were different ideas that kind of came up to the top. And most likely, we're gonna move forward with three particular implementation grant. That would be regional solar, local government energy audits and smart surface projects. Smart surface projects are projects that help reduce the impact of flooding and of the urban heat island effect. And they range from reflective coating on the pavement to reflective roofs, green roofs, trees, solar and bioswales. So it's a wide variety of things. And we're in a co-work called smart services. And we've got a big meeting coming up in the first week in March. And they are very helpful. And so the smart services is a wide range is something that anybody can find something to do. But we want to check with you all to see if you have any additional ideas. And we can take it back for the comprehensive plan. And I know it's short notice, but if you think about it and come up with one, you can go Robert. I mean, I have some that just off the top of my head and this is just thinking very broadly, but I'm very passionate about the reduction of single use plastics, especially when we've seen an increase of that post COVID. If there's an opportunity to maybe wrap that into some of the existing initiatives, that could be something interesting. I know we've done a lot of work around making our transit system. And I'm thinking regionally, because of the cog being the backbone, it would be interesting to see if we are a zero emission or a green transportation system regionally, it could be something to look at. And then any opportunities that we have to continue to build green spaces and add more, I think walkability and reduce kind of the heat that's in this city because of the lack of green would be something that I would very much be interested in seeing if we can incorporate it as well. That's like my wish list though. Reverend McDowell, do you have anything? I'm trying. Okay. I like the idea of more EV chargers. That's the big thing sticks out to me. I heard on TV just the other day that the Californians have a trouble with EV chargers. With all the EVs they have, they don't have enough chargers. Wow. And they have a lot of EV chargers. I know. I thought that was interesting. Well, I think also to Councilman Bailey's point with Scout coming, it's gonna be something that probably will see an increased need, so. Have you have anything else if you wanna just reach out to Robert? It's easy for me to say that, isn't it? But we appreciate your time and look forward to our next update. Yes, looking forward to it. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Mayor Pat, if I can add just one thing to that. In terms of regional solar farm, we've been talking with a lot of partners for a while and working with CPAC and one of the projects that we're looking to move forward with some of the implementation grants. And we've been working with Jory and Gregory Sprouse at the COG to make sure our project would be attractive to not the million dollars but get a lot more money to actually implement something really tangible. And so we're looking, we've talked about putting a two megawatt solar farm out of our Metro wastewater plant for a few years. And the economics just have not, at the rate of the return on investment has really not been there. And, but high-visit location right next to Interstate 77. And we've really wanted to do that with this grant opportunity and also some of the Inflation Reduction Act tax benefits that direct pay. We think it really papers out nicely. Part of what makes us attractive for this implementation grant, would it be if it's a regional facility? So we've met with East Richland Public Service District and County Utilities, the city of Casey and started talking about each investing not sharing the renewable electrons but sharing the cost and environmental benefits proportionately to the level of investment. We believe that's gonna paper out really well, give us a very attractive return on investment. And I think it'll be, if we are awarded the implementation grant to be a nice project that we can layer in and a quick win because we've already done some of the feasibility in their engineering for that. So that's one I think you'll hear more about as we enter next updates. I'm hoping so at least. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks very much Pat. Thank you. Any other business for the good of the group? All right. I think they'll see it. All right, well, then I will take entertaining motion to adjourn. So move. Can I get a second? Second. All right, I think we are adjourned. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you.