MEDLEY, Fla. — The Miami-Dade County animal shelter has been facing criticism this summer, specifically regarding the use of the old shelter in Medley and the conditions dogs are being kept in at the open-air facility.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava sat down with Local 10 Animal Advocate Jacey Birch to address complaints and discuss solutions.
“I’m very proud of this shelter and I’m proud of our director and her team. It is very challenging,” Levine Cava said.
Ever since a brand-new facility was built in 2016 to provide a proper shelter for the homeless pets of Miami-Dade County, the building in Doral has been consistently overcrowded, mostly with unwanted large dogs.
“It was never contemplated that we would have 600-plus dogs, that is way beyond our capacity and our imagination,” Levine Cava said.
Shelter management considered it a stroke of luck that they could still access the old Miami-Dade Animal Services shelter in Medley.
“Medley has some advantages. It is open air, which is good for avoiding transmission of diseases, has more open spaces for the dogs to run and play,” Levine Cava said.
It started as a quarantine area for sick animals or those waiting for transport, but then it became known as the overflow shelter for the main facility.
Soon, social media hate began, along with frequent protests in Doral.
“You and I do get the emails from advocates and I do read them,” Levine Cava told Birch.
The mayor added, “Unfortunately, a lot of the information is not accurate. For example, rumors spread very quickly through this community, they are very active on social media, and very dramatic sometimes.”
Last October, the facility faced flooding problems. This year, advocates showed up with temperature gauges, concerned about the heat and ventilation in the open-air facility.
There are frequent upper respiratory issues for kennel dogs. A strep zoo outbreak at the shelter also took the life of a dog named Rocky and advocates blamed his death on the heat.
“Everything was done right to try to save Rocky. We have the volunteers that were there and our staff that were there who quickly realized he’s not acting like himself,” Miami-Dade Animal Services Director Annette Jose said.
Jose also released Rocky’s medical records as proof.
“A lot of the misinformation may detract people from coming to a shelter to adopt,” she said.
Advocates also pointed to a roach infestation.
“So you might say, ‘It’s just a little roach infestation, everybody in Miami deals with a roach infestation,’ but with $43 million, why is there such an egregious roach infestation?” asked animal advocate Amy Ziemba.
Ziemba is among those challenging the county shelter’s current operating procedures.
“They have somehow found a way to rationalize these completely unacceptable conditions when they have one of the biggest budgets in the country for animal welfare,” Ziemba said. “That’s unacceptable.”
MDAS is budgeted $43 million to care for 35,000 animals, with 60% going toward personnel and 40% toward operations.
The funds cover the county’s need for mass sterilizations of feral cats and now stray dogs too — 25,000 so far this year.
“I honestly do not know what people think we can do better with the dollars that we have,” Levine Cava said.
One thing that is happening is a land swap.
The county has signed a deal in which developers will take the old shelter to build new housing, while the county will receive a large plot of land along with an $11 million buildout paid for by the developers.
The land is in south Miami-Dade. The goal of the new satellite shelter is to attract more adopters and fosters in that part of the county, where many of Miami-Dade’s 30,000 stray dogs are dumped daily.
“We need help. We are calling on the community to help,” Levine Cava said. “So you can be concerned, but I think that if you are not contributing to solving this problem, then we really have nothing more that we can say.”
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