Feature
Montcalm County Animal Control: How a Michigan Community Organized for Change
On a crisp, spring morning in 2008, Sue Maguire found a stray dog on her porch. A black dog, apparently of mixed breeds, no tags. At the time, Sue already had two dogs of her own. With a career as an in-home child-care provider, Maguire was a busy person, with a full house. So Maguire spent most of the morning wrestling with the question of what to do with a dog who appeared out of nowhere, and eventually decided to call Montcalm County Animal Control. Although Maguire says she knew it wasn’t “the greatest place on earth to take an animal” she didn’t think the decision would be life-changing.[1]
Animal Control showed up in the late morning to retrieve the dog. And as the van pulled away, Sue Maguire changed her mind. She called the site to make an appointment to adopt the dog. But Montcalm County Animal Control instructed Maguire to come in two weeks, when the dog would officially be up for adoption.
Those two weeks felt like forever for Maguire. What would they be like at Montcalm County Animal Control? During the next two weeks, Maguire became curious, inquisitive. She read the stories in the local paper more closely, and found out the director had been accused of animal cruelty by an employee and ended up resigning. Maguire said she learned that some unwanted animals were gassed in a CO2 chamber, and that others were sold into live animal research.
Sue Maguire called every day during those two weeks to inquire about the health and well-being of the dog. She called again on the morning she was officially allowed to take the dog home, telling them she was on the way. The receptionist informed Maguire that a rescue group was there and in the process of adopting the dog at that very moment. Maguire, angry and confused, insisted the dog was hers, and was told, after a lengthy conversation, that she could come to pick her up.
Maguire arrived, and immediately went to the dog’s cage, placing a leash on “Abby” and preparing the dog to go to her new home -- the place, it now seemed, the dog had chosen. Just then, someone walked up and uttered, “That dog’s already been walked.”
Maguire happily responded: “I am here to adopt her.” Maguire was then told that her Abby had been adopted. Montcalm County Animal Control had told two different people they could adopt the same dog. The other was Mike Urbanski, who would eventually become a friend and ally. Maguire pleaded with Urbanski: “Abby is already a part of my family in my mind.”
Maguire prevailed, because Urbanski, a volunteer at a non-profit fostering network called the Safe Haven Humane Society, was there simply to save the dog from lab testing -- an industry Maguire knew little about. In the parking lot, and Maguire and Urbanski talked. Maguire learned that Abby nearly ended up in the vivisection industry just a few days before, when a Class B dealer (an animal broker who acquires animals from pounds, newspaper ads, or flea markets and sells them to pharmaceutical institutions or vet schools) showed up at Montcalm and asked about Abby.
The Shelter That Isn’t
From 2004 through 2007, 8,035 animals were admitted to Montcalm County Animal Control; only 556 were returned to owners. Of the rest, 530 were adopted; 816 cats and dogs were handed over to research; and 5,653 were gassed to death. Thus, 84% of the animals who entered Montcalm’s doors were either killed or sold into experimentation.[2]
R & R Research, a company owned and operated by Jim Woudenberg, has been doing business with Montcalm County Animal Control for more than 30 years.[3] According to one reporter who’s been actively researching the case, employees at the site say Woudenberg has even had a key to Montcalm.[4] R & R Research removes and kills some animals without charge, and, in exchange, hands Class B dealers the dogs and cats they want; these are then sold into research. In 2006, gross receipts show R & R Research making $196,272.[5]
Class B dealers want animals like Abby, those who are easy to manage -- and who’d also be deemed highly adoptable pets. This process of gathering them for research, called “pound seizure,” is still legal in most states.[6]
Sue Maguire, along with Mike Urbanski, Jeanne Urbanski, and other locals would form the Concerned Citizens Coalition, a Montcalm County group dedicated to ending pound seizure. The coalition wants an end to the contract between R & R Research and the County.
Redemption?
Nicole Sica, the editor of the canine-advocacy publication Poocini Magazine, alerted Friends of Animals to Montcalm’s situation just days before a public hearing on the renewal of the county’s five-year contract with R & R Research. We immediately started a phone campaign directed to the county commissioners, requesting non-renewal and an end to pound seizure. Friends of Animals’ president, Priscilla Feral, planned and funded a visit from Nathan Winograd, an animal shelter expert who develops proven “No Kill” strategies throughout the United States. This intervention could change Montcalm County’s animals’ lives for good.
More than 150 people attended the meeting on 26 January 2009. Only three people spoke in support of the contract; most participants called it a stain on the community. Rather than making a firm decision, the county commissioners voted 8-1 to issue a temporary contract while forming a committee to review policies and procedures. It was meant as an olive branch to critics, but this committee included the owner of R & R Research, Jim Woudenberg.[7] Nevertheless, the committee appointed to evaluate the contract met again in March and, by a 4-3 vote, recommended ending the contract with R & R Research.[8] As of this writing in April, the commissioners are poised to announce their decision.
The Future of Montcalm County Animal Control
I’ll accompany Nathan Winograd on Saturday, the 6 th of June, 2009 to the open meeting at the Greenville Community Center in Montcalm County, Michigan. I look forward to seeing a turnaround. Winograd has spoken nationally and internationally on animal sheltering, has written state and national legislation, and has effectively shown how to end institutional killing of healthy, adoptable cats and dogs in rural communities and large cities. Winograd’s recent book Redemption is the gold standard on the topic in the United States, where it has earned its author no less than five awards. Sue Maguire hopes Winograd’s multimedia seminar for the commissioners and residents will “open eyes and change attitudes,” and Friends of Animals will continue working closely with the Concerned Citizens Coalition to ensure major changes take place. It’s not just pound seizure that must stop; it’s killing. That means attitudes need to change, and low-cost spay and neuter plans must be put into place.
As Sue Maguire says, “I want something positive for Montcalm County. I want us to have one of the best animal shelters around. I want it for the animals most of all, but also for those who have worked so hard to get it done.”
Support Our Campaign and the Concerned Citizens Coalition
Please write or make a phone call to the Montcalm County Commissioners. Encourage them to support a true animal shelter where adoptable animals are not killed or handed to dealers for animal experimentation. Ask them to ensure that Montcalm County Animal Control adopts a no-kill policy, and works closely with fostering groups in the community. Please contact:
Ronald Blanding - District 1
403 W. High Street
Greenville , Michigan 48838
Phone: 616.225.7972
E-mail: ron.blanding@yahoo.com
Tom Lindeman - District 2
8060 S. Backus Road
Greenville , Michigan 48838
Phone: 616.754.4918
Email: tblindeman@sbcglobal.net
Ron Retzloff - District 3
786 S. Senator Rd.
Crystal , Michigan 48818
Phone: 989.235.6827
E-mail: comish@casair.net
John Johansen - District 4
3503 S. Monroe Rd.
Greenville , Michigan 48838
Phone: 616.754.5375
E-mail: johm@pathwaynet.com
Carl Paepke - District 5
18419 Stanton Rd. NW
Pierson , Michigan 49339
Phone: 616.636.5692
Ron Baker - District 6
P.O. Box 91
Howard City, Michigan 49329-0091
Phone: 231.937.5465
E-mail: rbaker68amx@hotmail.com
Patrick Q. Carr - District 7
10397 Almy Rd.
Lakeview , Michigan 48850
Phone: 989.352.8129
Roger Caris - District 8
8984 E. Deaner Rd.
Vestaburg , Michigan 48891
Phone: 989.268.5875
E-mail: rcaris@gccmha.org
Steven Crouse - District 9
8701 Session Road
Carson City , Michigan 48811
Phone: 989.235.4696
E-mail: crousetax@nomadinter.net
Contact your United States senator and ask that the Pet Safety and Protection Act remain in the United States Farm Bill, in order to stop Class B dealers from selling shelter pets. Contact your Representative and request support for HB 5263, to prevent shelters from giving or selling animals for research purposes. You can also stay tuned to developments by following Michigan Animal News at www. MichAnimalNews.com, and keeping in touch with the Concerned Citizens Coalition:
Concerned Citizens Coalition
P.O. Box 292
Lakeview Michigan 48850
E-mail: postmaster@cccmontcalm.org
Footnotes
- Written interview with Sue Maguire (19 Mar. 2009).
- Justine DePalma, “The Killing Fields” -- Michigan Animal News (31 Mar. 2008); available at http://www.michanimalnews.com/Montcalm_Killing_Fields.html (as visited 9 Apr. 2009; citing statistics from Michigan’s Department of Agriculture).
- Ed Cutlip, “Montcalm County Renews Animal Contract” in the Grand Rapids, Michigan blog Media Mouse (29 Jan. 2009); available: http://www.mediamouse.org/news/2009/01/montcalm-county-renews-animal-contract.php; (as visited 9 Apr. 2009).
- Justine DePalma, “Montcalm County Rescue Nightmare” -- Michigan Animal News (5 Apr. 2008); available at http://www.michanimalnews.com/Rescue_Nightmare.html (as visited 9 Apr. 2009).
- Justine DePalma, “Montcalm Animal Control: Montcalm County Animal ‘Shelter’ Cruelty Exposed” -- Michigan Animal News (11 Mar. 2008); available : http://www.michanimalnews.com/Montcalm_Animal_Control.html (as visited 9 Apr. 2009).
- See the American Anti-Vivisection Society’s page on pound seizure; available at http://www.banpoundseizure.org/yourstate.shtml (as visited 21 Mar. 2009); or call them toll-free on 1–800–SAY–AAVS.
- See Ryan Jeltema, “Animal Shelter Panel to Meet Today” -- The [ Greenville, Belding, and Montcalm Counties’] Daily News (5 Feb. 2009); available: http://greenvilledailynews.1upprelaunch.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=2&ArticleID=25088 (as visited 9 Apr. 2009).
- Susie Fair, “Montcalm County Commissioners Will Consider Recommendation to Quit Deal With R&R Research Breeders” -- The Grand Rapids Press (27 Mar. 2009); available: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/03/montcalm_county_commissioners.html (as visited 9 Apr. 2009).
