your life.
Good morning everybody. It is 9:00 a.m.
here on Thursday, July 23rd, 2026, and
we will call this meeting of the board
of directors for the animal service
center of the Messia Valley to order.
Our first order of business will be our
pledge of allegiance. If you're able to
stand and uh pledge do the pledge with
us, I ask that you do that, please.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
All right. And then we'll do a roll call
vote or not roll call vote, a roll call
to determine quorum. All right. Ex
official member Ward. All
right. Board member Peek
present.
Commissioner Shjoandez
present.
Councelor Corin
present.
Councelor Harris
present.
Vice Chair Gates
here.
Board member Bowling. Uh Buling
present.
All right. I Commissioner Sanchez, I am
here present. So we do have quorum. I
did want to uh intro I I think this is
your first meeting. Oh, this isn't I
missed the last one, I guess. So, I
apologize. It's nice to meet you.
Appreciate it. Um, all right. Then with
that, the first uh order of business uh
is to read our closed meeting statement
from June 23rd, 2026.
The ASMV met in close session on July
23rd, 2026
or sorry on uh which began at 10:29 a.m.
and included in person uh councelor
Becky Corin, councelor Michael Harris,
board member Patrick Pek, ex-official
member Mary Lou Ward, and from the city
uh Sonia Degado, uh executive director
Stephanie Lewis, and Benjamin Young from
uh Minet Springer, PC. In addition,
online was Vice Chair Jennifer Gates,
Chairman Manuel Sanchez, and
Commissioner Shel Nandez with the
session concluding at 11:27
a.m. And the only thing discussed at
that time was the items noted in the
agenda item for the close session.
All right. So, we'll move on to item
number four, which is acceptance of our
agenda. If I can get a motion and a
second to accept the agenda, please.
So move. Shoulder Hernandez. Second.
Peek.
All right. I have a motion by C uh
Commissioner Shaland, a second by board
member Pek. Are there any comments,
changes to the agenda?
All right. Not hearing or seeing any.
And with that, I'll do a roll call vote.
Ex official member Ward.
Yes.
All right. Board member Peek.
Yes.
Commissioner Sha Nandez,
yes.
Councelor Korn,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Vice Chair Gates,
yes.
Board member Billing,
yes.
All right. And I vote yes. And with
that, our agenda is approved. All right.
Under section 55 5.1, it's the approval
of the meeting minutes from the ASMV
board of directors quarterly meeting
held on April 23rd, 2026. If I can get a
motion, a second for approval, please.
So move. Shelar Hernandez.
Second.
All right. I have a motion by uh
Commissioner Shernandez, second by board
member Pek. Are there any changes or
amendments necessary for the meeting
minutes?
Oh. All right. If there are none, then
I'll do a roll call vote. Ex official
member Ward,
yes.
Board member Peek,
yes.
Commissioner Shuandez,
yes.
Councelor Corin,
abstain.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Vice Chair Gates,
yes.
Uh board member Buling,
yes.
Commissioner Sanchez, vote yes. And with
that, the meeting minutes from April
23rd, 2026 are approved. All right,
we're on to item under uh section 6,
6.1, reports and presentations. We'll
start with uh Dr. Carver from the Miss
Animal Clinic.
I don't know if you want to join us
here. Are you able to?
Okay.
And welcome.
Yes.
I think as long as we can get the
microphone over so we can hear you.
or unless I don't know if any of the the
ones on the uh tables are working.
I wish to thank you
for asking me to stop by and talk about
my favorite subject, my clinic.
A little bit of history. Before I went
to veterary school, I worked with animal
control offices. animal control um
officer for the city of Las Cruises for
five years.
Okay. I saw that there was a need in the
community for affordable vaccinations
and also
for a mobile clinic.
Okay. Thank you.
Also for a mobile clinic. Okay. Okay,
there are many reasons why people can't
uh get their animals for vaccinations.
Uh they don't drive because they're very
old or very young. They have
disabilities like blindness. They can't
afford a vehicle or have too many
animals for a little bitty car. Okay. So
in 2003 I opened my mobile vaccination
clinic.
Within a month, I realized that the
mission statement was not
affordable vaccinations. It was
education. Why we do what we do. We
don't vaccinate our animals against
rabies because it's the law. We
vaccinate them against rabies because
rabies kills people, too. In the world
each year, approximately 60,000 people
die of rabies. We don't have that many
people dying in the United States of
America because
We are we have our we keep our animals
vaccinated.
Okay,
this is basically one health. Okay, what
they're referring to today is one
health. Keeping the animal population
um healthy, keeping the environment
healthy also helps keep people healthy.
Basically, I've done a lot of research
on rabies. You don't want to know what I
know about rabies. Tammy says it will
give you nightmares. Okay. Uh if you
have any questions about rabies, then um
I will answer them. Okay. The restraint
of the animals came about originally for
the control of rabies. Okay. now because
it helps us reduce the automobile
accidents and injuries to people and
animals for that matter.
Okay,
it helps basically save the lives for
the critters and us. Okay, this tempeer
is a very very nasty disease mochio in
Spanish. It starts as an upper
respiratory then it goes neurologic and
they usually end up dying with seizures.
Okay. It's carried by the canines, the
musculates, and the elephants. So, if
you see any elephants in your backyard,
just shoe them away. Okay. Um
I'm basically I'm tired of putting down
this temper dogs. It's so preventable.
Okay. And so, we keep uh encouraging
people to get their dogs vaccinated. We
work very closely with staff, okay, to
decrease decrease the uh
to decrease the unwanted animals uh the
litters needed litter. So we discussed
with our uh clients, the testicular
cancer, the uh mammalary cancer and the
pyometra. Okay.
A 13-year-old
a puppy having becoming pregnant in his
first in her first heat is like a
13-year-old child having a baby. What we
do, why we do what we do is to keep them
keep things the
animal population healthy. The
vaccinations on the puppies we usually
start at six weeks. This temper parvo
and strong which is a dewormer. Okay,
roundorms are zunotic, too. So, we're
helping control the the uh round worms
in the people. Nine weeks December
parvo, 12 weeks December paro and
rabies. Rabies is required to stay in
New Mexico at the age of three months.
Okay. And then every year thereafter and
then we do a um 15week rabies in
December and a graduation gift. What we
do what we do, why we do what we do.
We also do some home youth in Asia
where the pet and the owner are most
comfortable.
Okay. The beauty is moving on with your
friends to say goodbye. I've watched my
patient through puppyhood, adulthood,
and into over the rainbow bridge. Run
and play. I'll run and play.
A tear runs down my face. I will miss
you.
Since we have opened, we've seen many,
many changes. Okay, less Parvo. I used
to um be guiding people through Parvo.
Uh two, three times a week. Last
December, I used to be putting down
December dogs, like once or twice a
year. Now it's been two years since I
put down a December dog. We vaccinated
around 60,000 dogs against rabies every
year. Cats, too. Okay.
And we're having fewer unwanted litters
of critters, okay?
And fewer dogs and cats starting out in
front of my mobile clinic, forcing me
either to cause an accident for them or
me.
I have the very best clients in the
whole world and the funniest patients in
the whole wide world. This is what we
do, why we do.
Thank you. I will sit to answer
questions. Can't stand Any
immediate questions?
No. Okay.
Board members. Councelor Corin.
Um, Dr. Carver, I just want to thank you
for coming.
Okay. and also tell you like the number
of people that I know who have had
your work in their family like is it's a
large number of people and it's a really
significant contribution to our
community. So I just want to thank you
for your ongoing commitment to animals
like you are a very powerful person
making a huge difference in our
community and I just want to thank you
for that very seriously
for having me
and thank you Dr. Carver as well. I
sorry I'm just I I want to say I know
you've been so prominent in trying to
bring make vaccinations accessible and
care to animals accessible to this whole
community and um all over Doni County
because I know you travel
everywhere.
I try you know you you don't try you do
and
it makes a huge difference. I mean I um
you know I think when we were coming out
of COVID I you know we you had um
you know we we went to one of your
vaccination clinics for for our pets but
we see constantly on Facebook or
whatever you are probably if not the
first name you're one of the first names
of of medical providers that comes up of
who do I call when I need support for my
animal. Um, and we see it so often on
Facebook and so just thank you for for
doing all that you do for for the
community and um, like I said, I I know
everybody
is so you know,
you have the respect of us and all the
community. So, thank you so much for all
you do.
I trust I thank you.
Thank you.
All right. Next is um item 6.2 which is
our county and city acco.
Good morning. Good morning chair and
board. My name is Brian Holsey. I'm the
case worker for Donana County Animal
Control. Here to give you the uh county
report for April through June.
There it goes.
Okay.
Um, for our reported uh stray animals,
we had 695 reported stray animals. We
picked up 534 stray animals. Of those
534, we picked up 243 stray cats and 291
stray uh dogs. We picked up 48 sick or
injured animals, 35 were cats, and 13
were dogs. And we had 38 owner
surreners. We had one cat and 37 dogs.
Our reported stray animal uh for your
comparison um is right there for you
guys to see. Uh we're a little bit lower
than the previous years for June um May
and uh also for April. So that's good.
Our numbers are decreasing a little bit.
Not much, but a decrease is a decrease
and we'll take the wins when we can.
Our four-year field return to owner. Um
a field return to owner is if uh we pick
up a stray animal or an animal in
custody and we're able to return it in
the field so it doesn't go to the animal
service center, Mia Valley. That's what
these are. Um, so for April we had 26,
for May we had 11, and June we had 26.
Our additional animals picked up, we had
one owner surrendered cat, 37 owner
surrendered dogs, 48 sick and injured,
we had 16 welfare holds. Um, a welfare
hold again is if um, state police or um,
the sheriff's unit or border patrol,
anybody like that that ends up detaining
someone and they have animals, uh, they
call us and we go and take them for the
welfare holds. That's what those are.
Our neglect, abuse, cruelty cases, um,
there is a typo on that. We actually had
two cases um, that ended up bringing a
little over 20some dogs um, for both
cases. um that's currently in the
process of court. Uh we have 33 shelter
quarantines, nine home quarantines, uh
two uh courtold quarantine cases. Uh as
of the time that I did this, we had 38
animals currently being held as live
evidence. We had zero rabies
submissions, 74 diverted intakes. For
our education for the three months, we
had 1,0
and our total calls came out to 1,964.
These are the animals picked up uh for
each district. So for district 1, we had
a total of 26 animals. For district 2,
we had 83. District 3, we had 79.
District 4, which is always one of our
hot spots that we spend a lot of time
in, is 139. District 5 is 76, district 6
was 49, and district 7 was 82.
And these are the graphs for the animals
that we picked up per district. Um, for
cats, we did see a rise in cats. A lot
of people started trapping cats again
for the for the summer when they start
having all the babies and stuff. We we
tend to have a lot of cats in traps.
Uh for dogs again, district four is
usually what our biggest area. Uh we did
have a spike in district seven, which is
the Chaparal area.
Our owners for owner surreners, we had
three for vicious and or dangerous. We
had four that were aggressive, one that
they were unable to keep on the
property, five that were sick and
injured, one for a behavior issue, nine
for they were unable to care for them,
one that they were unable to handle. I
believe that was an older couple um that
they just couldn't handle the dog. It
was too big for them. Uh six for
lifestyle changes. We had five that the
landlord didn't allow them to have. two
that they were moving and uh one uh they
were working too much and they couldn't
keep the animal with them. Um and before
I uh adjourn for questions, um I'd like
to bring up Dr. McKenzie. She had an
announcement for the board.
Hello, I'm Dr. McKenzie. I'm the
veterinarian with the Diana County
Animal Control. Uh so uh we started up
our spayneuter program for the
unincorporated portions of Daana County.
Um we started doing surgeries about
maybe a month ago um with our RV at our
facility, but now this week we actually
took our RV out to Oregon. That was our
first community that we're working in.
Uh our second one will be Laame Mesa
next week and the third one will be DA
Anna um two weeks from now. Uh we are
currently still working out some bugs
that we have and some um issues uh that
we need to deal with uh as far as like
equipment. Um, but we are hoping to put
together a one-year schedule in about a
month and we'll be going out uh pretty
much every week to uh do spayneuter.
We do have a
um computer program that allows us to
have the community register for the
surgeries. Uh so we've been working out
some bugs with that also and we
appreciate all the patience that the
community is um showing and giving us uh
while we're working out these bugs. But
you know things are moving forward. Uh
it's really exciting and uh we seem to
be getting a lot of positive feedback
from the communities. I think one of the
big issues is is uh that you know we're
p primarily serving the unincorporated
portions of Diana County but we see a
lot of interest in the incorporated
portions of Diana County. So uh we
really appreciate our partners uh SNAP
and the uh animal shelter. So uh that's
it
and for that we'll stand for any
questions.
All right. Thank you
board members. Any questions? Oh, raise
the next official member word. Sir,
thank you. Um, I just want to say thank
you, Dr. McKenzie for working so hard
and so long to get this program up and
going because I know inside what it
takes to get all these little details,
the facility license, the DEA license,
everything that you have to have in
place before you can move on to the next
steps. And I know the public doesn't
know all this or see all these steps um
before you can even order certain drugs
and things like that that you have to
have these these steps in place and it's
challenging and just um hiring the
surgical tech and getting the SOPs in
place and all of this. Um even the RV
itself has to have its own facility
license to do those types of um
procedures in that. So, I want to say
thank you to Dr. McKenzie. She did have
to come into this this um um process and
create this whole program out of
nothing. And she's been so so great um
doing this and patient with us and um
it's been a process, but it's a great
process and a great resource for our
community. So, thank you for doing this
for us.
Thank you, exhibition Ward. Uh, Vice
Chair Gates.
Um, I just would love it if you could
share numbers with us.
If you could share numbers with us
at these meetings. I mean, you don't
have to give me it off the fly or
whatever, but that would just be great
to, you know, even just throw on this
presentation as a slide the breakdown
even of which areas um just so we can
kind of see the coverage and um the
community can see the coverage and you
know, obviously just having that like
open communication, but I just also want
to thank you for launching this and
getting it done. And I am to see
something like that start up in our area
is just so amazing and I'm very excited.
um you know kind of moving forward to
see what comes.
Cool.
And we do have uh plans for a report
that we're putting together. Uh we are
figuring out how to get those reports
generated automatically by our software
system. Uh we just have a lot of other
things that are in front of that. So
probably the next meeting that we come
to once we get our year plan or our year
schedule together, we'll have that
report like maybe I guess monthly.
That's three months.
Yeah. every quarter then. Yes.
Awesome. Councelor Corn,
I just also want to thank you so much
for helping out with the chip event that
we had here at city hall. I really
appreciate you coming down and joining
us in that adventure. So, thank you so
much for all that you're doing and
setting this up and keeping things
moving forward and that and including
doing things like board member Ward
mentioned like that have never done been
we we haven't done these things before
and so every one of them were having to
figure out like how does this work? how
can it work? What's the best way to do
this? And your grace and abilities in
this in this context are really um
powerful. So, thank you so much.
Thank you. Um Dr. McKenzie, Mary Lou, I
I want to say thank you all. I know when
when you joined the team uh there was
very you had very lofty goals um and
hopes and so finally seeing this I know
it's been a you know trying to get to
this point has has been a lot of work
and I want to say thank you. Um hoping
we can get the update next week uh at
the commission meeting as well for the
rest of the commissioners um because I
think this is you know amazing work. Um,
I'm excited to because we've been talk I
know Mary Lou has been talking about
this for years. Um, I I don't even know.
I I don't know how old the uh the RV is
at this point, but I know this was
always one of the goals. Yeah, it's I
know. But, you know, it's an I I I don't
have words, but I'm just super excited.
And so as you're working through the
kinks, if there's any support needed
from the the BOCC or such, please let us
know. And I think, like I said, it this
is really really awesome news. So thank
you for sharing.
Good morning board members of the staff.
Morning Jim.
Lot of good things happening, huh? Great
things.
So, for the record, my name is Gino
Himemenz. I will be presenting the
second quarter numbers for 2026.
For the f second quarter, we responded
to 1,200 1,26 reported strays. Of those,
482 were GOA, meaning the officer did
not have contact with that animal. We
were able to apprehend 724 animals. 652
were taken to the animal service center.
We were able to field RTO 122 animals.
Those are animals that went back to
their owners rather than the animal
service center. uh 35 were attempted uh
field RTO's. Those are animals that had
some sort of identification but for some
reason could not be returned to the
owner for a total of 157 identifiable
animals.
So, as I've said in the previous
meetings, uh we're going to continue to
break it down month by month, but if you
look to the far left, you will see the
totals for the quarter. So for so far
this year, we have reported to 2,392
stray calls. Again, our peak performance
that we no longer report, but I'm going
to continue to use it because I believe
it's a it's a metrics that is viable
right now. Then we can continue to
report that. Our peak goal is 65% of
reported stray secure. Um we did not
meet that that goal. However, we were
still up very high, very close to it at
57%.
Our next slide is a three-year field RTO
comparison. Uh, so far for the year, 272
animals have been returned to their to
their owner rather than going to the
animal service center. Uh, second peak
performance is 25% of all strays that
have some sort of identification be
returned to their owner. We were at 20%.
So, we were very close.
Here is the third and fourth measure of
our peak performance. A 10% reduction of
stray animal bites. This one we're in
the green at 43%
for the year so far in comparison to uh
2025.
And number four is 10% reduction in
owner victim bites. Again, we are
successful at 11% for the same time
period from last year time frame from
last year.
Here's our community cat slide. Uh so
far this year we have responded to 425
cat and trap calls and 73 of those were
uh community cats. Those are cats that
were released back into the area that
they were originally captured in. So,
keeping in line with last year, we're
right there with
So, our reasons we were unable to fill
our uh 14 dogs, there was no contact by
phone or at the residence. Five chips
were not updated. Three dogs, the owners
were out of town. Two, the owners were
at work and claimed that they would
reclaim their animal from the animal
service center. One dog uh had a a chip
that the address in Anthony, New Mexico.
One dog the chip was not registered and
again another dog that would be
reclaimed from the animal service
center.
Next is our reasons for owner releasing
animals. 14 for the dogs not being able
to be cared for. Eight dogs for
aggression. Eight cats for unable to
care for. Eight dogs for behavioral
issues. Five dogs the landlords did not
allow on their property. Three cats were
being sick. Two dogs were injured. Uh
two dogs were old age, one was a
euthanasia request. Uh one dog the owner
was evicted and had nowhere to care for
the animal, nowhere to place the animal
at that time till he could secure um
housing himself. One dog for sick parvo.
One cat uh not compatible with their
other pets. One dog they were unable to
keep confined. one cat for behavioral
issues. One cat the landlord did not
allow it on their property, one dog the
owner no longer wanted, and finally one
cat they were unable to care for.
And this slide is for our monthly calls
for service. So you can see that in
April we responded to 1,132
calls. in May 1,167
and in June 1,263
bring us to a grand total for the year
of 6,596.
And with that, I will stand for any
questions. Thank you, Gino. Board
members, any questions? Councelor
Harris.
Um, thanks. Uh, that was that was all
interesting info and it seems like we're
on good trends. Um, a question I had is
on the performance metrics that we
collect and maybe I asked this last time
too. Um,
so like owner bytes are one of the
metrics.
How
can we actually do something about that
and what are we trying to do about that?
And and if that's not something
measurable, like
should it be in our performance metrics?
Uh
board member Harrison, this is so when
we came up with peak performance, this
was probably about
10 years ago if I can remember correctly
and peak performance was something new
to us at that time. Uh since then we
have now gone to a strategic planning um
reporting.
This was these two measures, these four
measures were something that we felt
that we needed to report to council and
to the citizens to show that where we
were responding to mostly most of our
calls. So of course the majority of it
was to bites. Um so that we we
differentiated them between stray bites
and owner victim bites because those are
our two big topics or two big targets.
Um
you are correct in saying that in metric
number four we have no influence on that
number. There's absolutely nothing that
animal control can do except to educate
um you know to ask people to know their
pets a little bit better. Why are they
biting? Are they resourceuarding, food
guarding? Um territorial, you know,
whatever the case may be. They don't
want to be touched because of an injury,
of an illness. um grandchildren pulling
on ears, tails, stuff like that. We
don't know that, but the owner should
know that. But this was a metric that we
used so that we could show where um and
why people were getting bitten. Uh we no
longer report the peak performance to
council. Um, so we're trying to come up
with different measures now so that um
things that are appropriate and um uh
worthy of reporting to council, I should
say. I hope that answers your question.
Yeah, that does. Thanks,
Vice Gates.
Um I I know I've also brought this up to
you before. Um I do want to say though
is even if like those measures are to go
away, I do still think these numbers are
valuable. Does that make sense? Like so
I would say if like you know if if you
and your team like scrap these peak
performance measures in particular
because you're not necessarily doing
like the the education type um stuff um
then I would say that um I still think
it's valuable to know how many you know
and even the breakdown between stray
versus owner bites because I think then
the folks that are going to potentially
be picking up that this sort of
education thing kind of know a little
bit better of where to work. you know,
like for stray animal bites, like, hey,
maybe we should go into schools to make
sure that kids know, hey, you see a
stray dog, do x, y, or z versus like
owner victim bites, which is a little
more targeted and kind of making sure as
a pet owner what things to look out for.
So, I still think they're valuable. Just
want to make sure that that's also clear
that, you know, even if these do
eventually go away to to keep those
numbers there.
Absolutely. And thank you for that. And
and this is a measure that we can use
for my staff. you know, this is a number
that we can continue to use and to try
to be more proactive, you know, with the
education and stuff like that. Um, but
yes, since we even though we no longer
report this to council, we're still
keeping it as a running total.
Any other questions?
All right. Thank you, Gina.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Okay, we're on to 6.3, which is our
shelter statist statistics and
activities, [sighs]
which will be given by our executive
director, Miss Stephanie Lewis. Good
morning.
Good morning.
To hear
in my mind this morning.
Okay, good morning board.
Okay, get started. This quarter we had
2,668
um live in uh intakes into our facility.
Um so over three months however we were
still able to rece
achieve a 80.3% live release rate um
total outcome was 2424
and we actually ended the quarter with
140 more animals than we started. Um our
length of stay for our dogs is 30 days
and our cats have gone down to 9 days.
We do have a couple of areas that we're
watching right now. One of them, I'm
sure you understand, is the New World
Screworm. Um, to help us with that, uh,
Bissell, the Bissell Foundation is
actually donating a substantial amount
of preventative to us. Uh, so we expect
to receive that uh in the next couple of
weeks so we can start doing preventative
on our animals um as well as giving it
to our TNR cats when they go out um when
we release them to um help protect them
against um the best way to say it is an
infestation. Um as always the
continuation of kitten season um you'll
see that we are um the number of kittens
that we are getting is starting to
increase. Um, so we are working harder
with our partners to get those kittens
out.
On top of that, the city of Anthony did
change their TNR ordinance and um, they
are no longer releasing TNR animals. So
when they are trapped, we are getting
them and so that is increasing the
number of cats that we're getting as
well with no
uh, with no viable outcome um, an easy
with no easy outcome so to speak.
So on to our numbers.
This quarter we brought in
1,324
dogs, which is a
almost which is a good decrease from
last year. So that that helps us a lot.
But you'll see that our kitten numbers,
our cat numbers have gone up to 1,315.
Um, but overall we are still bringing in
less animals than we were last year.
Um, year to date. um
we are bringing in less dogs and again
we're bringing in more we're bringing
we're getting more cats brought in. Um
those are cats, those are trapped cats.
Um so that actually
pans with what the county mentioned
because this quarter
um all of our most of our increase in
cats was in cat was in kittens um under
five months old. We had I'm sorry I'm
looking at my numbers here. Um the
county increase in that was they brought
in 66 more kittens and the public
brought in 53 more kittens within the
quarter. Um however we were able to get
most of those transferred out as you
will see shortly in our transfer
numbers.
The city of Los Cusa still uh is the
majority of our intakes followed in by
county and then Anthony
Year to date, same statistics apply.
And then this is just the numbers of
animals that came in from each place.
And then the year to dates
are what's come in.
These are our intake types. Um, we have
had 33 The highlights here are 330 owner
surrender dogs for the quarter. Um, and
the 845 strays as well as the 1,179
stray cats that we brought in. Again,
most of those came in on traps. Most, if
not all of them came in on traps.
Here
are the surrender reasons. The majority
um for our dogs and for our cats is that
they cannot afford care. So, I'm very
appreciative to the community. Um to Dr.
Carver as well as to the county for
making efforts to help help our
community. We're trying with our
vaccines as well as our spayneuter
program. So, I see that we're that the c
the the community is trying. And so,
that's just one of our this is just one
of the things that always happens um to
us. Um lifestyle changes is another one
for dogs.
You'll see their length of stay has
decreased dramatically for our dogs. Uh
9 days doesn't seem like much, but for a
dog and for the amount of time in our
shelter, that is a significant number
for us. um that increases our turnover
and allows our animals to
get out faster and allows our euthanasia
rate to go down. Same for cats. We're
getting cats in and out, go through our
surgery processes a lot faster.
And then this you'll see is our
transfer. These are all the transfers
we've done for the quarter. We've done
754 transport uh transports out of the
shelter with our transfer partners. um
that is almost double where we were at
this time last year. So, uh
huge props to um Liz and to Amy, our
rescue coordinators, for doing this. And
this is again most of the kittens that
were getting in um in traps are going
out in rescue so that we're we are
making live outcomes. So, this is what's
helped our numbers go down um and helped
us to be able to take that cap extra
capacity, those extra animals we're
getting and getting them out.
Um, so thank you to all of our rescue uh
transfer partners as well as those in
the community and those outside of the
community. We're still doing res
transports every week out of the
community.
Our behavioral euthanasia reasons
20 of the dogs were for being aggressive
to other animals.
that is either they we were not able to
place them in kennels with other dogs
because they continued to start fights
or they we put them in a play group and
tried it and they immediately went after
other dogs um in the shelter and in the
public that's not an acceptable behavior
quality and it's not one that we can
work with at the shelter currently.
Um you will see we did 164 euthanas for
space. That is those are dogs that are
usually timid, fearful, um growly that
had we had the space and the capacity in
the shelter that we would have been able
to work with them. But when we run out
of space, those dogs are the priority to
get out. And if we cannot get them out,
then those dogs unfortunately have to be
euthanized.
So the majority of our euthanasia are
still for space not for behavioral
reasons.
Medical we have had a increase in parvo
confirmations coming in um for dogs. Um
and then that causes us to have to do
parvo exposed.
Kitten the cat's failure to thrive is
our biggest one which having kittens
neonate kittens coming in in traps
without mothers or that received less
than adequate care from their mothers.
That's a understandable number this time
of year.
Our live release rate um for dogs were
up to 78.6%.
For cats we're at 82.4% 4% in the middle
of kitten season, which is an amazing
number. And then in total, we're at
80.3%.
So, we have raised up substantially
since this time last year.
Surgeries, we're still increasing our s
our surgery. Um, we did 140 shelter and
foster surgeries. Those are animals that
um were available for adoption but not
yet adopted or animals that were in our
foster program. We've done 310 adoptions
uh adoption surgeries. Those are
surgeries on animals that we had gotten
adopted. 56 TNR surgeries in three weeks
in three months, excuse me, and then 238
others. Those are our lowcost public
surgeries, um rescue to rescue surgeries
and um other assorted smaller surgeries.
So, we are increasing there. As you
probably saw, we did receive a grant um
from the state for to expand our
surgical facility. So we will now be
able to eventually once that's finished
we'll have two surgical tables and we
will be able to increase the numbers of
surgeries that we are doing. We're
working on a plan for doing that without
of course increasing our operating
costs.
visitors.
Um, our visitors have again
substantially gone up, which is a nice
thing. I think our social media for
that, as well as getting the word out,
um, and all of our public events that
we're doing in the in the community for
bringing people into the shelter.
Monthly stats for our social media,
we're right on track. Things are staying
right where they've been. We did have
some spikes um in Instagram um and in uh
Facebook in May, but now we're back down
to our normal levels. So, we are still
seeing traction on our website. Um we
are trying to
we have scheduled our posts more. Um
we're trying to put more in the packact
into there into what the shelter needs,
what we're doing in the shelter, and the
benefits of the services that we
provide. Here's
more monthly performance of our web
pages. Um you will see that we get most
of our referrals coming in um from sorry
my cannot see this um from we got 28
coming in from uh Dona Annie Humane
Society um the city's website um best
friends and then we also have some
coming in from our own link tree.
These are our top pages as always, our
adoptable animals in our home and our
found animals. So, I'm glad to see that
our found animals are being looked at by
the community, our drive-thru vaccine
clinic. Um,
we our next one will be in October, but
it's people are still looking for those
resources. And then our at risk animals,
which we are now putting in is not just
what we called our code red animals, but
also our animals that those space
behavior animals. We're putting them on
there before we run out of space to try
to get people to notice those animals as
well. Um, so we've increased the numbers
of animals that we're considering at
risk, but they don't have set deadlines
for euthanasia.
Our volunteers program is still going
strong. Um, we we had a drop last in May
of our volunteers, but now we are back
in June with 17 117 volunteers. We're
still averaging about 30 new volunteers
a month.
And um we're still getting over a
thousand hours of volunteer work a
month, which helps us and our staff
considerably.
We're also trying to expand our play
groups now into at least three to four
days a week instead of just one day a
week. And we're using volunteers for
that as well. So that's helping our
animals get out as well.
Foster program. Um we
did 244 foster animals in June. Last
year in June, we did 70 foster animals.
Um because of that we were um we were
part of a program through uh and we were
awarded a small grant for that. We were
able to increase our foster numbers for
the year. Most of those are cats um as
you see, but um our foster program is
really ramping up including the dogs,
getting dogs out of out um and then
getting those animals to our off-site
events as well. So they're being seen in
the community instead of just on our web
page.
Here are upcoming events. As always,
we're at the farmers market every
Wednesday. We do have the Fashion for
Hearts fashion show coming up August 1st
that was mentioned at the council
meeting um this week. So, some of our
dogs will be in attendance there. Some
of our foster dogs. We're at Petco.
We're going to be at the Parkplace
Apartments Apartment Resource Fair and
at PetSmart. And in September, again,
we're at um one of the special events
we're doing is the Fort Seldon Barks and
Bruise.
And our pup of the week is Bonnie. Um
Bonnie is a sweet dog. um she can be
shy, but once she's uh she gets up, then
she'll play. Um she loves our playg
group. She's um a little bit of a gentle
dany, so she can get a little
overwhelmed, but she's a sweet dog. And
we're looking for her to find a home
with a family that will that will earn
her trust and that will take their
patient will take time and patience with
her.
And then there's Rook with his amazing
eyes. Um he is
he is a a ball of energy. He's a lot of
fun. He's looking for someone that's
high maintenance. Um he always makes us
laugh. Um he is, as you would expect, he
is a comedian. So some lucky family will
be very lucky to have him. Uh they will
never have a bad day or a uh they will
always be laughing. Let's just put it.
And then these are some of our pictures
of us in action over the quarter. We had
we were at the fourth of at fourth of
July. We did our
we have vaccine clinics. we and then
some of our adopted animals. So, this is
just us out in the community doing uh
doing the work for the ASMB.
Any questions, comments, concerns or
members? Patrick,
thank you, Mr. Chair. Stephanie, I just
had a thought. Is there a way to do an
educational program? To echo echo Dr.
Carver, education is everything in my
book. Our community needs to be
educated. I was just thinking if it's c
if it's kitten season and we're going in
the middle of kitten season, can we back
up
or in January and do a joint city county
shelter educational program, promote
spay and neuters, promote, you know, the
mobile site or the mobile RV that's
going out and try to do something to
educate the public and get these kitten
numbers down.
We can and that is something that's on
my plan for next year. Um, we're looking
at we're looking at some humane
education programs to get out into the
community. Um,
we are looking at how to staff that
model right now to have someone
dedicated to going out there and doing
that. We are trying to increase our
social media and our advertising. So,
we're looking at our advertising budget
for that. But going out and, you know,
partnering with uh other agencies um is
something that I really want to do. So,
that is something that is on the list to
do and it can be done. Having spoken to
you, you know my feelings on education
and then partnering with people and
Yes.
And I just the picture of
that wrapped RV going through the Fourth
of July parade with all the lights. I
mean, we need to have
three, you know, right in line with
everybody in line with stuff like that.
So,
but thank you for all the work. It's
great to have you on board and doing
this stuff. So,
thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Any other questions, Council
Harris?
Um, thanks. I have one question, one
comment. Um, so you mentioned that
Anthony changed their TNR ordinance and
now they're just trapping and sending
all the cats up here.
That is correct.
Which seems unfortunate. Um, about do
you have any ideas about how many extras
we can expect to see based on what was
going through their TNR program in the
past?
we saw from them just like I'm expecting
to see probably about between 60 and 100
extra maybe um during kitten season like
just in this last quarter we received um
an extra 30 from them and that's when I
just started looking at the numbers
because they effectively changed their
ordinance in January and we were just
alerted to that um last month.
So, we are looking for solutions. Um,
we're trying to expand our working cat
program. So, those cats that
can't be put back. Um, we're looking for
alternative outcomes for them instead of
euthanasia.
So, we are trying to actively find
solutions, but I do expect it to be a
substantial number. Um because as data
will show you um trap and you know just
trapping and not doing a TNR program
will not work because you have a vacuum
effect of animals of once you once you
trap it you're still leaving animals out
there and then what's still what's more
cats will come in. So I'm hoping that we
can I can work with them. They have not
put a replacement ordinance in place
yet. So I'm hoping that we can have a
say in that to try to bring those
numbers down.
Okay. Um, that's that's good. I'm glad
we're working with them and trying to
educate them on the consequences of
of this issue. Um, and then uh my my
other comment is I've I've seen your
social media expanding and um expanding
out into Reddit posts um as well. Um, it
looked like there were I remember some
posts about like red zoned animals and
was like, "Hey, this dog is going to be
euthanized at the end of the week." And
then a follow-up post that was like,
"Hey, this dog was adopted." And so that
was really good to see uh that those
outreach campaigns are working.
Yeah. Um, I actually credit our
operations manager, Amelia, for that.
She has taken over our social media for
a while and we have and she's come up
with some great ideas and some blossomed
it. So, um, if we can keep going that
way, I'm looking forward to seeing how
it grows.
Cool. That's all for me. Thanks.
Awesome. Vice Gates.
Um, just a quick like note, and you
would know better than me. I know that
some shelters do like their like highly
adoptable lists as a way to like set
sort of mitigate this like pressure that
exists when it's like a dog that
potentially is on the at risk list. I
don't know how much success those those
bring, but I just wanted to kind of
point that out is like, you know, when
we're looking at like the website pages
of dog, you know, people going to
certain things, maybe that's just
another area we could add to um for, you
know, whatever the the criteria is. if
there's just some magical dogs at the
shelter. Um, which they're all magical.
Um, but if there is especially magical
dogs, just having, you know, that sort
of highly adoptable list, um, as well, I
think add it would be helpful,
assuming, of course, like I said, you
know, maybe based on some actual
asking other shelters that have that if
it like does provide enough benefit to
kind of go through the process of adding
it. But just just a thought when we were
looking at the
um pages on the website. Yeah, we'll
take that into adisement. You now gave
me, you know, I have about 10 ideas in
my head after that saying. So, we'll
we're going to work on that then.
Awesome. Uh
I also just wanted to thank you as well
for making our first CHIP event a
success and and uh you and the team that
came um to staff that. So, uh I really
appreciate your again willingness to go
with the flow, figure things out, make
things happen. And I know um that was a
source of stress. I I know all of these
things both you and Dr. McKenzie were
just like can you do this? Can you do
this? All the things there's been so
much pent-up demand for for dynamic new
programs and I really appreciate your
adaptability and again um thank you for
for bringing all that you've brought to
to this role and specifically helping
make that happen. So
thank you. And you actually reminded me
I do want to thank Dr. McKenzie. She's
been great and helpful for me and I
think we uh we've started doing some
work together and just um starting
conversation. So I'm looking forward to
seeing what that brings. Um I really
want to thank her for everything that
she's doing in the community as well. So
um it's a it's going to be a good time.
Awesome.
I just had a couple things and I think
Molly more for
uh Marylu and I think Dr. McKenzie, as
you're developing the calendar for the
mobile clinic, I think as we go back and
look at the uh
the areas that we're seeing the highest
number of of, you know, calls and and
for for strays and pickups. that might
be, you know, a good way to maybe you're
already doing that, but it might be the
kind of looking at where our hot spots
are and trying to trying to put a little
more focus on those now and kind of use
that to inform where we're going. So, I
think that'll be one one suggestion. Um,
and then the other one is we talk social
media. Um, I I really, you know, the the
county and city
uh communications department did some
really cool collaborations over the 4th
of July. And I I know we've kind of been
talking about how we can continue to
collab find these really awesome ways to
collaborate with the city of uh with the
city as well. And so might be this way
that you know when we're doing
educational events or we're doing these
events in the public maybe we can figure
out a way to to kind of find use the the
two media uh media accounts so that way
you had Don County as well as the city
of Los Cusus.
Um, you know, it was kind of one of
those things that was really fun for me,
um, as an observer watching these two
staffs get together and do some really
cool combined,
uh,
social media posts, uh, pushing this
this the week of events. So, you know,
I'd love to see where we could
potentially take that and how we could
spread it out because I think, as uh,
Patrick had mentioned, the the education
piece is huge. Um, and I know it's
something that you're working on wanting
to get out and so however we can figure
out ways to amplify that message is
um, please let's just I'd love to
brainstorm and see what see what we can
come up with
because they have like I said it
for me it was it opened it up because
it's really cool to see the the talent
that we have on on all the staffs. I
think we could do some really awesome
stuff with them.
Definitely we can work on that.
All right. Okay. Thank you so much.
All right, we're on to committee reports
and the first up is uh our finance
committee for Peek.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I became chairman
of this committee last week. So I'm not
really com, you know, I don't know why
because it maybe because I show up, but
you know, anyway,
um we have been meeting regularly for
the last, I don't know, 18 months. I
show up every time, but
I can tell you from looking at the
finances before and after that things
are in pretty good shape. I'm pretty
happy with the way the budget has worked
out this year. I love the way staff has
managed their costs and expenses and
where that's going in and accounting and
I just want to thank everybody that
shows up every month even via phone and
you know it's a good group and with that
take it away
chair um board members my name is Amelia
Corales I'm the admin operations manager
for the ASCMV and I am going to present
the financial statements for the period
ending June 30th of 2026. I want to give
a a big thank you to Kaden, our
accountant, and Josh for putting
together this presentation. They have
been so helpful. And I know Josh
normally comes up here and does these
presentations as I just started in
December. So now it's it's passed to
myself or my management analyst. One of
us will be doing these presentations um
from here on out.
So to start statement of net position um
all of our current assets total
1,918,399
and then our total liabilities are
$429,8.
Um, our total fund balance is 1,489,391,
which rounds us out to total liabilities
and fund balance of $1,918,399.
So, um, statement of revenues and
expenses, as you can see, our actuals,
um, this end of
June 30th, sorry. Um, our actuals were
$5,179,179.
That's our revenues. That's what we
brought in. Um, our total expenditures
was $4,767
and sorry, $995. So, our change in net
position was $411,184.
So, which is really good. We're bringing
in more than we're out. Um, as you can
see there. So, our fund balance end of
current period is $1,149,643.
Um, for the executive director, you can
see the actuals there. So, our total
expenditures, our actuals are $195,524,
which was 81% of the total budget. And
right now, as it June 30th, it was the
end of the fiscal year. So, our budget
parameter is 100%.
Um, so we've we're under that 100% and
we didn't go over. So awesome. Medical
director, you see our actuals were
1,23,514,
which was 77.8%
of the budget. So expenditures remain
below our established budget parameters
for our medical director as well. Our
kennel director actuals were $1,914,498
um which is 95.9% of the budget. Still
kind of under that budget parameter of
100%.
Administrative operations actuals was
$1,454,459
82.8%
um still under that budget parameter
there.
Um this page it shows some of our grants
and I just want to highlight a couple of
them. As you can see on the very bottom
there that NMBBVM grant um that that end
date is October 26th. So our remaining
balance we were awarded 50,000. Our
remaining balance is 16,679.
We still have a few more months. That
one did not end at the end of the fiscal
year. So we have those extra few months
to spend that grant down and we are
actively doing that. um working with our
accountant and our management analyst,
we do journal entries um as spay and
neuters occur, we charge it to that
grant. Um another one, as you can see,
the
Petco transport grant,
the second one from the bottom there,
there is a remaining balance of 17,817.
We use some of those funds to purchase
our brand new transport van, which is
really exciting. So the remaining funds
are going to be to utilize to put
kennels in that van, right? So we can
transport animals safely. So we're using
it for that and to possibly wrap it as
well. So that's why there's still some
extra funds in that grant just so you
all are aware. Um and that grant as it's
a PetSmart transport grant is um there
it's an until spent grant. So I just
want to make you guys aware of that one.
Also, um, as Stephanie mentioned, we did
receive a $125,000 grant that is going
to be in partnership with the $50,000
grant that you see on this slide, the
Petco medical facility grant. So, those
are going to go hand inand for um our
medical facilities to update that. So,
that one also, as you can see, is an
until spent grant. Um, so I stand for
any questions that you guys might have
regarding any of these slides.
Board members, council Harris.
Um just a quick question on being under
budget in salaries. Um particularly I
think in the medical area.
Um is that a good or bad thing? Does
that is that does that mean that we're
being efficient or does that mean that
we were unable to hire somebody that we
were hoping to hire?
So we were unable to hire our vet right
at the start of the fiscal year. So we
have our medical director and then we
have a vet also. So, we have two vets in
house and for the first I want to say
three months of this fiscal year, we did
not have that vet hired. So, that's kind
of where some of that salary savings did
occur um and did happen. We also have
had some vacancies such as our um vet
assistants. We've had a couple leave.
We're actually hiring for one right now.
So, that also cut down the spent on what
we spent because we sat have a position
open.
Gotcha. Thanks.
Any other questions?
Oh, thank you for and I really
appreciate the uh the grants and the
updates and I think it's always
important, you know, in particular. I I
don't recall having that just because I
think it's as important that we you are
spending us. So, I think it's nice to
see how, you know, having that end date
and making sure we're utilizing every
bit of that money. So, thank you so much
for that.
Definitely. Thank you all for your time.
All right. And for our executive uh
committee, um I guess technically we've
probably had a couple of meetings
between since the last meeting, but uh
I'll do from the from the last from our
our latest one just a few notes that I
had took. Obviously, we we we discussed
a little bit of what was coming for this
meeting. Um, we discussed a little bit
about the unfortunate breakin to uh the
animal service center and that being
investigated by the police. I don't know
how um I know there was a an animal that
was taken out of the courtold facility
for them and so it's something that is
being investigated by uh Lasus PD. Um
the uh we talked a little bit about the
mic microchipping events that were
upcoming
uh and even just some of I think some of
the the challenges that uh Stephanie and
the staff were trying to work on with uh
keeping up with spay and neuter and
trying to expand the the services there
at the ASMV.
um had gotten a little update on kitten
season, which I know we talked about
during the executive uh uh the executive
uh director's updates as well as the uh
the grant uh for vaccines and treatments
for the new world screworm. Um, and then
just one other thing I think we had just
I I think we had this was prior just
prior to um, you know, we were talking
about the Fourth of July season and and
kind of how that was coming up and some
of the updates that we had seen on
numbers, but other than that, I think
it's uh, most of the rest of it was
covered during uh, the executive
director session. So, uh, Vice Gates,
I just I just wanted to add one thing.
We did also talk about the flyer because
we um came to the kind of with that sort
of collaboration with like the city and
potentially the county. We talked about
um like drafting some sort of flyer to
hand out like for you know new moveins
and just basically have some more like
collateral to to give folks um that you
know maybe just moved to the area just
so they they better understand um you
know that this facility exists and and
what it's what it's here for. That was
something I I know I was going to Thank
you for reminding me of that. I think
one of the things that that uh you know
as we talk on you know from both the the
county and city acco was how do you get
when you get especially uh call to a
scene and you have microchips that don't
have updated information. and they say
where it's from I'm from Virginia or
somewhere there it's someone that moved
but you know one of the last things you
you think about when you're in the move
is I need to update the microchip
information for my pets right with
everything else going on and so that was
something I don't know how we might be
able to uh maybe a discussion item for
the future for the board but how do we
have that an educational piece or even
work with our various utilities across
the county um whether it's El Paso
Electric the the utilities here with the
city of Los Cusus whenever you have new
service saying on a checklist, did you
update your your microchip information?
And maybe even with a with kind of the
big uh microchip providers, what are
their phone numbers? So, you have an
easy reference of website or a phone
number to call so that way you update
that because I know admittedly uh for my
animals when I moved here, that was not
one of the things that I did. Um so you
and and we had one of our one of our
kitties older kitties run away. So, um,
you know, don't know if it ever got
picked up, never saw them on the ASMV
report, but, you know, that was always
something that that comes up is, you
know, it's generally something that's
overlooked. So, maybe that's something
that we can potentially do that may help
in the long run.
But that was all the uh updates for the
executive committee.
Um, facilities,
thank you. Um for facilities I know we
had meet met a couple times and during
those times we had discussed several
issues. One of the issues we discussed
was the door locks in the pods. They
were having some issues with the door
locks and they were working on that. Um
they were having the EV parking. They
were working on getting that taken care
of and getting some updates for the
charging stations. Um they were working
on getting the AD ADA ramp. um getting
um the use of the ADA ramp, but they
were at that time they went ahead and
used the main medical lobby for that
accessibility. And then the playyard
pond area at that point was closed. And
this was all during the June 17th
meeting. Um that pond area was closed.
So um they also talked about water
retention area that was also used for
allowing for standing water. Um and then
during the facility meeting for July of
15th of this this month um we talked
about the parking area for the Teslas
that were coming in and cameras. the
Apex is coming in and they were going to
provide um
some quotes for them and then the door
locks inside the pods. Um they were
going to get a blanket PO for this
fiscal year and then get them in for
scheduling and then the medical lobby's
now opened and ADA is in compliance on
that. That's all I've got to report. Um
sure if I covered everything, Stephanie.
All right. Okay. Very good. Thank you.
Appreciate it, Mary Lou.
We're on um there are no discussion
items at this point. Uh so we'll move on
to under section 8 under action items
8.1, a resolution authorizing the animal
services center or the Smithsia Valley
to amend its adopted fiscal year 2027
budget due to changes in revenue. If I
get a motion and a second to begin.
So moved. Shelder Hernandez.
Second. All right, I have a motion by
Commissioner Sheland, second by
councelor Korin. All right. Um I think
if there's no I don't know if there's
any presentation. I think this is just
the uh this was just the amendment to
adjust for the additional um uh
contribution from the the county. Um I
know as we had talked about I think when
we when we originally did the budget, we
were having the the city and county
being equal. um after review for the the
county budget, we decided to keep our uh
contribution the same. So, we are just
raising that to reflect that amount.
That's correct. That's what this
resolution is. It's also a resolution to
um get rid of or lower the microchip
revenue as well um as we are going to
free microchipping. Um so, that's what
it is, but I'll stand for any questions
you have on this.
Okay. Board members, any questions on
the amendments?
All right, that was easy. All right, in
that case, if there are no questions or
comments, then we'll do a roll call
vote.
Uh, ex official member Ward,
yes.
Board member Peek,
yes.
Commissioner Shelandez,
yes.
Councelor Corin,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Vice Chair Gates,
yes.
Board member Buing,
yes.
I, Commissioner Sanchez, vote, yes. And
with that, the resolution is approved.
Thank you.
Next up, 8.2. It's a resolution
authorizing the Animal Services Center
of the Messia Valley to adopt to accept
grant awards and to amend the adopted
fiscal year budget uh as necessary. If I
can get a motion and a second to begin
discussion.
So move, Shelder Hernandez.
Seconded, Corin.
All right, I have a motion and a second.
Uh, all right,
Stephanie.
So, this is just for two grants that we
received. One of them was for $2,000
from Best Friends Animal Society, and
that was for our increase in the foster
numbers between last June and this June.
The other one is for $10,000 from the
ASCPA, ASPCA, for their program called
the Rescue Effect. It will allow us to
put funds towards
helping get our animals ready for
adoption. Um in exchange for us doing
three um reduced free and reduced cost
adoption events through um through the
month of October. Um we are also
participating in clear the shelter in
August. So this will help us with that.
And one of our days uh one of our months
uh free events is going to be in that
month as well. So that's um also forgot
to tell you that the $2,000 from the
from Best Friends, we are going to use
that probably for incubators for our
foster program or for our neonate intake
kittens to try to give them a little bit
more time to get out to rescue. And I'll
stand for questions.
Thank you, Stephanie. Any questions?
All right, no questions. Right. If
there's no uh comments or questions at
this point, we'll do a roll call vote.
Right. Ex official member Ward.
Yes.
Board member Peek.
Yes.
Commissioner Shelroandez.
Yes.
Councelor Corin,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Vice Chair Gates,
yes.
Board member Buling,
yes.
I, Commissioner Sanchez, vote yes. And
with that, it is approved.
All right. Uh 8.3 is a resolution to
accept the updated mission and vision
statement as well as the organizational
values. If I can get a motion in a
second to begin discussion on the
resolution.
So move. Shelder Hernandez.
Second. Corin.
Thank you to my allstars.
[laughter]
Stephanie.
Okay. On this one, when I first came in,
I went through our the mountains of
documents. Uh I went through our JPA. I
went through our through our at that
time existing mission statement and what
programs and things that were already
offering that were offering the
community. And I realize that our
mission statement, our previous mission
statement was geared towards sheltering,
which yes, we are first and foremost a
animal shelter, but we we have taken on
the role been asked in the JPA and been
asked by the community to take on more
of a community service role in providing
the vaccine clinics and our lowcost
spayneuter and um programs like that.
And our mission statement didn't really
reflect that. Um, so that is one of the
reasons we were looking to change it. So
we added in there that um that we are
going to deliver programs that support
responsible pet ownership and long-term
positive outcomes. We really wanted to
emphasize the positive outcome part of
what we do. Um, we also included a
vision statement. Um, in all of my
conversations I've had with the
community, with my staff, with the
board, we are all envisioning a
animal-friendly community um that helps
that helps um pet owners and helps our
other organizations. So, the vision
statement that we came up with was a
humane connected community where pets
are supported, families have access to
resource, and every animal has the best
possible opportunity for safety, care,
and positive outcomes. And I think
you'll you've seen today um
We did not plan this, but I think you'll
see today with um the work that the
county is helping us with, Dr. Carver
helps with that SNAP, APA, and all of
our other organizations and transfer
partners that we are all coming together
as an organ as a community to help our
animals. So, I would like to make sure
that that's put in our vision statement
so we continue to work towards that
outcome um of all working together for
one for the benefit of all of our
animals. So that is one of the reasons
that is the main reason that we decided
to update our our mission statement and
the vision state the values vision
statement
and I'll stand for questions
or ex fisherman wart.
Sorry could you read the mission
statement?
Sure. The mission statement my glasses
on and this is not easy here. I'm going
to do this. Um, the Animal Services
Center of the Mia Valley provides safe,
humane care for animals in need and
leads efforts to reduce animal
homelessness across Dona Anna County and
its municipalities. We reunite pets with
their families, create pathways for
placement, and deliver programs that
support responsible pet ownership and
long-term positive outcome.
Thank you.
You're very welcome.
Questions, comments?
Great. Thank you so much.
Thank you. All right, then we'll move on
to a roll call vote. Ex official member
Ward,
yes.
Board member Peek,
100% yes.
Commissioner Shelroandez,
yes.
Council Korn,
yes.
Councelor Harris,
yes.
Vice Chair Gates,
yes.
Board member Billing,
yes.
I Mr. Thank you. Commissioner Sanchez, I
vote yes. And with that, it is approved.
All right. Um, next up is public input.
If there's any members of the public
that uh like to come up and speak,
good morning.
Good morning, chair and board members.
I'm Dina Dargo with Animal Protection
New Mexico. Uh we launched our booth at
the farmers market last month and it was
immediately brought to our attention by
the market manager that they have an
ongoing problem with people trying to
sell live animals. Um so after meeting
with uh city animal control, I created a
file that they can print up and use for
signage at all their entrances. And this
file is available to anyone who requests
it. can be used for social media posts,
flyers, signage, whatever. And I'm very
happy to do them for the other chapter 7
ordinances as well if anybody wants to
request those. Um, and then secondly, I
just want to say how amazing it is to
see that spayneuter program up and
running. Thank you so much for that. Um
and that together with the funding
that's been allocated for the um
upgrades to the shelter um uh spayneuter
surgery center. Wow. Um as part of the
group that lobbied on that animal uh
welfare program fund, it is so
satisfying to see some of those funds
come here and be so well utilized and
it'll really help us to pass uh
additional bills in coming years. So
thank you. And it does anybody want a
copy of this to take a look at the file
that is available?
Do you think would you mind emailing if
you can email that to me or any or Manny
we can maybe email it out to folks so
that they have it on file please?
Absolutely. will do. And again, if
there's any other specific I printed up
uh created a file specifically for the
issue that the market was having a
problem with, but tethering um any of
them just uh let me know if you want a
similar file made up.
Awesome. Thank you so much.
All right. Any other public input?
All right,
chair and board comments.
I'll go with member Ward and then we'll
do uh board member Peek.
I just want to say um thank you to our
county commissioners, our county leaders
for the continued support they give to
our spay and neuter program. um not only
through our surgical team, our
veterinarian, but also the continued
support through our SNAP program because
I'm not sure if the community is aware
of that, but since we do have our
veterinarian providing our spay and
neuter events in these rural areas, we
still continue with our SNAP program.
Um, so those those individuals that do
not do not come out and get their
animals fixed through the the rule rural
events, maybe your at risk animals,
those types of things, because there are
some qualifications that we're making
you go through because we're making sure
that all safety measures are met for the
safety of everyone involved. But we do
have those other measures in place for
the SNAP program so you can still get
your animals fixed. Um, so I wanted to
thank everybody involved. That's it.
Thank you.
Oh, no. We got
uh board member Peek.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to draw
attention to the animal shelter service
staff that's here. And to realize that
24 months ago when I got on this board,
none of these people were here. The
acco, you know what, the new
veterinarian, I just want everyone to
realize that you guys are crushing it.
um finances look good, programs look
good. Instead of having an emotional,
painful board meeting, we're actually
having a positive, uplifting experience.
And I think that's that's the start of
something good. And I want to continue
that. And I want us to continue to drive
on the positive and to promote the
positive that this organization is going
to do at our in our community. So, thank
you very much, Stephanie. Thank you for
staff. You know what? Like I said, it's
I've seen a complete change in this this
board since I started. So, thank you,
Mr. Chairman. Thank you, board member.
Vice Gates,
I just want to kind of echo those same
comments. Um, I mean, seeing these
changes from when I moved to Los Cusus,
um, starting volunteering at at the
animal services center to where we're at
present day, like night and day, like
completely different, you know, like I
I'm really looking forward to like the
day where we really can become like a
pillar of animal welfare in our
community. Um, and obviously I think
spayneuter is a a big part of that. So,
you know, seeing kind of this like light
um at the end of like the tunnel, you
know, uh or or close end. I mean, there
are a lot of um it's very difficult to
get to an end, but you know, like I
think seeing that, you know, makes me
excited to like continue on this board
and to continue to participate and, you
know, advocate for the animals in our
community.
Thank you, Mr. Gates. Um I I want to say
I have a couple of things. one is I I
want to echo the sentiments because I
think um having been on this board I
think the entire time I've been a
commissioner so for over seven years um
you know we've we've I think a lot of
the board members have advocated trying
to push and trying to figure out where
we might be able to have some new ideas
different things that weren't being that
that we could do differently whether
that was you know through ordinances
through um other ways we can support the
ASMV I know we've seen the the TNR
ordinance that the the city council
passed. I know there's been some changes
with the with the county and I know
there's always been some um you know
mixed feedback on how we've done some of
these things, but I think you know as
has kind of been noted some of the
events some of the things that we're
seeing and some of the changes that have
um starting to finally come to fruition
hopefully will start to move the needle.
But I think one of the things that that
you know we that we need and continue to
find is that if we can figure out how we
can continue to bring more programs or
just change things a little bit
differently in how we approach it, they
can potentially have a significant
impact into the communities. And I know
um you know that that's what I'm I think
is is that's been highlighted. Some of
those things are starting to we're
starting to see that and appreciate this
team. appreciate um you know and I know
this is a small one when we talk f the
financial updates I I love to see you
Josh up here given the updates but
awesome that you know we the the change
because it's just to get into the
details um sometimes I feel like we
struggle to have some of those details
brought up to the board and um like I
said just the visibility the
transparency piece um it's small little
changes some for for that we see But
having been and seeing how we've evolved
to this point is super it's it's
welcome. It's a welcome change. So,
thank you uh Stephanie to all of your
team to the community members to both
the city and and county staff. U thank
you all so much for how we all
collaborate and and have, you know,
bringing some of these bring some of
these things to fruition. So, thank you
for that. Um, one one other thing I
wanted to bring up and just kind of a um
I was having a conversation with the
superintendent of the Hatch Valley uh
public schools, uh, Mr. Fred Montalvo.
And one of the one of the, um, things
that they've been working on, uh, his
predecessor and then he's continuing on
with his administration is the career
pathway for veterinary medicine at the
Hatch Valley Schools. And so, um, one of
the things that he was trying to figure
out is how potentially they could work
because they have they they're working
on building a facility. Um, but as
they're working it up, they're they're
they're they don't have full utilization
of it yet. And so they're trying to
figure out how they might be able to
work with the county or the ASMV with
either holding animals or doing um, you
know, some collaboration for their
students. so that way their students can
get some experience um as they're going
through that career pathway. I think
it's amazing because I know they they um
we know there's such a need for vet for
veterinarians and uh and the techs
within our communities and and it's an
excellent way for them to have uh for
these students to have careers. So um
I'm excited that you know we're having
the schools trying to figure out how
they can participate not just to give
those opportunities for the students but
maybe there's a way that that they that
we can work together. um and and try to
maybe uh limit what comes into the ASMV
or even make it a little easier for the
county when we have some ACOs in the
area that are having to to haul um
animals strays all the way from you know
40 miles away into the city of Los
Cusus. So it's all these little things
that that could you know potentially uh
help us but like I said I just thought
it was a very cool um discussion and
trying to potentially see where that
might help us in the future for as we
talk about collaboration. So, just
wanted to share that with everybody.
All right. Uh, any last comments before
Yes. board member Peek
to echo that about the Hatch Valley
program? Um, we might consider having
Kim O'Burn, who's leading that program,
come in and give us a presentation and
just they had an event yesterday,
I believe. No, Tuesday and up in Hatch
where the they were working with K high
school kids that wanted to, you know,
possibly look at future, you know,
careers in the in the vet tech. But
anyway, they had a program there for
those kids and um yeah, from what I
understand was a pretty good it was good
success. So,
thank you for the suggestion. We'll take
a look at that. All right. All right. If
that's there are no other comments, then
we'll go on. Our uh last item is
adjournment. Do I get a motion? and a
second to adjourn.
[laughter]
Um I I I praised you for being on top of
it.
Uh [snorts]
move to adjourn, Mr. Chair.
Second.
Thank you, Commissioner Shelon. Thank
you, Council Corin. And we do have a
motion to second to adjurnn. If there
are no objections and we'll call this
meeting adjourned at 10:28 a.m. Thank
you all so much.