SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — At Tuesday’s meeting, Spokane Valley City Council plans to evaluate their contract with the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service (SCRAPS) after former volunteers and employees voiced concerns about the organization. The concerns specifically concern claims of negligence in animal care and the organization’s euthanasia practices under SCRAPS Director Jesse Ferrari’s authority.
The former SCRAPS employees and volunteers have formed an organization, The Underground Rainbow, and while they have been directing their efforts at Spokane City Leaders for months, the group is now focusing on Spokane Valley leaders.
Tuesday, the Underground Rainbow road plans to highlight how they believe SCRAPS has violated it’s contract with the City of Spokane Valley.
“They have not been keeping their list of lost animals up-to-date as they should be. They have not been honoring complaints from the community. We understand, of course, there’s great need… They [SCRAPS] continue to be…turning away… citizens… that are trying to bring in lost animals,” Tim Malick, a former SCRAPS staff member and the People-Operations-Officer for the Underground Rainbow.
The Spokane Valley City Council has requested a review of the City’s contract with SCRAPS after the Underground Rainbow members accused the organization of negligence in its care for animals, unethical behavior by leadership and unnecessary euthanization in violation of SCRAPS’ no-kill policy and contractual agreements with the city.
This will be the first of many potential discussions about Spokane Valley’s contract with SCRAPS.
“So, the contract with the City of Spokane Valley… SCRAPS is actually fulfilling it. We’ve had community members come in to speak to us, so we wanted to address those concerns. And that’s why we’re bringing SCRAPS in tonight…They’ve had some issues, just like everybody else during the pandemic. They lost employees, they lost staff, [but] they’re rebuilding that and they are currently back to fulfilling the contract,” Mayor Pamela Haley, said.
Council Member Al Merkel does have concerns with SCRAPS and their practices.
“Hours of operation [is] one of the big questions that we have. There’s some specific language about [SCRAPS’] hours of operation in the contract that specify that SCRAPS is essentially supposed to be open 7 days a week. And to my knowledge, that is not happening,” Merkel said.
Other concerns brought forth include SCRAPS’ euthanasia practices, including when SCRAPS euthanized over a dozen dogs in one morning.
“On the euthanasia piece, I don’t know that I’m so specifically concerned. We don’t have anything in the contract about that,” Merkel said. “It’s troubling that citizens are submitting examples of dogs that were not scanned within 24 hours, as suggested in the contract. Or dogs that were not put up on the website within two hours, as suggested on the contract. And, if those are citizen experiences, if those are resident experiences… that’s a problem,” Merkel said.
NonStop Local contacted Spokane County for comment and to be connected with SCRAPS leadership ahead of the meeting, but have yet to hear back.
County officials and SCRAPS maintain that they never euthanize animals due to capacity, only if an animal is sick or deemed dangerous.
The Council will hear from Ferrari and city staff at Tuesday’s meeting.
