New beds, new attitude at North Chicago dog pound
By Judy Masterson jmasterson@stmedianetwork.com January 25, 2012 8:18PM
A terrier mix dog at the City of North Chicago animal control facility. | Thomas Delany Jr~ Sun-Times Media
Article Extras
Updated: March 26, 2012 1:58AM
The three young dogs — a German shepherd, a Chihuahua, a terrier mix — staring through their cages at the North Chicago pound don’t know life is about to get a little less mean.
Ten raised beds will soon be delivered to the pound on Rankin Avenue, off 14th Street, where dogs once lay on the cold, damp concrete floor. New operating procedures will soon be instituted and volunteers will come to visit.
Animal Warden Ted McClelland said Wednesday that he welcomes the attention, but not the “provocation and lies” posted on Facebook and floated through the blogosphere about how he flings stray cats off the pier at Waukegan Municipal Beach or how he neglects his canine charges or pretends he doesn’t see abandoned dogs straggling up the street so as not to have to pull his truck over and haul out his catch pole.
“I care for dogs and cats,” said McClelland, 62, who shows a photo on his phone of a wall of awards and commendations. When kids bring in a box of kittens, he said he’s the one who takes them home and feeds them with an eyedropper.
The pound, where McClelland is the only employee, has been under scrutiny since mid-November when dogs were discovered inside their kennels apparently unwatered, unfed and sitting in their own feces.
McClelland was on vacation at the time — off to Arkansas to tend to his 90-year-old mother, he said — and a miscommunication in the North Chicago Police Department, which oversees the pound, resulted in the lack of care. Since then, animal rights activists and concerned pet owners have flooded meetings of the City Council in protest.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture, which oversees animal control facilities, performed an inspection after the November incident and gave “full approval for compliance,” according to city Chief of Staff Angela McCray, but also outlined the need for improved record keeping.
McClelland is now scribbling logs that will soon be fed into an electronic database, according to McCray,
“Everything I’m required to do, I do,” McClelland said.
Seventh Ward Ald. Charles January is pushing to get the pound’s phone number transferred after-hours to police dispatch, though McCray said McClelland is on call “24-7.”
January said McClelland, who has responded to an additional 61 calls since Oct. 1 at Great Lakes Naval Base housing — now policed by North Chicago — needs help.
McCray disagrees, she said, “based on our call volume, including Great Lakes.”
“I can’t keep up with it,” said McClelland, who waved a note he jotted on a call to come pick up five cats at a Great Lakes address. “I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got.”
McClelland, who estimates he picks up about four animals per week in the winter and up to eight per week in the summer, said he welcomes offers by volunteers like Alison Graham of Waukegan, who purchased the mesh beds expected to arrive at the shelter this week. Graham said volunteers can help the pound maintain an openness that will be good for both the animals and their caretaker.
“If the conditions at the shelter come up to code and proper standards are enforced, the problem is solved as far as I’m concerned,” Graham said.
McCray said volunteers for the pound will be welcomed under a citywide volunteer program expected to be launched by March.
Retired Waukegan Police Lt. Charlie Burleson, who helped improve Waukegan’s animal control operation, has offered to help write an SOP — standard operating procedure — manual for the pound. Burleson and other animal lovers have been critical of McClelland’s performance, of the city for not acting more quickly, and for what they claim has been sloppy or non-existent documentation on dog tags, fines and fees.
“Something has to be done,” Burleson told council members. “You can’t continue to turn a blind eye. We need to embrace change.”
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