From Austin Chronicle's City Hustle column:
… It came out this week that Dorinda Pulliam, the Town Lake Animal Center director, is leaving her post to work on “high level Departmental and City Corporate projects” before retiring in January 2010, according to a city memo. Pulliam “is being assigned to assist with special projects in other divisions within the department and other corporate level projects,” reads the memo from H&HS director David Lurie. The announcement comes at a critical time for Austin animal services, with the recent adoption of “no-kill” guidelines, last week's groundbreaking for the city's new animal center in East Austin, and a heated debate between advocates and staff over when to vaccinate incoming strays. Her assistant director slot at Animal Services will be filled on an interim basis by Bruce Mills.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Amid distemper outbreak, groups say animal shelter too slow to vaccinate dogs
Not all animals were vaccinated upon arrival until recently, critics say, allowing distemper to spread more easily.
By Mary Ann Roser AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
After losing their dog of 16 years in March 2009, the Torpey family of Austin went to the Town Lake Animal Center to adopt another pet six weeks ago. They saw Ivan, a 3-month-old German shepherd/Labrador puppy, on March 30 and fell in love.
But less than 36 hours after they took him home, Ivan was lethargic and sneezing, said Leanne Torpey, 43. She took him to the vet, and Ivan was hospitalized. He later went home, but when he did not improve, Torpey took him back, and the vet diagnosed two infections, parvovirus and giardia. Ivan had lost five of his 18 pounds. In late April, he also was diagnosed with distemper, a highly contagious respiratory illness that can kill.
Torpey thinks Ivan caught the disease at the shelter, which has struggled this year to overcome a canine distemper outbreak. Shelter records show that staff delayed neutering Ivan for two weeks, until March 29, because he was lethargic and had a "heavy green" discharge from his eyes and nose, adding fuel to Torpey's belief that Ivan contracted distemper at the shelter.
Shelter officials, including Executive Director Dorinda Pulliam and veterinarian Dr. Linda Czisny, have insisted for weeks that all animals are vaccinated when they come into the shelter. That is a policy the shelter has followed for nine years, they said, with one key exception being when animals arrive too late in the day. Then they are vaccinated the next day, they said.
"We've been very committed to our vaccination protocol for a long time," said Pulliam, who is leaving the shelter for another job in the department . "It's been very effective, and we're very pleased with the result."
But others say the shelter has been too lax in vaccinating animals this year, leading to unnecessary deaths.
Larry Tucker, chairman of the Animal Advisory Commission, which advises the Austin City Council on animal welfare, said the shelter caused needless suffering and deaths because staff did not vaccinate all animals upon arrival, a standard practice at shelters. Dr. Ellen Jefferson, a veterinarian and president of Austin Pets Alive, a nonprofit that rescues animals from the shelter that are deemed unadoptable and slated to be euthanized, said last month that her organization took in 70 dogs in March and April that showed signs of respiratory illness and possible distemper.
"This issue at the shelter is, in my opinion, a crisis that must be addressed immediately," Tucker wrote in an e-mail to Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe. "Vaccinations are NOT being given immediately upon intake."
The Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the shelter, said it has tested 16 dogs for distemper this year, and of those, nine tests came back positive, five were negative and two results are pending. The first confirmed cases came in early April, Czisny said.
Sick animals come into the shelter and spread distemper, sometimes before symptoms appear, shelter officials said. Shelter staff members isolate sick animals, but they don't often test for distemper because of the cost: $69.25 per test, according to Carole Barasch, spokeswoman for the department.
The shelter can house as many as 650 animals during peak season, which starts about now, Pulliam said. Barasch provided a list of vaccination dates for animals now housed at the shelter, which shows that some of the animals were not inoculated upon arrival.
Though dogs and cats that have been there since mid-April generally were vaccinated the day they arrived, that was not the case for those that arrived in February, March and early April. Most of those animals were vaccinated at least a day later, and a few were vaccinated many days later. For example, a dog brought in March 26 wasn't vaccinated until May 4; another dog waited from March 24 to April 18 to be inoculated. One cat went unvaccinated from Feb. 25 to May 2.
"There's going to be times when something happens," Pulliam said, such as when 50 animals come in at once as part of an animal cruelty investigation.
Of the animals now at the shelter, Czisny said that the shelter vaccinated 99 percent of dogs and 95 percent of cats upon intake and that the animals that were not vaccinated either were too young, arrived after hours or had health issues. She said that in the recent past, animals that were deemed unsafe were not vaccinated, "but as of April 1, two people were assigned to vaccinate, and that has allowed them to work as a team to vaccinate the unsafe/scared animals."
Czisny also said in an e-mail that during the first three months of the year, animals sometimes were vaccinated after they were placed with other animals, a condition that experts say allows diseases to spread more easily.
Tucker said he has repeatedly asked for detailed records showing when animals were vaccinated at the shelter but has been ignored.
Jefferson, the Austin Pets Alive president, provided a report from her nonprofit organization showing that of the 55 animals it received from the shelter between March 31 and April 19, 60 percent had received vaccines the same day, 29 percent had received them late and 11 percent had not been vaccinated. Between Jan. 1 and April 19, her organization treated 63 dogs for distemper and lost 13 to the disease, Jefferson's report says.
"It looks like they started doing (vaccinations of every animal) on the 29th of April," Jefferson said. "I think they're getting it under control, but we could have done that at the beginning of March."
Czisny said Jefferson's statistics "only reflect the at-risk population that APA pulls. It does not reflect the entire population during those dates — the overall population would have a much higher percentage of animals vaccinated."
Shelter officials said they also isolate sick animals to reduce the spread of disease. "Dogs with more complicated respiratory infections are generally tested to confirm that they are not shedding distemper (virus) before being placed back in to adoption," Czisny said. "Dogs may also be adopted out while under treatment for respiratory infection if the adopter chooses to take them, and therefore they would not be tested."
Torpey said her family spent $4,500 trying to keep Ivan alive. She said her daughters, Robyn, 18, and Lindsey, 16, tried to comfort the dog in late April when he cried and howled by holding him and keeping him in a dark room. But on May 3, when he foamed at the mouth, they took him back to the vet.
"Everyone was crying, the vet team, everyone," Leanne Torpey said. "They loved him, too."
She went back to the shelter to let them know Ivan was dead.
"Town Lake's response to me was they don't test (dogs for distemper) until they show they are really sick. I slapped a picture of Ivan in front of them," she said. "I said it's cruel and abusive what they do to animals there."
Her family is adopting a new dog, she said, but not from the shelter.
maroser@statesman.com; 445-3619
By Mary Ann Roser AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
After losing their dog of 16 years in March 2009, the Torpey family of Austin went to the Town Lake Animal Center to adopt another pet six weeks ago. They saw Ivan, a 3-month-old German shepherd/Labrador puppy, on March 30 and fell in love.
But less than 36 hours after they took him home, Ivan was lethargic and sneezing, said Leanne Torpey, 43. She took him to the vet, and Ivan was hospitalized. He later went home, but when he did not improve, Torpey took him back, and the vet diagnosed two infections, parvovirus and giardia. Ivan had lost five of his 18 pounds. In late April, he also was diagnosed with distemper, a highly contagious respiratory illness that can kill.
Torpey thinks Ivan caught the disease at the shelter, which has struggled this year to overcome a canine distemper outbreak. Shelter records show that staff delayed neutering Ivan for two weeks, until March 29, because he was lethargic and had a "heavy green" discharge from his eyes and nose, adding fuel to Torpey's belief that Ivan contracted distemper at the shelter.
Shelter officials, including Executive Director Dorinda Pulliam and veterinarian Dr. Linda Czisny, have insisted for weeks that all animals are vaccinated when they come into the shelter. That is a policy the shelter has followed for nine years, they said, with one key exception being when animals arrive too late in the day. Then they are vaccinated the next day, they said.
"We've been very committed to our vaccination protocol for a long time," said Pulliam, who is leaving the shelter for another job in the department . "It's been very effective, and we're very pleased with the result."
But others say the shelter has been too lax in vaccinating animals this year, leading to unnecessary deaths.
Larry Tucker, chairman of the Animal Advisory Commission, which advises the Austin City Council on animal welfare, said the shelter caused needless suffering and deaths because staff did not vaccinate all animals upon arrival, a standard practice at shelters. Dr. Ellen Jefferson, a veterinarian and president of Austin Pets Alive, a nonprofit that rescues animals from the shelter that are deemed unadoptable and slated to be euthanized, said last month that her organization took in 70 dogs in March and April that showed signs of respiratory illness and possible distemper.
"This issue at the shelter is, in my opinion, a crisis that must be addressed immediately," Tucker wrote in an e-mail to Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe. "Vaccinations are NOT being given immediately upon intake."
The Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the shelter, said it has tested 16 dogs for distemper this year, and of those, nine tests came back positive, five were negative and two results are pending. The first confirmed cases came in early April, Czisny said.
Sick animals come into the shelter and spread distemper, sometimes before symptoms appear, shelter officials said. Shelter staff members isolate sick animals, but they don't often test for distemper because of the cost: $69.25 per test, according to Carole Barasch, spokeswoman for the department.
The shelter can house as many as 650 animals during peak season, which starts about now, Pulliam said. Barasch provided a list of vaccination dates for animals now housed at the shelter, which shows that some of the animals were not inoculated upon arrival.
Though dogs and cats that have been there since mid-April generally were vaccinated the day they arrived, that was not the case for those that arrived in February, March and early April. Most of those animals were vaccinated at least a day later, and a few were vaccinated many days later. For example, a dog brought in March 26 wasn't vaccinated until May 4; another dog waited from March 24 to April 18 to be inoculated. One cat went unvaccinated from Feb. 25 to May 2.
"There's going to be times when something happens," Pulliam said, such as when 50 animals come in at once as part of an animal cruelty investigation.
Of the animals now at the shelter, Czisny said that the shelter vaccinated 99 percent of dogs and 95 percent of cats upon intake and that the animals that were not vaccinated either were too young, arrived after hours or had health issues. She said that in the recent past, animals that were deemed unsafe were not vaccinated, "but as of April 1, two people were assigned to vaccinate, and that has allowed them to work as a team to vaccinate the unsafe/scared animals."
Czisny also said in an e-mail that during the first three months of the year, animals sometimes were vaccinated after they were placed with other animals, a condition that experts say allows diseases to spread more easily.
Tucker said he has repeatedly asked for detailed records showing when animals were vaccinated at the shelter but has been ignored.
Jefferson, the Austin Pets Alive president, provided a report from her nonprofit organization showing that of the 55 animals it received from the shelter between March 31 and April 19, 60 percent had received vaccines the same day, 29 percent had received them late and 11 percent had not been vaccinated. Between Jan. 1 and April 19, her organization treated 63 dogs for distemper and lost 13 to the disease, Jefferson's report says.
"It looks like they started doing (vaccinations of every animal) on the 29th of April," Jefferson said. "I think they're getting it under control, but we could have done that at the beginning of March."
Czisny said Jefferson's statistics "only reflect the at-risk population that APA pulls. It does not reflect the entire population during those dates — the overall population would have a much higher percentage of animals vaccinated."
Shelter officials said they also isolate sick animals to reduce the spread of disease. "Dogs with more complicated respiratory infections are generally tested to confirm that they are not shedding distemper (virus) before being placed back in to adoption," Czisny said. "Dogs may also be adopted out while under treatment for respiratory infection if the adopter chooses to take them, and therefore they would not be tested."
Torpey said her family spent $4,500 trying to keep Ivan alive. She said her daughters, Robyn, 18, and Lindsey, 16, tried to comfort the dog in late April when he cried and howled by holding him and keeping him in a dark room. But on May 3, when he foamed at the mouth, they took him back to the vet.
"Everyone was crying, the vet team, everyone," Leanne Torpey said. "They loved him, too."
She went back to the shelter to let them know Ivan was dead.
"Town Lake's response to me was they don't test (dogs for distemper) until they show they are really sick. I slapped a picture of Ivan in front of them," she said. "I said it's cruel and abusive what they do to animals there."
Her family is adopting a new dog, she said, but not from the shelter.
maroser@statesman.com; 445-3619
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Statesman article on Lee Mannix
Lee Mannix, noted dog trainer, killed in car accident
Austin behaviorist used understanding with dogs and trained their people.By Chris Garcia AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 11:04 p.m. Monday, May 3, 2010
Sporting Wrangler jeans, cracked boots and a weathered T-shirt, a plug of Copenhagen tobacco puffing out one cheek, Lee Mannix was a Texas good ol' boy with a distinctly outdoorsy gift: He could talk to the animals.
Mannix, an internationally respected dog behaviorist whose clients included musician Jimmie Dale Gilmore and author Kinky Friedman, made his name with the Lee Mannix Center for Canine Behavior in South Austin, which he founded in 2002. Dogs adored him; their often harried masters, many of whom regarded Mannix a miracle worker, revered him.
Mannix, 40, was killed in a single-vehicle accident Sunday in Hays County. His brother Kevin was in the vehicle and was treated at University Medical Center Brackenridge. He was expected to be released Monday night.
"There are very few people who have the touch, and Lee certainly had it," said Friedman, who co-founded the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. "His ability to relate to animals was second to none. He could take a dog that everybody's having trouble with and thinks is ferocious and untameable, and two or three weeks later it's a totally different dog. Lee came in as an equal, and the dogs just loved him."
Raised in Odessa and Houston, Mannix, born in 1969, was a teenage scrapper who tracked down trouble like a bird dog. Wearing a mohawk, he ran away from a broken home, got arrested four times, drank too much.
"I was going down a bad road," he told the American-Statesman last summer. Moving in with his best friend's family straightened him out.
After a terrifying run-in with a German shepherd when he was 8 — the wound required 130 stitches — Mannix avoided dogs until he was 20. When he moved to Austin in the late 1990s, a friend gave him a dog. The pair got along just like that. A poetry lover, Mannix named the ridgeback Langston after poet Langston Hughes.
Mannix worked at the Austin Humane Society and DogBoy's Positive Power Kennels in Pflugerville. While he lived briefly in Colorado, Mannix, then 27, was one of the youngest executive directors of the area Humane Society.
Mannix spent 13 years studying with British dog trainers John Rogerson and the late John Fisher, prime authorities in dog training and therapy. He considered himself a scientific trainer and canine behaviorist, not a method trainer
People would often bring their unruly pups to Mannix, who specialized in canine aggression problems, as a last resort. If no one else could fix their dog's severe behavior, Mannix usually could. And if he couldn't, he was candid enough to tell owners it was time to put the dog down.
"I can get a dog to do anything I want it to do. The thing is training the owner to do it," Mannix said last summer. "So I don't train dogs per se; I train owners to understand their dog's behavior and get it right."
Word of mouth keeps the Mannix Center abuzz with pooch problem-solving. Last year, Mannix told the American-Statesman that he received about 100 new client inquiries a day. The center will resume normal business hours today under the leadership of Shari Elkins , lead trainer and behavior consultant, who's worked with Mannix for 12 years.
"Lee was sort of known as a magician, so that part's gone," Elkins said. "But with our team we can keep helping dogs like no one else."
Mannix's absence will be palpable. He exuded a dusty country-boy demeanor, a rough-hewn charisma that illuminated a huge radius. His salty tongue and facility for off-color anecdotes were offset by a horizon-wide smile and incandescent optimism. He loved to cook, swig beer and hunt and fish with his best buddies — dogs Grady, Creek and Floyd — near his Wimberley farmhouse. He turned a canine tooth from one of his first dogs, Hadley, into a silver-capped charm. His burly left arm was embossed with a loud tattoo: "The Irish Dogfather."
"There are lots of important people out there, politicians and the like," Friedman said. "But I think Lee Mannix was significant. And there is a distinction there.
"He's the kind of guy who has opened the gates of heaven wider."
A list of survivors was not yet available. Services are pending. Memorial donations may be made to the Schrodi Memorial Training Fund: http://www.schrodifund.org/.
cgarcia@statesman.com; 445-3649
Austin behaviorist used understanding with dogs and trained their people.By Chris Garcia AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 11:04 p.m. Monday, May 3, 2010
Sporting Wrangler jeans, cracked boots and a weathered T-shirt, a plug of Copenhagen tobacco puffing out one cheek, Lee Mannix was a Texas good ol' boy with a distinctly outdoorsy gift: He could talk to the animals.
Mannix, an internationally respected dog behaviorist whose clients included musician Jimmie Dale Gilmore and author Kinky Friedman, made his name with the Lee Mannix Center for Canine Behavior in South Austin, which he founded in 2002. Dogs adored him; their often harried masters, many of whom regarded Mannix a miracle worker, revered him.
Mannix, 40, was killed in a single-vehicle accident Sunday in Hays County. His brother Kevin was in the vehicle and was treated at University Medical Center Brackenridge. He was expected to be released Monday night.
"There are very few people who have the touch, and Lee certainly had it," said Friedman, who co-founded the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. "His ability to relate to animals was second to none. He could take a dog that everybody's having trouble with and thinks is ferocious and untameable, and two or three weeks later it's a totally different dog. Lee came in as an equal, and the dogs just loved him."
Raised in Odessa and Houston, Mannix, born in 1969, was a teenage scrapper who tracked down trouble like a bird dog. Wearing a mohawk, he ran away from a broken home, got arrested four times, drank too much.
"I was going down a bad road," he told the American-Statesman last summer. Moving in with his best friend's family straightened him out.
After a terrifying run-in with a German shepherd when he was 8 — the wound required 130 stitches — Mannix avoided dogs until he was 20. When he moved to Austin in the late 1990s, a friend gave him a dog. The pair got along just like that. A poetry lover, Mannix named the ridgeback Langston after poet Langston Hughes.
Mannix worked at the Austin Humane Society and DogBoy's Positive Power Kennels in Pflugerville. While he lived briefly in Colorado, Mannix, then 27, was one of the youngest executive directors of the area Humane Society.
Mannix spent 13 years studying with British dog trainers John Rogerson and the late John Fisher, prime authorities in dog training and therapy. He considered himself a scientific trainer and canine behaviorist, not a method trainer
People would often bring their unruly pups to Mannix, who specialized in canine aggression problems, as a last resort. If no one else could fix their dog's severe behavior, Mannix usually could. And if he couldn't, he was candid enough to tell owners it was time to put the dog down.
"I can get a dog to do anything I want it to do. The thing is training the owner to do it," Mannix said last summer. "So I don't train dogs per se; I train owners to understand their dog's behavior and get it right."
Word of mouth keeps the Mannix Center abuzz with pooch problem-solving. Last year, Mannix told the American-Statesman that he received about 100 new client inquiries a day. The center will resume normal business hours today under the leadership of Shari Elkins , lead trainer and behavior consultant, who's worked with Mannix for 12 years.
"Lee was sort of known as a magician, so that part's gone," Elkins said. "But with our team we can keep helping dogs like no one else."
Mannix's absence will be palpable. He exuded a dusty country-boy demeanor, a rough-hewn charisma that illuminated a huge radius. His salty tongue and facility for off-color anecdotes were offset by a horizon-wide smile and incandescent optimism. He loved to cook, swig beer and hunt and fish with his best buddies — dogs Grady, Creek and Floyd — near his Wimberley farmhouse. He turned a canine tooth from one of his first dogs, Hadley, into a silver-capped charm. His burly left arm was embossed with a loud tattoo: "The Irish Dogfather."
"There are lots of important people out there, politicians and the like," Friedman said. "But I think Lee Mannix was significant. And there is a distinction there.
"He's the kind of guy who has opened the gates of heaven wider."
A list of survivors was not yet available. Services are pending. Memorial donations may be made to the Schrodi Memorial Training Fund: http://www.schrodifund.org/.
cgarcia@statesman.com; 445-3649
Monday, May 3, 2010
Local Community Mourns Loss of "Dogfather" Lee Mannix
Local Community Mourns Loss of "Dogfather" Lee Mannix
Austin, TX
May 3, 2010 - Lee Mannix, owner of the Lee Mannix Center for Canine Behavior (LMCCB), tragically passed away yesterday evening from injuries sustained from a car accident. His brother Kevin Mannix who was also in the vehicle is in stable condition.
"We are all in shock and disbelief at this loss," said Shari Elkins, spokesperson for LMCCB. "Lee was an exceptional trainer with an amazing heart."
Mannix, 40, was a pack behaviorist who consulted on dog behavior and specialized in aggression issues. He was dedicated to a teaching philosophy based on improving relationships between people and their pets. He was widely regarded as the last stop for many dogs with aggression and other severe behavior problems, and over the year Lee touched the lives of thousands of dogs and their humans.
Mannix was known for his incredible talent, his easy smile, and his deep generosity.
The training center will resume normal business hours on Tuesday, May 4th. The trainers and staff, led by Shari Elkins CPDT-KA, are continuing Lee's mission to help dogs.
Memorial donations in Lee's honor can be made to the Schrodi Training Fund (http://www.schrodifund.org/).
Service information to be announced.
Austin, TX
May 3, 2010 - Lee Mannix, owner of the Lee Mannix Center for Canine Behavior (LMCCB), tragically passed away yesterday evening from injuries sustained from a car accident. His brother Kevin Mannix who was also in the vehicle is in stable condition.
"We are all in shock and disbelief at this loss," said Shari Elkins, spokesperson for LMCCB. "Lee was an exceptional trainer with an amazing heart."
Mannix, 40, was a pack behaviorist who consulted on dog behavior and specialized in aggression issues. He was dedicated to a teaching philosophy based on improving relationships between people and their pets. He was widely regarded as the last stop for many dogs with aggression and other severe behavior problems, and over the year Lee touched the lives of thousands of dogs and their humans.
Mannix was known for his incredible talent, his easy smile, and his deep generosity.
The training center will resume normal business hours on Tuesday, May 4th. The trainers and staff, led by Shari Elkins CPDT-KA, are continuing Lee's mission to help dogs.
Memorial donations in Lee's honor can be made to the Schrodi Training Fund (http://www.schrodifund.org/).
Service information to be announced.
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