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Uploaded: Sunday, April 24, 2011, 10:01 AM                                             

First Person: A conversation with Sandy Stadler
Superintendent of Palo Alto Animal Services talks about her career helping animals

Posted by Janet, a resident of Menlo Park, on Apr 25, 2011 at 11:11 am

It would be wonderful if the Palo Alto Humane Society could persuade Stanford to let THEM have the contract for dealing with strays that Stanford picks up. Currently the poor animals are trucked to San Martin (a kill shelter) and the owners have no way of knowing this. The PAHS does an absolutely wonderful job with respect to spaying and neutering and they run a great place with caring staff.

Posted by Jo Ann, a resident of the Embarcadero Oaks/Leland neighborhood, on Apr 25, 2011 at 11:55 am

Animal Services is performing a much-needed function and animals need all the help they can get. When I read "50% are returned to their owners" I was reminded of what happened to us where some Animal Services guy called and said "we had 15 MINUTES TO GET OUR DOG OR HE'D BE PUT DOWN!"

This happened about 10 years ago. The jerk didn't care we happened to be in Hawaii and that our dog sitter or the garbage men must have let Beau out of the yard.

Through dumb luck our cell phone worked in a remote area on Maui. The nasty Animal Services guy who called said we had 15 MINUTES to have someone pick up our dog Beau or they'd PUT HIM DOWN!

We managed to reach a friend who volunteered to get him. We called the guy back and THAT wasn't enough for that jerky guy. A "responsible neighbor" had to be tracked down at work, too.

Fortunately our friends found our neighbor and they BOTH had to go and pick out our dog!

Our dog was fine, but that was one terrifying incident. I shudder to think of what would have happened if we'd been in a dead zone and missed that call or our friends and neighbors couldn't take off work to BOTH go get him.

I sure hope Animal Services reads this and teaches their employees common sense and manners!

Posted by Joe, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Apr 25, 2011 at 12:17 pm

Looks like Mountain View isn't interested in continuing their contract with Palo Alto for animal services. Please see: "Mountain View sniffing out new options for animal services" (Web Link)

Mountain View has contracted with Palo Alto since 1994, but may be able to save money using the Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority.

Posted by animal lover, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Apr 25, 2011 at 11:57 pm

[Portion removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]

My favorite is the Humane Society of Silcon Valley (HSSV) that is a wonderful place to see cats for adoption, and to help as volunteers by giving the animals love in nice little rooms with play toys, and a large room with windows for socializing the cats, etc. etc. It is a very nice setting for adopting a cat, or just loving a cat.... It is in Milpitas..Definitely a place to go!! There are also dogs, and a large fake grass area to play on. Top Notch place.

Posted by Amanda M., a resident of another community, on Apr 1, 2012 at 10:24 am

I live in Redwood City, and volunteer at Palo Alto Animal Services. Not only is it an excellent place to volunteer, but it is also a safe harbor for the animals, where they are treated well and cared for. It would be a horrible loss for the community if this shelter were closed. While HSSV is a good shelter too, of course, they do not have the policy like PAAS of taking owner-surrendered animals. PAAS will take any animal being owner surrendered, whereas HSSV will only take your owner-surrendered animal if they have space.

PAAS also has the best dang spay and neuter clinic around. They do between 12-15 daily spay and neuter surgeries, which prevents literally thousands of homeless babies from being born. PAAS is a gem for not only Palo Alto, but the many surrounding communities, and should NOT be closed by the ciity, but instead supported and grown to even fuller potential!