Just spent 6+ hours trying to gather and organize the paper work being demanded by AVAS for 51 animals pulled by a local rescue. They demand each animal have a microchip and a spay/neuter certificate. The local rescue deals with mostly cats. It's not always possible to chip and/or sterilize before an animal is placed in a foster or adopted out. Rescues are mostly volunteers trying to save animals. Because this small rescue was unable to provide all of the information demanded within AVAS' time line, the rescue has now been denied their ability to pull animals. This small rescue organization is unable to pull cats from a high-kill shelter, not because they don't have fosters or the ability, but because AVAS demands paperwork to be done. It's almost as if AVAS wants to kill all of the animals they are supposed to be helping. AVAS needs to be held accountable. Thank you for bringing these issues to light!
Thank you, Alyse, six hours of paperwork is an exhausting but all-too-familiar story. You highlight exactly how bureaucratic overreach can undermine the very partnerships shelters depend on to save lives. Accountability should mean collaboration, not punishment. I really appreciate you taking the time to share this, it helps illustrate why meaningful reform is so urgently needed.
To this general animal advocate, one not blessed with experience in the intricacies of Shelter management, I read this well articulated, though deeply depressing overview with great shame , frustration and anger. I had no notion of how highly broken and incompetent this system was or has become and am not sure whether one can lay this at the proverbial feet of wilful corruption or general incompetence and ignorance of the involved management and staff. Yes, regrettably, these flaws can be found in many human agencies and governmental bodies as we are well aware to the detriment of all who are hurt or injured financially , physically or psychologically by them. But for those who have a special affection ,empathy or compassion for animals such as those who are farmed or domestic pets, to realize that these systems are such that the Shelter conditions on which they are totally dependent and are existing ( one can't say 'living ' ) is that which can only be termed reprehensible.
Thank you for this infuriating but rigorous overview and again, one can only hope that by shining light on this truly woeful system, enough people engaged in restoring some semblance of humane treatment to the animals in their 'care', will be able to fashion viable change and eventually bring needed legal enforcement such that conditions can and will immeasurably improve it. Yes, this is a complex system, but surely we can do better with our modern technology and education in how systems can be financed and managed, that the Shelters and Rescues can come to work in concert to salvage the precious live in their hands. Or are we humans, just too fundamentally.. incompetent?
Elaine, thank you again for your deeply thoughtful reflections. Your outrage, compassion, and hope for real reform come through so powerfully, and I’m grateful for the care with which you engaged this difficult subject. I share your belief that we can, and must, do better.
Once upon a time, there was an Apple Valley woman named Jane Dollar, remembered by the Victorville Daily Press in 2008 as "a woman of service," who "served first lady Eleanor Roosevelt as aide-de-camp, injured soldiers in two major wars as a registered nurse and well over 10,000 animals throughout the High Desert. As her 97th birthday nears," the Daily Press reported, "Dollar still single-handedly makes daily phone calls to residents who seek help for spaying or neutering pets or feral animals. She oversees all operations at the nonprofit organization," Pet Partners Bargain Boutique, that Dollar founded in 1982, referring thousands of surgeries to a high-volume, low-cost clinic operated by the late Marvin Mackey, who died at 87 last October. As best I can tell from the ANIMALS 24-7 files, the Apple Valley situation went to hell beginning in the immediate wake of Dollar's death in 2010. There was the fatal pit bull mauling of 2-year-old Nathan Aguirre in May 2010, several other near-fatalities involving small children, several major rescue hoarding cases, and then this, forwarded by Teresa Chagrin of PETA on October 27, 2025: "VVDailyPress.com reported that a publicly funded facility with 'no-kill' policies doing business as Apple Valley Animal Services claimed to be 'full' and was refusing to accept animals. Residents who found lost or homeless animals were being asked to house them at their own homes instead of using the publicly funded facility intended for this purpose." This does not really square with the allegation that the same agency is killing excessive numbers of cats, but does suggest a crying need for a grand jury inquiry into just what in the hell is going on there, why.
Merritt and Beth, thank you for this historically rich comment. I appreciate the added context and the broader perspective on how Apple Valley may have unraveled over time. You raise important questions about prevention, public accountability, and what may have been lost when local spay/neuter infrastructure weakened. Grateful for your long view on this.
Just spent 6+ hours trying to gather and organize the paper work being demanded by AVAS for 51 animals pulled by a local rescue. They demand each animal have a microchip and a spay/neuter certificate. The local rescue deals with mostly cats. It's not always possible to chip and/or sterilize before an animal is placed in a foster or adopted out. Rescues are mostly volunteers trying to save animals. Because this small rescue was unable to provide all of the information demanded within AVAS' time line, the rescue has now been denied their ability to pull animals. This small rescue organization is unable to pull cats from a high-kill shelter, not because they don't have fosters or the ability, but because AVAS demands paperwork to be done. It's almost as if AVAS wants to kill all of the animals they are supposed to be helping. AVAS needs to be held accountable. Thank you for bringing these issues to light!
Thank you, Alyse, six hours of paperwork is an exhausting but all-too-familiar story. You highlight exactly how bureaucratic overreach can undermine the very partnerships shelters depend on to save lives. Accountability should mean collaboration, not punishment. I really appreciate you taking the time to share this, it helps illustrate why meaningful reform is so urgently needed.
To this general animal advocate, one not blessed with experience in the intricacies of Shelter management, I read this well articulated, though deeply depressing overview with great shame , frustration and anger. I had no notion of how highly broken and incompetent this system was or has become and am not sure whether one can lay this at the proverbial feet of wilful corruption or general incompetence and ignorance of the involved management and staff. Yes, regrettably, these flaws can be found in many human agencies and governmental bodies as we are well aware to the detriment of all who are hurt or injured financially , physically or psychologically by them. But for those who have a special affection ,empathy or compassion for animals such as those who are farmed or domestic pets, to realize that these systems are such that the Shelter conditions on which they are totally dependent and are existing ( one can't say 'living ' ) is that which can only be termed reprehensible.
Thank you for this infuriating but rigorous overview and again, one can only hope that by shining light on this truly woeful system, enough people engaged in restoring some semblance of humane treatment to the animals in their 'care', will be able to fashion viable change and eventually bring needed legal enforcement such that conditions can and will immeasurably improve it. Yes, this is a complex system, but surely we can do better with our modern technology and education in how systems can be financed and managed, that the Shelters and Rescues can come to work in concert to salvage the precious live in their hands. Or are we humans, just too fundamentally.. incompetent?
Elaine, thank you again for your deeply thoughtful reflections. Your outrage, compassion, and hope for real reform come through so powerfully, and I’m grateful for the care with which you engaged this difficult subject. I share your belief that we can, and must, do better.
Once upon a time, there was an Apple Valley woman named Jane Dollar, remembered by the Victorville Daily Press in 2008 as "a woman of service," who "served first lady Eleanor Roosevelt as aide-de-camp, injured soldiers in two major wars as a registered nurse and well over 10,000 animals throughout the High Desert. As her 97th birthday nears," the Daily Press reported, "Dollar still single-handedly makes daily phone calls to residents who seek help for spaying or neutering pets or feral animals. She oversees all operations at the nonprofit organization," Pet Partners Bargain Boutique, that Dollar founded in 1982, referring thousands of surgeries to a high-volume, low-cost clinic operated by the late Marvin Mackey, who died at 87 last October. As best I can tell from the ANIMALS 24-7 files, the Apple Valley situation went to hell beginning in the immediate wake of Dollar's death in 2010. There was the fatal pit bull mauling of 2-year-old Nathan Aguirre in May 2010, several other near-fatalities involving small children, several major rescue hoarding cases, and then this, forwarded by Teresa Chagrin of PETA on October 27, 2025: "VVDailyPress.com reported that a publicly funded facility with 'no-kill' policies doing business as Apple Valley Animal Services claimed to be 'full' and was refusing to accept animals. Residents who found lost or homeless animals were being asked to house them at their own homes instead of using the publicly funded facility intended for this purpose." This does not really square with the allegation that the same agency is killing excessive numbers of cats, but does suggest a crying need for a grand jury inquiry into just what in the hell is going on there, why.
Merritt and Beth, thank you for this historically rich comment. I appreciate the added context and the broader perspective on how Apple Valley may have unraveled over time. You raise important questions about prevention, public accountability, and what may have been lost when local spay/neuter infrastructure weakened. Grateful for your long view on this.