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in a small room with two phones and a volunteer. Volunteers went to foster homes and gave vaccines and transported animals to vets and otherfoster homes. In May of 1979, the new shelter opened in Orange County. Since then, both the APS and the shelter have grown and flourished. She said that the APS Board remains dedicated. She said that the shelter staff was the unsung heroes. She said that since the incorporation of APS, the Orange County community has viewed APS as the place to go for help with animals. Suzy Cooke said that she has been a volunteer, foster parent and adog-training instructor. For the past three years, she has been an APS Board member. She gave the top ten reasons for continuing the contract with APS: 10. The media has had more fun making snide comments about us than Dave Letterman did about Bill Clinton. 9. Animal Control likes us -they really like us. 8. Our shelter technicians know all the new ways to scoop poop and clean up cat litter. 6. The Cruelty Investigators don't throw up anymore when they go to investigate a case. 5. The staff that drive our vans are used to the 2 a.m. runs to pick up animals. 4. We've found homes for potbelly pigs, roosters, chickens, peacocks. 3. Our volunteers are rabid. Last year alone, we volunteered nearly 30,000 hours. 2. Our Board of Directors is being sued for their volunteer efforts and most of them are still here. 1. We already know the names of all those mice that live in the walls. Beverly Rockhill's staterrrertt is as follows: My name is Beverly Rackhill. I am a faculty member in cancer epidemiology at UNC. I am a lifetime member of the APS, and my name is actually on the plaque as having donated the aviary to the APS. I made a statement at a BOCC meeting earlier in September about why I ended years of volunteering and substantial donating to the APS. I know that the staff at APS care deeply about animals. And I truly believe that the individuals on the APS board, and the leaders of APS, care about animals. I am also sure that we could say with equal sincerity that safety engineers at NASA care profoundly about astronauts' lives. Nonetheless, the board of safety experts at NASA had the grace and dignity to resign last week, quietly, with no excuses or blaming of others, when they realized they could no longer serve effectively in their roles in the wake of the Columbia tragedy. As rigorous studies of leadership and management styles tell us, the concept of groupthink is very real. At APS, this concept comes to life. The board members whose individual concern for animals is undisputed present a defensive, hostile, and condescending unified front to the public. Donations are dawn, adoptions are dawn, and volunteering is down. I have a wide circle of contacts in the professional, church, and animal welfare communities. Let me assure you that, in contrast to (APS board president} Ms. Beyle's statement, this is not all about Mr. Cramer and Ms. Reitman. Let me assure you that, in contrast to Ms. Illeano's {APS board member} statement, we in the public DO have the ability to sift fact from fiction. None of us are being brainwashed by the media, by Mr. Cramer, or by Ms. Reitman. I find such insinuations against us, the public, and against our journalists to be but further signs of disrespect and condescension. Commissioners, trust your intuition and your heart here. No one in this room, not even Mr. Cramer or Ms. Reitman, wants to see the institution of the APS go under. But no one wants