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16 <br />Cindy Byrd: Hi, my name is Cindy Byrd. I'm a consultant. I live in Chapel Hill. I <br />have been here for six years.. I have had several encounters with the shelter over the <br />past year starting with the events of the ice storm a year ago. I fostered two very sick <br />cats and was also a part of the fostering of a dog dying of Parvo that was locked in a <br />dark bathroom. I want to say that I think that the people of the shelter are very hard <br />workers. I think that their hearts are in it, I think that the shelter does depend on <br />volunteers. I think they do good work. I think that they are critical to educating our <br />community, I agree with the speaker who said that the citizens of this county need to <br />be educated on animal care. We have to take more of a responsibility as a <br />community and not rely wholly on the shelter to save our animals. I do want to say <br />that I, as a citizen, rely on the shelter for a couple of things, one to find good healthy <br />animals as pets. I now have five cats and two dogs, only two that were adopted from <br />the shelter. I also rely on them to turn to when I find a lost animal in my community.. <br />I have to tell you that since my experience in December, I have literally chased dogs <br />back into the woods so as not to have to bring them to the shelter. On the other hand, <br />one day I did run into a lost pit bull who was very frightening and running down the <br />middle of the neighborhood street, being ignored, and dodging cars when I finally <br />stopped to see what was going on, he was very unhealthy, he had a terrible condition <br />of mange. I immediately loaded him into my car.. I took a risk.. It was a pit bull. I <br />will admit I was frightened because I did not know where he had come from and he <br />was badly, badly scarred. I brought him to the shelter immediately, and I was turned <br />away, It was five minutes before five in the afternoon. The shelter was open, and I <br />was told put the pit bull in the deposit box, I was told that by a shelter volunteer who <br />went back into the shelter and asked the staff what should we do with this pit bull. It <br />turns out that this pit bull belonged to APS. It was an APS fostered dog who had <br />escaped from its foster home.. That evening, that foster family was looking for' the <br />dog. Had they let me bring that dog in, he would have returned home that night. The <br />next morning when I brought the dog back to the shelter, I had to wait until eleven. I <br />had to depend on my friend .Tana to take in this dog who was diseased with mange <br />into her house who could infect another dog, her dog. She did it out of the goodness <br />of her heart as a citizen who cares about animals.. You've got to have a shelter who <br />can face the community with a warm heart and open arms and not make them angry <br />and not turn them away and not call them on the telephone and yell at them and give <br />them all kinds of grief because they have written an editorial in the newspaper. <br />Thank you, <br />Thank you. We also have Commissioner Brown here and so between the tape and <br />having two commissioners here, we will certainly hear what you have to say.. If there <br />are other members of the public , ..yes ma'am, in back.. <br />Chris Bergstrand: Good evening, My name is Clu-is Bergstrand. Some of you know <br />me.. I have come forward at county commission meetings. I am a veterinarian. I <br />have been a veterinarian for 24 years, I used to volunteer at the spayhreuter clinic in <br />the wildlife center but could no longer continue that in the face of what I considered <br />was very poor decisions and management of disease and management of the <br />Shockley issue. I had a number of things written down. They are repeating some of <br />