Orange County animal shelter has new director

There’s a new big dog coming to town.

The county-run Orange County Animal Care shelter in Tustin has named its new director. Mike Kaviani of Austin, Texas, will assume the role Aug. 17, according to an OCAC statement.

Animals advocates might be happy to hear Kaviani hails from a no-kill nonprofit in Texas where he was director of Lifes Saving Operations for Austin Pets Alive. His biography states he has 14 years of experience in the animal care industry. His main focus has been “solutions for the last 5 percent of canine shelter populations, volunteer engagement and retention and creating best practices,” according to the press release.

While in Austin, Kaviani helped the nonprofit emphasize long-stay dogs, successful adoptions of at-risk animals, animal care and enrichment, and dog behavior and training. Austin Pets Alive, which says it has kept Austin a no-kill city since 2011, created a Facebook page to promote dogs that have been in its shelter for more than 300 days. The nonprofit also says it has saved more than 23,000 animals saved from euthanasia since 2008.

The $35 million Tustin facility, ewly opened in March and substantially larger than the pre-World War II site in Orange, is already at capacity. OCAC, which contracts with 14 cities in the county, has dropped all adoption fees for animals at the shelter longer than seven days to help move more pets to permanent homes.

Address: 1630 Victory Road, Tustin. Phone: 714-935-6848

Original article: https://www.ocregister.com/2018/07/23/status-update-county-animal-shelter-has-new-director-c2-wireless-shifting-distribution-to-texas/