City taps new animal rescue group to run shelter

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The city’s contract with the group began April 19, and includes options to renew annually. Posh Pets will take in all animals surrendered by city residents as well as those that are seized and brought to the shelter by the city’s animal control officers, and will provide veterinary services, kennel help, food and litter, and cover administration costs.

“After reviewing several proposals with the city, I can only speak for myself when I say I have great confidence that Posh Pets is the right and best choice for the animal shelter and for Long Beach,” said volunteer Barbara Masters, who added that the volunteers would continue working at the shelter with Posh Pets.

Tangney said that the shelter was poorly run under Rescue Ink, a group the city first contracted with in 2011. The operation began to falter last May, he said, when Recue Ink was found “to be inappropriate with their funding, and an arrest was made.”

“That started the ball rolling — abruptly in June, Rescue Ink just said that they were not going to provide services [any longer],” Tangney said.

Former Rescue Ink member John “Johnny O” Orlandini was arrested last year after he was accused of stealing $15,000 worth of donation checks from the Long Beach-based animal rescue organization, but a grand jury dismissed grand larceny charges against him on April 9. Last week Orlandini told the Herald that the process Rescue Ink had for depositing checks, and the financial system the organization used, was flawed.

City officials told the Herald in February that they had decided not to continue working with Rescue Ink because they were “not satisfied with the job they did.”

Rescue Ink founder Joe “Panz” Panzarella told the Herald that month that the group declined to renew its contract with the city because the annual “shoestring” budget of $15,000 the city provided to run the shelter made it impossible to sustain the operation. In 2011, however, members said that as a nonprofit, Rescue Ink would rely heavily on donations to cover costs, and the city renewed its contract with the organization in 2012.

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