Oakland Animal Shelter (OAS) oas@oaklandca.gov is in the city of Oakland, California.

OAS Director of Animal Services is Ann Dunn adunn@oaklandca.gov & 510-535-5604 .  The Deputy Director of Animal Services is Benjamin Winkleblack bwinkleblack@oaklandca.gov & 510-535-4882.

City Administrator is Ed Reiskin cityadministratorsoffice@oaklandca.gov (510-238-3301)

Oakland City Attorney's Office 

www.oaklandcityattorney.org

info@oaklandcityattorney.org

City Attorney: Barbara J. Parker bjparker@oaklandcityattorney.org

These officials' names and their information are important to this petition to understand how they could have helped and still can help save some animals but failed and are failing to do the right thing.

Few months ago in 2021 in Oakland, three very tiny bottle baby kittens were found by a man on the street in a small cardboard box on a hot day.  He did not know what to do with them & had no vehicle so he contacted another man nicknamed "Katmandu" for help.

Katmandu barely had enough funds for gas that day to reach him but he used it all and drove far to Oakland & secured the kittens who were covered in fleas & were looking they needed help. Katmandu having no medical resources to offer to those kittens took them to OAS so they could be helped there as his past experiences with local animal rescue groups had been very disappointing where they had failed to help in such situations.

The shelter staff lady showed absolutely no urgency, care or compassion towards the kittens' plight & demanded a $60 fee per kitten, in total $180, to accept them there. In amazement Katmandu inquired about the reason for demanding that fee so the staff lady said that it was required per shelter policy for "surrendering" a cat or an animal.

This shelter advertises being an "open admission" shelter. 

https://www.nokillnetwork.org/d/California/OAS--Oakland-Animal-Services~11646/

"We accept all of Oaklands homeless, injured, orphaned, unwanted, lost, abandoned and mistreated animals, including companion animals, farm animals, exotic animals, and native wildlife. Every animal brought to our door is welcome, regardless of age, breed, temperament or medical condition."

This very shelter DENIED taking in 3 tiny sick kittens. Talk about false advertising and their hypocrisy!

This Ann Dunn has zero ethics as she invades patron's privacy blatantly, she does favoritism to her friends offering them free shelter services, she assures patrons of things she flakes on, she has no credibility and she obviously had no care in the world for the plight of those kittens. If one cares about an animal one does not worry who brings in the animal. 

Katmandu clarified that he was just bringing them as a good samaritan as stray sick kittens but they were not his pets that he was "surrendering".  She insisted still that the fee had to be paid before shelter would accept them.

He advised her that he had no funds and they needed urgent care and a public shelter has to accept its jurisdiction's sick or injured stray cats. Nothing mattered to that staff and all Katmandu's pleas fell on deaf ears.  She was very impolite and talking down to him, meaning disrespecting a public member who just cared to help some kittens.

Ann Dunn and Benjamin Winkleblack had put that staff upto it to demand such fee from Katmandu & they acted totally unwilling to help the kittens while standing nearby.  Katmandu felt helpless. He could not leave them out there to die.

Katmandu had rescued a few kittens and their moms in Oakland before, had brought them there and then OAS had not demanded such fee, so he reminded the staff that.  She claimed that OAS required that $60 fee per cat after 5 cats are accepted from a public member in one year and because OAS had accepted over 5 kittens & cats from him before, this fee was required for those three kittens and any other stray or pet cat he would bring there or they will not be accepted.  That sounded unreliable.

Later Katmandu came to discover that the reason OAS was acting that way with him because Ann Dunn and Benjamin Winkleblack seemed to have been influenced and prejudiced by Tri City Animal Shelter Manager Kelly Miott as if those kittens were not coming from Oakland but were from Tri City's jurisdiction, Katmandu may have owned them and may be responsible for their sick condition or something. This was all wrong presumptions of course and Kelly Miott had no basis to claim or imply all that nonsense.

She had been criticized by Katmandu years before (to present) for having killed an innocent healthy and friendly  kitten he had turned in there for adoption so she had an axe to grind with him.  Rather than rescuing that kitten or restoring her to him, she chose to kill it. 

This revelation of Kelly Miott fabricating things against Katmandu to OAS staff came to light after Katmandu did some digging why OAS staff acted that way refusing to impound the sick kittens. He legally discovered by public record hardcore emails of Kelly Miott to OAS on this.

After many failed attempts and pleas to convince the staff, Katmandu left there.  He drove fast & reached another cat  person.  She and him fed the kittens some kitten milk replacer formula, kept them warm with heater running as they looked starved and cold and cleaned up their crusty infected eyes. One kitten still just passed away and a sea of fleas rose up from its dead body. How so many fleas could take over a tiny body was a disturbing sight for him to see. Homeless kittens if can be helped should be helped so they can be homed.  Time was critical and OAS wasted time demanding money to help them. They contributed to the death of that kitten.

After feeding the remaining two kittens, Katmandu moved on & dropped off the deceased kitten to a clinic as a stray drop off by a good samaritan.  This clinic was/is the after hour partner clinic of OAS and when Katmandu shared about how OAS refused to accept those 3 sick kittens, the staff was surprised and said that they should have accepted them as sick stray of the community as they are required to. They said if he turned in other two kittens there, they could be euthanized and he did not want that so he kept them to find other ways to help them.

A helpful staff personally offered Katmandu some eye ointment and a couple of cans of kitten food for the other two kittens which was helpful.  OAS did not even bother with that though they get piles of cat food donated to them from public and businesses. This is how much they actually care for the animals.

At night, Katmandu noticed that the two kittens were diving to die too. He had tried contacting whoever he could seeking help for the kittens to no luck.  He had been running around all day and was exhausted & desperately needed some sleep as he could barely keep his eyes open. He did not sleep still.  He got some warm water & dawn dish soap & flea bathed them & combed remaining flea off of them as they were the reason kittens were going down again. Fleas were sucking their blood and making them anemic. Luckily he kept some of the cat supplies in his vehicle and knew what to do but not everyone knows these things so shelters should help such vulnerable stray sick kittens.

He dried them, turned up his vehicle heater to keep them warm, put ointment in their eyes & fed them regularly with some vitamins included in their milk.

Next day, the kittens started to look and do better.  He reached out to Ann Dunn to take them and got no help. She stood by the staff demanding that $60 fee.  He asked for its waiver. That was ignored. She easily could have had any rescue take them or cover $60 fee for them and she knows that but she did not want to do that. Google and read articles online where OAS talks about helping needy pet owners get free supplies for their pets but here she was making a big deal about $60 that was not really even legally required to be paid.  Law allows any good samaritan to turn in sick, injured and deceased animal to the jurisdictional animal shelter for free. Google it please and learn more on it.

He requested proof to see the policy about $60 and she finally sent him something that referred to $60 pet surrender fee.  These kittens were not his pets he again advised Ann Dunn to no avail.  They had misrepresented to him about the fee in denying to take those kittens.  They put $60 over their lives.  The shelter even offers free Vet. care to homeless people's pets and even though these were not Katmandu's pets, Ann Dunn knew she could have had a Vet. look at them to make sure they got stablized.  She chose not to do that either. 

This woman ran her own cat rescue Cat Town for years in Oakland that is kind of now a branch of OAS.  OAS sends cats there still to get help.  She did not exercised that option either for these kittens.  Her only impure goal was to not help Katmandu as disgruntled Kelly Miott had mislead her about Katmandu.

He reached out to East Bay SPCA which is run by Allison Lindquist alindquist@eastbayspca.org in Oakland and updated the staff there of the situation with OAS and that he had no place to live and kittens needing help.  They refused to help them completely as they were in bed with Ann Dun, OAS and Kelly Miott.  They take donations from public to help such needy animals and public members.  They just did not care to help. They were taking kittens from others during that time but were sufficiently biased against Katmandu.

Once when Katmandu took some kittens from Fremont area to EBSPCA for intake as TCAS was not taking them from him, they refused it and recommended him to turn them into OAS knowing they were not from their jurisdiction.  When Katmandu told them they were not from Oakland, EBSPCA staff told him OAS won't know that if he does not tell them that.  EBSPCA was telling him to lie to OAS. Of course they will never admit to it in public.

He contacted another cat lady Lisa that he had recently met through another cat lady requesting help for the kittens. She agreed to take them and place them with an acquaintance to foster them and she agreed to keep Katmandu updated on them until they could be adopted out.  He asked Lisa to  promise him that and also that they would not be euthanized as he had tried his best to stablize them so they could live.  He told her how OAS refused to help the kittens & one had died invain. She expressed condemnation for their outrageous conduct.

He entrusted the kittens to Lisa based on her assurances.  By then in just a few days, he grew very fond of the kittens and they also were attached to him.  They followed him everywhere and played on top of him.  He loved/loves them. When Katmandu checked with Lisa how his kitten rescues were doing, she said she surrendered them to another jurisdiction's animal shelter's partner clinic.  She assured him they were not going to be euthanized by that clinic because she had dealt with them before and that after treatment they will go to the shelter, get fostered and she will keep him posted and share their photos & videos as Katmandu had made her agree before entrusting her with them.  He had maintained that if they were at risk or were returned to Lisa, he will want them back and not euthanized or released to be homeless again and she had agreed.

There was nothing he could do to unring the bell anymore of her turning them into a wrong shelter jurisdiction partner clinic since she had turned over the kittens to another clinic.  She claimed after examining and treating them a bit, they were sent to this other City's animal shelter.

Lisa told him they were at the shelter and were going to be fostered.  She then later did not continue telling him about the progress of the kittens. He could not directly check with that animal shelter how they were since that Lisa had falsified to them that they were from their City. Lisa was contacted by that shelter's Manager who mislead her as if Katmandu had something to do with kittens being his pets or sick as Kelly Miott somehow reached out to that shelter and spread such utter nonesense there too. Kelly Miott, who had killed his kitten, amazingly seemed to be a woman with vendetta against Katmandu.  

Four individuals got involved at some juncture in trying to help those kittens nonetheless.  Two men and two women.  Katmandu did everything in his power to not let them die but in the end he was disappointed by Lisa who broke his trust by not updating him on the kittens causing him anxiety and concern whether they really made it at the shelter or not.  No matter how much he tried Lisa failed to keep him posted.  Katmandu has witnesses where 3 kittens were found and that man who gave it to him but none of these shelter people wanted to know about that and went on and on with their false presumptions to the detriment of one tiny innocent kitten. 

Ann Dunn, Benjamin Winkleblack and Kelly Miott are responsible for that one kitten's death, for other two kittens' and four persons to unnecessarily go through so much difficulties.  

What is happening regularly out there in cat rescue line is that the government animal shelters' unhelpful staff fails to accept vulnerable cats and it forces people trying to help them to sometimes falsify (like Lisa did) just to get them help. It should not be this way that persons are led to that situation.

Even though Ann Dunn, Kelly Miott and Amelia Funghi Manager of Berkeley Animal Care Services (BACS) where kittens were turned in by Lisa  all learned that Lisa had falsified about the kittens, none of them harassed her like unnecessarily all of these officials harassed Katmandu. 

It turned out that Amelia Funghi and an Animal Control Officer (ACO) London of BACS have been allowing Lisa F. & her cat friend Paula H. to fix cats from other jurisdiction for free for years.  BACS' Amelia Funghi did not do anything to Lisa or Paula or foreclosed them from using shelter services because she is corrupt and unethical doing underhanded things with Lisa and ACO London for years per Lisa's admission to Katmandu. 

Here all these officials Ann, Kelly & Amelia harassed and defamed Katmamdu and persecuted him by spreading rumor as if his kittens were actually not coming from Oakland but when the truth about Lisa, Amelia Funghi & ACO London came out, quickly everyone went silent.  The rules quickly changed when it came to light that Caucasian ladies Lisa F. and Paula H. were doing the unethical thing with BACS resources for years before Katmandu got in touch with Lisa about helping the kittens.  

Kelly Miott and Ann Dunn pick and choose whose stray kittens or cats they will accept and treat people like Katmandu very badly due to their biases.  Shelters not helping public with these stray animals are to be blamed.  They are FORCING PUBLIC TO LIE just to help the animals.  Who is WRONG here? Then if the persons' lie is somehow discovered, then the shelter staff tries to persecute them.  It is entrapment type of disposition with them.

Neither Ann Dunn nor Benjamin Winkleblack showed any concern about that kitten who died.  Nothing! It is sickening that animal shelters are run by these type of unethical and bias people.  They become disgruntled against Katmandu now acting defensive and starting to covertly and covertly retaliate by not accepting any more animals from him.  Katmandu raised concerns with City Attorney Ms. Barbara Parker about OAS staff's unreasonableness to him and got nowhere.  What he did wrong to deserve that? Nothing! 

Later recently, from Oakland he rescued two starving kittens and a friendly cat in heat who was living in deplorable conditions and urgently contacted Benjamin Winkleblack to accept them and requested them to be fostered and adopted and not euthanize them.  Mr. Winkleblack told him he could not dictate to him about their dispositions should OAS was to even accept them.  He advised Mr. Winkleblack that his intention was just to make sure they lived so if the shelter would put them at risk, he would be open to pulling them back from there.  Mr. Winkleblack is giving Katmandu hard time purposely. It is not about the welfare of animals to these shelter power hungry people. 

Katmandu had requested OAS to allow him to utlize their free cats Trap Neuter & Return (TNR) services to fix some "Oakland" cats. The cats has to be from Oakland and not Katmandu.  Both Ann Dun and Ben Windkleblack did not help on his TNR request.  When Katmandu checked on those cats recently, one kitten had disappeared and a cat had been hit by a vehicle and was found dead.  His skinny body was laying there in rain on a sidewalk.

A man there told him about the cat being hit and limping and people had called OAS Animal Control but in 2 days they never showed up to help that poor injured cat.  The cat had died two hours before Katmandu showed up in that area to check on the cats there.  It was raining, freezing and gunshots were going around there but Katmandu picked up that cat and went out of his route to drop its body off at OAS so it could be disposed off properly.  No resident living there had cared to feed that cat while it was injured or unable to move to secure food as the man revealed.  Nobody had cared to move his dead body to the side either.  

He was one of the cats that Katmandu had wanted to get fixed but Benjamin Winkleblack never cared to offer Katmandu that TNR service for Oakland homeless or stray/feral cats. Had that unfixed male cat been altered, perhaps he could have been alive as may be he was chasing a female cat to mate in this cat mating season and got hit.  May be if Katmandu had trapped him, he may have turned out to be friendly and adoptable cat to not be out there to be hit. 

Another cat lost its life for this shelter staff's indifference.  How many more cats have to die before these officials would start to care.

Way before the 3 kittens and this cat incident, once Katmandu had found a dead cat on the road which had been run over to be unrecognizable. Its body smelled awful and seemed to have been there for days and nobody from OAS picked it up then.  When Katmandu took it in to OAS, Ann Dunn contacted Kelly Miott of Tri City Animal Shelter (TCAS)  that Katmandu brought in a dead cat there as if he had something to do with it too. Kelly Miott gave wind to that rumor and spread it to other shelters and rescues too defaming Katmandu. One could presume this woman is obsessed about ruining his life following him whereever he goes to help cats.

Kelly Miott use to work at OAS before.  There was no reason Ann Dunn should have been contacting Kelly Miott of TCAS talking about a OAS patron Katmandu and invade his privacy.  These officials do not care or respect their patron's privacy but they have posted "privacy policies" and there are privacy laws in the state.  They gossip behind the scene and say whatever they feel like it about someone defaming him/her it looks like who does not even get to clarify the misinformation.  Katmandu is a senior man who is not Caucasian.  

Even Ann Dunn told Kelly Miott that the kittens and mom Katmandu had turned in there long before were sick as if he had something to do with it.  Most outdoor homeless kittens and cats are having some ailment just go see all those cat rescue videos on YouTube.  Those people's local shelter staff are not likely harassing them for rescuing or helping needy and sick cats. What is wrong with these shelter staff who first do not do their duties to help the cats and when someone else does, they bad mouth him/her especially if the person is not Caucasian. 

They minimize good done by a non white individual. Would they rather have someone who hits animals with BB guns, let them starve or poison them rather as members in our society? These types of incidents have been reported to Kelly Miott and OAS and then they did nothing about it. 

Rather than appreciating that Katmandu a man having no place and funds wanted to and did help these homeless kitties while the persons Ann Dunn, Ben Winkleblack and staff getting paid to help them left them to DIE. 

OAS has been refusing to let Katmandu use their services. Ann Dunn even told Cat Town and Petfix's Victoria petfix@oaklandanimals.org to deny services to Katmandu if he ever contacts them seeking help for these homeless cats. This has been established by email evidence.  Ann Dunn does not run Petfix yet she went out of her authority to dictate to Petfix to not serve Katmandu.  This is corruption and misuse of her office. 

Why Petfix allowed it? There are cats desperately needing help which Katmandu can offer them but OAS does not want to accept stray cats, kittens, dogs from him or offer to fix them. He gains nothing in doing any of this but is just looking out for these animals' welfare because he cares.

They were wrong all along to demand $60 fee from him as later he learned that there is no such policy or law and OAS has been accepting more than 5 cats per year from many person. 

A Caucasian cat rescuer lady friend of Ann Dunn has turned in hundreds of stray cats to OAS and Cat Town Katmandu came to find out.  She did not get charged any $60 fee for them. Ann Dunn, OAS and City Attorney is trying to hide those records from Katmandu.

This petition is to bring awareness the reality about Ann Dunn, Benjamin Winkleblack Kelly Miott, Amelia Funghi and ACO London and the rescue entities involved who are unethical, corrupt, power hungry and unfair. They do not respect a non white patron's privacy and blatantly invade it.  They are fake and conscionless people no doubt. They do not focus on animals; they focus on people's race who ask help for them. They are sexists.  

When they are proved wrong, they abuse their power and retaliate and harass a person by these tactics even deciding to foreclose the person from available a public animal shelter's services.  When Katmandu asked Benjamin Winkleblack recently if he could turn in some Oakland kittens and cats, Benjamin highly stupidly asked why they have to come there.  Where else they should go to President's house. There should be a new TV sitcom Dummies at animal shelters.

 That has to be unethical and illegal as we all public members have right to utlize the public services offered at government animal shelters.

We are protesting OAS' mistreatment of Katmandu and TCAS' Kelly Miott plotting with them to harm Katmandu.

We are asking City Attorney of Oakland and Fremont to not let these animal shelters staff misuse their authorities and harm innocent animals and persons. They are failing to listen or care about it.

OAS offers a free spay and neuter service for its homeless cats.  Katmandu wants to help those cats get fixed utilizing OAS such service.  Oakland has too many homeless cats that it does not need more to be born there and suffer.

He even offered to give OAS locations of those cats so they can select their favorite person to TNR them.  Both Ann and Benjamin did not want to do that either.

For their own prejudices and disgruntleness against Katmandu, these officials do not care if the end result actually is that innocent animals will suffer.

Where most people do not care or have time to care for homeless animals, if Katmandu cares to help them without having much, do you think it is proper for OAS to harass, defame and foreclose Katmandu to avail OAS public services?

When he sees animal in poor state, being neglected or abused and tries to report that to OAS, they ignore to take notice of it. Many cats and dogs are suffering neglected and sick and injured in Oakland and Katmandu cares to go do something about it but this OAS team do not bother to help with anything.  For days to weeks they do not even reply emails or urgent calls.  OAS does not even pick up their main line.  Try calling them. This is where taxpayers' money is going to get this sort of service from this shelter?

Please sign, chip in to Change.org to circulate this petition and share it. Please share it on Facebook and Nextdoor in your locale.  If you have unfortunate experiences dealing with OAS and TCAS and these officials please share them and raise concerns about it with their respective City's higher officials. Most people fear retaliation and remain silence.  That does not bring change for the better as a whole please keep that in mind.  

These particular staff members are not reliable or trustworthy.  Don't trust them!!

Please see, sign and share these petitions below too.

https://www.change.org/helpvictortoday

https://www.change.org/blindflame

The photo here is of those two of the three kittens Katmandu helped.  The third one was also grey like these in photo. RIP  little one. They clung to Katmandu who loved and loves them. Make a public plea to Lisa to let him know what happened to them. He yearns to know about them being fine. Why would anybody be so mean to not tell about the kittens one helped.

Please people, do something to help helpless animals. Don't be a bystander.

Thank you for caring to read and supporting this petition.