the facts
The problems at MCAS are two-fold. First, and most urgently, are the conditions inside the Multnomah County Animal Shelter itself — marked by chaos, poor management, and outright animal cruelty. Second, these conditions do not exist in a vacuum. They are a direct result of failed leadership from Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson. Addressing the shelter's crisis means addressing the leadership failures that created it.
CHAOS AT THE SHELTER
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MCAS operates without a veterinary medical director to oversee and coordinate animal care. Without qualified medical leadership:
• Animals may not receive adequate or timely veterinary treatment before being labeled as “unadoptable.”
• If animals don’t immediately respond to veterinary care, they may be killed for being diagnosed as “depressed”.
• Preventable illnesses escalate into fatal conditions.• Oversight of disease control and medical protocols appears dangerously insufficient. Meanwhile,
Dolly’s Fund — a donor-supported medical fund intended to provide outside veterinary care for life-saving veterinary care - sits unused or is misappropriated while animals decline and die.
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When disease outbreaks are not aggressively contained, animals suffer prolonged and preventable deaths. A highly infectious and potentially deadly strain of canine influenza — which can rapidly progress to pneumonia has spread through the shelter without adequate containment. WEBSITE A 2025 public records request revealed that 30 dogs tested positive during two separate two-week periods in August and September alone. Because standard veterinary protocols were not followed at MCAS, dogs showing early signs of canine infectious influenza were adopted and sent home with waivers and disclaimers. In some cases, those dogs later developed pneumonia. Contrary to established shelter medicine practices, MCAS allowed the outbreak to continue for months. It was only after a concerned member of the public contacted the Oregon State Veterinarian that immediate action was taken. A quarantine order was issued, directing MCAS to pause intake and adoptions in order to contain the outbreak.
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Without behavioral expertise:
• Dogs may deteriorate in a stressful kennel environment.
• “Kennel frustration” — rooted in fear, anxiety, or overstimulation — can develop.
• Normal stress behaviors may be misinterpreted as aggression.Dogs showing signs of depression, stress, or reactivity may be killed rather than becoming rehabilitation candidates. MCAS also reportedly fails to provide meaningful post-adoption behavioral support, increasing the likelihood of adoption returns.
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It is considered best practice and an industry standard for shelters and rescues to spay or neuter pets before adoption to prevent shelter crowding and overpopulation. A 2024 audit found that only 48% of animals adopted at MCAS were altered. The Multnomah County Auditor formally recommended that MCAS perform all spay and neuter surgeries prior to adoption by March 1, 2025. MCAS has failed to accomplish this.
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Each year, $25,000 from pet license revenue is designated for county spay/neuter programs. In addition, a donor-supported Spay/Neuter Fund reportedly held $71,002 at the end of December 2025. Despite these dedicated funds, MCAS offers no low-cost spay/neuter program to the public. Instead, overcrowding and killing for space are attributed to “pet overpopulation.”
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On the current director’s watch:
• Two bonded dogs were adopted to an individual with multiple felony convictions.
• Months later, severe animal abuse at the hands of the adopter was reported.
• MCAS documented the abuse but failed to remove the dogs.
• The dogs were later found starved to death.
• No charges were filed.
• The adopter has not been barred from future adoptions. This represents a catastrophic breakdown in oversight and enforcement.
THE EXCUSE OF “UNDERFUNDING”
MCAS is described as one of the most well-funded public shelter agencies in the country. The issue is not funding — but leadership. Rather than appointing an experienced shelter professional with operational, medical, behavioral, and fiscal expertise, county leadership has relied on bureaucrats and consultants with no animal shelter experience. Dysfunction and failure is then blamed on insufficient funding. Meanwhile:
• Over $300,000 has been spent outsourcing leadership to a variety of consultants.
• Core animal care deficiencies remain unresolved.
cRISIS OF LEADERSHIP
The crisis at MCAS is due to a failure of leadship the by Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and County Commissioners.. Chair Vega Pederson is failing to perform competent oversight of every County agency. According to the Oregonian, Vega Pederson has the lowest approval rating of any Chair or Commissioner in recent memory.
Shelter Director Erin Grahek no animal services or sheltering experience and it shows
Erin Grahek - a long-time county bureaucrat with no animal services or sheltering experience - was transferred from the County’s Aging, Disability, and Veterans Services Division to serve as Interim Director of Multnomah County Animal Services (MCAS) in July of 2022.
This move allowed Ms. Grahek to effectively hire herself as permanent MCAS Director, which she did in September 2022. The result: MCAS has been leaderless in practice, lacking professional shelter expertise, accountability, and operational competence - conditions that directly explain the agency’s current dysfunction.
county chair Vega Pederson refuses to replace Grahek
Chair Vega Pederson refuses to replace Grahek with a desperately-needed turn-around specialist, experienced in transforming failing publicly funded animal shelters into revitalized models of success. She publicly claimed she was “surprised” by the widespread suffering and death at MCAS exposed by multiple media investigations - an implausible claim, given that she has served on the County Commission since 2017.
Chair Vega Pedersen continues to protect MCAS Shelter Manager Andrew Mathias, despite repeated complaints from staff, volunteers, and members of the public reporting:
• Arrogance and hostility
• Neglect and mismanagement
• Casual cruelty toward animals
• Arbitrary and unnecessary killing of animals
A former volunteer’s lawsuit - filed after being fired for questioning MCAS practices—documents negative interactions with Mathias and confirms deep, ongoing conflict between leadership and volunteers.
PEDERSEN’S costly commissioned study of the shleter was a waste of money
Chair Vega Pedersen publicly claimed she was “surprised” by the widespread suffering and death at MCAS exposed by multiple media investigations - an implausible claim, given that she has served on the County Commission since 2017. In response to public outrage, she launched a costly, performative, three-month “review” allegedly designed to fix MCAS. Instead:
• Management of the review process was outsourced to 3 inexperienced consultants
• Taxpayers were charged over $300,000.
• One consultant remains on the county payroll with a yearly salary of almost $100,000.
• 3 years later, the public is left with pages of hollow recommendations and irrelevant work plans, while conditions for animals have significantly worsened.
These highly paid consultants failed to tell her that MCAS would never emerge from it’s failing state without total transformation and radical leadership change.
pederson shows COWARDICE AND COMPLICITY, with a ‘stay silent or be punished’ culture
Multnomah County Commissioners have repeatedly ignored:
• Written testimony
• In-person public testimony
• Emails and letters
• Petitions
In the past three years, former volunteers filed lawsuits alleging they were terminated for raising concerns about animal welfare and management decisions at MCAS. These lawsuits were dropped only after county attorneys threatened to illegally disclose private correspondence between plaintiffs and other volunteers—disclosures that would have triggered additional retaliatory firings. Most recently, a volunteer was fired for attempting to help a fostered dog by asking an outside veterinarian for a second opinion on the dog’s illness. The message was unmistakable: stay silent or be punished.
It’s Time for Action
When an animal shelter:
• Lacks a competent director
• Lacks a competent shelter director
• Lacks medical leadership
• Lacks behavioral expertise
• Fails to control disease
• Fails to enforce spay/neuter laws
• Fails to protect animals from known abuse
• And blames its failures on funding
It is not simply struggling - it is betraying the very animals and people it exists to serve. This is not mismanagement. This is systemic failure protected by political leadership.
