Pender County Pound: Where is this dog?

This hound (name unknown) was reportedly given no veterinary care for a very obvious nose injury while in the Pender County pound. Pound employees reportedly gave him away with no adoption papers on Friday, Sept. 21. The dog’s whereabouts are currently unknown.

During the week of Sept. 21, 2012, a hound with a very obvious nose injury resided at the Pender County animal shelter. The dog reportedly received no veterinary examinations or care for the injury during its stay at the pound, in violation of the NC animal welfare administrative code.

Several rescuers became interested in helping the dog get to safety and receive necessary vet care, and the Pender County pound staff was notified that a rescuer wished to pull him. In full knowledge that the dog had a safe place to go and guaranteed vet care waiting, pound worker (and former director) Darlene Clewis gave him to a man who came to the shelter on Friday. According to a source (who I am choosing not to identify), no paperwork, signatures, fees or any other transaction took place, and when the man was asked what he planned to do with the dog, he said he was going to tie him to his porch.

According to the source, a concerned rescuer asked for the adopter’s contact information so she could make sure that the dog’s severe nose injury was examined by a veterinarian. Clewis  reportedly could not recall the adopter’s name, despite claiming that she knew him and that he was a frequent volunteer at the pound. Clewis reportedly told the rescuer that she would follow up with the man on Monday (Sept. 24).

On Monday, after repeated calls by the rescuer to check on the dog, Clewis reportedly said the man had come by the pound to report that the dog had gotten loose and was nowhere to be found.

I have filed an open records request for this dog’s records, but I hold little expectation that it will be fulfilled without further pressure or legal action. Sources tell me that “off the books” adoptions and other book-cooking are the norm at the Pender County pound.

The Pender County pound reported a 36 percent kill rate for 2011, but this number is most likely a complete fiction. (NCDA&CS does not audit the numbers reported by pounds for veracity. They could all be complete fictions, but some are more obvious lies than others.)

Adoptable pet of the day: Senior bichon girl in Person County pound

This 12-year-old girl, let’s call her “Tilly,” needs out of the Person County pound ASAP. Email rhonda.beach@yahoo.com if you can help.

I don’t know the name of this little bichon frise in the Person County pound, but every dog needs a name so I will call her “Tilly.”

Tilly is estimated to be about 12 years old, and she needs a rescue or adopter soon.

If you can help Tilly, email Ronda Beach at rhonda.beach@yahoo.com.

CORRECTION: Tilly could be a poodle. I have no idea … she’s a little old fluffy white dog who needs out of that pound is all I know.

UPDATE: Tilly is safe and in foster care!

Adoptable Dog of the day: Sprocket

Save Sprocket from the Sampson County gas chamber.
ID #: 12-D0246; Age: 6m; Weight: 32 lbs; Sex: male; Date of Intake: 8-17-12
Sampson County Animal Shelter: (910) 592-8493 or lbaxter@sampsonnc.com
168 Agriculture Place, Clinton, NC. We are open for adoptions M-F 1-4 pm

Sprocket has been in the Sampson County pound for 27 days. He’s a medium-sized (32 lb.) something mix (he’s black, so everyone will say “lab”) with an awesome name. If he doesn’t get adopted or rescued, he will most likely be killed in the Sampson County gas chamber.

Sprocket has been described as “full of energy and ready to run!” He has $135 in pledges to an approved rescue, according to a post on the pound’s Facebook page.

The Sampson County pound is located at 168 Agriculture Place in Clinton, NC. They are open for adoptions only 15 hours a week, Monday through Friday from 1 to 4 pm, when most potential local adopters are at work. The adoption fee for dogs is $25, plus local adopters are required to purchase a spay/neuter voucher at the time of adoption. Vouchers are $55 for male dogs and $85 for female dogs. Non-local adopters are not required to purchase a spay/neuter voucher but are required to get the animal sterilized and provide proof of surgery to SCAS. More policies can be found here.

UPDATE: According to this post, Sprocket has been “reserved,” which appears to mean he will be going into rescue. Good for Sprocket!

Adoptable pet(s) of the day: Star and Prada

Prada and Star are beautiful pit bulls in at the Bertie County pound in Windsor, NC. they have been at the pound for a year awaiting the settlement of an animal cruelty court case against their owner. Now they are free to be adopted, but they need to go to homes  outside of Bertie County because of breed-specific laws there.

Prada is a very calm, quiet and sweet adult female. She’s chocolate brown with white markings. She needs to be in a home with no cats. (Click a photo to see it larger.)

Star is an active young girl who loves affection. She’s chocolate brown with a constant tail wag. She has been at the shelter since she was 8 weeks old. (Click a photo to see it larger.)

There is a video of Star wagging her tail and looking very cheerful at the Bertie County Humane Society Facebook page. (The BCHS is not the same as the Bertie County pound. The BCHS is a volunteer organization that runs a No Kill cat shelter and works with the Bertie County pound to photograph, advertise and try to place a dogs  at the county pound.)

If you are interested in Prada or Star, call the BCHS at 252-325-3647, and they will arrange for a volunteer to let you meet the dogs when it’s convenient for you (the pound apparently has no public adoption hours and the BCHS volunteers do all of the adoptions). The Bertie County pound is located at 217 County Farm Road, Windsor, NC, 27983.

The Bertie County pound killed 72 percent of the pets who came in in 2011.

Adoptable pet of the day: Frisky

UPDATE: Frisky has been adopted!

Frisky is an owner surrender in the Stokes County Animal Shelter. His adoption fee has already been paid in full.  He was brought to the shelter by his previous owner because he does not like cats, but Frisky is great with people and other dogs. He especially loves children and is very playful. Frisky appears to be in good health (he does have some redness on his chest which could be just a flea allergy or dry skin, or maybe very common and easily treatable demodex), obeys well and walks well on a leash. He really loves attention from people.

Because he has been labeled a “pit bull mix” one crossposter said he “doesn’t stand a chance.” I don’t know if that’s because the staff at the Stokes County pound are eager to kill “pit bull mixes” or not eager to adopt them out, or if it’s because of the perception that “nobody wants to adopt a pit bull.” (Which I think is sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because shelter staff are quicker to choose death for the dogs they believe are “less adoptable.”) At any rate, it’s pretty clear that showing up at the Stokes County pound may not  be the luckiest thing that ever happened to Frisky. It could have been, if the pound functioned like an actual shelter, a safe place for animals that need our protection, but the statistics say it does not: last year 76 percent of the pets who entered Stokes County pound didn’t make it out alive.

Please share Frisky and help put the odds in his favor.

The Stokes County Animal Shelter is located at  1999 Sizemore Road, Germanton, North Carolina (about half an hour north of Winston-Salem). Phone: (336) 994-2788; email: stokesanimalshelter@embarqmail.com

Hours are Mon – Fri: 8:30 am-noon, 1-5 pm, Sat: 9 am-noon.

The adoption fee for dogs is $36, which includes a rabies shot and county tax tag. The adoption fee for cats is $30, which includes a rabies shot.

You can see more Stokes County adoptables at this Facebook page (which I believe is run by volunteers–the SCAS doesn’t appear to have any listings on any of the common adoption sites–please correct me if I am wrong).

UPDATE: Over on Facebook, the staff and the Stokes County pound and their defenders took great umbrage at my suggestion that they might be at all quick to kill pit bulls. And my suggestion that perhaps Frisky’s skin condition should be treated. And at my suggestion that a 76 percent kill rate  might not be “the best they can do,” etc. The whole exchange is here, or if they delete the post for some reason, a screenshot is here. (Please forgive the typos, my mind works way faster than my fingers). Some of the same people have also posted in the comments below.

Also, the Facebook page is apparently maintained by staff and one volunteer under staff supervision.

Adoptable Pet of The Day (Shameless self-promotion edition)

Today’s adoptable pet is my own foster dog, Tenny:

Tenny is a medium-sized (35-lb, about 21 inches at the shoulder) something mix, about a year old. People say lab mix, but they say that about everything. His tail is cropped like a Doberman’s and he has a slender, athletic body. I pulled Tenny from the APS of Durham because he was going “kennel-crazy” and was not getting adopted because, after spending months of his youth in the pound and getting no manners training and only occasional walks, he went wild and jumped all over people who tried to meet him. That’s the sort of thing that gets you a trip to the dumpster at a high-kill pound.

Tenny is learning a few manners with me and manages to behave pretty well now. He gets along with my other dogs, although he’s occasionally like a pesky little brother and gets snapped at now and them. He takes it into stride. I have no idea how he is with cats. He might annoy them a little as well. Tenny adores people. His only issue with kids seems to be the possibility that he might knock one over because he’s such an impulsive goofball.

Tenny has tons of energy, learns quickly, is athletic and is highly motivated to work for toys or food, so I think he would be a fun flyball or agility partner. He is zinc neutered, up-to-date on all vaccinations and healthy.

If you’re interested in adopting Tenny, email me.

Adoptable pet of the day

Jay, a 12-year-old spaniel and/or golden mix, needs out of the Beaufort County, NC pound ASAP.

Julianne writes: “This poor old man is at the Beaufort County Animal Shelter and doesn’t have much time. Gassing facility! He looks like a golden retriever mix to me but they have him listed as a spaniel mix. He’s 12 years old and desperately needs to get out there.”

The Beaufort County pound (a.k.a. the Betsy Bailey Nelson Animal Control Facility) in Washington, NC, is a high-kill, gas chamber facility with a director who doesn’t even bother to submit the pound’s outcome stats to the NCDA&CS. Their open hours are M-F l pm to 5:30 pm and Sat. 11 am to 3 pm. They are closed on holidays. They advise arriving half an hour early “to allow time to do the necessary paperwork and routine vaccinations,” because god forbid staff have to stay a little late to save an animal’s life.

If you are interested in helping Jay but can’t get to the Beaufort pound during their limited open hours, leave a comment and I will contact you and put you in touch with Julianne.

Adoptable pet of the day

OK, I’m blatantly ripping off YesBiscuit! (And why not? Shirley inspired me to start this blog in the first place!) in starting a “pet of the day” feature. Although knowing me, it might be the “pet of every few days” feature because sometimes I can’t manage to find time for the blog.

Anyway, today’s adoptable pet is Champion, in the Granville County, NC, pound (which will be the topic of a post very soon):

Champion is a young mix (hound+terrier?) who came into the Granville County pound already neutered, with a tattoo (probably from a low-cost neuter clinic) and a microchip (his owner seems to have moved and changed phone numbers, however). Champion seems to be house-trained because volunteers say holds his urine as much as possible to avoid soiling his kennel.

Granville County is a high-kill gassing pound, and Champion has already been there for a while. Shelter adoption fee is $50 per animal plus $6 per rabies vaccine where applicable. Phone (919) 693-6749 to speak with or leave a message for the officers. Speak clearly and leave your phone number twice. If the animal is still available, the officers WILL get back to you. Shelter hours are Monday thru Friday from 12:00 PM to 4:30 PM and Saturdays 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The shelter is closed Sundays and holidays.

You can also see Champion on Petfinder (including a fun photo of him peeing).

UPDATE! Maureen sent more photos of Champion!

UPDATE: Champion got adopted at the eleventh hour!

Spartanburg, SC, animal control tells woman to chain stray dog to a dumpster

A woman in Spartanburg, SC, saved a Boston terrier she found dodging traffic and tried to take it to the Spartanburg Humane Society, which turned her away because they don’t accept strays. She called county animal control, and was told that the soonest an ACO would be able to come out for the dog would be the following day.

Because she couldn’t keep the dog in her apartment overnight, she went to the county animal control office to ask what she should do. Their reply, in her words, was “Could I chain it to a dumpster, was there an enclosed dumpster I could chain it to?”

The animal control director claims the employee did not tell her to chain the dog to the dumpster, but said that a closed dumpster enclosure might be a good place to keep the dog overnight. He also said it’s an example of why the public should not catch strays themselves. Because of course, a stray dog flattened by traffic is one fewer that animal control officers have to get up off of their asses and go get.

According to another source, the dog is now at the Greenville Humane Society.

Watch video at WSPA.

Not NC (but could be): Mobile County shelter fail

NOTE: I originally l wrote the post thinking that Trisha, the adopter, had gotten the dog from the Mobile SPCA, which is a “no-kill” guaranteed adoption” shelter. Turns out, I misunderstood, not knowing the difference between it and the Mobile County shelter. I have amended this entry to reflect that. Also, apologies to the Mobile SPCA, which, one hopes, might actually vaccinate upon arrival!)

This is not an NC story, but I’m sure there have a been a few like it here : A family adopts a dog from the Mobile County shelter only to discover it has distemper a week later. The mom called the shelter to alert them and discovered that the sheter had killed 86 dogs over the past month because of the disease. The adopted dog, Captain,  had not been vaccinated until a week and a half after his arrival at the shelter.

Waiting a week and a half to deliver a vaccination that should be given first thing upon arrival is a recipe for disease outbreak. Especially when 450 distemper-infected racoons have been captured in your area recently. An easily imagined scenario is that the Mobile county shelter didn’t vaccinate Captain until after they discovered their distemper outbreak and were hoping to do some damage control.

And once they discovered the outbreak, did the shelter do the responsible thing and let the community know, counseling every adopter for signs to watch out for and advising them on safe practices to make sure they aren’t inadvertently spreading distemper to other dogs? It appears not. Captain’s new family wasn’t warned. A Google search for various permutations of Mobile, AL,  and distemper turns up no news articles, alerts or press releases (except regarding the raccoon distemper epidemic), and there is nothing at all on the Mobile County shelter site.

As for Captain, as of yesterday he was still hanging in there , with a lot of love and care from his new family.