Person County pound stacks the deck against pets from “rabies alert areas”

The Person County pound kills all pets that come from “rabies alert areas,”  after their hold periods are up, unless the pets are reclaimed by owners. The Person County pound will not release pets from “rabies alert areas” to rescue groups. The dogs pictured above were picked up last week (two on Thursday April 11 and one on Friday April 12) in a rabies alert area. They are scheduled to be killed  Wednesday April 17, yet their photos were first posted online less than 24 hours before they were schedule to to be killed.

Contact the Person County Commissioners and let them know they need to eliminate the unnecessary death sentence on all pets from rabies alert areas. Contact information is here:http://www.personcounty.net/index.aspx?page=187. You may also email County Manager Heidi York at hyork@personcounty.net, and pound manager Ron Shaw at rshaw@personcounty.net.

UPDATE: Thanks to Tam, who posed a response from Person County Manager Heidi York in the comments. Ms. York wrote: “Actually we are in the process of changing our rabies policy which would change this very issue. This will be taken before the Board of Commissioners to adopt our new proposed policy on May 6th.”

Inspector finds cats kept in traps for three days at Pender County pound

On a surprise visit to the Pender County pound on Monday, March 11, the NCDA&CS inspector discovered two cats who had been held in traps without litter pans for three days. “Feces was noted on the floor where they sat,” according to the report. The inspector “advised manager not to allow traps to be set unless there is an adequate shelter enclosure available for the cats.”

The impulse to bring in more cats than there is room for could be because dead cats are a revenue source for the Pender County pound. Between June 26, 2012, to Jan. 31, 2013, the Pender County Animal “Shelter” sold 660 dead cats to LBS Biological Inc. for $4 each, according to receipts obtained through a public records request. That’s $2,640 in revenue over a seven-month period, which means that over the course of a year, dead cat sales could potentially bring in nearly $4,500 in revenue. The cat-selling practice raised at least one county commissioner’s eyebrows when it was revealed last month.

LBS Biological sells the cats to Carolina Biological Supply, which turns them into dissection kits so that school children can learn all about the miracle of life in biology class.

Is this your lost kitty?

A request for records of all animal-killing drugs purchased for the Pender pound between August 2012 and Jan. 31, 2013 revealed that $636.60 was spend on Fatal Plus and Ketathesia (ketamine) during that time period. During the same period, pound staff used the drugs to kill 769 cats and dogs, one chicken, one dove and 27 opossums, raccoons and foxes.* The revenue from the sale of dead cats appears to more than cover the Pender County pound’s business of killing animals.

Given that the capture and sale of cats is a revenue source for the Pender pound, it’s not hard to see why they would disregard animal welfare laws to trap more cats than they have room to house.

Pender is not the only so-called “shelter” in NC that  profits from killing and selling animals. LBS Biological obtains cats from shelters in 34 NC counties and cities (including Brunswick, Onslow, New Hanover, Duplin Beaufort, Lenoir and Surry). LBS is just one of many dealers operating in NC and elsewhere in the US to obtain animals for dissection or experimentation.

Other problems found in the March 11 Pender County pound inspection included:

• 18 sick cats with matted eyes and nasal mucus who had not been provided any medical care. Shelter staff killed the cats during the inspection.
• Dog biscuits lying on top of a storage cabinet and an open box of dog treats were noted in multipurpose room. 
• Spilled dry food inside an outdoor storage building
• Holes in the metal walls of indoor dog kennels. Dogs noted urinating and sticking their feet through the holes.
• Chewed dog houses in the outdoor kennels.
• Seven cats in a kennel with two litter pans (acceptable ratio is one  pan per three cats).
• Cat urine and and feces and spilled dry food inside an outdoor  food/bedding storage building.
• Trash around the storage building and the kennels.
• The cat isolation area is in a poor location in that workers must pass through the healthy cat room therefore may easily transmit disease to the healthy cats. (It was recommended that fixing that deficiency be a long-term capital improvement project.)

There is  to be a follow-up inspection to see if the deficiencies have been corrected on March 25, 2013.

Pender County Photo Gallery (all photos taken while shelter open to public):

Watch where you step

I wonder why more people don’t go to shelters to adopt?

Harvesting the cash crop.

The smoking lounge?

“Damn this shelter sucks.”

Very skinny dog.

Dog in poop-filled kennel at Pender County Animal Shelter.

A dog enjoys the cleanest place in his kennel.

Dog food with a side of poop.

Dead cats wait to be stuffed in the freezer for pickup by LBS Biological.

Keeping the cigarettes dry.

Dead cats waiting to be stuffed in the freezer for pickup by LBS Biological

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* The killing log notes that many opossums and raccoons were killed for being “feral.”  Isn’t that pretty much a NORMAL way to be for wild animals? Why are they not being released back into their habitat? Depending on how and why they are trapped, the impoundment and killing of these animals may not actually be legal under NC law. According to The NC Division of Wildlife management, if an ACO sets a trap for a cat and by chance captures an opossum, the animal must be released from the trap on sight and should not be relocated or euthanized. If a depredation permit has been issued for the removal of an animal causing damage then it could be euthanized by the animal control officer or at the animal shelter if that is where animal control captures are killed. Also, if an animal is rabid or displays disease-like symptoms for rabies ACO’s are responsible for capturing those animals euthanizing them and submitting them for testing. The NCWRC statues and rules addressing this issue are G.S. Chapter 113 Article 21 and 22 and Title 15A NCAC 10B .0106. Back

“Nobody wants to kill animals” — Guilford County edition

NOTE: Amanda Liston provided the information and opinions attributed to her in the following post while she was Carolina Care Bullies president. I have since learned that she resigned from the rescue a few days before the post was published.

The next time someone says “Nobody wants to kill animals” to defend the killing of shelter pets, remember Coco. Robin Meadows, a volunteer for Carolina Care Bullies rescue, expended a lot of effort trying to save Coco from the very first day the dog landed in the Guilford County pound, a pet-killing facility where almost half the animals ended up dead in 2011 ¹. Despite days of effort by Meadows and other CCB rescuers, the staff of the Guilford County pound killed Coco anyway.

Coco was a friendly, young pit bull belonging to a boy who lived near Meadows’ sister. On Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013, the boy arrived  home from school to discover that his stepfather had surrendered Coco to animal control. The boy told Meadows, who knew Coco had a wonderful disposition and got along well with her dog Skyleigh (adopted from Carolina Care Bullies). Knowing that Coco was definitely adoptable and that at best she could give Coco a forever home herself, Meadows called the Guilford County pound that very day to ask what she needed to do to get Coco out of there.  (The Guilford County pound refuses to adopt dogs they identify as pit bulls directly to the public, so rescue pulls are generally the only ways such dogs get out of that pound alive.)

Meadows gave pound staff a detailed description of Coco and told them where and when she had been taken by animal control. “At first they told me they weren’t sure what dog I was talking about and they would have to see if they had her,” she said. Then they told her she could pull Coco if she brought along the owner who had surrendered her and paid about $60 in reclaim fees. Meadows posted the situation to the CCB forum, and another volunteer offered to put up the money for the fees. On Thursday Meadows went to speak to Coco’s former owner, who agreed to meet her at the pound Friday afternoon.  She said she called the pound three times on Thursday to make sure that she was making the correct arrangements to save Coco.

The former owner stood Meadows up late Friday afternoon, shortly before the pound closed. Frustrated, she turned for help to CCB president Amanda Liston. Pound staff told Meadows that in order to pull Coco under CCB, Liston would have to speak directly to pound director Marsha Williams on the following Monday.

Liston called the pound Monday morning. “The shelter manager told us that she was expecting our call,” Liston said  ”She also informed us that she would in no way release the dog to Robin, that myself and [CCB vice president] Terry [King] would have to pick up the dog personally. We explained that Robin was a local Greensboro volunteer that wanted to foster-to-adopt the dog, and that we lived 45 minutes away, there was no reason for us to come from Hillsborough to pick up a dog.”

Liston said that Meadows is a trusted CCB volunteer and is just as much a part of  the organization as anyone else. “CCB is not one or two people, we are a large network of volunteers, and myself and the vice president can not be expected to do every rescue errand. However, we would have been glad to if that was the last resort,” she said.

“Half a day later, our Vice President Terry King received a voicemail that the dog in question was euthanized early that morning because of inability to identify the dog based on no owner information.”  Liston said. “They played games and stalled us over an entire weekend, telling us we couldn’t get permission to release the dog until Monday—well after they planned to euthanize the dog,” Liston said. “They said they tried to identify the dog and were unable to do so—but they didn’t need to—Robin could point out the dog and provide all the owner surrender information for them.”

Meadows was devastated. “She survived the weekend just to have them kill her the day I was going to pick her up.”

“Five minutes of Guilford County’s time would have confirmed that allowing Robin to pull the dog was a far better alternative than euthanasia for Coco,” Liston said.

“I find it impossible to believe that they were unable to identify this one dog with the level of Robin’s description in addition to the information she was able to provide about the owner, ” Liston said. “The only foreseeable way this could have occurred is if they throw every pit bull that comes into the shelter in a large, multi-dog holding pen with no ID, and I know that to not be true.”

A public records request for Coco’s records was sent to Guilford County pound director Marsha Williams and the county attorney, who forwarded it to Guilford County Animal Control. Animal control responded promptly with their paperwork on Coco, showing where, when and how she was surrendered by her owner and picked up.

Williams, however, did not respond until a second request was sent, when she refused to comply. “I have spoken to the board of Directors and the United Animal Coalition attorney and they have advised me to inform you that The United Animal Coalition that operates the shelter is a private organization and therefore does not fall under your public records statute any information you requested for Coco that falls under that statute can be provided by animal control and the county attorney’s office whom you cc’d on your previous email and this one,” she said.

Williams and UAC seem to have no problem collecting more than $1 million of taxpayer money from the county to operate a de facto government agency “for the mutual benefit of the Parties and for the citizens of GUILFORD COUNTY” in a building and on property owned by Guilford County. But when it comes time to be publicly accountable for what they do with the community’s shelter pets, they want to hide behind non-profit status and claim they don’t have to tell anyone what goes on in their pound.

According to the NC Attorney General’s office, whether a non-profit operating a government service is subject to public records disclosure is “a matter of legal opinion.” There exists legal precedent of courts upholding that municipalities can not hide records from the public by contracting with a non-profit.

In fact, the contract between Guilford County and UAC is very similar to a scenario that UNC Professor of Law and Government Frayda Bluestein sets forth as an example of when a non-profit WOULD probably be subject to transparency laws. She describes a scenario in which a city contracts with a non-profit group that promotes arts:

If not for this contract, city employees would carry out this function. The city appoints three of the five members of the nonprofit board. The city owns the property the nonprofit uses for its offices, and leases it to the nonprofit for nominal consideration. The nonprofit receives most of its funding from the city. Is the nonprofit organization subject to the transparency laws? The answer is probably: yes.

The UAC leases its building and land from Guilford County for $1 per year. The Guilford County board of commissioners has the right to appoint a county commissioner to serve as a fully participating member of the UAC board of directors. The UAC receives most of its funding from the county. In addition, the UAC must obtain written approval from the county manager before it is allowed to change any fees, hours of operation, policies or procedures affecting the public.

The claim of exemption from public records laws by Williams and the UAC is pretty much begging for a legal opinion.² Essentially, Williams and UAC are claiming the right to kill their community’s pets completely in secret. Meanwhile, the Guilford County taxpayers are footing the bill.

Consider the implications: Suppose you live right on the county line between Guilford and Alamance. One day, your dog bolts through the door and takes off. If he heads east, gets picked up by Alamance County animal control and taken to the pound in Burlington, you would have every right to find out exactly what happened to him if he died in kennel or was killed there. But if he were to head west, get picked up by Guilford County animal control and end up in the Guilford county pound, his fate could remain a complete mystery to you. Marsha Williams and her staff claim that you would have no right to find out what happened to your beloved family pet during his last days or hours in their facility.

Despite replying to the public records request by claiming she doesn’t have to send any records, Williams did send one record: a photo of part of a document she says was all her pound received from animal control with Coco:

Williams says that because the form from animal control identified Coco as a stray, no one at GCAS could figure out which dog Meadows and CCB were trying to save until after pound staff had killed her.

“The lack of proper information did not allow the shelter staff to locate Coco in time to transfer her to CCB,” Williams said. Were they in such a hurry to kill Coco that they couldn’t be bothered to take a few minutes to see if maybe the small female pit bull pup marked “stray” who came in from Cotswold Ave. on the morning of Feb. 6 could possibly have been the same small female pit bull pup brought in from Cotswold Ave. on the morning of Feb. 6 that Robin Meadows so desperately wanted to save?

As director of that pound, Williams has the power to decide NOT to kill pets, at the very least for long enough to sort out which dog a rescuer wants to save. It’s not as if there is an unstoppable killing machine conveyor belt that pets are put on as soon as they enter the pound (as much as Guilford’s kill rate makes it seem as if there could be). Williams runs that pound and can decide which pets live, which pets die, and how much time they are given before she or her staff inject them full of death syrup.

Williams and her staff kill more than 6,000 dogs and cats per year. Assuming 260 business days in a year, that means they kill, on average, more than 23 pets per day. Perhaps, given the sheer magnitude of killing they do there, no one at the Guilford County pound saw the point of taking any extra time to kill one fewer healthy and adoptable pet.

What does the fact that Williams sent a record she believes vindicates her and her staff imply about the records she is withholding? Her refusal to release Coco’s records might reasonably lead folks to wonder what is there that she does not want to reveal. Was there more to the runaround Meadows and Liston were given than just disorganization or disinterest on the part of Williams and her staff?

“Were they hoping we would give up before we discovered that the dog was already euthanized?” Liston said. She believes the claim that Coco could not be identified “in time” was an excuse given “when there was nothing else they could say to deter us from rescuing the dog.”

“The dog didn’t have to be euthanized. And had any other shelter manager in the state been in that place, at least the ones we have had experience with, that dog would have lived,” Liston said.“I want the public to know that Guilford is not the amazing shelter that they are often hailed as. They treat pit bulls as criminals, they treat those that want to rescue them as suspicious, and would rather kill these dogs than give them a chance at a new life.

“The glaring difference between this shelter and others I have worked with, no matter how small-staffed or how large their intake is, is that other shelters can easily identify dogs based on even a mediocre description,” Liston said. The larger facilities such as Orange County Animal Services or Wake County Animal Center will mark kennel cards  ”rescue hold” or “rescue interest” as soon as CCB calls, she said. “Its uncomplicated. We call, they send a volunteer to mark their kennel card, if they can’t do it themselves.”

“Guilford has made clear to us in the past we are not to try to advertise dogs in their shelter that need homes,” Liston said. “I’m confused about this, as they advertise them on their own FB page, so I don’t know why we cannot. We have also asked them to email us photos of pit bulls at their shelter and we will try to find foster homes. Unsurprisingly, we have never received a single photograph or even personality description of any dog in their shelter. Despite the non-response on their end, we were expected to provide a list of past adopters, references, adoption policies and a copy of our application, all of which we worked hard to compile and provide to them.” Liston said CCB never heard from Guilford again after supplying that information.

“As we have grown, understandably we have had many volunteers want us to help pit bulls in their shelter,” Liston said. “I try to explain what happened, and they insist the shelter manager tells them ‘We would love to work with CCB!’ It’s true, the shelter manager does repeat this, over and over to compassionate pit bull lovers and visitors to their Facebook page. But, it is 100% untrue. They go out of their way to make sure no pit bull leaves their shelter, unless it is in secret, unless we somehow magically find a foster without advertising for one, unless we agree to take a dog we’ve never met or seen.”

Liston said Williams has claimed policies dictated by the Guilford County Commissioners are the reason it’s difficult to extract pit bulls from that pound.  “I know this to also be false, as other counties with similar ‘no public pit bull adoption’ policies have no trouble allowing rescues to share photos, meet dogs, secure foster homes and use their volunteer-base to pick up dogs for their foster homes,” Liston said.

Liston said she suspects a personal prejudice against pit bulls may possibly be what makes it so hard to save them from the Guilford pound. “Why else would one person guarantee the death of so many dogs that have other options?”

Folks who wish to discuss the Guilford County pound or its pit bull policy with the Guilford County Commissioners may find their contact information here. A sample letter regarding anti-pit bull policies can be found here.

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A NOTE REGARDING THE COMMENTING POLICY ON THIS POST: Because free and open discourse is only possible when there is full access to information, all comments defending the UAC/GCAS etc. will be held in moderation until such time as Williams and the UAC release Coco’s records. If they never release them, the comments will never be published. Anyone bothered or inconvenienced by this policy may contact Marsha Williams.

¹2011 numbers are the latest available for the Guilford County pound, which is not transparent enough to make their statistics available on their website. Back

²In NC, this will most likely require a lawsuit. Animal advocate Holly Nielsen filed suit last year against the Johnston County SPCA, which received funds from the town of Clayton, over the same issue. The case never went to court because the JCSPCA board voted to dissolve itself immediately after the suit was filed. If you are interested in helping bankroll or helping find pro-bono or contingency legal representation for a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit against The United Animal Coalition, please email me. Back

Pender County forming Animal Shelter Advisory Committee

Attention Pender County No Kill advocates: Please, please apply to be on the county’s new Animal Shelter Advisory Committee. County commissioners will select three members for the positions of citizen-animal rights champion, citizen at-large and veterinarian.

The application is here.

If you don’t end up getting selected, please go to their meetings anyway, which will be subject to NC’s open meetings law. They need more watchdogs over that awful pound.

Sampson County pound holds man’s dog for $65 ransom

On Dec. 4, 2012, the Sampson County pound took in two “strays,” Rebel and Sheba. Their owner had let them out to relieve themselves* and a neighbor called animal control to pick them up, according to a comment posted by the owner’s daughter, Samantha.

Samantha contacted the pound and was told that the dogs were safe there for three days and would not be put up for adoption, but without proof of ownership it would cost the family $195 to get them back.

Meanwhile, however, Samantha saw Rebel, renamed “Levi,” posted for adoption on the Sampson pound’s Facebook page:

Rebel, renamed Levi and posted to the Sampson pound’s Facebook page despite the fact that his family already notified the pound that they wanted to get him back.

Samantha said the Sampson pound staff kept deleting her comments off of the page.

I contacted Sampson County pound director Lori Baxter on Friday morning, Dec. 7. She said “I can tell you that both dogs are at the shelter and safe. We have spoken with the owner and they are planning to pick them up when we open at 1:00 this afternoon.”

But as it turns out, for lack of $65, Samantha’s dad was only able to reclaim one of his dogs. Samantha wrote in an email to me:

My dad took $130 with him and we ask to work out something so that his mother Sheba could be brought home Monday. She said she (Lori) couldn’t promise anything, then I said how come, I mean we are here to claim them but we are lacking $65, we want them both home. My dad told Anna he was financially embarrassed and that he has shed tears over his dogs since they’ve been gone. So then she said as long as we are in contact with her she would be there Monday for pick up. So we get to worry all weekend if something will happen to her, these people are too wishy washy. These animals belong to someone and it shouldn’t be this way when trying to reclaim your animals.

Lori Baxter “couldn’t promise anything” even though as pound director it is completely within her power to give Samantha’s dad his dog back. If she wanted to, Lori Baxter could say “Hey, I love empty kennels, you want your dog back, and sending a dog back to her home is a life-affirming way to make space for another dog. So why don’t I just waive the $65 and let you have your dog? That would be a win for everyone.”

So why doesn’t she? After all, earlier this week she posted that a lot of dogs were “out of time” because she was “out of space” (which doesn’t actually mean all the kennels are full, because Lori Baxter maintains half of the Sampson pound kennels empty at all times).

Following is an excerpt of an email I sent to Lori Baxter:

In a previous correspondence, you told me you use the gas chamber “as little as possible.” You wrote: “If you follow our page, then you know that I am forever begging for rescues to save them.”

I do follow your Facebook page, and I also see that you are always writing about how you must “make space” in your pound. Meanwhile, rather than work out a payment plan or, heaven forbid, actually waive $65 in reclaim fees in the interest if reuniting a dog with a family that desperately wants her back, you have chosen to hold that dog in your pound over an entire weekend, taking up the space that you claim is so scarce.

I wonder which dog you killed in order to house Sheba, a dog who already has a home and family?

On your Facebook page, you make it appear as if your main goal above all else is to get pets out of your pound alive. Sheba is a dog who would be very easy to send home to a family who wants her back, yet you refuse. It almost appears that your motivation is not to protect animals or save their lives, but to vindictively punish a man for not having enough ready cash to redeem his dog. Or worse, could it be that you love demonstrating your powers of life and death over people’s beloved pets? Whatever your motivation, you are doing the wrong thing.

I urge you to do the right thing: waive Sheba’s fees and return her to her family now.

Sampson County pound director Lori Baxter can be reached via email at lbaxter@sampsonnc.com and the pound’s phone number is (910) 592-8493. Sampson County manager Ed Causey can be reached at (910) 592-6308 or ecausey@sampsonnc.com. Sampson County residents who would like to discuss animal shelter issues with county commissioners can schedule “Citizen/Commissioners Conferences”  to meet with representatives of the county Board of Commissioners and appropriate county staff members on the third Monday of each month immediately preceding the Board’s regularly scheduled meeting. Conferences must be scheduled in advance by calling the Office of the County Manager: (910) 592-6308.

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*Yes, people would be wise to confine or leash their dogs and keep identification on them, as well as up-to-date rabies tags. (I triple ID mine with microchips, rabies tags and “Boomerang” collar IDs.) But the focus of FixNC is shelter reform. Regardless of how dogs end up at the pound, what happens to them once they are there is the responsibility of the pound director and staff. So I will not be publishing any comments on this post about what is or is not responsible pet ownership because the point of discussion here is what happens to pets after they get to the pound. There are lots of free blogging platforms where you can start your own blog and discuss whatever you want there.

Guilford County pound holds woman’s dog for ransom

Devyn Gordon’s dog Trixie escaped from her yard Saturday while the family was at the downtown Greensboro Christmas parade. A neighbor told Devyn that the dog had been taken to the Guilford County pound, so Devyn went there Saturday with her driver’s license and copies of Trixie’s current rabies records and tag, which are in Devyn’s name and current address.

The staff at the Guilford pound refused to release Trixie to her current owner, however. Unbeknownst to Devyn, Trixie has a microchip registered in the name of a previous owner. Trixie came to Devyn through a friend of Devyn’s brother. The friend had been planning to surrender Trixie back to the shelter where she had gotten her. “She gave her to my brother, who gave her to me, almost two years ago,” Devyn said in a comment on Facebook.

In addition to the rabies records, Devyn has 2 years of records for vet checkups and other vaccines, as well as photos and grooming receipts.

Pound staff told Devyn that they have the right to hold Trixie for 72 hours. If the woman whose name is on the chip (who lives in Fayetteville as far as Devyn knows) goes to the Guilford pound  and verifies that she transferred ownership to Devyn, then pound staff will allow Devyn to reclaim her dog after paying additional daily boarding fees on top of the $30 reclaim fee. If not, then after Trixie’s 72-hour hold is up, pound staff will allow Devyn to adopt her own dog at the full $95 adoption fee.

Devyn went back to the Guilford pound on Sunday as well, still trying to get her dog back. The pound staff told her that since the number associated with the microchip has been disconnected, they are putting Trixie up for adoption.

“They would rather euthanize a dog, or let some strange family adopt her, than give her to her rightful owner,” Devyn wrote in a Facebook post. “This is probably one of the dumb and stupid reasons that the shelters are so full, and pets are put to sleep daily..because either they have ridiculous protocol that doesn’t even make sense on paper, yet alone in the real world, or they are stacking fees on top of fees daily before people can even muster up the money to pay the retrieval fee. How is that helpful to anyone, especially the pet?”

Devyn plans to be back at the shelter first thing Monday morning to try to get her dog back.

The Guilford County pound can be reached at  (336) 297-5020. You can email director Marsha Williams at marsha@guilfordcountyanimalshelter.com. The Guilford County Manager’s office can be reached at (336) 641-3383. Contact information for the Guilford County Commissioners can be found here.

UPDATE 12/03/12: Trixie is back home with her family now! Devyn wrote this comment on a Facebook post:  

“I went back down to the shelter this morning, and they told me If I didn’t have an appointment I wouldn’t be able to see the director, and that they didn’t open until 12 anyway. I told them I would wait, and that’s what I did. I guess they got the picture I wasn’t leaving, and called her on the phone. She obviously has gotten calls, emails, and posts, because the first thing she said was ‘I’ve been getting emails, posts and such about your situation, and I want you to know we are not trying to keep your dog from you etc..’”

At 5 pm, after the hold was up, Devyn was able to reclaim Trixie by showing her vaccine records and paying $45, which included transferring the microchip registration. Devyn said she still plans to follow up with officials about the policies.

“Nobody wants to kill animals” — Alamance County edition*

Pam Lee went to the Burlington Animal Shelter on Oct 31 looking for her missing cat, Sassy. She saw a large black cat who looked a bit like Sassy, so she asked the attendant if she could look at the cat’s hind legs, because Sassy was attacked by a hawk when she was young and had long furless scars on her legs.

The attendant showed her the cats legs, and it wasn’t Sassy. “The attendant said he believed that this cat was male, rubbed his head, and showed me the cat’s ‘fangs’ which he said were very rare.  The cat was very docile when the attendant was touching him, so I knew he wasn’t completely feral,” Pam said.

Pam went back to the Burlington pound again on Friday, Nov. 2. “I first went back to again check for my Sassy, but I had already decided that I wanted the black cat that looked so very much like her.  I had thought about him for 2 days and keep seeing his eyes.” She had already picked out a name for him: Spirit.

She told the attendant who escorted her that  she wanted the cat and pointed the cat out to him. “He told me that the animals had to go through evaluation and the adoption process before I could receive one.  He said he didn’t think there was anything I could do to get him before going through the adoption process, but that I could speak with the lady at the desk.”

Pam went back to the waiting room:

“I spoke with the clerk there. I told her that I wanted the cat. She repeated the mantra about the evaluation they would have to go through. I told her that money was no object; I would pay for any evaluation, spay/neutering, and necessary shots. Then she said that it wasn’t that easy, that first there had to be space for the animal in the adoption center. I told her that space was not necessary because as soon as the procedures were complete, I would be taking the cat home with me. She told me that people can’t just pick out one of the strays because it may not pass the health screening. She said that a common occurrence when there are many cats in a cage is the presence of an upper respiratory infection. (I know that is no reason to kill a cat; my cat had a URI at one point and responded wonderfully to antibiotics.) I told her again that I was willing to take that chance and would pay for it. She then explained how people get angry about not being able to get one of the cats back there, but that they just don’t understand how many animals go through the shelter and mentioned that there were thousands that pass through the doors.

“That’s when I told her that I didn’t understand; that if there were that many stray and abandoned animals, why wouldn’t they make a way for one to have a good home when it is wanted?  She told me that I would just have to check back with the adoption center the next week to see if the cat made adoption status. (I have no doubt she was well aware that the animals in the room that this cat was in are not even considered for adoption.)  I asked her if the Humane Society could intercede and help me get this cat, to which she said “no.”  I asked her if pulling rank by being the sheriff’s first cousin held any weight; again she said “no.” After slamming into the “brick wall” for over 5 minutes resulting in the same mantra (“check with the adoption center next week”), I finally left determined to call Bev [the woman from the Humane Society] anyway.

“I did stop by the adoption center on my way out which is where I held a third conversation with a staff employee. I explained to him what I wanted and asked if there was anything he could do to help me. He told me he couldn’t help; I would just have to check back next week.  I asked him about the availability of “space” for one to be evaluated.  He told me that they had recently expanded to get more cages and that there were two cages currently open. (So at this point, space was NOT a reason for sending the cat to be exterminated. How about maybe no one bothered to ASK if there was any space for the cat.) He quickly assured me that there was nothing he could do to help me.”

Pam left and called the woman at the humane society, who told her the names of supervisors to ask for. “I would like to point out that during this entire time, no one mentioned referring me to someone in charge, such as Tina Meeks or Tammy Penley.”

Pam went back to the pound and spoke with Ms. Meeks, who asked Pam to show her the cat she was interested in. “We went into the middle room and my heart sank when I saw the cages were all empty,” Pam said. “I pointed to the top cage and told her that the cat I wanted was in there. She then told me that she had filled out he euthanasia orders on all of those cats early that morning. She said he had been put down that morning. I asked her at least twice if she was sure that the deed had already been done and she assured me that it had been done. I am embarrassed to say that I sat there and cried like a baby.”

Ms. Meeks told Pam that incoming animals are separated into two groups: surrendered and most likely adoptable and strays who must be held for 3 days and probably won’t be “adoptable” (by whatever the pound’s standards are for adoptability).  The strays are generally killed after 3 days with no attempt to adopt them out.  ”For all intents and purposes, it’s a death sentence from the time they are put in the cages,” Pam said. “They’re just faced with caged indifference for 3 long days before being executed.”

“After speaking to Ms. Meeks, I realized that stonewalling is what is expected of the employees,” Pam said. “Ms. Meeks assured me that the desk lady did as she was supposed to do when someone inquires about the strays.”

The next day, while thinking back on events, Pam said “a sudden realization made the shock more horrific”:

“There was a roll up garage door in the room with the strays. While I was standing there discussing the cat’s adoption with the attendant that took me back, the door suddenly opened and startled me so badly I jumped. The attendant said it was just the overhead and started leading me out of the room. I kept trying to look in the cages on the truck that backed to the door, but couldn’t see any animals in them. I asked him if they were bringing more animals in and tried to look in case mine was in one of them. He said he didn’t know and ushered me back through to the entrance desk.  He told me to discuss the adoption with the desk clerk, although he didn’t think there was anything that could be done without the adoption process being completed. He also told me I would have to check back at the adoption center later. Then he went back in the rooms we had just left.

“The supervisor, Tina Meeks, told me she had issued the euthanasia papers early that morning for all the cats in the back cages and that they were put down that morning. As I didn’t leave until about 11:15, I wondered how it had happened so quickly after I left. Then it hit me: the truck that had backed up to the dock was picking up the cats to be taken to be gassed. That means the attendant that was standing right beside me and the cat telling me to check back with adoption next week, also knew that the cat I wanted was being loaded as we spoke to be executed.  He went back in there to help them load the truck. He lied to me; the desk clerk lied to me. And I figured out why: It was coming up noon on Friday and it would have been too much trouble to have to rework the paperwork that had already been issued.  I feel certain that if the clerk had called her supervisor, Ms. Meeks may have tried to stop that cat from being taken out. As I said, she apologized over and over yesterday afternoon and said she didn’t know. But she also said that the employees did their job by telling me what they were supposed to say to anyone who asked about he strays. This is obviously a common occurrence, but I guess they figure no one will be as dogged as I was about coming back to fight with them. Most people probably just check back, don’t find the animal they wanted, and figure it didn’t make it through the evaluation.”

People who defend shelter killing love to say “Nobody WANTS to kill animals,” before spouting some excuse for the killing like “There are just too many animals and not enough homes.” Pam Lee went to the Burlington pound repeatedly and begged several staffers to be allowed to give a cat a home and save it from being killed. But the staff at the Burlington Animal “Shelter” wanted to kill that cat. They lied to Pam Lee just so they would be able to kill that cat.

*Headline blatantly ripped off from YesBiscuit.

RIP Doogie, killed for a cough in Sampson County despite volunteers willing to save him

Sampson County pound director Lori Baxter maintains half of the dog cages empty, just as she did while she was director of the Robeson County pound. She says it prevents disease, although the multiple distemper outbreaks at the Robeson pound during her tenure challenge that claim.

Despite the empty-cage policy, a dog named Doogie, who had been in the Sampson pound since Oct 19, came down with kennel cough. Kennel cough is not fatal. It’s a mild-to-moderate, usually self-limiting disease. It’s basically a canine cold, and aside from temporary discomfort much like we all experience when we have a cold, it causes no suffering. Some vets may recommend a cough suppressant or antibiotics if a secondary infection is suspected, but many recommend just doing nothing and waiting for the cold to go away. Every now and then one of my own dogs or fosters gets kennel cough and, even though it’s considered highly contagious, it rarely spreads to the others.

In a high-kill pound like Sampson, however, kennel cough is usually a death sentence. Not because it causes irremediable suffering or somehow turns fatal, but because … well that’s the way high-kill shelter directors roll. They choose death whenever possible, and a cough is as good an excuse as any.

Sometime around noon today, Lori Baxter posted Doogie’s photo with the caption “Doogie has kennel cough! He HAS to leave in the next few hours! Please someone step up for this great boy!!” If Baxter were concerned about other dogs catching kennel cough, with half the cages in the pound empty she could have easily isolated Doogie while she gave rescuers a chance to arrange to get him out. But about four hours later (after someone posted that there was a foster available), Baxter posted “We have no rescue. Nobody to be responsible for him…RIP boy…sorry we failed you…” (UPDATE 11/05/12: The posts have all been since deleted from the Sampson pound Facebook page.)

But the fact is there WAS someone responsible for Doogie: Lori Baxter, who claims to be one of “the ones who really are making a difference.” What a difference she made in Doogie’s life: for no reason at all he went from being a handsome dog with a cold to being a dead body in a dumpster. I’m sure Baxter’s words of apology on Facebook were a great comfort to Doogie as he went to his death.

But even sadder than Doogie’s needless death is that there were local rescuers willing to whisk Doogie out of the pound and to a vet.

And here we discover the “difference” Lori Baxter is making in the lives of shelter pets: “Please remember that most shelters would have euthanized him first thing this morning and not even given most of the day to network.” (I’m not sure how four hours equals “most of the day.”) But the “difference” stops short of actually picking up the phone and calling well-known, long-time pound volunteers who have reliably been available to pull pets in need. Apparently, in Lori Baxter’s universe, if you’re not on Facebook all day responding to her posts you are failing the pets in her pound. But because she waits four hours before killing a dog with a cold, she appears to think we should hail her as a one-woman shelter revolution. And many of the posters on Facebook do just that:

Lori Baxter is far from a revolutionary shelter director. She practices the same old “save a few, kill the rest” method that has been failing our shelter pets for years. She just happens to do aggressive Facebook marketing of some of the pets in her pound, which is actually unsustainable because it keeps volunteers and rescuers in crisis mode. They are always rushing to save one “urgent” pet after another–the urgency being that Baxter will send the pets to their deaths in the gas chamber if rescuers don’t get them out of there pronto. Baxter is the one deciding who dies and when, killing pets even when half the cages sit empty.

The real revolutionaries are the shelter directors in the more than 70 No Kill communities across the nation, where 90 percent and more of the pets going into open-admission shelters are getting out alive.

The programs and services that are working in those communities could be achieving the same results in Sampson. The one indispensable ingredient, however, is a leader who is not content to continue killing while regurgitating tired clichés about “public irresponsibility,” hiding behind the myth of  pet “overpopulation,” or fobbing her own responsibility for killing off on caring volunteers and rescuers.

Sampson County residents who would like the county to hire a shelter director dedicated to ending the killing of healthy and treatable pets should contact County Manager Edwin Causey.

Dalmation sits in Pender County pound for two weeks with a broken hip

This boy came into the Pender County pound on Sept. 27, 2012. He was pulled on Oct. 10 by a rescuer, who immediately noticed something wrong: He had a broken hip.

On Sept 27, 2012, a Dalmation came into the Pender County pound. He was there almost two weeks, until Oct. 10, when he was pulled by a Dalmation breed rescue group, who immediately discovered that he had a broken hip. He had surgery to correct it on Oct. 16.

The Dalmation after his rescue from the Pender County pound, lying on something cushy.

A pound employee told rescuers that she walked the dog and didn’t see any problem. Sources close to the pound say employees never walk the dogs, however. “The only time those dogs get walked is when they are taking them to the incinerator,” one source said.

The incinerator is where they kill animals.  The kill process at Pender County pound has been described to me like this: the animals are taken out to the incinerator, which is in a fenced area behind the pound. The pets are injected on a table right in front of the incinerator and then rolled into it. One person close to the pound told me: “I’m sure not every animal going into that incinerator is already dead.”

The purchase of the incinerator last year was opposed by one county commissioner, Jimmy Tate, who said he was afraid it may speed up killing at the pound. He was right.

The fencing that is now around the incinerator had originally been donated by a volunteer to make a place where adopters could go spend time with animals one-on-one. But when Lt. Keith Ramsey, the pound director, got his new incinerator, he dismantled the adoption area so he could put the fencing around his new toy. In other words, he took materials that had been donated to get more animals out of that pound alive and repurposed them to make killing animals and burning their corpses easier and quicker. Oh, but Ramsey just hates the idea of killing any animal and calls it “an unfortunate part of the job.” (And completely unnecessary.)

As for injured and sick animals, the Dalmation is not the first one not to receive necessary veterinary attention at that pound. (NC Animal Welfare Administrative Code.) On Oct 3, 2012, I had posted about a hound with an injured nose who received no care while at the pound, and instead of being released to a rescue that had planned to take him to a vet was given to a man who said he was going to tie the dog to his porch.

I had sent an open records request via email on Sept. 26 for “all records (intake details, records of vet care given while in shelter custody, including vaccinations, and adoption or other outcome details) pertaining to a hound or hound-looking mix with a severely injured nose that was adopted out of the PenderCounty shelter on Friday, Sept. 21.”

Several days after publishing the post about the dog, I received a response, postmarked Oct. 3–the day the post was published. All the materials inside were dated Sept. 27, however. The packet also contained documents I did not request: statements by pound workers Darlene Clewis and Danielle Miller that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the hound.  If the statements hadn’t been dated Sept. 27 I would swear they were written specifically in response to the blog post.

Duke the boxer mix came in to the pound on March 24, 2012. On Saturday April 14, a volunteer noticed that he had become sick and had bloody diarrhea consistent with parvo. Pound staffer Danielle Miller told the volunteer that Duke had been sick all week  and that they were de-worming him.

The volunteer rushed Duke to a veterinarian. He had a very advanced case of parvovirus. Duke received treatment at the volunteer’s expense, survived and is now in a new home.

On August 24, 2012, a little cattle dog pup was pulled by a rescuer, who discovered the dog had been sitting on the concrete at the pound with a broken leg, receiving no care.

On Sept 15, 2012, a rescuer visited the pound only to discover a litter of puppies so full of worms that the rescuer didn’t think they would survive. They had been in the Pender County pound for a week.

It’s almost a given that, without fundraising to supplement their budgets,  public pounds in rural places like Pender don’t have the money to pay for much veterinary care. That’s why it’s so important for them to partner with rescue groups who will get the animals out of the pound to the care they need. But in NONE of the cases above were rescuers called by pound employees and asked to pull animals who needed vet attention. Instead, rescuers went to the pound on their own initiative and discovered the sick or injured animals sitting there without care (or with improper care, as in Duke’s case).

Ashe County pound director Joe Testerman eliminates pet adoptions

In mid-August of this year, Ashe County Animal Control Director Joe Testerman, after “several hours of research,” decided to cut the hours his shelter killing facility is open for adoptions and owner reclaims to just 12 per week. He attempted to justify it by saying that “most animal control departments in North Carolina have similar business hours that they are open to the public.” Actually, not so much. Joe Testerman’s “several hours” of research most likely consisted of looking up the minimum requirements for keeping his pound open per NC law (“at least four hours a day, three days a week”).

Last week, Testerman responded to complaints about the extremely restrictive hours by claiming he and his ACOs needed to be away from the pound at all hours. “Our workload requires us to be out on the road working, and that’s where most of our work is at,” he said.

In fact, Testerman said, there is no guarantee anyone will even be at the pound during the open hours, state law be damned. “It’s good practice to call before you come, though, to make sure somebody is going to be here. The unknown is always a factor. We never know when we’re going to get an emergency call that requires all of us.”

Testerman claims that the public is welcome into the pound for adoption during open hours, but the reality is that the Ashe County pound is now pretty much out of the adoption business. According to statistics released by the Ashe County clerk in response to an open records request, Joe Testerman’s death house did not adopt out a single animal between late July and mid-September. The last animal adopted out of the Ashe County pound  was a cat that came in on July 23. (Scans of all adoption stats are below, click to enlarge. And yes, the Jake Testerman who turned in six collies on April 9 is in fact Joe Testerman’s brother.)

Since that time, six dogs have been released to the Ashe County Humane Society, and six dogs have been released to other rescue groups. Three dogs were returned to owner. No cats appear to have left that pound alive since the end of July. (The report for the open records request was run Sept. 17, so there may have been an adoption or two in the weeks since then. I am planning to file another request for the statistics from Sept. 17 to Oct. 17.)

In an article earlier this year, Testerman shed crocodile tears for  the animals he kills: “It’s a sad day for all of us, the animals we have cared for, petted, named, and hoped for homes for, are kept as long as we can. When the kennels are all full and more come in, we have to make the painful decision of who has to die and who lives.” Actually, Mr. Testerman has a very easy time with that decision. By restricting adoption hours and not advertising available pets for adoption, he is actively choosing death for these animals.

The only dogs shown for adoption on the Ashe County pound’s web site are a hound/lab mix with a photo dated April 20, and a Treeing Walker Coonhound in a photo dated May 20. There is one cat, whose photo is dated Feb. 14. There are three dogs and no cats listed on the pound’s Petfinder page (which also lists the old, more adoption-friendly hours, so may not be updated all that regularly.)

Testerman said that killing animals “takes something out of the humans who have to make that decision and if anyone has an answer for it, we are sure willing to listen.” I sent him a letter back in April telling him that I did indeed have an answer:

The truth is that there IS an answer for it, and it you really are willing to listen I would be happy to share. Others have taken shelters just like yours and turned their numbers upside-down, going from 85% kill rates to 90%+ SAVE rates, often in the first year.

For example, in Seagoville, Texas, a police sergeant with no previous animal control experience was put in charge of the animal control center. He told his boss he would do it only if he didn’t have to kill animals. And he did it:

Sgt. Karl Bailey of Seagoville Animal Services is an inspiration: a veteran of the police department, he took over a rural kill shelter in Texas with no experience, abolished the gas chamber on his first day, ordered that the killing come to an end, and last year saved roughly 98% of all the animals. Seagoville, Texas just might be the safest community in the U.S. for dogs and cats entering shelters—on average, only one animal loses his or her life every month, due to extreme illness, injury, or for dogs, aggression.

You can read more here if you are interested.

Just to our north in Virginia there are now SEVEN open-admission city or county shelters that have achieved lifesaving rates of 90 percent or more:  Arlington,  Charlottesville,  Fluvanna County, King George County, Lynchburg,  Williamsburg, and Powhatan County. There are also several more “in progress” toward a 90 percent lifesaving rate (you can see more here, check out the list on the right-hand side of the page).

There is no reason you cannot achieve the same, and all you need to do is follow a formula that has been tried and tested by many before you.

Yes, there is a lot of work involved, but the rewards would be huge for you, your community and thousands of animals you would be saving instead of killing. What’s more, once you put your facility on this positive path toward saving many more animals than you kill, you will almost certainly find members of your community who previously avoided your shelter lining up to help you do your life-affirming work.

Let me know if you are interested. I would be overjoyed to help

I have never heard back from Joe Testerman.

All of the Ashe County Animal Shelter Statistics for Jan. 1 to Sept. 17, 2012 (and beyond when available) can be found in this spreadsheet (see the individual worksheets for the outcome breakdowns).