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 Expert
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Location: Never in one place long | I do a lot of advocating and animal rescue for dogs and cats. There is a city about an hour from me that our rescue saves a lot of dogs from. Anyways... this is the situation and it has been going on for a long while....None of us are sure what to do as we're afraid any protesting we do will get dogs/cats killed out of retaliation.
The shelter is run by a director, the director is a very paranoid person, she will euthanize animals for any reason, she gets more than a few in, she calls us and says if we don't get them out to rescue, she's killing them and gives us a deadline. She can have 3-4 dogs there and have 14 kennels and says its too full. NOW, I understand a lot of shelters are required to keep a certain percentage of kennels open for emergencies (usually between 10-25%) but this is NOT the case. This lady is being lazy and not doing her job. It is easier to demand them gone or kill them instead. To make matters worse, the Mayor of the town doesn't like animals, he even surrendered his own dog to the shelter so we have no support there.
I have urged the director of our rescue that we need to do something, alert the public, create a petition to be signed, attend City meetings etc. to get things changed and hold her accountable. She agrees but is very afraid that if we do so, they will stop letting her rescue dogs and just kill them all without warning.
Just Monday, there were 7 dogs that had recently come into the shelter and because of the holidays coming up, she said ALL dogs must be gone by Thursday or they were killing all that was left because they didn't want extra work for the holidays so we scrambled to get all 7 out and just finally found them all adopters or rescues.
How long can we do this though and what if times come we can't? What can be done to change this and has anyone ever fought a shelter with this type of situation? I know the place I used to live had a similar situation and it turned around so quickly once the public protested and demanded a change.. I just don't know how to go around doing it without animals being harmed. Please let me know if you can give advice.
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Other than get a new director for the shelter I don't think you will have much luck. I applaud your effort's but you just may have to except that not every dog can be saved. |
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 Blaines and Beauty
Posts: 1431
| I was a director over animal control with city population of 35,000. We were a high intake shelter but we tirelessly worked with rescue groups and did adoption promotions (such as taking them to tractor supply and city events). I know the main thing we had problems with is city funding of keeping the animals for long periods of time. The alderman didn't understand why we would put money into them (food, Vax, spay/neuter and then never could adopt them and end up having to euthanize. There is a lot going on behind the scenes you might not know about. Get the budget for AC or some FOI requests to see where money is being spent. Don't try and cause a fight, try to see what you can do to help. We had wonderful volunteers and rescue groups that helped with donations of food, Vax, treats, etc so we could keep them longer and the aldermen couldn't gripe about the city spending money. Also, if they don't have the manpower (again, money situation) volunteer to help them clean kennels, play with dogs, etc. I noticed alot of people wanted to gripe but never actually wanted to help the situation. Also, you might want to attend city council meetings and set the minimum amount of days for owner reclaim higher. Ours was 7 days - so they had to be in our care 7 days without the owner contacting us before we could put them up for adoption. If the owner showed, they would pay boarding fees, for the rabies shot if they didn't have one, and any fees incurred during the time. |
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  Fact Checker
Posts: 16572
Location: Displaced Iowegian | I would attend a city council meeting and ask for a written copy of their regulations and a copy of their yearly budget. Surely, they have to turn in a budget to be able to receive money from the council. |
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Location: Not Where I Want to Be | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A6Bu96ALOw |
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 pressure dripper
Posts: 8696
Location: the end of the rainbow | find out how that particular city government is set up. Then find out who her boss is and start with them. It may be a funding issue and they might just need help figuring out where to best spend their money in housing these animals. |
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Expert
Posts: 1432
Location: Never in one place long | rodeomom3 - 2016-12-20 4:29 PM
Other than get a new director for the shelter I don't think you will have much luck. I applaud your effort's but you just may have to except that not every dog can be saved.
I think SOMETHING can be done. I've seen several shelters even with SUPER high intake turn around and achieve a 90% or more save rate. she has to have approval from someone for the killing she does.... I just need to know where to start. I think she gets away with it because no one is paying attention. |
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Expert
Posts: 1432
Location: Never in one place long | I agree! We have begged to volunteer etc and they have turned it all down saying it is a liability which is BS because we can just sign a waiver, I know TONS of shelter where you can volunteer and have never heard of an issue. This woman doesn't want anyone in the shelter seeing what they do, it's very odd and you can just sense the weirdness of the place. High intake is NOT a problem here.. that's what I don't get... they usually are only 1/4-1/2 full and my friend gets them moved out pretty quickly. This woman just sets continuous deadlines so she gets dogs moved out and doesn't have to work very hard. |
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Industrial Srength Barrel Racer
Posts: 7264
| I don't have any advice but thank you and bless your heart for trying to do something!  |
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Regular
Posts: 57
| If you do decide to go public with what is going on get a local T.V station involved. It has work around where I live several times to get different city pounds to change. One is now even considered a no kill shelter. A few news stories to get the word out with a names of those involved can sure make a city fix things real quick. |
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Expert
Posts: 1432
Location: Never in one place long | NJBBH - 2016-12-21 12:53 PM
If you do decide to go public with what is going on get a local T.V station involved. It has work around where I live several times to get different city pounds to change. One is now even considered a no kill shelter. A few news stories to get the word out with a names of those involved can sure make a city fix things real quick.
I do agree here! A city I used to live in had similar issues and when the public found out, **** hit the fan BAD!!! and things changed quickly... the hard part is how I do so without involving the lady who knows everything bc she fears they won't even let her rescue anything anymore if they know she said something... it's sad... she is their slave and all for the animals. |
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Blaines and Beauty
Posts: 1431
| DLV - 2016-12-21 10:54 AM
I agree! We have begged to volunteer etc and they have turned it all down saying it is a liability which is BS because we can just sign a waiver, I know TONS of shelter where you can volunteer and have never heard of an issue. This woman doesn't want anyone in the shelter seeing what they do, it's very odd and you can just sense the weirdness of the place. High intake is NOT a problem here.. that's what I don't get... they usually are only 1/4-1/2 full and my friend gets them moved out pretty quickly. This woman just sets continuous deadlines so she gets dogs moved out and doesn't have to work very hard.
You are totally correct! We had every volunteer sign a waiver that the city attorney drew up and and never had any problems. If it's not high intake, she really shouldn't have any problems keeping them. I would definitely look into the FOI requests, talk to the alderman over animal control and if that doesn't help, show up to a city council meeting. What is the minimum amount of days, by law, that they have to keep them? You can PM me if you need to |
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