The Franklin Sun reports that the Winnsboro Animal Shelter in Louisiana keeps their dogs in outdoor pens, without food or water, and unattended on the weekends. When the newspaper went to visit the shelter, they found and photographed what appear to be partially eaten dogs in the pens. (Note: I am not linking to the dead dog photos as they are extremely graphic. If interested, you can search the Franklin Sun’s site for them.)
Obviously the dogs were without food for more than just weekends as Interim Mayor Dumas claims. And he’s got more where that came from:
Half a dog carcass was found in one pen, which housed four other animals and was filled with feces.
[…]
Winnsboro Interim Mayor John “Sonny” Dumas said he doesn’t think other dogs had eaten the dog. He believes someone most likely had broken into the pen, killed the dog and cut him in half.
And took half home as a trophy. Yeah. I’m pretty sure.
Dumas said he was surprised to learn about conditions at the facility and that changes would be made.
“We are going to correct this problem. You will see a facility the public will be proud of,” he said.
Changes would include a new system to dispense water and better supervision of animals, Dumas said.
And by “better supervision” I’m assuming he means someone will throw food and water at the dogs on occasion and/or bag up the partially eaten carcasses before the newspaper shows up with photographers next time.
Winnsboro residents – these are the people you pay with your tax dollars to care for your community’s pets. Are you satisfied that your money is being well spent? Do you see a shelter that you can be proud of?
This is not the first dog pound in Louisiana to “care” for the dogs so well that dogs were forced to eat other dogs in the pen. This also happened in Kentwood, Louisiana and even when the city of Kentwood promised change the shelter slide back down the same road and caused dogs to suffer again.
Staving dogs in hidden away dog pounds is the easiest and cheapest way to deal with stray dogs in some of the small rural towns across Louisiana. And some whole parishes in Louisiana do not even had one animal shelter or dog pound. The people in some places are told to deal with the strays with a gun.
Louisiana has a long way to go before the suffering of unwanted pets will lessen.