Memphis Animal Services hasn’t reached out to rescuers regarding dogs on the kill list in the past. Now they are, which is great. Except they seem intent on burning out their local rescues faster than rescuers can reach for their TUMS.
Yesterday MAS sent out an e-mail plea for 7 coughing dogs on the kill list, in addition to the two I had on the blog. The e-mail included basic info on each dog and gave rescuers 2 hours to respond. Miraculously, rescuers were able to get the job done and save all 9 of these dogs.
Today, another plea to rescuers, again with only hours to respond. This time: 34 coughing puppies and 1 fear biter, all to be killed if not rescued by 5pm. Unlike yesterday’s crappy e-mail though, this one didn’t have info on the dogs because there were “too many to describe” and they “probably” don’t have any photos either. So what rescuers got was a list of ID numbers and an age range of 2 – 4 months for the group as a whole.
I wrote to the shelter and asplained that this was no good. Breed rescues had no way of knowing if their breed was in need. Potential fosters didn’t know if they’d be taking on a 2 month old female Cockapoo or a 4 month old male Pitbull. And there was nothing to share or crosspost – just a list of ID numbers. And worst of all, they would burn out their rescuers in short order by forcing them to remain in continual crisis mode. I didn’t receive a response to that e-mail so I had a desperate idea and e-mailed again. If someone would simply hold a puppy with his cage card up to a webcam, I would sit at my computer and screengrab every one of them so there would at least be something to share. No response to that e-mail either.
I can’t help but mention the fact that this morning, all the workers left the new guy to clean the cat room by himself while they went outside in front of the lobby. They hung out there for about a half-hour while the new guy worked. When the place opened at 10am, there was garbage all over the few areas the public is allowed in and the cages weren’t finished being cleaned. I’m wondering how many puppy pictures could have been taken by all those workers in that 30 minutes this morning.
But wait – there’s more!
A reader sent me this from the “Friends” FB page:
Christ on a bike.
Here is a sample photo of the puppies to be killed. Your actual puppy may differ in size, shape, color, breed, length of coat, temperament or gender. Please allow us to select for you. Thank you for shopping the Puppy Death Channel.
So now it’s past 5 o’clock. I don’t know if any of these 35 dogs were saved but it would shock the snot out of me if they were.
Oh yeah and tomorrow it’s Bring Your Dog to the Game Day at a local sporting event. So the public will be bringing their pets to the park. And “Friends” is promoting on their FB page that the shelter will be bringing a bunch of dogs there too. Dogs from the shelter. The shelter that has dozens of dogs so contagious that they can’t be allowed to live beyond a few hours.
Let’s unfurl the Blame the Irresponsible Public banner. I think it’s going to be called on to work overtime.