One of the concerns about Memphis Animal Services is their failure to implement standard, humane, disease-prevention cleaning protocols. Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of screengrabs showing that sometimes they don’t clean at all.
For example, the isolation ward at MAS has been housing lots of puppies this week. I’m presuming they are sick but in any case, puppies are messy so they need frequent cage cleanings, especially in a cage bank environment where the upper mess is being pushed out to the bottom tier. Puppies also need frequent feedings and waterings since they do silly things like walk in their water bowls and knock bowls over. If puppies are sick, obviously the need for frequent cleaning, feeding and watering becomes more urgent, along with whatever medicines have been prescribed for their condition.
As such, I found this series of shots very concerning since it appears to me that the puppies in the isolation ward were not being attended to at all on May 17:
The next day…
At 12:57pm, a worker takes a puppy from a cage, places him in a wire carrying cage and apparently brings him to the kill room.
May 19:
Today, the shelter sent out a plea giving rescuers one day to pull several dogs from the adoption hallway who have symptoms of upper respiratory infection. This has me wondering if only dogs from the adoption hallway are affected or if there are dogs in the stray area who need help too. No pleas for them.
It also has me wondering how many more pups might be alive in the Iso ward right now if proper care had been provided for them. I’m glad to see Matthew Pepper get the staff working today (if that’s what happened) but I certainly hope no more dogs from Iso are going to be killed by MAS due to illness which the staff may well have made worse through their negligence. The killings this week appear to be even more than usual based on the webcam captures.
Memphis – get down to city hall and picket the mayor’s office to stop all this needless suffering and killing at MAS. Keep the pressure on. Something has gotta give and so far, most of the weight has been carried by the helpless pets at MAS. You=Hope.
A co-worker adopted a dog from MAS 3 weeks ago and dog has developed a severe upper respiratory infection. Another dog he asked them to hold for him that he would take if he couldn’t find a foster has been diagnosed with an URI and is on the kill list for 9:30 this morning !!!! He’s been desperate to get the dog out but they won’t treat her or even allow him to pay for the antibiotics needed to treat her. The vets have refused treatment to the dog.
Helen,
Does he have the dog’s ID #? I’m not clear on why he is unable to get the dog out?
The vets have refused treatment? That is totally and completely against what being a veterinarian stands for. Document and contact the state licensing board.
God bless those poor souls who end up in that hell hole.
Just sent a copy of the first message (minus name) to wharton/pepper with the last two sentences enlarged and bolded in red. Do you think they might read it?
Should we start a pool?
They may read it but the problem is they just don’t care!!! Many dogs are on the KILL LIST for this morning because they have a TREATABLE URI…..makes no sense.
Hey guys – time for ACTION. The Mayor needs to get these photos and letters demending positive compassionate action. Also, this entire blog today needs to go to Jeni Diprizio for followup.
BTW, does anyone know about the CNN broadcast, can you link me in?
I’ve been emailing the photos and a few comments to the mayor/director and, of course, get no response. Let’s contact someone who can get the word out and get something done.
Too much suffering, too much killing!
You know it would be great to get some sort of explanation and reassurance. Sadly, they carted a bunch of these pups away today.
People who live in the area need to organize a mass protest in front of the facility!
There are tons of shelters out there that do not even vaccinate puppies, I came to the conclusion today if a shelter can not manage to control disease they need to be shut down period. Why have a shelter if all the dogs are dying of disease what is the point!
This is so sad. The puppies who CAN make it out alive end up being so bad medically (and emotionally too Im sure). They just cant seem to get on the ball (nor want to, which is even sadder). At least Pepper was there to see the sad shape the shelter was in even if he may not have necessarily told them to cleanup.
As someone else mentioned before, do we have any word on the CNN interview thing? I completely forgot about tivoing it yesterday and I dont watch any live tv at all.
Where there is murder, ‘love’ and ‘caring’ cannot and does not exist.
If someone has such a disregard for someone else’s life, are they likely to take ‘proper care’ of them?
No.
They cry no tears when they’re dead, why would they be concerned about them while they’re alive?
If they were concerned about pets, pets would stay alive, not be killed and thrown in the garbage like a used napkin.