I have to agree with the “Friends” and all the others who believe that no kill is never going to be possible in Memphis. Seriously, people in Memphis just suck. No point in opening up the stray areas to the public – the jerks would probably just run up and down the aisles tossing firecrackers into the kennels. No reason to implement a TNR program for feral cats – they’d just end up being used for target practice. And we definitely don’t want to provide a “ride home” service for dogs picked up off the streets – who knows what kind of hell we’d be returning the poor dogs to.
In fact, forget no kill. I don’t even see the possibility for less killing. I mean, the national shelter average for killing is around 50%. But how could Memphis ever hope to reduce their kill rate to 50% when people there don’t vaccinate, neuter or even like their pets? These people are unlike those in any other city in this country. I think it’s obvious there is no one in all of Memphis with a heart. To Memphians, pets are like weeds. If one happens to sprout up in your backyard, eh – whatevs. If it reproduces or runs off or dies – there’s more where that came from.
I think the only thing that Memphis can realistically achieve is to open up a bigger shelter so they can house more pets. Because it’s obvious the losers in Memphis are going to keep dumping them at the shelter so a larger space will help. And all these annoying poor people who can’t afford to neuter (even though we passed a law!) are making the intake numbers go up so, duh – of course more killing is going to follow. I hate it but it’s just reality. I mean really – are YOU going to take all these pets? Cos if you’re not, the only other option that I can see is killing.
I do expect the fine and upstanding volunteers (they must all be transplants from another city) to keep up their admirable work, trying to find homes for a few foofoo dogs and pretteh kittehs but gah – what more can we ask of them when they are in the midst of such terribleawfuldummyhead people? And I know the shelter staff is doing the best they can with these pets. I’m sure almost all of the animals bite, having been raised improperly by the dolts in Memphis.
What I would encourage all of you to do, is to send a little note to everyone on the mailing list, thanking them for like, managing to even keep the shelter standing in this worthless city of ignoramuses. That’s got to be a daily challenge in and of itself – just to keep the walls from falling down and the roof collapsing under the weight of the Epic Stupid which is Memphis. Let’s convey our solidarity with them by reiterating that we won’t spend a penny of our vacation money in Memphis due to the general dastardliness of the locals and stuff.
And let’s really especially thank and stand with the mayor. Can you imagine the monstrosity of suckage he suffers daily trying to run a city populated exclusively by the sludge of humanity? Let’s face it, the guy’s a goddamn hero just for getting out of bed every morning. I for one am grateful somebody is willing to try and ride herd on these idiots. That’s gotta be a thankless job.
We are with you no kill naysayers of Memphis – your city is the bomb of fail and we will continue to boycott Memphis in solidarity with you!
I sound like a broken record- but another BRILLIANT post! WOW!
Feeling a bit sarcastic are we? LOVE IT!!
Unfortunately, those in power probably would take you at your word! They are too stoopid to get the sarcasm. Well done, my friend, well done!
Just in case there is someone who “gets it” I did a cut and paste to my email bff’s (mayor sir, director sir and MAS board). We’ll see.
That little black puppy’s image – so eager to be out of a cage and to check out her “home” there – is my motivation to make things better for all those who come after and in memory of all those who have gone before. In fact, I’d like to give her a name – HOPE.
HOPE…..that’s what she was. HOPE. i don’t think i’ll every forget tiny HOPE…”they” don’t know what they destroyed…..run free, HOPE. there r so many new places for u 2 explore n NOBODY with poles n sticks 2 roust u out of wherever u’re exploring. have a wonderful time, precious HOPE….
dru
Epic Stupid…ha! Well done post.
I wish you guys lived here to see what a joke our city council is. (Well most of them)
I absolutely agree! As I said earlier….’yall know what I mean! Let’s all call for a boycott…
Brilliant!!!
Sadly, it’s this attitude that actually will prevent ANY progress.
The insistence on going from apocalypse to full implementation of “no kill” is what is preventing those concerned from thinking out of the box.
Of course I understand your cynicism and bitterness. Having done such an outstanding job of highlighting the appalling conditions at MAS, you want change. You want change NOW. You want the full no kill monty NOW.
But it won’t happen.
“No kill naysayers” don’t oppose the basic principles and practices of “no kill”.
What I question is why you think putting yourself in the no kill box.. insisting that Pepper/Wharton jump on board and excoriating them because they won’t… can possibly achieve progress?
There IS a way out of this horror. There is always some way out.
People in Memphis need to find the way out. It will start with some little hole in the edifice of slaughter. There is SOMEONE in Memphis with SOME influence with Pepper, the City Council and/or the Mayor. That person will punch a hole, though it will be some tiny one. Who will find that person?
If you’re not prepared to find that hole, and accept that finding the hole is progress, you will always be in the box.
And no animals will be saved.
That isn’t want you want. I assume you’d rather push a few animals through the hole, even if most still don’t make it through, then wait for the box to be demolished and they all escape.
Yes?
You misunderstand Emily. What I am hoping is for someone to stand up and say something like, “Hey, we could reduce our kill rate to 50%. Memphis does have a lot of good people in it! Just watch us!”
You are putting me in a box that I just don’t see myself in.
EmilS: Are you trying to prove AC’s premise that Memphians are stupid and irresponsible? HOW MANY YEARS of making Nicey-nice has it taken to get nowhere? No that doesn’t mean being violent or mean, but it does mean being blunter than blunt, being PRESENT IN THE REALITY OF WHAT IS GOING DOWN AT MAS on a daily basis, and perhaps being the one to punch that hole you talk about.
To EmilyS –
Emily, Shelter Revolution sent a very polite note (actually, twice) to the mayor, all council members and shelter advisory board.
In our messages we highlighted our MULTI-YEAR plan to go from a high-kill “control” facility to a no-kill “Adoption Center.” The plan was offered in summary form and in detail. We offered our help and vast experience for FREE. Our plan would have vastly reduced the operating costs of that expensive kill facility. This was not a canned approach but one custom-tailored to Memphis’ own situation.
Guess how many responses we received from all those officials contacted? One reply and that was from an advisory board member who is not a public official.
You are giving the officials of Memphis way too much credit. They are not listening and they do not care. The only person who will “punch a hole through” that wall of defiance is a new mayor or new council members with a conscience. They simply do not care.
For free, and they couldn’t find the Southern politeness to at least say no thank you? My mother from Macon would be insulted by their rudeness.
Emily, animals have been saved in Memphis because of this blog! Shirley, and her *campaign of awareness* have punched SEVERAL small holes into that already very broken system.
But *friends* fight for power and control as employees shirk and abuse.
New volunteers won’t be able to get anything done as long as the bad old boys are still in power…and they really are not listening!
The way out is to get rid of the *stoppers* those in power who plug each and every hole and shun the volunteers while they yank the chains of the rescues.
LAWL, I so enjoyed today’s post. And am really looking forward to writing my letter. I think it’s going to start like this, “Dear Mayor Wharton and the Epic Stupid that Elected You by a Landslide. . .”
Can I ‘Like’ this? LOL!
The people of Memphis have to stand up and tell their leaders in no uncertain words that they want the majority of animals entering their animal shelter to have a good chance at leaving alive.
This is what the situation at MAS drives you to. I have all but given up myself. I can relate. When I attended the last public MAS meeting – and they Mayor’s REPRESENTATIVE says he wouldn’t ‘entertain’ us even TALKING OR MEETING WITH THE MAYOR – then left shortly after insulting all of us! The MAS Board Member/vet shows up for 1-2 minutes – then leaves in a huff – what are we to think!?!
Cleo Wrap is leaving – it’s my understanding that the city turned down several lucrative offers by other companies to buy the Pyramid – but they seemed interested in ‘courting’ just one – and now THAT deal seems to not be materializing. (I’m not surprised.)
It makes you lose hope – and learn not to care. It destroys your genuine concern (for example, improving the adoption rate at MAS) is only met with disdain and disagreement. Your concern is ‘mocked’ and your told “There is a lot more to care about than the animals!” (As IF that is your ONLY concern! I find this VERY insulting! As I have a vast number of concerns – and my caring about the animals is just one of many! The rise in Crime – mistreatment of the elderly…I’m sure all of us have many!)
It’s very, very sad – and I’ve all but given up in taking and expressing any interest, volunteering, and offering support. Sincerely, Pamela Bernbaum
if the good guys give up, the bad guys win. It’s as simple as that. Together we can support one another and find a way to help those who cannot help themselves.
No, no… You’ve got it all wrong. The people of Memphis are not poor, losers, dolts, or ignoramuses: they are dastards. DASTARDS, I tell you!
Finally a blog about Memphis that I actually enjoyed a little. Well done!
This part- “I mean really – are YOU going to take all these pets? Cos if you’re not, the only other option that I can see is killing.” is pretty much what my shelter director said to me when I tried to talk to her about ways to save more of the cats at my local shelter. I guess they all went to the same school.
Yowza! Great post. But I suspect closer to the truth than even YesBiscuit fears. There are communities that have an entrenched culture of despair and hopelessness, and woe to the dogs that end up in a shelter in that town. For the shelter management, its a free ride. No one cares how they run things and because no one cares they have an endless supply of statistics to justify grants and donations. Can you hear me, PAWS in Pueblo?
“I have to agree with the “Friends” and all the others who believe that no kill is never going to be possible in Memphis.”
If we accept that, then no kill NEVER WILL happen there. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
Even in Memphis. Keep fighting until the shelter pets win.
“Seriously, people in Memphis just suck.”
Many of them do suck. Many of them are surviving neanderthals who were long thought to be extinct, but instead survived, and found their way into public “service” at the animal death camp, the Mayor’s office, the city council, etc.
But there are also good, evolved, caring folks in Memphis, who are going up against a brick wall of politics, indifference and speciesism. With our help, we all can tear down that wall.
“No kill naysayers” don’t oppose the basic principles and practices of “no kill”.
Yes they do, otherwise why naysay, when you can protest? Why worry about “going easy” on the murderers, when you can protest on behalf of their victims? Get on board the No Kill Train or get off the tracks when the train is coming through. This isnt a game. With every passing hour, more lives are being extinguished.
“What I question is why you think putting yourself in the no kill box.. insisting that Pepper/Wharton jump on board and excoriating them because they won’t… can possibly achieve progress?”
What do you recommend? That we all say “Oh, you wont implement no kill? Ok…well…thanks anyway. Bye now”?
That we all roast marshmallows by the campfire and sing “Kumbaya”?
Yeah that’ll make them report to work on Monday with a No Kill attitude.
Screw that. Sometimes to get moronic humans to understand that they are shoveling poop, you need to take their head, and stick it, nose first, into the pile, so that they can wake up and smell what they’re shoveling.
If you ARE no kill, worry more about writing creative letters to get these idiots to change their minds, rather than defending them.
Defending the killers wont achieve no kill. Hitler’s liutenants can attest to that.
Defending killers, or taking issue with how someone protests their killings, will only amount to a disgusting mockery of the innocent victims, who deserved to live equally as much as you, I and everyone else.
If someone murdered your family members, would you have a casual, “lets try to get along” attitude towards their killers? Or would you unleash the can of verbal “kick-a$$” as a means of protesting their monstrous actions?
You know darn well, it’s the latter.
“Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented”.
~Elie Wiesel
Btw, everyone, please read this urgent news, re: New York City’s shelter pets. Spread the word. Lets make our voices heard, whether from NY or not.
http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=6137