Very soon, Memphis Animal Services will be moving into its new building. They have recently stacked the advisory board with people who appear to me to be killing apologists. Then that advisory board canceled its first public meeting. These three events may be unrelated, I don’t know. But in the interest of transparency, I am calling upon MAS to impose a moratorium on killing during any hours that the webcams are down due to the move to the new building and to make the period of time that the webcams may be down as short as possible. Further, I call upon the shelter to make public (via online posting) its records detailing every pet on hand in the 3 weeks leading up to the move to the new building as well as the week following the move.
The Chameleon reports are easy to generate and post online, just like other shelters do. None of these measures are particularly time consuming or extreme in any sense of the word. They are simple, short term requests which could be easily accomplished to demonstrate accountability to the public the shelter serves.
I think the public, a sizable segment of which has lost faith in MAS, would be reassured and encouraged by these actions, if MAS agrees to them. I am going to post the bullet points and list of mailing addresses below for anyone who would like to write:
- While moving from the current location to the new building, the webcams should remain up and running in whichever building is currently being used for euthanasia. At some point, that will become the new building and the webcams should then be moved and set up to stream again with minimal downtime.
- During any webcam downtime, there should be a moratorium on killing. Killing is defined as taking the life of a healthy/treatable pet. Euthanasia to end the suffering of medically hopeless pets as determined by a veterinarian should, of course, still be performed.
- At the end of the first week in the new building, MAS should post on its website its Chameleon reports covering at least the 3 weeks prior to the move along with the first week after the move.
E-mail addresses:
ac.wharton@memphistn.gov, janet.hooks@memphistn.gov, matthew.pepper@memphistn.gov, MASBoard@memphistn.gov, Bill.Boyd@memphistn.gov, bill.morrison@memphistn.gov, Myron.Lowery@memphistn.gov, janis.fullilove@memphistn.gov, swearengen.ware@memphistn.gov, harold.collins@memphistn.gov, wanda.halbert@memphistn.gov, Joe.Brown@memphistn.gov, shea.flinn@memphistn.gov, Kemp.Conrad@memphistn.gov, edmund.fordjr@memphistn.gov, reid.hedgepeth@memphistn.gov, Jim.Strickland@memphistn.gov
Additional contacts for Mayor Wharton:
Phone: (901) 576-6000
Snail mail: Office of the Mayor, 125 N. Main Street, Memphis, TN 38103
Fax: (901) 576-6200
Please keep your letters and comments brief and respectful.
Added, 6-17-11: For those wanting to know what happened to the dog being mistreated in the above photo, I received these grabs:
I can’t even look at that picture without cringeing. I will definitely be e-mailing and writing letters. Sick. That man is sick in his soul and sick in his head to treat the animals the way he does. How can he not be when he is continuously caught being cruel to the animals?
Why is he being cruel? Don’t you know all mother dogs carry their puppies by their front legs?(a paraphrase from the “suitcase dog defense”). I hate being so sarcastic, but the cat on fire story is breaking my heart.
Yes, mother dogs and cats carry their pups and kittens that way, but only until they are about 6 weeks old!
There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of animal handling.
Tell me again how “compassionate” the workers at the shelter are, Mr. Mayor.
I also think anyone working in such an institution should be examined for both criminal as well as mental capacity. It is far from comprehension how anyone can be mentally stable and be working in the “killing animals” business as they people have been for so long. This should be a periodic review and people should be removed when no longer able to show compassion and treat any animal humanely.
Funny you should mention criminal capacity, DM. It is my understanding that many of the employees were hired through a “second chance” program for ex-criminals. This was done under the last mayor, and even though many people have brought it up, no changes have been made that I am aware of.
this is wrong and shouldnt be happening…get those mean people out of the shelters and get some animal lovers in there…my gosh..it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure this one out…I am upset about the mistreating of this dog…dumb idiot needs to be smacked hard
So terrible!This has to be stopped!
I did not see the photo nor do I want to.I witnessed a man dumping a pitbull puppy in a vacant lot and the pain of seeing that was too great.I ran after the pup as the pup ran after the truck,I caught that sweet pup & found a good, safe home for him.Our peoples priorities are all scewed up, they hit & beat children & the elderly and torture the innocent animals! I believe in JAIL for animal abusers of any kind whether they work in a shelter or whater. Why can’t our government get these abusers off the street?
Leslie Meadows, Conroe,TX
Sent email. I started with:
Re: MAS live webcams during shelter move
In the interest of transparency, I am calling upon MAS to impose a moratorium…
So sad….ugh.
I hope that they even bother moving the webcams to the new location. Im sure Pepper and his ilk arent going to jump for joy to do it and if the Sheriff or whoever it was that wanted them there in the first place even remembers/cares about this anymore.