Some of you have read about the case of a Memphis area family whose 2 Pibbles got out the fence and were picked up by an ACO. MAS records indicate both dogs, Jersey and Kapone, were checked in to the pound on Friday, June 24. Brooke Shoup, the dogs’ owner, went to MAS on June 25 to redeem her dogs but workers could only find Jersey. Naturally, Mrs. Shoup wanted to know: Where’s Kapone?
“We found Jersey in the back row,” Shoup said. “I saw her and I was like, ‘My Jersey girl, mommy has come to get you.’ Then we kept looking for Kapone and he wasn’t anywhere.”
Shoup said Shelter Operations Manager Chelton Beamon told her his staff didn’t know where Kapone was.
“He said he would review the videos and try to find out where my dog was, and what happened, and he would be in contact with me,” she said.
And how promptly did Mr. Beamon get back with Mrs. Shoup – the same day? The next day? If you guessed NEVER, congratulations. You have won the Meh Expectations prize.
But of course the city has the videos and they’ve watched them. They just aren’t sharing with the Shoup family. But Janet Hooks, Matt Pepper’s boss (Mr. Pepper is on vacation), has a statement all prepared in response to the question, “Where’s Kapone?” It reads, in part:
An extensive review of all shelter records, including a security video log, leads us to believe that Kapone was never sheltered there. While the dispatch records indicate that, via radio, an ACO picked up two dogs in the vicinity of the Shoup’s residence and was in route to the shelter to impound them, the records verify that only one dog was actually processed.
So this would seem to provide a significant lead in the case: The person who can answer the question “Where’s Kapone?” is the impounding ACO. Right? Because that ACO, whom neighbors witnessed putting Jersey and Kapone into the truck, is the only person who had access to Kapone from that moment until the time he was allegedly not brought into MAS. But wait, Janet Hooks has got a red herring explanation for that, too:
Unfortunately, we have no way of positively identifying the other animal picked up that day.
POW – right in the kisser! So let’s recap: MAS, long suspected of illegally selling impounded Pitbulls, impounded Jersey and Some Other Pitbull together near the Shoup home on the 24th. But they can only account for Jersey being brought into the pound. The mysterious Some Other Pitbull, whom neighbors identify as Kapone, is MIA. Oh and by the way, apparently Kapone ran away from home whilst all this was going on. So by my count, we now not only need to find out “Where’s Kapone?” but also, “Where is this Some Other Pitbull?” because it would seem both are missing. Golly, what a mess.
Missing pets are hardly unusual for MAS whose 2010 records indicate a whopping 155 pets went missing last year. The January 2011 report lists 40 pets missing in that month but in subsequent monthly stats, the missing category has gone missing.
The Shoup family, apparently not content with the non-response from MAS, has set up a tipline for anyone with information about Kapone and is offering a $1000 reward for his safe return.
Tipline for information regarding Kapone: 901-528-0699
What you can do to help the Shoup family:
- Contact everyone on our MAS mailing list and ask them “Where’s Kapone?”. Let them know people everywhere are watching and find their non-response to the Shoup family to be entirely unacceptable. Keep your comments brief and respectful, as always.
- Support the effort to spread awareness and help find Kapone by liking the FB page: Where’s Kapone?
- Twitter users can tweet Mayor Wharton and use the hashtag #WheresKapone.
Mrs. Shoup raised Kapone from puppyhood. She was just a teenager at the time he came into her life. She is now married with children and Kapone is 11 years old. She considers Kapone to be her first child. That kind of human-animal bond is the reason that we all have pets. It is something to be cherished and respected. How shameful that MAS doesn’t recognize this. Let’s help the Shoup family and hopefully, bring Kapone home.