What if pet killing was not an option for anyone in the United States – including animal shelters? (Euthanasia to relieve suffering for medically hopeless pets was still available.) What would the director of your municipal pound do for the roughly 90 – 95% of pets in his care who are not medically hopeless and suffering?
- Would he warehouse every feral cat in your community or would he set up a TNR program in order to allow them to live normally while reducing their population over time?
- Would he stop waiting for the public to come to the shelter and start bringing pets to the public by conducting frequent offsite adoption events?
- Would he shut out offers of volunteer services from caring members of the community or would he gladly accept their help?
Why isn’t your local shelter director doing these things today?
And lastly, assuming he isn’t doing these things today, is this acceptable to you as a taxpayer and compassionate pet owner? Take action.
Why isn’t Matthew Pepper doing this?
Because killing is not only an option, it’s the *easy* option. Killing is not only acceptable to him, but also to those above him and it’s the lazy way out. So why should he stop killing? Why should he make any sort of effort to get pets out of MAS alive? He’s getting paid $92K and everyone in charge of him is totally cool with how he’s doing things…and apparently he has no qualms about mass killings of pets.
It’s not because he doesn’t know that there’s another way, it’s because he doesn’t care/has no impetus to try anything different. He can keep permitting the abuses, keep permitting the violations of policy, and keep killing all the day long and what does he get for it? A fat salary and a new shelter.
Not only does he need to be replaced, but those in charge need to stop rewarding failure.
You hit the nail on the head – and I think there are a lot of others like him who have that same attitude!
I agree with db and mikken!!! Pepper and Wharton have thrown around the term “NO KILL” but a) do not think Wharton understands what it means and b) Pepper does know what it means but is a lazy, uh-oh, almost said a bad word…I’ll just leave it at that – he has proven to all of us it IS easier for him/his staff to kill than to make any efforts to save the animals and find them forever homes!
Has anyone thought up organizing a rescue effort to pull these dogs and cats out of harm’s way? It easy too blame everyone else for not doing enough when your doing nothing but complaining yourself. There are only two endings for this story – one ending has no one stepping up and the pets die – the other ending is rescue steps up and pulls the pet out of harm’s way. There’s enough laziness too go around.
I don’t like to see a blanket statement accusing rescues of being lazy. Rescues are a PART of the lifesaving efforts in any community but they are not the ones being paid by taxpayers to get the job done. It all comes back to a compassionate, innovative leader at the shelter. That’s who sets the tone for saving lives and coming up with ways to get that done.
Not all facilities welcome rescues, either. Some of them don’t want any outsiders to see what’s really going on. If you don’t believe me, check out the Urgent Part 2 page – people who work nonstop around the clock to find rescues/homes for the dogs and cats on death row in New York City. ACC will only release their animals to “approved” rescues and there are still many roadblocks.
So – instead of pointing fingers, we need to figure out how to work together to get these precious animals in a better situation, whether it be in the facilities (can’t call many of them “shelters”) or in rescues or in someone’s home.
I offered to be a rescue on record with MAS. I live in Alaska. I’m not a 501(c)3, and couldn’t pass their rescue partner *test*…there are rescues that do pull animals from MAS, but they are overwhelmed and don’t have the donations, foster homes, or veterinary resources to save them all. (Also, MAS won’t let them see but a few of the HUNDREDS of animals currently in their facility.)
And there are MANY more endings possible for this story and every other story too! Trick is, most of the happy endings get thwarted by Pepper and/or Wharton.
Lynn, Have you contacted any of the rescues that pull animals from MAS as perhaps they can add you to their list of rescuers to get around the fact that you live in Alaska, pending transportation can be arranged to get the animal(s) to you? Just a thought as I’m sure the kind souls who pull animals from MAS would appreciate the help since they are overwhelmed.
‘ has anyone thought up organizing a rescue effort to pull these dogs and cats out of harms way’ – yes, read on this blog about the tremendous team efforts by readers and commenters on this blog to rescue charlotte, jane and others – why assume commenters here are doing nothing? not only are they helping mas but also those not in memphis are doing rescue and advocacy in their own communities