Boy was I pleased to see the Commercial Appeal editorial entitled “An undeserved bludgeoning” coming down hard on the mayor’s office for proudly promoting with a press release the security camera footage of dogs being beaten by a worker at MAS. Indeed, the doomed dogs did not deserve to be killed by the people paid to protect them, much less beaten with a steel pole and poked with a broom stick in their final minutes of life.
Oh – wait. The editorial is saying that Matt Pepper is the one who was (metaphorically) bludgeoned without cause. *hacks up furball* And:
Some of the loudest critics want the city to operate a no-kill shelter. But the volume of abandoned and stray animals makes a no-kill shelter impractical.
What exactly does this mean? There are too many strays in Memphis and not enough steel poles to beat them all with on their way to kill room?
Washoe Co, NV takes in the same number of pets annually as Memphis but operates an open admission no kill shelter by utilizing the programs of the No Kill Equation. Their leaders reject the “too many” excuse. They are too busy getting pets back into homes.
It’s not a numbers game, it’s a commitment to saving pets’ lives. It’s an end to attempting to justify the abuse and killing at the pound. It’s the ability to look at a video of a city trained animal professional beating dogs with a steel pole, clearly distinguish exactly who is being undeservedly bludgeoned in Memphis and call out the perpetrators.
Memphis, please – stop the excuses. Stop the abuse. Stop the killing.
Why are these people not being arrested? Why are the judges not charging them with crimes? Why are the police not doing their jobs? Where is ASPCA when it comes to getting the louder voices out? Why can you not get more media to really put public pressure on those and why is the person who oversees this not fired?
Because astonishingly, the mayor’s office spun the video as “Hurray – they weren’t intentionally setting up a dogfight at the pound” and the local media, for the most part, ate it up. ASPCA? puh. They can’t even get a handle on the mess that is NYC ACC.
I swear, if there was a video of MAS workers stringing dogs by their necks all over Graceland, the mayor’s office would issue a press release “Animal Shelter Workers Support Elvis Week with Decorations!” and the local media would report on it as such.
okay – comment made
Again with the excuses. Memphis is too poor. Memphis doesn’t care about animal welfare. Memphis is too ignorant. Memphis is too irresponsible…
We are supposed to accept failure in Memphis because hey, Memphis sucks so hard, what are you going to do?
Thing is, if you STOP accepting it, and start demanding more, demanding better, and have some leadership that will ACT, you’ll get more, you’ll get better, and you’ll have action.
But I guess it’s just easier to throw your arms up in surrender and say, “Memphis is a lost cause. Nothing there will ever change.”
Well, I suppose we could throw up our arms and realize nothing is ever going to change there…and then get on with it and create something better without them. I’m just wondering why we are bothering trying to squeeze blood out of turnip? Or waste time with those who will not listen and those who will not change? Why not spend our efforts on taking the best rescue in Memphis and creating our own No-Kill shelter out of it? Usurp ‘The System’. Why wait for these dumb clucks to get it right? Create the shelter we want to see so that we can remove them from the equation so that they can no longer kill anymore, they no longer have a job, and we can pass them by turning it around ourselves. It’s an utter waste of time to sit idly by and watch them get it wrong while we beg, scream, and chastise. It’s time we start doing what we want to see there…the faster we do it the fewer will die. And we can start RIGHT NOW…
Or are we more interested in just hearing ourselves lament over this terrible situation….?
Action action action. But I repeat myself. MEMPHIS – The Oncoming Storm approaches!
It’s the “good ole boy-we all go to church-you ain’t from here” attitude at work. “But he’s so niiice, why are they pickin on him! He is tryin’ haaaarrrrrd!” Makes me sick.
The excuses are always the same no matter which “shelter” comes under fire for abuse and sky high kill rates. I swear there is a killing excuse playbook floating around out there, and every kill shelter and kill shelter apologist has a copy of it.
we all know what it is….we know what is wrong…we have an opportunity, RIGHT NOW, to make a change. we have all been screaming, begging and pleading, rescuing, fostering, picking dogs up off the street so they won’t go to MAS and yet…we have no one, no plan in place to put someone in front of Mayor Wharton to suggest who goes in to take Pepper’s place, to implement the humane changes so desperately needed, to work toward no kill, to go from the “WORST TO THE FIRST.” Does anyone have any suggestions what steps need to be made while the “iron is hot.”
I do:
http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/an-open-letter-to-the-people-of-memphis/
I say take these great ideas and use them in our own shelter. Create a new No-Kill shelter in Memphis…funded by donations, created by all of us, run by local rescues. Dig a grave for MAS by creating a better shelter…one that ends the need for MAS. We CAN do it if we put our minds to it…