Goodbye frying pan, hello fire:
The City of Memphis says it wants a second, outside look at the City Animal Shelter.
Wednesday afternoon, City Chief Administrative Officer George Little, announced talks are underway with the Humane Society of the United States.
Bloody hell. The HSUS evaluations have served places like Miami-Dade Animal Services so well, I guess Memphis shouldn’t be left out. (Other shelters too, have been duped by the HSUS shelter evaluation scheme.) Every pet killing facility wants a seal of approval from the organization responsible for whitewashing Michael Vick’s crimes of torture, sending 146 Pitbulls – including puppies still nursing from their dams – to their deaths in NC, and taking backyard pets from an owner in AL and dropping them off at gassing facilities.
The city says the local Humane Society had offered to come in and review the shelter free of charge, but the city wanted a national organization’s input.
Why does Memphis not want a free evaluation from a local group who would be in a position to understand the challenges specific to the area? What – does the local Humane Society actually save pets or something?
well … not surprised really. From what I can tell they own TN. Both the press and the gov’t.
WHAT??!! Hey MAS – There is a national group with a record of ushering in 90%+ save rates – it’s called the No Kill Advocacy Center. Contact form: http://nokilladvocacycenter.org/contact.html or to the Director himself, Nathan Winograd : http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?page_id=651 If you’d prefer a direct email or phone, email me.
– Melissa
(PS. You might want to take a few moments to read about HSUS before walking blindly into that fire or crawling in bed with monsters: http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=6510 and http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=1174)
Yeah, HSUS has evaluated DAS (Dallas Animal Services) TWICE for a lovely little tab of $50,000. All that got us,was a brand-new, state-of-the-art $17 million shelter, that last summer had precious little air-conditioning, let an escaped cat die in the wall (resulting in a cruelty indictment against the manager), had over 200 animals “missing/lost” (were impounded, and then ???????), forced a dog hit by a car with a broken pelvis and hind legs to walk to the ACO truck, and when it couldn’t picked it up the rear and back fur, attempting to force it to walk, and when that didn’t work, resorted to a catch pole, and finally the police officer that had made the original call, called off the ACO, and “carried” the dog to his squad and delivered it himself to DAS, or let’s see, the cat that was taken from the night drop box on a catch pole (in DIRECT conflict of HSUS “policy”) and tore the poor thing to shreds…shall I continue???
Saddened, but not surprised. :-C
Very few agencies can offer this service for free. I seriously doubt the local humane society has the resources available (staff, time, etc) to offer a free review and inspection. It’s a labor intensive endeavor and you really want outside specialists doing it, imo.
I think the best service out there, and they charge a crap-ton less than HSUS and Winograd, is UC Davis and Kate Hurley. There is also Animal Rescue Corps but how much they charge, I don’t know – I like them personally better than all the others except for UC Davis.
Do you think the reporting was wrong in the article or that the offer from the local HS wasn’t genuine? If you have some reasonable basis for either, I’m willing to follow up with the appropriate parties.
Sorry for the late reply. I am not speaking of the genuineness of the humane society – if they really do have the funds, time, staff and experience to properly review another shelter, then by all means, keep it in house. It would just really surprise me that they can provide similar services as other review agencies.
For example, UC Davis will send out a team of 5-10 people and stay for 2-5 days, situation depending. Their review paper, like almost all other agencies, can take up to a month to put together and often be >100 pages. If the local HS can do all that, awesome.
I still believe that UC Davis’ has the best shelter review program out there and for a far more affordable cost (something like $5,000 versus the 17,000-30,000 both Winograd and HSUS charge).
Your response was timely after all because in the meantime, the media reported a little more detail on the evaluation story. Specifically, the local HS had not offered to do the evaluation (as originally reported by local media) but had offered to PAY THE FEE for the HSUS eval. The city declined and is billing taxpayers instead, which seems to make no sense.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/aug/19/city-asks-humane-society-for-help/
AFAIK, Nathan Winograd no longer performs shelter evalautions so that is not an option for MAS (or anyone else). I would have been willing to help raise money for whatever the cost was to get him to Memphis as I really believe he could offer some sound advice. If teh city does get HSUS in there, I hope something good will come of it.
HSUS charges, what $50 K for an “evaluation?”
Let us begin to list the trivial items that can be purchased for such a princely sum …
About a THOUSAND low-cost neuter surgeries, to start.
The HSUS eval is overpriced boilerplate from an org that doesn’t run shelters. If they’d like to have Winograd come in – who actually has lots of experience taking shelters No Kill – I’ll happily help them raise the funds for it. I’m sure others would as well.
ARC= Animal Rescue Corp, Scotlund Haisley formerly of HSUS…paraphrasing Wayne Pacelle “I like his cowboy ways when he uses a fake badge and kicks in doors”…Memphis has a lot of problems but bringing in an HSUS terroristic sock-puppet should be the last thing they do especially when one looks at some of the people Scotlund trained under while tenured in DC…
Those foks at city hall are so confused right now they don’t know what to do? Nobody in Memphis city government knows about animal welfare. Half of them probably don’t even own a pet. They’ll probably end up privatizing the joint.
MAS and AC and Co. couldn’t find their asses with both hands, is my general impression.
PRIVATISE the shelter, AC, and be rid of this monkey on your back. BUT: Privatise it with the RIGHT people, people who 1) know about proper animal care and handling; 2) people who have signed the NKE pledge; 3) people who don’t like YOU.
Exactly. With MAS being run incompetently, only failure, death, and disgust has resulted….and the call for heads to roll. The loss of money hand over fist on the backs of taypayers must be tremendous. But that is nothing compared to the loss of precious life and the potential for happiness for so many families, with a result that everyone has one more reason not to visit Memphis.
I think the best thing that could come of this is if MAS was privatized. Allow those who know how to take care of pets with compassion, who have knowledge and experience in the No-Kill philosophy, and have run charities, non-profit corporations, rescues, and profitable businesses to do the job. You see, putting the right ingredients together can make for a much better chance at saving lives, bringing happiness to others, enhancing the community…and for the city officials…increased tax revenue and a better perception that those running the community are worthy of re-election.
Even if the desire is to hold on to control and feed the union, do the right thing and get a competent director versed in No-Kill who can make a real difference there. Breeding success can only enhance the chances of every animal that walks through the shelter’s doors, make a difference in people’s lives, and serve the community better.
I’m listening to Marvin Gaye’s, “Mercy Mercy Me” right now and it seems so appropriate. How much more should we stand? Have mercy, dear Mayor, and do the right thing…