It is mind boggling to me that MAS is closed every Sunday, leaving only one weekend day – the busiest time for adoptions – for the public to access the pound. Yesterday (Saturday), the gates at MAS were locked. No signs were visible explaining the closure. No advance announcements had been made to the public. Callers were placed on hold and never helped. Dozens of adopters, foster owners and other visitors to MAS were forced to yell through the locked gates to workers in the parking lot for answers. They received none. This was the first Saturday at the new location and the first since the scathing report of the rotary club was published. The city’s reaction? Hide.
Meanwhile yesterday, local advocates marched in a protest led by SOS Memphis.
ABC24 ran a segment explaining that the previous shelter advisory board had been bringing the same concerns as those found in the recent rotary club audit to the city for years. They were ignored.
An editorial in the local paper offered:
And although the establishment of a no-kill policy at the Memphis Animal Shelter presents a huge challenge, a commitment to work toward that goal would help the administration of Mayor A C Wharton enhance its credibility on the issue.
That means better transparency, better enforcement of existing ordinances, a more aggressive spay-neuter program, more volunteer recruitment, more foster care, more adoptions, more encouragement for people who want to give up their animals to keep them instead, more socialization of abandoned animals — a series of steps that would show Memphis is committed to a humane approach.
Sounds reasonable to me. Will city leaders in Memphis finally say “enough is enough” and demand an end to the ongoing travesty that is MAS?
Was there any news released on the new shelter’s opening? I can’t wait to see what the mayor has to say now.
The shelter was closed on Saturday? WTH?
Well done SOS for marching!!!
I think we are starting to realize who is really running the shelter. The employees . . . not city government.
My question.. did the new shelter ever open? There’s no mention of the shelter on the mayor’s Facebook wall.
I believe the excuse why the Shelter was closed on Friday and Saturday was due to the floors being “sealed” or resealed, as per the local news.
WHOA… and they did this with the animals in the shelter? OMG.. does anyone know if the animals survived the poisonous fumes?
Floor sealants are very toxic. How stupid are they to do this AFTER we move animals into the shelter?
I know that they had to seal the floors in the horse stalls, but please, please don’t tell me that they didn’t bother to seal the floors in the shelter proper as well.
I used to think so highly of Memphis….NO MORE!
Idiots pretending to operate a “shelter” for innocent animals
operating it like the idiots they apparently are.
Maybe they forgot what the word “SHELTER” is all about.
The way “we” treat animals is a direct reflection of “us.”
Interesting . . . Janet Hooks said it was due to taking inventory before the grand opening on Tuesday. Conflicting stories I believe.
It was great to see not only two different stations do stories, but also the Commercial Appeal finally saying something that makes sense. They are the pro-establishment paper, so if they ran an editorial like this, the tide may finally be turning. It’s worth noting, though, that the usual anti-reform crowd dominates the CA comment thread, and one of them picked up the ASPCA anti-No Kill playbook. Thanks again, ASPCA, for giving pro-status-quo people another tool to use in campaigns across the country to keep shelters doing exactly what they’ve been doing.
City shelter will not change anything WITHOUT noise in their ears!
Keep the noise…keep the noise…keep the noise…keep the noise
Keep the noise…keep the noise…keep the noise…keep the noise
Keep the noise…keep the noise…keep the noise…keep the noise
Right is right…what they are doing is wrong! *It’s not complicated!*
Local advocates marched in a protest led by SOS Memphis.
It was a total, but nice, surprise to me a march had happened. I’m sure MORE of us would of been there had we known.
This is really strange, that a shelter is just open one day a week?? How does they think they can adopt out animals to people if they dont give them a chance to meet the animals? Go, S.O.S from Sweden and I REALLY thought USA and Mempis was better since i always loved Evlis and this news is really not good publicity for the city.
Make them all go to jail and replace them with good human people! :-) Spreading it around the world!
According to “Friends of Memphis Animal Services” facebook post:
“Saturday morning when we got to the shelter we learned the shelter would be closed. The floors in the lobby area (not near the animals) needed to be resealed, and it is a 3 day process until it can be walked on again. All the hallways needed to take care of the dogs and cats are usable, but the entrance way and entrance to the administrative offices need the work. The sealant is not being used in the animal areas. The time was used for further training for the staff since the public was not in the shelter. We tried to post it as soon as we knew, but for some reason the sometimes unreliable Facebook did not post it for a good while :-(. If we ever needed a timely post that was it! We are sorry for anyone who made a trip to the shelter. We tried to get the word out, but Facebook had other ideas unfortunately.
The shelter will reopen tomorrow for the Grand Opening at 11.”
That still does not explain the unanswered phone calls. Excuses Excuses
Blame Facebook!
If it’s accurate that only the entrance area and admin office area needed work, why not simply direct the flow of traffic that day through a different door? Why would you close the shelter for the entire Saturday when that is your only weekend day available for adopters and lost pet owners to get into the place? Still makes no sense to me.
I went to the new shelter on Saturday only to find a locked gate and 3 cars outside of the gated parking lot…a police car was one of them. Janet Hooks came over to my car and I asked her if the shelter was closed….she said it was and I asked if the public had been made aware and she was quick to tell me a press release had been made about it…..hmmm….and FMAS had NO idea about this…..but a press release was made – did anyone see it in the CA? Did anyone see it/hear of it on the news? To whom was this made? And when I called the shelter afterwards, a recording came on – apparently the new business hours start at 11:00 in the morning, but they don’t stay open an hour later. Am I missing something here? Does this sound like a place that really wants to get the animals adopted out? Dang, I hate being so confused! :)
Me thinks Janet Hooks will say whatever it takes to get the questioner off her back.
To add to the confusion, this e-mail was apparently sent out by Janet Hooks today:
Isn’t the roof finished at the new building?
Wow. Sounds like something else is going down at MAS and they’re in full CYA mode.
Suspicious.
You mean, something BESIDES allegations of dogs and drugs being sold illegally by the staff, a shameful kill rate, a complete failure of accountability, and no shelter director?
Maybe. Whatever it is, you know it’s not good.
Saturday, midnite 12:00am, Current TV channel, “How to Start A Revolution”. See it or record it for others. The No KIll community should see this.