A reader sent me this photo of the kennel deck inside the dog cages at the new Memphis Animal Services facility. It appears that the coating on it is already peeling away. I hope the coating is not toxic to the dogs if ingested.
It’s nice that dogs have a raised platform in their cages but where are the soft beds/blankets for the dogs to lie on? Are these kennel decks the only “beds” the dogs have at MAS? Because these are not beds.
I wonder what happened to all the Kuranda beds they had at the old building. Even though the staff ruined the hammocks by cutting them, the frames could be reused and are valuable. With new hammocks, they could provide comfort to the dogs at the new building. I hope they didn’t junk them. Even if they refuse to give the dogs the Kuranda beds now that the webcams are turned off, the very least they could do is donate the frames to other area shelters/rescues to help other dogs. Anyone know what happened to the Kuranda beds?
They need to contact the company that made this shelter and demand answers to why this is happening so fast in a brand new shelter! And you are right these are NOT beds and I can see dogs getting hurt by getting their toenails stuck in these holes.
The Kuranda beds should be fixed and used or donated to a rescue or another shelter. We have TOO much waste in this world when their is so much need.
City property cannot just be donated under the existing city ordinances. Anything “surplus” has to be auctioned through the City Purchasing Service Center. As far as I know, none of equipment and fixtures at the old shelter has been auctioned yet.
Can some one send that photo to the Mayor?
I have been wondering the very same thing! Why aren’t they using the Kuranda beds? I suppose it’s too much work for them. Oh…..wait…….they apparently have a cleaning service so the staff doesn’t have to do this.
The kennels have auto water so are the staff left with handing out food bowls? Or are they auto too! In short, just how cushy is this place for staff? It certainly isn’t very cushy for the dogs who have to sleep on metal beds with holes that hook toe nails. Was the shelter built for the staff and not the dogs and cats that have to end up there?
All I have is questions! The “book” looked good from it’s cover, but don’t judge the “book” by it’s cover. IMO.
The new facility was obviously built for the staff and to make a profit from the clinic (as Janet Hooks requested that the MAS Advisory Board come up with ways to make it so). It is over 3 times the size of the former facility, yet only 36 cages were added. From the photos I’ve seen, the kennels are so narrow that a large dog can barely turn around in them. Hard steel, metal and concrete is what the dogs have now – a true prison.
One great reason to not use Kuranda beds is that they are so vastly overpriced.
Coolio beds at 1/4 the cost. Homemade beds at about 1/4 the cost.
Thank goodness some thoughtful shelters do not list the Kuranda banner.
That may be a reason not to buy them, but it’s not a reason not to use the ones that people have already given to you.
AMEN
we tried Kuranda beds in our shelter but found them hard to clean (well- techincally hard to dry- after disinfecting it took all day for them to dry- leaving a dog without a bed most of the day), and they did not last very long- many dogs quickly destroyed the cloth portion, and some dogs did an amazing job chewing the pvc pipe.
We’ve moved to elevated hard platforms with donated soft bedding on top. That way if the blanket gets soiled it can just go in the wash (and dryer) and if it gets ruined it can just be tossed (instead of losing an entire bed)
Perhaps we should start a bed fund and just have them delivered. That’s half sarcastic. My office has bought more than 100 beds for our “shelter” here. We went with Coolroos because they could fit in a kennel and were easy to clean. Got a discount price from Jeffers in Alabama. We did it to get the dogs in the “non adoption” area up off the concrete floor. Our shelter has an annual budget of 1.6 million but apparently it’s far more important to have ACOs trolling the streets to capture more animals than it is to keep them dry and warm.
That looks like the old rusty “grates” from the old rusty shelter. They were orange, brown, and blue.
Those are really good for the older/elderly dogs-not! It must hurt to lay down on them and then try to get up!
Our rescue shelter uses kennel decks for the outside of the runs that look like this:
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=kennel+deck&hl=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1208&bih=443&wrapid=tlif132347600795710&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=7233976235071056476&sa=X&ei=LaTiTv2bL-bh0QGB5Ji-BQ&ved=0CG4QxBUwAA#
They are hard plastic, durable, and stand up well to the daily wear and tear of a dog, even most chewers. That kennel deck in the pic looks like they dragged it out of the 1960’s.
You think they would give the dogs blankets? Well, then they’d have to do laundry! The horror! Honestly though, I’ve never seen a kill shelter who gives dogs blankets. Most of them I’ve seen only give the dogs kuranda beds. Prince William County Animal Shelter, unless they’ve recently changed, don’t even give dogs kuranda beds, the dogs lie on the floor.
I wondered the same thing . . . where are the kuranda beds. A lot of people donated some of those beds (including me). Employees probably gave them away to their dog fighting friends.
This is just another thing that needs to be investigated at MAS! What happened to the Kuranda beds at MAS? Has anyone checked on craigslist, etc.? Someone at MAS has not noticed they are missing yet! What else is missing at MAS from the move?
At a county ran shelter in IN that I rescued a dog from, someone commented that that they did lots of laundry so I donated a large jug of liquid laundry detergent in addition to some food.