Strap in – it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Last July, Odessa AC in TX visited the home of Some Dumbass who was keeping a mountain lion as a pet. The ACO advised the owner the cage the animal was living in was too small and the gaps between the bars were too wide. The owner did nothing. In October, the mountain lion reached out through the large gaps in the cage and grabbed Some Dumbass’s 4 year old nephew, biting him in the face.
As it turns out, AC was not following the law when they allowed Some Dumbass to keep a mountain lion as a pet. So this month, AC apparently wondered what other animal related issues they might not be keeping tabs on as far as legal liability and such. So they got their thinking caps on and…
Guess what? The city doesn’t have an official policy in place regarding the credentialing of rescue groups that pick up pets from the pound. As such, the city abruptly banned all rescues from the pound while they craft an official rescue credentialing policy, which is going to take a few weeks. They’ll still be killing pets during this time, but all rescuers, even those they have known and worked with for years, will be denied the ability to save pets.
It’s nice that Odessa AC is stopping to examine whether they are doing a decent job. But while they are doing so, can’t they at least allow known rescuers to save pets from the pound? The city is concerned that evil people are going to pose as rescuers and “do God-knows-what” to the pets they take from the pound. Sure, that’s a risk, albeit a very tiny one. But by temporarily banning all rescuers from the place, the city is condemning the pets to something much worse than “God-knows-what”. There is nothing worse than death.
One thing I will disagree with you on is “there is nothing worse then death”. There are things worse then death – like being burned alive and suffering for the rest of your life. Or being abused and tortured but never enough damage to actually kill you. But I think the animals that are being killed have a very large chance of ending up in one of those fates. So for them they are being killed lest they end up in a loving home.
There is no evidence to support the notion that shelter pets have a “very large chance” of being pulled by evil animal abusers. The overwhelming majority go to good people. The very few who end up needing rescue from the rescue – at least they are alive.
Whoops! Shows that yo have to proof read! I meant to type “I DON’T think the animals that are being killed have a very large chance of ending up in one of those fates. Because I don’t. I think less then 1% of people do things like that to animals. And my heart aches for those animals but I don’t see the point of killing 100% of animals to prevent less then 1% of having that kind of fate.
It is a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Yes they should reexamine their policies about the keeping and handling of dangerous wild animals, we all know that that usually doesn’t end well. But to decide to reexamine policies that have been working to the advantage of the shelter and the animals therein just to cover their butts is ridiculous. There is no reason why they can’t grandfather in rescues they have been dealing with and then certify new rescues that want to be able to pull dogs. Doesn’t anyone have anything resembling common sense any more?
Couldnt agree more.
Sadly, I keep hearing stories like this from TX. I have heard that more people keep tigers as pets in their backyard for “protection” (what kind of protection can they give from a cage anyway?) in TX than they have tigers living in the wild in Africa. Of course, this was from Animal Cops, so who the hell knows if it was true lol.
There are more Tigers in Ohio then there are in India. Now that the new law has passed in OH regarding wild animals, people are working with rescues to make sure all the wild animals that will be forfeited have a place to go. The majority of the owners in OH will not be able to get/afford the insurance that will be required to own these animals!
Im glad that at least the animals will have a place to go, hopefully a sanctuary or something, rather than say getting shot in the street or euthanizing them right away. I remember that story in OH about the guy who owned like 50 wild animals in his house, released all of them, and then committed suicide or something a few months ago. The sherrif just shot them all on the streets, or at least most of them. I think only 5 lived on to go to a rescue/sancturary/etc.
I live in Odessa here’s the article from our local paper http://www.oaoa.com/articles/animal-82554-rescue-animals.html This really upset me they are just trying to cover their own ass after the screw up they made over the Moutain Lion. They have effectively stopped our local Humane Society and our local cat rescue from adopting animals who could have a loving home. Here’s the articles on the mountain lion http://www.oaoa.com/articles/mountain-74079-lion-kept.html and http://www.oaoa.com/articles/authority-74171-ector-commissioner.html and this isn’t the only exotic animals in our area we have a person here who has a collection of exotic animal that includes primates from small monkeys up to apes and I know someone who is related to them. Animal Control has to my knowledge only been out there once in the past 2 years. But yet when I called them one time in regards to a badger (yes we get badgers here) that had got into our fenced yard they didn’t even know what to do or how to capture this animal and relocate it. We have also seen an increase of coyotes, and other wild animals coming in looking for food and water due to the severe drought we have been in for the last year. Their idea of taking care of a coyote and so on just shoot them. They also gassed several of the prarie dog colonies we have here. Along with laying out poisoned corn and seeds to “reduce” the black bird population but they didn’t think about the fact it would affect the rest of the birds in our area along with the few squirrls that I have seen. They have also had PETA and other organizations all over their asses because they were selling felines to Texas Tech for research and disection.
Are the local groups taking any action to fight the rescue ban? How can we best support the local advocates?
That a good question, here’s the link to our humane society http://odessahumanesociety.org/ and our feline rescue http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/TX952.html as far as I know they are still trying to figure out what to do. We also have an ASPCA chapter in Midland and as far as I know they haven’t gotten involved in this at all.
Where can one see the animals that are at the Odessa Animal Control? I could not find them on Petfinder, Petharbor, or on Facebook. If the animals are not listed anywhere, how can one adopt them?