A visitor to the Memphis pound sent me some photos of the dogs in the “healthy hold” area on Saturday. This is one of the areas where the public is allowed to see the dogs. (No one but MAS staff have been able to see the dogs kept behind closed doors since the city turned off the public webcams in November.) The visitor saw an estimated 100 dogs and reports that about 10% of the cages were empty.
If this is what the public are seeing then there is something seriously wrong with the people running this hellhole. This is no shelter, it is worse than a prison. The criminals of the USA get treated better than these poor dogs. This is vile. Swollen bellies on those puppies indicate a bad worm infestation perhaps, is there really nobody that would notice this other than the public visitors. What a vile place.
I have posted these photos to Mayor Wharton via Twitter and asked what he is going to do about this…. What a place.
The city pols will no doubt remind the public that the vet makes rounds daily, that starving dogs are on a special diet plan and that you are not seeing what you are seeing.
Couldnt agree more. Not to mention, its going to turn people off (well most people, not people who are diehard animal lovers) from adopting, hence even more problems. Great job MAS! [/sarcasm]
Nothin’ says “Adopt Me!” like a big pile of poo in the kennel. If they aren’t even cleaning the public area, imagine how crappy (literally!) it must be in the super-secret areas.
I noticed the extremely extended belly on the lab in the first pic before anything else….I feel so badly for these animals and pray that someone will adopt them out quickly so that they receive the care they need.
I can understand the mess in their cages since it’s hard to keep up with them sometimes, I hope their cage was just cleaned that morning and this is what happened later on….it’s an hourly chore that their “trustees” in jail are supposed to be keeping up with.
This is so disgusting. What’s it gonna take to change that hellhole?
I sick of hearing the disgusting conditions with no changes being made!!!
I would have asked if anyone is addressing the obvious medical needs of those puppies.
Does anyone know when James Rogers assumes the helm? I’m really hoping that he can whip that place into shape…
And – can anyone tell me about the water dishes? Do they have automatic refill? Because it looks like there’s never any water in them.
Im going to guess no, sadly/unfortunately :(
Oh Gosh!That just breaks my heart to see all those dogs so uncared for!It makes me ashamed to be a human being. We have a conscience, we know right from wrong and this is just SO wrong on so many levels!
I am highly disturbed by those bellies!!! If we donate to Meow’s and Bow Wows(think thats it) can we get those babies removed??
Any word on the videos ?
The videos have been GOT! I’m expecting to receive them Friday and will then have to figure out some technical whatsits in order to get started. But stay tuned.
That’s great.. wish I was there to help check them out.
If anyone has time on their hands and knowledge of video how-to’s, please feel welcome to volunteer to watch some hours.
My foster is supposed to be leaving soon.. I’ll have time. What knowledge exactly is needed to assist?
Well apparently there is special software (which the city has provided) needed to watch the footage. From there, it will be necessary to watch the footage and snip out any bits for sharing. Obviously there will be many periods where nothing is happening on any particular camera. Once a piece has been copied for sharing, it will need to be sent to me for posting. btw, *I* don’t know how to do these things either but I’m hoping I can figure it out. If kids skateboarding down handrails can figure it out, I suppose I can too.
lol… ok.. when you got it figured out and it’s time to train some folks.. let me know. Next week I will hopefully have more free time.
WOW… why isn’t there any water in any of the waterers?
Another sorry-ass FAIL to MAS, and especially to step-and-fetch Mayor Wharton. What a bunch of bull he threw during the public introduction to the new director. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood my fat ass!! I swear, I believe even Gandhi would have slapped the shit outta AC.
Oh Morgana; the mental picture you paint! I’m still giggling.
Did you notice that mayor didn’t exactly name MAS; he said that place over there. Just looking at his face one would think that he’s sick of all the wrong there and just DO THE RIGHT THING ALREADY!
When is the fool mayor up for re election? TICK TICK TICK…time to go!! Get someone in there that bloody cares!!
If this is healthy hold, I don’t want to see the quarantine area! (they won’t be healthy for long…poor things.)
Thanks to the member of the irresponsible public that took the time to snap these photos, and thanks to Shirley for sharing them.
Arghhh.
What is the point in having ”automatic water dispensers” if they aren’t AUTOMATICALLY DISPENSING WATER?!
Clearly, those bowls are BONE DRY! and it has to be extremely uncomfortable for those puppies to lay down!
You can’t tell either way in the first photo, but there is a visible water line in all of the other water bowls. If you look carefully at the back of the bowl, you can see where the water line is.
Water lines or no, I’m more concerned that these puppies have bellies so swollen that they look like they are 9 weeks pregnant!
Does anyone know exactly what the absent Dr. Coleman has done? She certainly isn’t caring for the little pups in healthy hold! In fact, with the starving dogs there recently she hasn’t been doing anything about that either!
I would guess she’s “making rounds”, coming up with “individual diet plans”, and carving tiny jungle animals out of unicorn horns.
Their cage card should indicate treatments received – can a local just swing by and read that card, please?
And, btw, that looks like a puddle of yellow vomit in their cage. Not a good thing with puppies…
What happens when a visitor tells them or shows them the dirty kennels? I told a county animal shelter worker in my county that a dog was coughing and she looked at me funny. I told her that if the dog had kennel cough I did not want all the other dogs in the shelter contracting it. She then immediately told someone and they took the dog out of the kennel.
I was at MAS this past weekend and pointed out, to Tracy Dunlap, who felt it necessary to “escort” me as I visited the pups in Healthy Hold and Adoptions, the diarrhea in one kennel, and also that the same kennel card was on 2 different cages (but neither cage matched the card). He seemed quite annoyed that I had to point it out to him – he acknowledged what I said and then said he would take care of it. I was quite polite and told him I wasn’t criticizing him, just wanted to make sure he was aware – he still was annoyed. I mentioned the swollen bellies on the pups to the volunteer (she originally was my “escort” until Tracy called her away ) and said it was probably worms, that puppies just seem to get them……
All puppies have worms. They get the worm eggs through the mother’s milk. The eggs hatch out in three weeks, they mature, then they reproduce. All puppies and kittens need at least two wormings given three weeks apart, because the wormer (most generally Nemex) does not kill the eggs.
Since dog GI tracts are only a max of about 12 hours “long” (time it takes for a substance to move from mouth through digestive tract to rectum and out in the form of feces), a good worm medicine would yield worms in those puppies’ poop within less than half a day. The puppies might need a repeat dosage of wormer, since not all worms might be expelled on the first try, BUT the majority of the intestinal worms would be expelled with a single dose. These puppies have clearly not been given any wormer at all. Worm medicine is dirt cheap and easy to administer. Why haven’t these pups been wormed?
I live in Ohio. I adopted two cats from Mahoning county dog pound three years ago. They usually don’t accept cats,but sometimes one will appear there, and they only keep them a day or two before killing them. They had no food or water bowls in the cage, nothing to lay on but bare metal, and no litter boxes. Nothing in the cage but the cat. Also they were housed in the same large open room as all of the dogs. When I asked about this, they told me they only fed and watered the animals once a day! Just had to comment, some places are actually worse.
Horrible pictures. MAS is just an animal torture chamber, pure and simple.