A couple of notes about these clips, which are taken from security camera footage at the Memphis pound via FOIA request: Everything seen below has been previously posted over the weekend. I haven’t yet reviewed any additional footage. What I did was splice together the clips in sequential order to show one adult dog and one puppy from the time they are taken off the ACO truck until they are forced into cages at MAS. Alert readers will notice that the times don’t match up exactly however it seems clear to me that the clips are of the same ACO, the same dog and in the only order that makes sense. As such, I believe the timestamps are slightly off. If you see anything different, please let me know.
For anyone who hasn’t already viewed these clips as they were previously posted (in bits, as I came across them), please be warned: they depict animal abuse and are difficult to watch. In my opinion, the ACO is inflicting violence, pain and suffering upon these pets. I’m not a prosecutor but it looks like a chargeable animal cruelty offense to me. Please take care if any children or other sensitive people are near your computer when viewing. I don’t like to post animal cruelty images on the blog but this is part of an effort to bring about reform and these pets otherwise have no voice.
IMPORTANT – If anyone knows if either of these dogs (or any of the pets we’ve seen on the clips thus far) are still alive at MAS, please let me know. I would like to help them. You can leave a comment, anonymously if you prefer, or contact me privately. I will keep your name off the blog if you request same. I really just want to see if we can help any of these pets.
I would be interested to see if that puppy is still alive and if so, I am sure it’s no longer healthy (assuming it ever was).
What the hell is stopping them from picking up the dogs? Does anyone know if they have some sort of policy that doesn’t allow them to? Idiots…
That poor poor little puppy! That little one’s feet barely touched the floor from the start to the finish. There is no way that puppy is okay. His little trachea must be at the very least pretty sore and at the most crushed making it difficult to breath or swallow. My heart goes out to him. There is no way that any little creature deserves to be treated that way.
ACO needs to be fired immediately! She may as well be hauling garbage bags instead of animals. She should not be anywhere around any living breathing life.
I beg you Mr. Rogers! Clean up this hell hole called MAS.
Seriously, I carry my garbage bags with more care than that.
I am glad that during my volunteering there I didn’t see this going on. I would be in jail. With the layout of the new shelter this is completely hidden from the volunteers and the public. The ONLY time I’ve seen a chokepole was on my last day of volunteering in February before resigning. I was bathing a dog who had just had surgery on her neck for a deeply embedded collar and she decided after the bath that she didn’t want me to pick her up out of the tub. I didn’t want her to jump out on her own because the tub is high off the ground and she was wet and I didn’t want her stitches to open. I asked a passing ACO for help and he walked in with a chokepole. She had stitches from ear to ear and he had every intention of using it anyway had we not stopped him. The next ACO that came in threw a towel over her head and picked her up but just sat her in the floor instead of carrying her to the kennel as I asked. He said “they don’t want me to do that ‘cuz of my leg.” We had to get the new vet to come in and gently muzzle her and carry her to the kennel because TWO ACO’s weren’t up to the task.
OMG. They would have used a chokepole to lift that dog out of the sink? With a neck wound???? That is…unspeakably horrific. I’m so glad you were there to stop that!
I do hope that Mr. Rogers’ training includes the fact that NO ANIMAL IS TO BE SUSPENDED (EVEN PARTIALLY) BY THE NECK, EVER. And chokepoles are tools of LAST RESORT, not first, you jackasses.
Get out your calendars; the next Advisory Board Meeting is MARCH 14, 2012. All caring persons in Memphis should be at that meeting. Just be prepared for it. Do you have to send questions ahead of time? Do it. There’s probably a time limit to speak too. Know what you have to do to make the most out of this meeting. Speak up for the animals at MAS. They depend on you for their lives. Give meaning to your words and make good on promises.
As I understand it, you have to submit your question to the board (Dr. Tower, Jeanne Chancellor, et al) and at the end of the meeting they pick out which questions they will allow to be uttered in their presence. Democracy for the fail!
And if Tower doesn’t like where it’s going, he just cuts the person off abruptly.
All city run meetings here are telecast on a public tv station for the viewers. I wonder, is the same thing done in Memphis? It should be. After all, it is a sunshine state. Our tax monies pay the salaries of city government employees.
What is it going to take to get charges brought against these people? Has the State’s DA been contacted…somebody OUTSIDE of the the Memphis ‘good ole boy’ network?
As I watched these horrible clips, I thought of last night, when my husband gave our cat her regular eyedrop that she gets three times a week. He is always so gentle with her. The thought of her being treated as the MAS ACOs treat the animals in their “care” is just horrifying. EVERY pet at the shelter deserves the same consideration my husband gives our cat. And they deserve to live and be adopted.
Thank you for this comment. One of the questions the WREG reporter asked me today was something like “Why should you speak for pets in other places when you are in SC?”. I was thinking, “How could I not?”
I network dogs-many purebreds and mostly older dogs from shelters across the U.S. and sometimes Canada. Even though I am based in Ohio, my networking has rescued pets from CA to NY. Why would I want pets to die just because they are not in my local shelters?
As Americans we have the responsibility to take care of what is wrong that goes on in our boarders. We are not a bunch of little countries bunched in together we are one Nation . A Nation that should take care of our animals better than we do.
Down the road from me is a house that we call “The Dump House”. The yard is always full of garbage and broken down cars and when their dogs aren’t running loose in the wee hours of the a.m., they are on tethers of some sort and live outside all the time. Even though I would never keep my dogs that way, the Dump House Dogs always have waggy tails, happily barking at anyone who walks or drives by (body language says happy not ferocious or fearful), they have food and water every day, the owners scritch them and make provisions for dog houses out of old truck canopies or put raggedy old blankets out for them when it’s extra cold. Compared to the treatment seen in these videos, The Dump House Dogs are living at the Four Seasons Hotel. And the Dump House Dogs are ALIVE.
After watching the little black dog get slung around by the neck, I had to run away from my desk and sob quietly in the bathroom here at work.
TY Melinda. This is a point I emphasize here on the blog. Life trumps death. ALWAYS. And who knows, The Dump House dogs may not always live at the Dump House, they may move up in the world at some point. But the thousands of dogs MAS sends to the actual dump have no such chance.
I saw a person with the occupy movement wearing a t-shirt on a Bill Moyers show on PBS over the week-end it read:
The country is broken because the system is fixed.
I would add – Animal Control in our country is broken because the system is fixed.
It’s really a travesty that living creatures are still being treated like this in our advanced day and age. If they were acting like this with other human beings this would have gone viral.
Just saw the article up.
http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-look-inside-memphis-animal-shelter-some-claiming-abuse-20120305,0,2223330.story
Did you also see the article about a dumping ground that they suspect is fighting dogs?? I wonder if any can be traced back to MAS?
http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-police-investigate-illegal-animal-dumping-ground-discovered-in-midsouth-20120302,0,1451015.story
The only good thing is that the City of Memphis will not be investigating the dumped dogs as they were found in West Memphis, AR. Perhaps there will actually be an investigation!
Great job with the News Channel 3 interview, Shirley. An FYI for those in Memphis- Action News 5 has also picked up the story – they will be broadcasting it at 10. I’m hoping the story will be posted on their website afterwards, for those not in the area. I’m also hearing that other media outlets may be running the story in the coming days. This is exactly what we need, for this to be kept alive in the media until major changes begin.
Thank you for putting it together in order. Great job.. it shows the animal abuse.. no getting around it.. it’s right there.. this makes me so sick.
This is deplorable. I have held out a glimmer of hope that things were slowly improving but clearly they are not. I truly appreciate the FMAS and all of the kindness they bring to these helpless animals. The staff (some) however, is a whole other issue. I have always gone to the shelter to bring home our forever babies. This just makes me sick, I just wonder why it is that it’s always the most vulnerable ie: children and animals that get the sicko’s as caregiver’s. Seriously, What’s really going on here?? This is just unacceptable for Memphis.
Than you Shirley for all that did and do. The Channel 3 interview was great. Oh, and will you marry me?
It all depends on whether you are wealthy enough to buy MAS off the city and staff it with caring people committed to no kill. Go check your bank account!
Consider it done. Tomorrow, you shop for invitations, and I’ll go to the bank. You made me a very happy man.
Love it!
Hey Hey Hey! Does anyone remember Billy?
Actually, I love it too. We can all dream about a better world for those sweet animals in MAS.
hehehe, that’s what Billy said when I told him.
Oh my goodness. That 2nd video especially was just awful. Those poor babies! Def. looks like animal cruelty to me!
I just adopted a dog from this shelter, a schnauzer mix that is black with some white on his chest. First off they told me he was 9 Weeks old but when I took him to my vet, I found out he is 5 months! He also had a bad cough the first few days I had him, now its just every once in awhile he will hack a little bit, I thought it was kennel cough but after seeing these disgusting videos I’m worried there is more to it. I will be taking him back to my vet to have him checked out. These employees truly are sick people! Get rid of all of them and bring in new people that really CARE about animals- we aren’t hard to find! I can’t understand why these people aren’t in jail, much less why they are still employed! This whole situation is just heartbreaking!
government workers and government money = apathy
This still breaks my heart. I want that woman hanging that tiny puppy fired. I wish she was hung by her neck.and totted all threw that shelter. Sorry POS. Sharing again on FB
I’ve contacted Mr. Rogers several time with no response! Does it take news media to make him pay attention! I think they’re doing a horrible job and have been for quite sometime and nothing changes! Once they aren’t on the news they go back to same routing….KILLING! There are too many mistakes and accurate records aren’t kept! I’m sick and tired of “oops” killing especially when someone wants to adopt a dog! This shelter is in dire need of better Staff and Management! Promises are made and never kept! Those animals are in dire need of people who show compassion and caring for these animals! It’s a hellhole and I pity any dog/ or cat entering this (shelter) because they are doomed to die! When we call the shelter to complain, the Staff has no clue and oftentimes the calls aren’t answered! I hope Memphis Pets Alive continues to keep this stink hole in the news! We need to apply pressure until something positive is done and keep the politicians away! They don’t care about doing a better job! I don’t know if they’re lazy or illiterate, but stats show a kill rate in the 90%. This is truly unacceptable and this needs to corrected today! No more sweet talk from Mr. Rogers in order to appear concerned. He promised to make corrections and train the Staff, but it’s still the miserable hellhole it’s always been!