Once before, MAS seemed to answer calls from advocates to post pets on PetHarbor. I was so excited, I immediately put up a post thanking them. But it didn’t last. They never posted any more pets and eventually deleted the ones they had up.
Today, it appears as if they have again posted hundreds of pets to PetHarbor. Will it stick this time? I really hope so. Especially considering reader Ona reports the “Friends” of MAS group has only posted 11 dogs and 5 cats on its FB page in the last 5 days. (Click here to see a spreadsheet of Ona’s tallies on the number of pets posted by the “Friends” since March 1st. Thanks Ona!) Pets can not be adopted, reclaimed, rescued or fostered if no one knows they are in need.
There is no link to the animals listed on PetHarbor from the MAS webpage. The only way to view these pets is to go to the PetHarbor website and begin digging. Most people are not going to know to do this so a link from the MAS webpage will be essential. Hopefully it will be added very soon.
If MAS keeps their PetHarbor postings current, which they have the ability to do via the Chameleon software, it will help save lives. There is more work that needs to be done – many of the 227 lost dogs are lacking photos, there are only 5 adoptable dogs, 13 lost cats and 1 adoptable cat listed – but it’s a start. And it carries the potential to do a lot of good for the pets at MAS if they see it through.
Here are some of the dogs available under the “lost” category at MAS (click to enlarge):
Click to see the above dog on PetHarbor.
Click to see the above dog on PetHarbor.
Click to see the above dog on PetHarbor.
Is the lab on a chokepole?
But did they really photograph that poor dog with a CATCHPOLE !!! Please tell me that I’m mistaken.
Oh boy…they really make them look like the beautiful dogs they are! I know it sounds like they can’t do anything right, but that might be because they do everything halfheartedly.
It all stems from a culture of apathy and cruelty that is long established at MAS. That’s why they need to clean house and start over with people who care about saving pets’ lives.
Looks like the shelter hasn’t made any progress regarding it’s use of the chokepole. Really? Is it necessary to chokepole a lab? These people are ridiculous and the director of the MAS needs to get on it as far as petharbor goes. It almost seems like their mission is to kill as many dogs as possible. Little effort is being put into saving these animals and if the MAS put as much effort into saving them as they do defending each other the problem would diminish. Volunteers are everywhere and I am quite sure a few of them would be glad to post to petharbor. As far as Friends of MAS I watch the page daily and posts are limited in number. They are trying but not doing a very good job.
The entire thing is a disaster and I hope everyone keeps putting the pressure on the Mayor, the director, the employees, the culture here just doesn’t seem to get it.
I so agree with you lots of correspondence going in that direction is a good good thing. Patti, I email the Mayor, James Rogers and Council Members every week.
You’re not mistaken.
GEESH . . .
That poor little Shih Tzu! Medical attention needed immediately for this little one. I can’t imagine the pain she’s in.
I saw a puppy on a choke pole too. Now why would that little puppy, only a few months old need to be on a choke pole. More to the point, why would MAS photograph that? Please get rid of those choke poles. They should be the exception, not the rule.
That puppy is not actually a puppy. He only looks like one. He is 3 years old and very very small. I should have paid better attention. I guess I was floored that a dog so small would need a chokepole used on him.
When was the photo taken, can you tell? I’m just wondering if it was before or after the “retraining”…
THEY CAN’T SEE WHAT WE SEE.
I’m serious – these people do not know right from wrong, anymore. The fact that they posted the photos that they did on the Mayor’s twitterpage to “prove” that the dogs were not being starved is clear evidence that the mindset at MAS is so far gone, there’s no saving it without a massive housecleaning.
Yay for using PetHarbor, finally. Now let’s see if we can actually use it *effectively*, guys. Remember, the goal is to show animals so that people can recognize or fall in love with them. Not so people will think “OMG, that dog must be aggressive, he’s on a chokepole”, or “Why are they showing me the back of a dog who is apparently chewing on a wire in his kennel?”, or “Is that dog getting medical attention?”
http://www.petharbor.com/pet.asp?uaid=MPHS.A238538
Does this dog have twine wrapped around her neck? If it’s not embedded, why didn’t they take it off? If it is embedded, are they doing surgery to help her?
I just saw that one! All I could think was, “What the hell??? They put a dog in a cage with a rope around his neck?”
I hate to criticize them when they’re obviously taking a step in the right direction, but honestly, a dog with vomit in the cage? A dog with obvious facial wounds, but no note about how the dog is currently receiving care? Black dogs cowering in the back of the cage so you can’t even make out their shape?
I’m not asking for glamor shots, here, but how about we make the dogs 1) in focus, 2) lit well enough to see them, 3) no vomit or urine or poop in the photo, and 4) not looking terrified. Oh, and if the animal has an obvious physical issue, note it and what you’re doing about it.
I would have thought the “no chokepole photos” would have been a given, but apparently not…no surprise considering how the staff uses chokepoles for every and all occasions.
If the dog starts chewing at that twine to get it off and ingests any of it…
If volunteers come in to walk dogs and/or potential adopters want to take out dogs to spend time with, will they be given a regular leash or a chokepole? If it’s a regular leash, why can’t the MAS staff use that on the dogs too?
Tips on photographing shelter dogs:
http://badrap-blog.blogspot.com/2011/10/photographing-shelter-dogs.html
http://www.petharbor.com/pet.asp?uaid=MPHS.A238431
Oh dear.
http://www.petharbor.com/pet.asp?uaid=MPHS.A238337
Gender unknown. Cats in traps. Look, I know that a lot of the staff are put off by cats, but can we get volunteers in to take photos, please? They’ll do better with both dogs and cats than the staff who stopped caring long ago…
Well someone should be able to easily identify that kitty as their lost kitty right away…since it apparently HAS NO EYES.
*coffee spew*
All of these pets aren’t even listed as “Adoptable”. I had to search under “I Lost My Pet” to be able to view them. That’s no way to get them adopted.
There is one adoptable cat, who looks like the spawn of Satan, thanks to the terrible photo. Hopefully they will list ALL the pets shortly. This could be just the beginning. I hope.
I’m going to give them a cheer for at least USING the resource available to them. Could it be used more effectively? Abso-freakin’-lutely. But this is a start.
The optimist in me is clinging to the hope that the persons taking the photos are just not very good photographers. That’s something that CAN be corrected through training.
The cynic in me worries that these lousy photos were purposely taken that way as the latest move in a cruel game of “See? Told ya so!”; the intent being to sabotage the whole idea of posting all MAS pets on line. Am trying not to even go there…because that speaks to an insidious, manipulative, and cruel attitude toward to these animals that, in my opinion, is as bad (if not worse than) the blatant examples cruelty we’ve already seen.
In this case, I would go with the optimist view. There are a lot of dogs there, and given all the other issues facing the shelter I can’t imagine that knowing how to take good photographs is really a priority. If the shelter wanted to stick it to their critics, I don’t think they’d do it by making concessions to one of the critics’ sticking points.
I think it’s worthwhile to distinguish between taking good photos – that is, the kind that help pets get adopted online, vs. taking photos that say “We are afraid of this animal” or other negative connotations.
I’m much more comfortable being an optimist, so I’m going to try to stick with that point of view!
Hopefully, somewhere along the road to change they will learn the power of a decent photo in helping to reunite pets with their missing families or place pets in new families.
The photo of the lab really hurts. I’ve got a black lab so what I see in this older fellow’s photo is his greying muzzle, his soft eye, his ears that probably feel like velvet. But even for me, its hard to see that past the lab-on-a-stick image.
You pretty much said what I was thinking, word-for-word, Melinda.
These pictures are OLD!!! Some of these animals have already been killed!! Lost and Found Pets of the Mid-South talked to Tracy at MAS earlier today, and he said the Chameleon software is automatically posting these posts. He gave Lost and Found Pets of the Mid-South’s number to Mr. Rogers to call her back, and she will let us know when she hears something.
Not all of the pictures are old and they can really help if you are looking for your pet.
Some of these pets have already been killed? Oh no. Please let us know if you find out add’l info. I’m wanting to keep my hopes up for now.
Very true, Ona, thank you! Sorry, I got ahead of myself. I do not know for sure if ALL are old or exactly how many have been killed.. Just looking through the photos and saw the white female pit with intake date of 2/16 and knew this was the same girl that several people were trying to get pulled and fostered. We knew she had been killed, so L&F Pets called to find out about these photos. That is when they told her that the software is automatically posting these photos. Hopefully, Mr. Rogers will call her back and hoping most of the photos are current rather than old. Still very helpful if your looking for your lost pet.
They have a link for Adoptable Animals on their website and this leads to Petfinders.com with 3 pages of cats and dogs – the photos that I’ve looked at so far are pretty good.
Petfinder is different than PetHarbor. PetHarbor is the site which syncs with the Chameleon software.
I understand the difference, but in our area Petfinder is what shelters use, and it’s what is best known among people that I know for looking for adoptable dog/cat. Just saying that they have a number of their animals listed there – don’t know if they did before.
Sorry – forgot to add the link to their Petfinder pages http://www.petfinder.com/pet-search?N=&No=0&Ns=shelter_name%7C%7Canimal_type%7C%7Cpet_breed_1%7C%7Cpet_breed_2%7C%7Cidentifier&Ntk=shelter_id%7Crecord_type%7Cstatus&Ntt=TN111%7Cpet%7CA&distance=0
My first reaction was to critique everything they’ve done wrong. But with better thought….. All dog trainers and good dog-owners know that using positive training techniques work better than constant negativity. We should apply this same technique to the shelter when we can (and I know often that’s hard to do.) I also know that everyone is so disheartened by the years of lies and no change. I’d just hate for Mr. Rogers to keep reading negativity if he’s truly trying to make changes… even if it’s not done perfectly at first, let’s reward the effort to try and get more of the same!!! So Mr. Interim Director… CLICK… HERE’S A TREAT!!!
I am glad that they’re FINALLY starting to use the software, really.
But I have to wonder if bad pictures are worse than no pictures? I think there’s a line – anything with a chokepole, anything where there is poop/vomit/urine, and anything where the animals look terrified – these things can all drive people AWAY from adopting and be counterproductive. Just like having a shelter that smells like a cesspool and having filthy cages prevents adoptions and drives away visitors, you know?
Although, even a bad photo can be helpful for someone looking for a lost pet…so…hm.
Pictures seem a little lacking. Couldn’t they put a bit more effort into making them look more presentable? Just saying.
If I saw my lost dog on a chokepole, I would sue MAS/City of Memphis!
Do the Memphis residents know to look for their lost dogs and cats on Petharbor now that MAS is posting them?
Can someone in the Memphis area post the Petharbor link on Craigslist in the lost and found section for Memphis?
There are some PB dogs in there! Does the Friends of Memphis contact the PB rescues?
Of course, some of the dogs are breed mislabeled which is expected for MAS!
Jennifer,
I have received correspondence in past from Memphis area rescuers indicating that they are often NOT contacted for their breed, particularly if the animal is healthy. The gist of what I’ve been told is that the “Friends” don’t want the purebreds rescued by people who know and understand the breed b/c they feel that is taking away from the quality of their adoption pool. IOW, they don’t want to be left with a bunch of Pit mixes all the time – they want the purebreds too. I can not understand this attitude myself. Beyond the fact that breed rescuers know their breed and may have fosters/adopters already lined up, there is the little matter of KILLING. That is, why not free up any cage you possibly can as soon as you possibly can so there is one more space to house a dog on the kill list that day? ANY WAY to get animals out the door alive is good by me.
That’s such bull. MAS kills purebreds all the time. No one advocates for them before they’re killed and I have to wonder how many are never even seen by the public before they go to the kill room?
If “Friends” really gave a rat’s ass, they’d be first in line to call the breed rescues the moment they had something suspected purebred in there. And, of course, they’d be marketing the mixes better, but…you know…they don’t.
It’s not the “Friends” whose job it is to contact the rescue partners. Shelter staff contact the rescue partners. I’ve heard at least one breed rescue person complain that the staff never call her, but she hasn’t ever actually asked them to contact her (by her own admission) and hadn’t set foot in the building since Snyder was here. Taking ownership/responsibility is a two way street.
There are some breeds for which it gets really tricky because there are bad “rescuers” who will pull the dog if they know it’s there, so there has to be a lot of behind the scenes networking instead. Do you think it’s a better option for a large, high drive dog to sit for years living in a crate and going outside to potty once a day? Because that’s what really does happen when some of those “rescuers” pull a dog.
Maybe it’s not their job but they certainly could VOLUNTEER, right? I mean, that’s what they are there for.
Also, please don’t come on here and be all “Would you rather we let Michael Vick rescue dogs?” b/c 1. It’s not nice and 2. I’m not in the mood for it.
Does the Friends of MAS rescue every PB dog? If not, then they need to network the dogs that they are unable to take. I try my best to network the sighthound breeds and rarer breeds that I see in the shelters. I e-mail the main breed rescue and that is usually associated with the national breed club although not always. I am not sure how many people in rescue are familiar with the sighthounds and most of these are not going to be cute little dogs easy to adopt!