MAS has updated its website and added minutes from some recent meetings of the Adversary Board. I’ll catch you up.
From the October 2011 minutes of the Memphis Animal Shelter Adversary Board Secret Clubhouse Meeting:
There are 48 internal cameras tied to the real time crime center which is always monitored.
No they aren’t.
Don Siemer brought up the topic of holding strays for the legal holding time then euthanizing them as soon as they became city property, but said he realized there was not support for this.
Are ya sure? Did you double check? Cos I bet there’d be some support from some folks there.
[HSUS] recommend no webcams.
AHAHAHAHAHA! *snort* Well, yeah I guess the Kings of Animal Welfare Deception would.
The call backlog is at about 1200 now.
[…]
John Cox made a motion that we support removing old stray calls that are backlogged more than 30 days. The motion was seconded by Jen Clay. The motion passed.
Brilliant solution to city employees not doing their jobs. Hit DELETE.
Don Siemer brought up Pet Placement Partners and making sure there were no hoarding situations with the rescue groups who take animals from MAS. What safeguards are in place? Does the shelter check up on where the dogs rescue groups take end up? Could Code Enforcement help with this? Would a numbers limit on pets per home help control hoarding situations?
Yes, do tell MAS. What safeguards are in place to protect the animals you would otherwise be adding to your already full dumpster from being pulled by hoarders? Could we get some jackbooted thugs to storm into the homes of rescuers and write them some citations and maybe seize their animals? Why not put another piece of punitive legislation on the books such as pet limits to keep your failed MSN law company? Everyone knows that animal hoarders comply with pet limit laws.
From the November 2011 minutes of the Secret Handshake Club:
Charging for FOIA request for people abusing the system is being considered.
Dang those pesky taxpayers wanting to know where their money is going. Are you a FOIA request abuser? I’ll create a support group for you. Anonymous, natch.
From the December 2011 minutes of a meeting that was open to the public:
The fees for dangerous vicious hearing animals and animals being held for bite quarantine will increase to $68.00 per day. This is based on the fee the City charges the county as the cost of holding county animals. Within 10 days of impoundment the owner must prepay 30 days worth of boarding or the animal immediately becomes property of the city.
A fee of $2040 per dog, per month, in advance. Which hardly anyone will be able to pay. Congratulations Memphis – more dogs for your dumpsters.
Dr. Tower suggested that the Rotary Club could be asked for funding for education programs that they feel are so important.
Oh hello Persnickety. Can I touch your gavel?
The meeting was opened to the public.
A motion was made to adjourn by John Cox and seconded by Jeanne Chancellor
The meeting was adjourned.
I see that what the public has to say is very important to the Adversary Board.
The January 2012 minutes of the Special Friends Password Treehouse are here but the meeting was a big nothing.
From the February 2012 minutes of the Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring Wearers:
The adoption process for Pit Bulls and Pit mixes was discussed. The current process requires that the adopter pass a background check and a home check for a secure fence. These measures are taken for the protection of the dog.
Yes by all means, let’s protect the dog. And if no one at MAS can be bothered to do their jobs and get out to inspect the fence, just kill the dog. Better dead than MAS staff having to do their jobs. That’s the motto, right?
On Feb 18th there will be a vaccination/microchipping clinic at the shelter for City employees.
That’s nice. How about the rest of the unwashed masses – any vaccine/microchip clinics for them? Oh wait – that probably doesn’t fit in with The Plan. The Plan consisting of:
- Kill pets.
- Blame the public.
“On Feb 18th there will be a vaccination/microchipping clinic at the shelter for City employees.”
So if any of the City employees get lost we will know where to return them?
*lol* that’s funny! oh, the absurdity of it all!
This was by far my favorite part of the entire post. Because it makes sooooooo much sense. Do they TRY to be so dim witted and clueless or does it come naturally? UN-FRICKEN-BELIEVABLE!
From Feb 2012 –
“Vicious dogs no longer require bonding. There is now a charge of $68.00 per day boarding. A 30 day
payment must be made within 10 days of the dogs being housed at the shelter; the payments must be
kept current as long as the dogs are housed by the City.
Cats taken in cruelty cases are under the same payment requirements.”
“Cats taken in cruelty cases are under the same payment requirements.”
I’m trying to sort out what that means, exactly. Because it *sounds* like if there’s an abused cat with legal proceedings involved, someone has to pay a buttload of money to keep that cat boarded at MAS? That can’t be right. I must not be understanding it properly. Maybe the city pays for the cat’s boarding? Or…?
I noticed that too. No mention made of what happens if the person is found not guilty or the dog is not declared vicious. Does the city pay back the money and return the corpses to the owners?
Who would want to live in that city with pets with animal control rules like these?
The ones whose dogs are vicious and running loose are not the same people who will be able to pay the outrageous fees. The city is trying to make sure the dogs are killed. The cruelty cases are the same people who didn’t care enough in the first place to take care of their animals. Why would they now be willing or able to pay highway robbery fees!
MAS should just admit they are what they are; A SLAUGHTER HOUSE.
“Charging for FOIA request for people abusing the system is being considered. There would be charges
for the actual time involved in researching the requests. At the present time 80% of the FOIA requests
received by the city are requests concerning the animal shelter. Other cities have had this policy in
place. 99.5% of the FOIA requests in the Public Services and Neighborhoods are made involving the
animal shelter. ”
http://www.aclu-tn.org/pdfs/foia.pdf
But the fees can be waived. and they do not have to be paid upfront.
“At the present time 80% of the FOIA requests
received by the city are requests concerning the animal shelter. ”
Huh. I wonder why that is?
This is typical of the MAS approach to problems, though – you don’t fix them, you make them “go away”. People seeing abuse on the webcams? Get rid of the webcams. Employees selling pit bulls out the back door? Kill all the pit bulls. People requesting FOIAs that might reveal shelter abuses? Make FOIAs too expensive for them.
With the amount of effort they put into trying to make problems “go away”, they could have fixed the whole system ten times over.
Could NOT agree more!!
If I were a woman with more money I would be requesting, through FOIA, all of the emails to or from Wharton referencing the shelter. I am sure that would make for interesting reading
” Within 10 days of impoundment the owner must prepay 30 days worth of boarding or the animal immediately becomes property of the city.”
This policy makes absolutely no sense to me. Why in the hell would an owner need to prepay 30 days of boarding for an animal that’s only going to be at the shelter for a 10 day quarantine? Or am I reading that incorrectly? Honestly, most of the quarantined animals I’ve ever been involved with are there because either someone encroached on their property and frankly deserved to be bitten or the animal was unnecessarily provoked in some way. So it seems a bit extreme to punish the pet owned with a ridiculous 30 day prepayment most folks would never be able to afford. Seems like they probably know this, which in turn would allow them to claim City ownership of the animal, giving them the right to just euthanize it immediately once quarantine expires.
Chris, some of these animals are involved in court cases, which could lead to an extended stay. The amount of money would be ridiculous (especially given the speed of Memphis courts) for many.
The whole plan seems to set up victims of animal abuse to be victimized by the system, too…
That’s always a dilemma. Animals held in court cases can theoretically live in the shelter indefinitely. Expedient trials are a thing of the past.
Sadly, Im starting to think of it that way too. I think this shelter especially is under the ole “catch and kill” HSUS/PeTA policy way too hard.
“The adoption process for Pit Bulls and Pit mixes was discussed. The current process requires that the adopter pass a background check and a home check for a secure fence. These measures are taken for the protection of the dog.”
I support these measures. You would have to live here and see the types of people who go in the shelter looking for pit bulls. Background checks, etc., MUST be done or they MUST go to an approved pit bull rescue who can check out the foster/adopter.
If not, the overwhelming majority of these dogs would end up in a dog fighting ring or tied to a tree for the remainder of his or her life. Food and water optional. We envision that all of the people who want to adopt a pit bull are going to put pink collars on them with their name embroidered on it….that is not the case. Most of the people looking for a pit bull are more likely to want to put it in the trunk of a car and let it fight another dog to the death.
Personally, I had rather every single pit bull be euthanized to save them for a tortuous fight and a slow painful death. Some of these dogs are fought until they are nearly dead and are thrown out on the side of a highway to take their last few breaths.
Sadly, there are not enough employees to get out and do fence checks for dozens of pit bulls that are brought in per day. The number of pit bulls that end up at MAS is staggering. We need a group of volunteers who can go do daily fence and drive by home checks. Maybe one day this will be in place. I have offered to do this and will offer again and see if we can not get something in place.
I love pit bulls. And because of that, I had rather them all be euthanized than end up in a dog fighting ring. And it saddens me tremendously to know that a single sweet, loving pit pull is killed for no good reason…but if the choice is a needle or a missing face and a beating with a baseball bat…by all means, let them have the needle.
Christi,
You have made your position known here numerous times. It’s enough now. This is my blog and I am for no kill. It is NOT a choice between killing Pitbulls or forcing them to suffer a horrible dogfighting death. Please don’t continue to promote these myths here. This blog is about SAVING shelter pets. I’ve been very lenient in allowing you to repeatedly voice your support for killing Pitbulls but this is the end. I will remind you that this is your second chance as a commenter, having already been banned once. Please be respectful of my wishes to focus on saving shelter pets.
First of all, I am a pit bull lover. I care about their suffering and I am for reducing it any way possible. I have helped save two pit bulls from MAS just this past week, Buster last Saturday and Lyon today. It was through being proactive and reaching out to rescues to save them.
Giving a pit bull to just anyone off the street without a home and background check is pretty much equal to fighting the dogs yourself. If you saw the kind of people who come into the shelter looking to adopt a pit bull, you would understand. If you could see how they act with the dogs you would understand. If you lived in a dog fighting town you would understand. If you think that pit bulls should go to someone without doing a background check, then I hope you never work at a city shelter that gets dozens of pit bulls per day.
But the dog fighters would love it if you did. You would be a dream come true. “Want a pit bull? Sure, go ahead and take him! Hope he still has a face tomorrow!”
If you cared about the well being of these poor dogs, you would want to ensure that they did not get out into the wrong hands. I said it before and I will say it again, I had rather a dog be painlessly euthanized than thrown in a dog fighting ring to have his face chewed off. It sounds as though you think that is a better life for these dogs. I happen to disagree.
Ban me again, as if i care. I am for saving the animals at MAS and keeping them out of harm’s way if at all possible. That is the only reason i come to your blog. It is because I care about the animals.
Sadly, you seem more interested in your ego and the blame game than actually being proactive. I was at MAS today saving a pit bull and lining up more to save. How many did you save today?
That’s right Christi, it’s a pissing contest. You win. Congratulations. You can go tell all the popular girls at recess about how awesome you are.
So…dogs are dying in the shelter for lack of volunteers? Have you contacted Mr. Rogers directly and let him know this and of your offer? Because I will bet you money that there are good people in Memphis who would be willing to help if it means getting more dogs out alive…