Tonight on the blog’s Facebook page, someone claiming to be Memphis ACO Glenn Andrews left a lengthy comment. This is my response.
Dear Glenn Andrews,
I’m going to answer your questions about shelter issues here. I won’t be addressing the other comments that have nothing to do with animals.
You asked about Mario and why I haven’t posted any updates on him. You may have missed the most recent update from March. He is doing well at the sanctuary and I am grateful to Steve Markwell for believing in Mario. Every day that Mario is alive to feel the sun on his face and sleep peacefully in a safe environment is a good day.
You asked if I believe the people in Memphis can handle their own affairs. I do believe in the people of Memphis and I have blogged about this many times. More to the point, I believe in you, Glenn. Many of my readers have met you in person and every one of them has reported back that you seem to sincerely care about the animals. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you myself obviously but I trust my readers’ judgment.
I made a donation to the No Kill Advocacy Center some months back when they were running a promotion and gave them your name and the shelter’s mailing address for where to send a copy of Nathan Winograd’s book Redemption. I asked that they send it anonymously because I feared you might have some bias against the information in the book if you saw it came from me. I hope you received it and have had a chance to read it. My reason for sending it was because, as someone who cares about saving shelter pets, I knew you would likely be interested to read how it is possible to save every healthy/treatable pet at your shelter. And I hoped you might be inspired to use your leadership skills to take action on some of the key steps outlined in the book.
If you are interested in learning more, there is a wealth of free information available online. I would suggest this guide, among many others. If I can support you in any way, please let me know. You can comment on the blog anonymously. You can also e-mail me anonymously if you choose. I can help network your least adoptable animals, share pleas with the public about special circumstances at the shelter, assist with fundraising – anything that can be done via computer from another state, I’m willing to do it.
Thoughtful, well-reasoned, respectful and constructive; a great post.
Honest dialogue is refreshing.
In my experience of meeting him and working with him, Glenn is a very nice and caring person who genuinely likes animals and takes his job and his duties very seriously. He has been very helpful to me and a number of other rescues and I believe that he is an asset to the Memphis Animal Shelter.
So…how do I reconcile your opinion of him (which I respect) with what I’ve seen of his mishandling of animals? Glenn was the one dragging Mario down that hallway.
Shirley, I don’t do FB, so although I clicked on the link, I don’t see a comment from him. What did he say, so I can really understand your reply?
KateH, I am pasting his comment below. It appears to have been cut off in the middle of a sentence but that’s the way the comment appears on FB. To put it in context, he was commenting on a post I made about an English Toy Spaniel puppy at MAS who was dressed in a frilly collar for her PetHarbor photo. I said:
Glenn Andrews commented:
can you put the FB link here so I can follow “The Rest” of the story?
See if this works: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=368356629887616&id=330204710332966
yup.. it works.. thanks so much. I see Glen has not responded..
Wow, he needs to get a grip. So he’s nice to the animals there – yeah for him. Does he not realize that he works with others who aren’t nice to animals and need to be ‘retrained’ to be nice? So far many of the posts about him say that he’s better than average with animals, but this one post by him shows his social skills with people need some work.
Glenn holds the power to save more cats & dogs than most any of us. All he has to do is follow what is in ‘Redemption’ & work with others. He would be a hero to so many of us, and the satisfaction of saving lives would be a blessing to him & the animals.
Glenn’s comment was extremely unprofessional. How do people get in leadership positions with such poor Public relations skills?
To Glenn Andrews:
There’s no doubt in my mind that you love and care for animals. I also believe that you have spent a great deal of your own money to see that they get the care they deserve.
My problem, sir, is that you work at a place where abuse and corruption is rampant and you must see the way animals are treated on a daily basis. You can’t take them all home with you (none of us in rescue can) so what are you doing to change the culture of MAS? It is bad enough that these things are happening, but when concerned people (no matter where they live) try to make things better, then those in positions of authority undermine any effort.
I seriously resent that you think you are the only one who helps animals. Many of us are involved with rescue and do a whole lot more than sit at our keyboards. Just because we don’t live in Memphis does not mean that we don’t care.
I honestly don’t know whether the people of Memphis can handle their own affairs. So far, we’ve watched the same horrible things happening over and over. if keeping things as they are, but in an expensive new building, is “handling things” then I just don’t know what to say.
Finally, many of us here have contributed money to support rescues that actually pull animals and get them vetted and into good homes. Many of us have networked to let rescues/individuals know of animals that need help. We are doing what we can FOR the animals of Memphis.
I don’t see that anyone is criticizing you personally. Most everything I’ve seen and read supports your love for and concern for animals. (I didn’t see the footage of Mario so can’t comment on that – but I do know that dog would much rather be alive in a sanctuary than in a landfill in Memphis!)
My last comment is a disclaimer. I do not know Shirley personally, nor do I support everything she says. But I believe she (and all of us) are trying our best to bring to light situations that need to be changed because we love animals – all animals.
I’d be interested in your response, sir, and would appreciate it here because I do not do facebook.
db and Shirley- very nice and professional emails. Glenn, on the other hand, was not very. But maybe it was just a bad day or Im not understanding the whole story or something, IDK.