Excerpts from the new Memphis Animal Services (MAS) policy manual, which no one has ever seen as far as I know:
MAS Minder: Don’t touch the the puppy, Disease Spreader.
Adopter: Does MAS vaccinate all pets upon intake in order to reduce the spread of disease per standard shelter protocols?
MAS Minder: Supervisor! I got a combative one here!
Adopter: Thank you for showing me these 30 dogs. There are a couple I’d like to come back to spend time with after I see the other 300 dogs.
MAS Minder: Your 10 minutes are up. There’s the door.
Adopter: Oh! Could I at least pet one of the animals I’m interested in adopting, if I do it quickly?
MAS Minder: Supervisor! Disease Spreader becoming aggressive at Kennel 23!
I spend more than 10 minutes in the freezer section deciding which flavor of ice cream I would like to buy. One should certainly spend more than a few minutes when determining which animal will best fit into their home, family and lifestyle.
As far as the “Don’t touch the disease carrying critters”. Our local shelters have hand sanitizer in each room and simply ask that you sanitize your hands after touching each animal.
Oh I’m sure MAS would “love to” provide hand sanitizers but people won’t spay and neuter so…
Waiting for visitors to be handcuffed before entering the kennel area. Better yet, made it like an amusement park ride. Buckle them into the cart, inform them to keep hands inside the ride at all times, and then drive them past the cages for a quick glimpse
I’ll be one of those people throwing up on the ride.
Mikken – YES! Getting them out ALIVE is the key. Having adoption events, making the public feel welcome (instead of “sh*t – we have people wanting to see the pets,”), volunteers who have smiles on their faces and bend over backwards to help potential adopters, and having a director who has an imagination – one who thinks outside the box – to TRY new ways to get the animals adopted – only then, will the pets stand a chance at MAS – to get out ALIVE!
I am sorry…but your comments to this MAS policy memo made me literally laugh out loud sitting here! So friggin stupid this MAS is!! No wonder they are such a mess!
I’m sure the MAS snoops who monitor the comments here will think that you are part of one of those uppity shelters who actually do their jobs just to make MAS look bad.
LOL!! Ya…that’s it, we do our job to make them look bad!! HA! I am appalled every day with these posts!! I can’t even fathom how awful they are to those poor animals. Makes me sick.
No one has to make them look bad! They do a good job of it themselves! They ARE BAD AND EVIL! Probably insane too!
Well, the whole “disease spreading” thing might make sense IF we didn’t know for a FACT that MAS employees do not change their gloves in between handling animals. The gloves are apparently for the employees’ protection, not the animals’. If they were intended to stop the spread of disease, employees would change gloves in between each and every animal.
The whole concept of “adoption/RTO/get animals out alive” is a low priority at MAS and it shows in everything they do. If management would make Getting Animals Out Alive the TOP PRIORITY at MAS, we would see a big shift in attitude and behavior (for the better – not just for the animals, but for the employees, who must be living under psychological stress from working day in and day out in what is essentially a pet slaughterhouse).
But as long as management considers Getting Animals Out Alive to be incidental to shelter operations, things will continue just as they are.
If they were truly interested in preventing the spread of disease, they would vax all pets upon intake. They don’t care about spreading disease. And I’ll go out on a limb and say this: 3 out of 4 of these pets are leaving in the dumpster. Touch=love. Anything, including touching the pets, which can be done to help save these animals’ lives should be allowed.
THEY are too busy thinking of ways to put up roadblocks to getting the pets adopted. I have so much great information to share with Rogers, from the NO KILL Conference – can’t wait for him to read it and realize he’s been doing it all wrong! (woops- that was me fantasizing)
Aren’t they the ones that kill everything anyway? Now they are worried about disease?
The disease is already spread – it’s called “STUPID” and it was first detected in Mayor Wharton’s office, spread to the so-called advisory board through Mayor’s flunkies, and then, well, it went pandemic once it hit Rogers & Co.
I swear, even Gandhi would have slapped them in the head!
a. They HAVE freakin’ hand sanitizer all over the damned place. Vaccinations would do so much more.
b. WTF???? Where did this stupid manual come from and who are they kidding???
c. Ugh.
The manual (if there is one – IDK, I’ve only seen this page and a half) came from somewhere over the rainbow, I guess.
Rogers is still reaching way up into his nether regions to produce the rest of the manual …
Please don’t slam me. Herd health is important. Vaccinations on intake do not take effect for 14 days. The idea is to keep a low stress environment, but fomites (disease that travels on our clothing) are a real concern. The best idea is to have a healthy population so that the concern lessens and attention can be given. As for sanitizer, that isn’t enough. Animals need to be held and observed for potential illness upon intake and interacted with in order of a risk management protocol. Example : cleaning the cats with colds last and then changing before interacting with healthy animals. Nothing is fool proof, but keeping the animals healthy is really important for sound adoptions of healthy happy pets.
You are providing misinformation, whether intentionally or unintentionally. If it was intentional, I call that trolling, which is not allowed here. If it was unintentional, please provide sources for your claims.
Not trolling at all. My sources are shelter medicine for shelters and staff by Lila Miller, and infectious diseases of the Dog and Cat, third edition. Also, the vets in my area will not spay or neuter immediately after vaccination to protect the other pets as they agree that pets without a vaccination history are considered to have a naive immune system that takes two weeks to develop the necessary antibodies to fight most common diseases. Huh… That was a mouthful. Also, cats should be kept as stress free as possible because a reoccueance of URI is expected in a stressed kitty. Same reference material as listed above.
Maddies Fund:
http://www.maddiesfund.org/Resource_Library/Redefining_Vaccination_on_Intake.html
“According to Dr. Ronald D. Schultz of the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, in many shelters there’s a lack of understanding of just how fast protection from certain vaccines develops in dogs and cats[.]”
“[W]ithin as little as a few hours, dogs can often be protected from serious consequences of canine distemper virus (CDV). Within 3 to 4 days, the dog may be fully protected from CDV and canine parvovirus (CPV), and the cat from feline panleukopenia virus (FPV).”
UC Davis:
http://www.sheltermedicine.com/node/34#spread
“Vaccination is the cornerstone of parvovirus prevention in shelters and communities. In the absence of maternal antibody interference, a single modified live vaccine can confer protection within 3-5 days.”
Shelter health differs from home health protocols. But, do note that by reducing stress you can maintain a healthy population that can be handled, cuddled and loved. It is worth a little time to watch for serious illness, so nor to infect many. I have never been called any names, I hope my comment is helpful and not detrimental.
Darn, iPhone, sorry for the errors.
Please, Please vaccinate upon intake, but don’t take the vaccinations for granted. A good protocol to keep pets healthy is important especially for stray animals that are mandated to be in the shelter environment prior to being reclaimed and then adopted. I am not a vet, but disease should be taken seriously. I could get crazy technical, but that isn’t necessary. You all practice common sense here. I was just pointing out a gap that may have been missed.
Thank you for the additional resource material. I have an entire vet community that could use a refresher course and I am always looking to learn better ways to help the animals. I am glad that my shelter is extremely strict about their intake policy of vaccinating, but I didn’t realize just how good a policy until now.
Well don’t keep us in suspense: do you allow visitors to touch your animals?!
We keep a healthy vaccinated population. Strays are vaccinated upon intake and are walked and cared for by staff and a tiered volunteer staff that understand the protocols to prevent the spread of disease. As we consider a stray dog or cat an owned animal we do not double them up for disease prevention, but we do walk every dog every day at least 3 times to maintain any housebreaking they may have had. I am sorry. I do take for granted that this is how it is done everywhere.
Oh, and yes besides the strays all the animals that are up for adoption may be handled and touched, cuddled and loved for sure.
I’m glad. I don’t know how visitors to a shelter are going to fall in love with a pet they can’t put their hands on. When I visit a shelter, it’s not usually to adopt, but just to drop off donations and say hello to the animals. IOW, my main purpose is to touch the pets! I consider it cruel (to both the pets and the humans) to make people walk past without providing comfort to caged pets.
I agree, I maybe was not clear about the stray population being owned therefore only cared for by trained volunteers and compassionate staff while adoptables are played with and handled by visitors and potential adopters alike. Read to the dogs, play with the animals in the front office, integrate them into regular life in a shelter the best you can. Even without a pretty shelter pets acting like “pets” seem more happy and appealing hence more likely to find that special someone to take them home.
Well Im so glad that they are so worried about disease spreading, ya know, before the animals get tossed in the dumpster anyway.
They are so determined not to get these poor souls of that place, arent they? Every day Im surprised by how much.
If this was really a joke it would be funny.. I wish this was the case ,
I do not want to be considered a visitor if I am considering adopting an animal. I am a potential adopter! Are visitors/potential adopters allowed at MAS to take dogs out of their crates/kennels for a visit or outside for a walk? Is that 10 minutes per animal? If so, that means I can be there for 5 hours looking at dogs if there are 300 dogs.
I have sent Rogers an email asking that very question, Jennifer. When I was told by a supervisor that I was only allowed 3O minutes( 2 weeks ago)..I sent Rogers an email asking him about it. He told me it was in the manual and said that actually they graciously allowed me 30 mins but the manual states 10 minutes. I asked that he email me a copy but he wouldn’t- he told me to FOIA it. And all that I received was 2 pages out of the supposed manual. I am still waiting for clarification on the 10 minutes… Per visit or animal?…. Either way, it sucks for the helpless pets at MAS. And of course, there are still so many empty kennels, yet Rogers continues his killing sprees.
According to Friends FB there will be shorter hours Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for……wait for it……..TRAINING! Who could have guessed! I suppose this vanished manual will supply the training? Just what sort of training would that be? How to pose as a animal shelter trying to get companion animals to homes without spending more than 10 minutes with them? What an ass that man Rogers is. Someone better reign him in because he does not know how to take care of a shelter. The only thing he is apparently interested in is killing, killing, and more killing.
Herd health is important in a shelter environment. Okay, I got that. How many parents get grumpy when their kid comes home from school with the latest crud that is going around, proceeds to give it to everybody else in the family, and by the time it finally goes away, comes home with another version?!
But honestly, MAS kills three out of four animals. The biggest health risk at MAS is just BEING THERE! Staff spreads disease from pen to pen way faster by using a pressure hose to wash feces and urine into full food and water bowls! The stress of being dragged with a choke pole FAR outweighs the stress of a stranger coming in to pet you, no matter if they sneezed, or washed their hands, or wiped their feet!
Really, wouldn’t the animals have a better chance of surviving out on the street?
Oh, and for the record, our Animal Control gets grumpy when people come in to just visit and pet the animals. *This isn’t a damn petting zoo…* (Heard mumbled quietly by an animal tender.) Current policy is that all visitors must log in. I delight in seeing the dozens of names on the log saying *just looking!*
You cannot adopt an animal without visiting with it, and you must allow at least 15 minutes for your visit and you must fill out the form and initial each of the lines to verify that you have read and understand. Oh, and you have to start your visit at least a half hour before closing time. If you miss this time frame, you can adopt the animal, but you can’t take it home until the next day, and they add a $10 boarding fee for keeping it overnight!
I’ve been trying since the first of the year to become an authorized volunteer—and I’m still not allowed to come in and trim toe-nails on cats and dogs for FREE! Oh well, I should trim the nails on all the critters here at Daisy Acres and stop worrying about the ones over there.
NO, you CAN’T stop worrying about the “ones over there” at MAS. That’s part of the problem now. Too many folks have given up on the dogs/cats at MAS and that’s exactly the way the staff & admistration wants it. Don’t let them continue doing everything wrong without your & everyone’s input, attention and complaints.
How many more would be dead at MAS if everyone never worried about “the ones over there?” Because of the attention of YesBiscuit, their readers & other concerned citizens, MAS is a better place than it was. It’s far from being a good place for dogs/cats, but it’s only better because you, I and others care.
Don’t give up on MAS until it becomes a real shelter, and it will eventually. It’s a shame it has taken as long as it has with only slight improvement, but we aren’t quiting until it’s a shelter of pride.
I don’t see any real change occurring until every single employee is replaced with people who do care and will do the right thing
SO sad . . . but SO true.
MAS is so disgusting I wish I knew the way to get rid of the staff at the killing camp. Rogers is just playing politics. I wish he would get out and turn control over to someone who really cares! Change is long overdue at this despicable place! We need a major protest big enough to be heard!
How DO we get rid of Rogers & the status quo staff? Change has been expected for years & years yet hasn’t come to MAS. Mayor Wharton never cared about change. Rogers has his comfy job, and we know he’s not changing anything. The hell hole IS despicable and a major protest is long over due. Where are the protesters & others who care? When is enough – enough? It’s a call to arms folks! Sign up…