Montgomery Co AC in NC had a 1% adoption rate and a o% RTO rate in 2011. The county killed 100% of the cats in its care and 98% of the 729 dogs taken in, adopting out 12. In addition, the county picked up a coyote, 20 possums and 25 raccoons – all of whom were killed. The county spent roughly $98,000 to save 12 dogs and kill 1233 other animals.
A Raleigh area TV station reported on the Montgomery Co pet killing facility last night:
Montgomery County’s animal shelter has failed 11 of its 14 inspections, according to public records the WRAL Investigates team examined.
Inspectors called the shelter’s conditions “deplorable” and noted that it did not have any walls to protect the animals from the weather, the dogs and cats weren’t being fed and cages weren’t cleaned for an entire weekend.
The shelter abides by the 72-hour state minimum to hold animals before they are euthanized, but there’s no formal adoption process, no regular shelter hours and no website to advertise available animals.
Montgomery Co manager Matt Woodard got out his dog whistle for WRAL and blamed the pound’s horrifying failures on “funding problems and a different mentality about animals among people in his county.” Yeah we can’t bother to feed, clean or protect pets from the elements before killing them because irresponsible public!
One of those people with a “different mentality about animals” is Mr. Woodard who told the reporter he wasn’t surprised his county kills 99% of the animals in its care. ACO Leon Everett is another. He talked about the killing he does:
“It’s like going to your mother’s funeral every time you do it. You never get over it.”
At the time of the TV station’s visit, a dog had been left at the pound with his legs duct taped together:
“There are cruel people in the world,” Woodard said.
The reporter doesn’t say whether they took the duct tape off before killing the dog, which is what presumably happened to him, judging from statistics.
The TV station offered to help save more pets:
WRAL reached out to Montgomery County’s manager and offered to help promote an adoption clinic for the animals.
The county manager declined.
There are cruel people in the world.
Lisa Brockmeier, who blogs at FixNC, told WRAL:
“My reaction is, they’re not even trying.”
I won’t argue.
Why don’t you and Lisa B. get Nathan to use his system to turn this place around as an example of what his methods can do if people try?
Nathan Winograd has made his system available for everyone to use via books, websites and printable pamphlets. He doesn’t live in Montgomery Co, NC. But if anyone who does live there needs assistance in locating resources, I am happy to help.
I know he doesn’t live there, but he also doesn’t live in other places that he has helped implement his methods. If he wants more shelters to use his methods, he needs to help more of them do it.
The only place I know of that he helped was Tompkins Co, NY when he lived there and worked as the shelter director. The other no kill communities that I know of have done the work themselves, using his published materials for guidance and inspiration. Do you know anyone in Montgomery Co interested in creating a no kill community? I am happy to help via e-mail if needed.
It is the people in the communities who need to band together and refuse to accept it as an answer. It is a struggle, a fight, in order to change things. Moreover, it has to be the taxpayers (as their taxes are paying for these services) to demand better though the media and through political advocacy.
It’s a sad state of affairs when so many of these animals would be better off fending for themselves on the streets. Is there no one who can step up and turn this nightmare around? Do the people who tolerate this kind of behavior, coupled with lame excuses, not realize what this says about them and their neighbors? God help us all.
I wish I had something positive to suggest for this “shelter” but they are like – what – maybe 75% of the shelters just in the South – probably next to a landfill (how convenient); untrained (and therefore uncaring workers); low pay (which can equal uncaring) and God only knows how they treat their family members. We don’t want to. Dogs are my family members and they get treated better than most of my family does, because they are thinking, feeling, loving beings. It just never, never stops. Like sticking your finger in a dike to fix one small hole. I am so afraid for any dog in a shelter, wandering the streets, in an unloving home, tethered – my list goes on and on. I don’t know how you write these stories every day, but thank you for doing it.
You have to wonder WHEN the South will step into the 21 century!!! And as for crying about lack of funding… who in their right mind would donate to a shelter with a 1% save rate???? The shelter needs to start making a effort to save some animals and people might be a little more inclined to help! All that bad publicity from the media, newspapers and bloggers could be made into a tremendous POSITIVE fund raising drive if they were actually trying to the right thing. Its so simple!!! SHOW us you care about your job and the animals and people will show their gratitude!!!!
I agree, I live here and pity all the animals. These people for the most part are so barbaric.
But the shelters seem to want to wait for the people to change. When the shelters SHOULD be taking a leadership role in TEACHING people how to care for animals, s/n options, TNR options, humane treatment/training, etc.
Where do they expect this massive shift in attitude to come from while they’re setting a horrific example themselves? To just shrug and say, “Well, that’s how things are here” is inexcusable. They should be saying, “That’s how things *were* here, but we’re stepping up and setting the example. We’ll help guide the community to the new model.”
Someone needs to step up. Many animals were sent from the “SANDY” storm to South Carolina and other places close to those. Does that mean those RESCUED animals are still waiting for new homes? i’m sure not all of the south is BAD. There are great people in Georgia and other southern states. PLEASE SOMEONE STOP PUTTING DOWN HEALTHY ANIMALS THAT COULD BE ADOPTED TO LOVING HOMES!!!
Take the funding used for this jerk’s salary and use it to build a structure that actually shelters the animals. Appeal to local high schools and colleges for volunteers to care for the animals and build a web site advertising available animals. Work with local and national breed specific rescue groups to rehome or foster adoptable animals. None of this is impossible, once you get the heartless bozo who runs this facility out of the picture.
Each time you post about a deplorable shelter in NC or a new post goes up on FixNC, I forward it to my friend who is news manager for WRAL. I think the info has helped. She said, “There’s more coming.”
It’s great that the WRAL news manager is paying attention. Are there people who would be willing to hold a demonstration at the county building? Can people who live there start writing letters and making phone calls to demand that county elected officials reform this death factory? Political action is important as well as the media. .
whats really disgusting it the ratio between budget, adoption, amount spent per animal and killing. the shelters with the highest budgets spend the least per animal. WHO IS STEALING FROM THE POCKETS OF TAX PAYERS?
I am mortified by the statistics at this shelter; however, I live in New Orleans and work at a no-kill shelter. We work with other shelters in our area to save as many as we can. Please focus on the shelters like these that need to change and stop putting down everyone in the south. I have seen articles about shelters all over the U.S. that need help, not just here. My pets are my babies and most of the people I associate feel the same way.
WOW. Not often that a TV station will just up and offer to promote animals without someone from the shelter coming to then. County manager declined.
They actually allowed some animals to leave alive. That must have been an accident. I don’t get it. This is catch-and-kill at its very worst. PETA would be proud – this shelter has achieved an even higher kill rate than they have.
Since they only have to keep them for 3 days, I suppose they don’t even waste their time feeding them. And KUDOS to the county manager for thinking that this whole thing is okay enough that he will willingly speak to the media about it.
How many more of these death factories will we uncover?
I think Shelters should be required to make their stats available monthly, through news media! Once the public is made aware and it leads to repercussions, I’ll bet there will be less killing! It’s extremely suspicious when they report substantial expenses to save the few dogs they don’t kill! I’m sick of them and I wish there were a way to shake up the entire Shelter business! They need to be held accountable for their actions!