Last month there were allegations of abuse at the Petersburg pound in VA and a promise from a local politician to investigate the claims. Then, I was hopeful. Now, not so much.
On March 5, shelter pet advocates attended the Petersburg city council meeting, demanding reform. What they wanted was immediate action to save the lives of pets currently at the pound, allegedly being abused. What they got was a task force:
[Councilman W. Howard] Meyers made a motion to create a task force under his direction that includes the manager of the Petersburg Animal Shelter, the Chief of the Petersburg Police Department and various animal groups from Richmond and the surrounding areas.
Meyers said his task force will work to enforce stricter breeding laws.
[…]
Meyers said there will be bigger fines for people who don’t spay or neuter their pets.
Well, crud. How does an investigation into allegations that the shelter staff is abusing the pets result in penalties for pet owners in the community? Is the councilman unwilling to do the hard work of implementing no kill and so just taking a page from the well-worn Blame The Public Handbook instead?
Punitive legislation does not work. And it does nothing to save the pets allegedly being abused at the pound today.
“There a lot of big things that need to be done at the shelter,” said Jill Navary, an animal advocate. “What we would like to have addressed are the small things that can be done in a day and save a lot of animals.”
Sounds like a good place to start to me. But I’m not on the task force. I hope someone committed to reforming the pound and ending the killing is. Several someones, in fact.
(Thank you Clarice for the link.)
Ah. A swift and decisive non-action! Look! We did something! Everything’s taken care of now, nothing to see here! Move along, move along…
It sounds like all the politician wanted was a little free publicity. I hope his constituents take him to task for doing nothing constructive to solve the problem.
Typical, stupid politician! I don’t know how they get elected!