I get a knot in my stomach when I hear that an advisory committee has been appointed to make recommendations about a pet killing facility. Nothing good ever seems to come from it. Add Mobile Co, AL to that list.
Yesterday Mobile County commissioners received their first report from the advisory committee charged with making recommendations about the deeply troubled pound. Here is my summary of the recommendations and seriously, I did not make these up:
- Use part of the county’s Maddie’s Fund grant to pay the Maddie’s Fund University of FL program for a shelter evaluation.
- Shorten the hold time for cats deemed feral (such as Porkchop) to 3 days so they can be killed quicker.
- Continue the “breed specific policy” that no puppy over 3 months old deemed a pit bull, chow or wolf hybrid will be allowed to live.
Bear in mind this is a place that kills many animals upon impound in violation of state law. They clearly can’t tell a well cared for pet from a feral cat and I can only imagine how well they do in determining dog “breeds”. (Pitbulls and wolf hybrids are not “breeds” and it’s nearly impossible to determine lineage for mixed breeds based on body shape.)
No doubt fans of Maddie’s Fund will be supportive of the idea of sending the county’s grant money to another Maddie’s Fund program in exchange for a shelter evaluation. I am not so excited. My thinking, wacky as it may be, is to clear out everyone committed to pet killing in Mobile Co and replace them with compassionate people committed to no kill – starting with a director. Once there is strong leadership in place, use the grant money to assist in implementing the programs of the No Kill Equation.
In other words, stop killing animals, start doing your jobs. The road map to success already exists and is available to everyone. No middle man required. Put that in your advisory committee pipe and smoke it.
(Thanks Clarice for the link.)
It has been my impression since moving here to Alabama that the people in charge here have no brains at all. And the majority of them are corrupt. They call it Alabama the Beautiful…I do not see anything beautiful about dead dogs all along the roadside and others running loose everywhere,starving.
very sad… I keep hoping for some good news about shelters saving lives. Guess it’s not today
I’ve heard nightmare stories about southern shelters kill policies, and the generally poor treatment of animals as whole by people in several southern states, but this one beats them all. I guess Deliverance wasn’t too far off the mark.
It is not only southern shelters. I live in a northern state and our county pound and “humane society” kill over 90% of cats. Dogs have about a 60% chance of survival.
Sounds like a concentration camp
My thoughts exactly
My thought wouldn’t be to “put it in their pipe and smoke it”, but to “shove this up your asses and get the hell out”. Mobile County Shelter = FAIL.
It starts at the top. You are 100% right. Leaders are the first step. Someone soooo in charge of so many lives should have a no kill mindset. Otherwise we just have another Hitler on our hands. And this breed specific killing how is that any different from killing African americans bc of theur race or Jews bc of their religion etc? We are ALL Gods creations. He doesn’t make mistakes. As the ” more intellegent” (questionable if u ask me) God gave us responsibility to those less fortunate…..this includes people and animals alike. I wonder if the roles were reversed and animals were in charge who would be on the “no chance at life…breed specific lists”? We better wake up people bc karma has no time table and God has done stranger things. God gave us rights over the land tovuse to our needs. Not rights to run around on a killing spree bc of a problem we created ourselves out of neglect and being lazy and irresponsible. Rather you believe in God or not I bet if your head was unfairly on the chopping block you’d believe in LIFE.
Here is their facebook page. Let them know what you think!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mobile-County-Animal-Shelter/248339547508?ref=ts&fref=ts
I attempted to call the Mobile County Animal Shelter. No response. They are laying low at this time. Sad. These animals are misfortunate, how can they be so brutal, uncaring, disrespectful of life? Too sad.
I am an animal advocate in the Mobile/Baldwin County Alabama area. And yes, MCAS could certainly improve in a lot of areas, just as I’m sure most animal control shelters could. What the media is not covering are the countless placement partners who work successfully with MCAS, daily, to help save lives, the extended hours the shelter has stayed open for adoption drives, off site adoption events, etc.
Is my dream to one day see all shelters implement a no kill policy, yes. Unfortunately, until our communities take responsibility for their companion animals, individuals stop buying from pet stores and breeders, animal control shelters across the nation will continue to be a necessity.
What I would like to see is our local media report on what is right at the shelter. Myself and others have made attempts to encourage them to do so, and it has fallen on deaf ears.
It is difficult enough to encourage people to adopt from shelters as it is, when you have so much negative press about this local shelter, I can only imagine the ones that suffer the most in the long run are the animals waiting for their forever home.
Aw shucks, another comment from the Killing Apologist Template.
If you will read about shelters that become no-kill, it’s because someone made that decision and then found ways to make it happen. But the choice to no longer kill is the first decision that must be made. It’s happening – and it’s happening in communities with poverty, economic issues, the “irresponsible public” doing all the things you say they need to stop doing . . . and animals are leaving for rescues, fosters, returned to owners or adopted to new ones. What they aren’t doing is leaving out the back in body bags. Talk all you want, but if animals are being killed who shouldn’t be, then it’s all talk.
I’m glad that you are making progress, but please take that next step. STOP THE KILLING!
in my opinion, Shelter Directors and staff who are used to killed pets at the drop of a hat, will continue to do so, as they would be too brainwashed to see reason or have no heart to feel compassion for the helpless and fearful pets in their “care”.. the shelter pets want to live but the shelter Director wants to kill.. and he feels righteous about it…
Abusive people don’t change easily.. they would always look around for some trivial reason to abuse or hurt other beings, even if there are none.. so in the best interests of animals the Shelter Director and Co should be sacked.. and fresh people, who love animals, given a chance to save the shelter pets and bring about a shelter revolution..
My, My how far Richard’s path has deviated from his days at San Francisco.
I guess when you get to hold such large purse strings on a program that doesn’t change the fate of animals who will soon die- animals that have a God given right to live-
Well you just have to believe as Richard must that his shit doesn’t stink cuz all these wannas fawn over him for whatever crumbs his majesty hands out.
Mobile County AC has confiscated 50 dogs from a home deemed “deplorable.” The addition of these dogs puts the shelter over capacity. They need to adopt out 48 dogs to make room for the incoming.
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news/mobile_county/county-confiscates-50-dogs-from-home
Deplorable but alive. Isn’t there ANY WAY these dogs could be sheltered in place instead of killing dozens of dogs to make room for them at the deplorable pound?
Southbark, although ban for speaking out against policies and procedures at mcas, went though the front doors of mcas Friday and started working on networking, finding fosters and saving as many of the dogs as possible, while nancy Johnson was on tv saying no animals will be killed. Just heard , though the help of a very few other local rescues, mcas kennel is empty… More details later.
The latest news article;
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/local_news/mobile_county/southbark-39-dogs-on-shelters-kill-list