Deborah Broughton, the recently hired head of Petersburg Animal Care and Control in Virginia, is not earning any praise from local pet advocates. Shortly after she was hired last month, 23 animals were killed at the pound in one day. A local advocate obtained the information via FOIA request and told a TV news reporter that one of the pets killed was a healthy Lab puppy, just 12 weeks old.
To put the killings into perspective, the Petersburg pound reported just 22 dogs and 5 cats on hand on January 1, 2012 in its annual report to the state. Assuming that number is representative of a typical number of shelter dogs and cats at the pound, it means that shortly after taking over, Debra Broughton may have killed nearly every pet in the facility in one day.
Rescuers also report difficulties in trying to save animals from the Petersburg pound. Which is interesting in light of the fact that Broughton appears to be citing the low number of rescues in comparison with the high number of intakes as an excuse:
Broughton could not be reached for comment Monday, but told the Progress Index two weeks ago that space at Animal Care and Control is a concern, saying one weekend, “we were able to get six dogs to rescues… but we had 20 come in.”
Records reportedly show that 47 animals were killed in a 16 day period last month at the Petersburg pound. In 2012, the facility killed about 50% of the dogs and cats in its care according to the state of Virginia annual report.
(Thanks Clarice for the link.)
No excuse for that kind of killing. Shame on everyone involved. Where do they find these “directors” who kill so easily?
We were just in Petersburg to visit Civil War battlefields. Saw lots of affluent areas, too . . .
So very sad.
All life is one.. it is cruel and ethically, morally reprehensible to kill innocent beings who do no harm.. such wicked shelter-directors should be sent out of office and animal-loving person be in charge.
I wish one of these shelters would consider hiring me, because I would so work really hard to save every animal I could. But naturally, I don’t have that fancy degree or any letters behind my name, so I’m obviously not qualified. (Note, sarcasm is fun. Haha)
How can these people not care about trying to save all the animals entrusted to their care?
I do hope you apply and I do hope you get selected to the post of a shelter director.. USA needs more people like you in such positions of power to do so much good to the abandoned and helpless shelter-pets.. and seriously I do believe just to be able to say what you did about helping every shelter-pet should be enough qualification for the post..
Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog.
Bastrop, Texas had that problem not too long ago. They were looking for a shelter director to take their shelter to No Kill. Were really happy to hire an animal behaviorist from when Austin was high kill. The hired director came in and started doing counter No Kill measures, such as stopping/limiting fostering, threatening that they would then have to kill for space, attempting to get volunteers who disagreed banned, and killing dogs that didn’t “show well”. Thankfully she also had a driving problem and after her 2nd DUI, “quit”. She lied a bunch. In the news interviews, her body language was awful. You could tell she was lying. I’m not sure who they got in their now but the volunteers certainly seem happier with them, and that is a good thing.