KY Pound Oops-Kills Nursing Mama Dog Upon Impound

The Jessamine Co pound in KY, like many pet killing facilities, considers all owner surrenders for fast-track killing.  Although common practice, it is cruel, violent and lazy on the part of the director.  Every shelter pet has the right to live and is deserving of individual consideration.

On Tuesday, the Jessamine Co pound picked up a nursing mama dog who was lost and showed up at an elementary school.  Instead of being placed on the legally mandated 5 day hold so her family could reclaim her, she got mixed up with another dog who was owner surrendered and on the way to the kill room.  The Jessamine Co pound killed the nursing mama dog in place of the owner surrendered dog.  Oops.

The director can’t explain how the mix up occurred:

“Two dogs got switched somehow,” director Mike Cassidy said. “I don’t know if they were cleaning a kennel and they took it out and didn’t put it back in the right one; I don’t know how it ended up getting switched.”

The director did explain how owner surrenders are fast tracked to the kill room at Jessamine Co:

“Typically, when an animal is surrendered, a lot of times there’s a reason for it,” Cassidy said. “It’s either that it’s bitten someone or it has aggression issues and sometimes event [sic] health issues and the animal might need to be put down, but the people just can’t bear to do it, so they surrender it to us.”

Way to dispel the myth that shelter pets are damaged goods, dirtbag.

One manager was present while the mama dog was killed on Tuesday but in response to the killing, the pound will now require two managers to sign off on pet killings.  Gee, I was sort of hoping they’d reconsider immediate killing of owner surrenders along with the needless killing of all other healthy/treatable pets.  You know, begin actually doing their jobs.  But yeah, two monsters in the kill room is good too.  And doesn’t sound like WORK so:  Bonus.

Cassidy also said if the dog would have had a microchip, the outcome would have been much different.

Sweet.  Blame the owner.  With another myth.  Microchipped pets are killed in pet killing facilities all the time because that’s what these places do.  Instead of blaming the killing on the owner, why not do your job and actually shelter the animals in your care?

I hope local pet advocates rally for reform at the Jessamine Co pound.  If the current director won’t do his job, replace him with a compassionate leader who will.  There is no excuse for the needless killing of shelter pets, especially when there are proven lifesaving alternatives available.  Jessamine Co should get two managers to sign off on the No Kill Equation instead of pet killings.

The dead mama dog’s pups are reportedly being bottle fed.  Let’s hope they survive without their mother and that they never get lost in Jessamine Co.

Fair warning:  Any asshat who attempts to come to the blog and leave disparaging comments about the owners because the dog got lost, had puppies, wasn’t microchipped or whatever will have their offensive comments immediately removed and be permanently banned.

(Thank you Clarice for the links.)