A woman says she went to the Smithville pound in TN last week during normal work hours to find the placed locked and no employees on site. Even more disturbing, she says a dead dog and a litter of living puppies were in the parking lot. Local animal advocates are calling upon the mayor to at least staff the facility during open hours and/or allow volunteers to care for the pets. But the mayor gots explanations:
Mayor Jimmy Poss of Smithville said the shelter only has one full time and one part-time employee, who had both called in sick Thursday.
An animal rescue group in Dekalb County is calling for more employees or volunteers to work at the shelter, but the Mayor said that’s extra help the shelter doesn’t need right now.
See? Yeah, me neither. But everyone can quit worrying about the animals left in the pound unattended, presumably without food or water, laying in their own waste, suffering from who knows what conditions. And definitely no one needs to be concerned about the dead dog found outside the pound or the litter of pups running in the road. Because explanations:
Poss said even with budget constraints, the Animal Shelter takes good care of the dogs they have, even though some may be delivered to them sick.
I see what you did there. That whole irresponsible-public-is-to-blame thing. Smooth.
Mercifully, the irresponsible public stepped up and all the wandering pups are now in foster homes. That’s what I call “good care”. That thing the Smithville pound is doing? That’s neglect, cruelty and fraud against taxpayers to my mind.
(Thanks Clarice for the link.)