At the Hillsborough Co pound in Florida, killing is the default – so much so that the pound put a protocol in place for anyone wanting to save a pet: e-mail the pound with DO NOT KILL in the subject line and the animal’s ID number. This is the only way to toss a cog into the killing machine at Hillsborough Co apparently.
But it didn’t save Chai, a stray dog who had been housed in an area not visible to the public at the pound. Despite this, Chai managed to find a home. When the rescuer called Saturday morning to follow up on the e-mail and advise she was on her way to pick the pet up, she was told Chai had already been killed.
Hillsborough Co offered no explanation – not even an official oops. When the local news requested an interview, the staff hid. When the reporter asked to see the records from Saturday, the staff claimed the records were unavailable to due to a power outage. Presumably the power outage did not affect the killing assembly line.
This is par for the course at the Hillsborough Co pound. And residents can expect more of the same until they demand meaningful reform and an end to the killing. The default for any animal shelter should be lifesaving. When mistakes happen, they should be in favor of lifesaving. Hillsborough Co is on the wrong track.
(Thanks Clarice for the link.)
Awfully hard to take these tragic reports. I’m stunned. Could not look at picture.
But…I thought that “nobody wants to kill pets”?
where have you been.they do it constantly.
home wreckers.destroy lil childrens lives.
This is where I am, and what we are fighting against. There is a very large bunch of STUPID with the people who are hiring the directors, as well as ‘fake’ and ‘pretend’ nice talk. The excuses are endless, the killing is sickening, the way they are running that place is WORSE than the previous director who could not seem to do things that need to be done. This is horrendous and there are many more DAILY horror stories, believe me – many groups ARE working to right things, but it is the usual ‘good old boy’ system and blindness of government looking for ‘shelter experience’ and degrees that are useless. Ongoing clusterf*** and frustration and heartbreak for all the real animal lovers and rescuers.
Problem is now they have merged the departments together there is 4 people above Scott the new Director. Not only does he NOT have much authority but he has to go through each of those 4 people to get anything approved. We need a change of staff for those above him with people who know what they are doing.
I wish he had to go through 4 people to get an animal killed.
Personally I think Scott is part of the problem.
Hillsborough County Animal Services (HCAS), or whatever they’re calling themselves now, needs to be renamed Tampa Bay – Same Old Shit (TB-SOS). It is LONG overdue in Hillsborough County, Florida, for the BOCC to step up and clean house, starting with Mickey Mouse – I mean Mike Merrill. Tampa Bay needs a REAL compassionate BOCC, director, and staff! It’s up to us to demand it, Tampa Bay!
look up alma otto, case, how they not only stole and lied on reports but demanded their akc papers. plus how they terrified the grandchild to where she stopped talking for years, then went back stole puppys they lied in court about when they gave the lady a reciept for the pups they stole. judges that sleep with animal control employees, violated civil rights, du process, etc. her husband died because of it.Shame on Hillsborough Co. THEY ALL SHOULD ROT IN HELL THE PSYCHOPATHS.
how bout pat dixions case, they walked in stole all her pedigree show animals also.
how about alice holts case where they stole her show dogs.
they are nothing but thieves down there. then they lie say a animals dead, cause they get better offers some place else.
we even have on record the vets in these facilitys are having their spouses go in every morning and picking out what animals they want to post on a secret website hidden from the owners. I’ve been on this crap since 1990 here, and before then. i help people take this bullshit federal for free.jail 4 Judges!
Hell. Hernando County takes the dead animals to the dump, horses they bring there they shoot in the head and leave them there. INSANE. TOTALLY INSANE. THEY KEEP STEALING ANIMALS FROM PEOPLE THAT ARE INNOCENT.I HAVE A FEDERAL CASE WITH THEM, ILL HAVE MORE, WONT LET UP TILL THE DAMN PLACE SHUTS DOWN/
I agree with your comments! This hellhole need to be cleaned up, starting with the lying employees! They have no right to work with animals because they don’t CARE! THE SAME GOES FOR THE DIRECTOR, SCOTT! DOESN’T ANYONE IN FLORIDA CARE FOR ANIMALS! THEY NEED TO STAT CONTACTING LAWMAKERS AND GET JUSTICE! AND STEALING DOGS IS DEPLORABLE! SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE!