The inappropriately named Fayette Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has been quarantined and had its license revoked by the state of PA. State inspections in July and August found the staff failed to separate sick dogs from healthy ones and failed to follow proper sanitation and vaccination protocols to prevent the spread of disease.
Specifically, the staff suspected many dogs were sick with kennel cough, distemper and/or parvo. Feces potentially carrying disease from the dogs indoors was being hosed with water only, no disinfectants, while feces in the outdoor facility was left in piles, including on dog beds. Not only were dogs not being vaccinated immediately upon intake, the state found that dogs who had been there more than 10 days still weren’t vaccinated.
Between July 29 and August 7, 7 dogs were killed and 3 were found dead in their crates among a population of 65 adult dogs and puppies. State inspectors observed several coughing dogs who were lethargic and had mucus visible in their eyes and noses. One dog was housed in a pen so small he could not stand up. Moldy dog food was being stored in pens and the entire facility was infested with a “centipede type insect”.
Pat Ballon, a board member for the SPCA, says the place is $130,000 in debt and will likely remain closed. Also, there’s a conspiracy:
[A]ll of a sudden, Ballon said, the state has come down on the group by employing questionable inspection tactics or enforcing mandates that have never been a problem in the past.
“Nothing has changed for 30 years and all of sudden, everything’s bad?” he said. “Somebody’s got it in for us.”
Because the cackling state inspector came twirling his mustache in the morning, instead of the afternoon:
Ballon said the staff members earn about $8 an hour, so he wonders how he could convince someone to shovel excrement at night so the place would have been ready for an inspection early the next morning — an inspection that he expected in the afternoon as it had been done in the past.
The sick dogs got their mucus on, mixed themselves in with the healthy dogs, the dog food went moldy and the centipedes stormed the place because it was morning.
“Do you think a county employee is going to work here for $8 an hour, no benefits, to shovel waste all day?” he said.
So because you don’t pay your staff a living wage, you can’t be expected to follow the state’s rules for providing humane living conditions for the dogs in your care. I get it.
Adding to the list of woes, Ballon says once the state revoked the SPCA’s license they could no longer sell dogs to earn income. But the main reason they’re so broke is because nobody wants to kill animals:
First and foremost, Ballon said, Fayette SPCA Board members, employees and volunteers are reluctant to euthanize animals. He said there were only about five percent, roughly 150 animals, of the more than 3,000 taken in by Fayette SPCA last year were euthanized. Ballon said most shelters euthanize between 40 to 60 percent of their animals annually.
Trusty old “Other places are worse” – love that guy.
Ballon appears to be of the opinion that if the Fayette SPCA had killed more dogs, they wouldn’t be in dire straits now. But the state inspectors who even now are out tying fair maidens to railroad tracks, probably indicate that the staff wasn’t even doing the minimum to provide humane care for the dogs, the result of which was sick dogs dying alone in crates during the night. Which would seem to be the opposite of preventing cruelty.
An area no kill shelter has since taken some of the dogs from the Fayette SPCA.
(Thanks Jan, Clarice and Arlene for sending in links on this story.)
Thank God someone did something to assist those pitiful animals. I can’t believe a state agency actually did its job!!!! What kind of credentials does this creature, Pat Ballon, have anyway?
8.00 an hour would be okay with me, better than no money coming in at all.
that’s still no reason at all to mistreat animals, How would you like to be hosed
in a crate with cold water you IDIOTS.
Another shelter managed by someone who looks like an adult, but is full of nothing but childish excuses. It’s someone else’s fault. So and so said it was okay to do it like this. We’ve been doing it like this forever. We can’t do better because of stuff. Why is everyone so MEAN to us?!
No.
Just no.
If you accept pay for the job, you do the job. You take the responsibility and you stand up and say, “Yes, I’m in charge, so this is on me.”
I’d like to see cruelty charges brought against these people. And I’d like to see the place burned to the ground in a pyre of offering to those who suffered and died there.
I dont want to hear that you only had 65 dogs and puppies and couldn’t even take care of them properly. If you people cared at all, you would have found a way to keep things clean, fresh food and water and made sure the sick ones were isolated. Me and one other person took care of a 100 dogs and sick dogs were kept seperate from healthy, we cleaned everything with bleach, not difficult really if you cared. 8 bucks an hour I would have gladly accepted that, I was paid nothing. It is also not difficult to get volunteers to help a couple of hours each a day. or find away to get food donated. But again you would have to care enough to do any of this.
AMEN, one has never known love, until you have loved an animal. They need you
just as a child would.
I think that the prospect of working with the people who did this was a greater deterrent to potentially decent employees (and volunteers!) than the low pay. It is a vicious circle of not giving a shovelful of feces. Who was donating to this place and where was the Board? Deja poo…we have heard these excuses before…
Once again, another so called shelter not doing a good job and not caring for the animals properly! I’m glad some animals were relocated, but what are the intentions for improving! I’ve always been told you “inspect what you expect”. They need a no kill shelter and people who give a damn!