Records obtained via FOIA request indicate dog #267442 was impounded as a stray by Memphis Animal Services on June 10, 2014. She was housed out of sight of the public, in the room reserved for animals being killed:
MAS was obligated to hold her for the mandatory holding period which would have expired on June 17. Her medical notes indicate she was a generally healthy young dog.
On June 15, an MAS supervisor noted that no one had placed a hold on the dog who had remained hidden from the public since impound. And despite the fact that her owner still had 2 days to claim her, the supervisor noted the dog’s time had expired which appears to be a violation of the stray holding period law.
Never having been made available to the public for adoption, rescue or foster, and not even having been held for the mandatory holding period for an owner to reclaim, MAS killed dog #267442 on June 15 (or June 14, if the date noted by the kill tech is accurate).
The first day that MAS would legally have been allowed to kill dog #267442 was June 18. I guess they just couldn’t wait. Not that anyone WANTS to kill animals, of course.
Sadly, this dog is just one of so many whose right to life has been violently violated by MAS and whose legal right to be held for owner redemption was violated as well. Pound director James Rogers recently wrote:
By all accounts the death of one animal in error is unacceptable and MAS is diligently seeking to be error free.
How’s that working out for you? Ready to try something different? Is doing your job on the menu?
I just want to know WHEN, when, when, when, will someone be held accountable for these travesties???? Enough is enough!!! Thanks, Shirley, for bringing this (one of way too many f-ups) to the public’s attention.
Sadly, to many they are “JUST” dogs! NO respect for life!
When will this guy be fired?!
Whoopsie. But hey, what’s the big deal. Nobody wanted that dog anyway, right? I mean, it’s not like there was a line out the door for her or anything. That’s why we don’t even bother to take good photos of the animals or market them in any way or even make it easy for people or rescue groups to see them. Because, why bother? This is America, it’s not like people actually love their pets here. And hey, if the owner does come around, we’ll charge them for the time that dog was here and any fines that may apply and then we can offer them another dog for free because in the end, they’re all the same, right?
On a slightly less sarcastic note, can I ask WHY THE HELL this dog was housed in the Euth Room? And what are the chances that an owner who comes looking for her will be SHOWN THE EUTH ROOM for their missing dog? No, they’ll be taken through the stray hold areas and then the staff will shrug their shoulders with a “guess she’s not here” and walk away. For all we know, the owner was in that place looking for her every single day, but could not find her because of where she was kept.
How many animals on stray hold are in the euth room right now who also won’t be shown to someone looking for their lost pet?
FIRE THEM ALL. NOW. TODAY.
Looking at that card…was she even checked for a microchip?
FIRE THE SHELTER OWNER AND FINE HIM PERSONALLY
BIG TIME – HOW CAN HE BE A HUMAN
Again, again, again and again . . . they just don’t CARE! And obviously don’t care about following rules, laws or anything else. Just want to kill, kill, kill.
Killing is what they do at Memphis Animal Slaughterhouse.
RIP Beautiful girl – you did not deserve to die.
None of them deserve to die.
What is it going to take to stop the carnage?
Why do they keep dogs in the euth room? Do they enjoy making them watch the killing? Is that fun for them? Is this how they’re getting their jollies now that they know that they can’t hang or stomp pets to death, anymore?
I wonder……….Would they hide the dog in the kill room and just give the dog to someone and just say the dog was killed? I mean, who would check bodies? Or are they selling dogs from that room? This entire facility is suspect of anything!
I wondered that, too. If they get a dog in that they like the looks of for selling to fighters, is it easier to do so out of the kill room? I mean, that pretty much assures that no owner will reclaim because they never get shown that room.
I hadn’t thought of that, but it certainly is a strong possibility, given the culture of MAS. Saying that, then there likely are many, many more that we aren’t even aware of. Honestly, nothing would surprise me.
It could be one reason that there are so many “no photo available” dogs on PetHarbor. The vast majority of those are pit bulls. Just saying!
Who can legally go into this shelter and view their records? Can any citizen of Memphis? How is the shelter funded? Through city via taxes?
If any resident of Memphis can go through their records, someone should. Maybe get a group of concerned citizens, willing to step up and do the work, to go through their records, at least for the past 6 months, to see if this is a common occurrence (or they may uncover other inconsistencies in their record keeping).
The fact that during another one of the OOPS it was said by the shelter director that they pull the cards of animals to be “euthanized” (I still call it murdered) the day BEFORE sends shivers down my spine!!! That leaves way too much of a chance for errors to be made…which subsequently were causing another beautiful, young healthy dog who had someone ready to adopt that morning who made it known to the shelter that morning bright and early that she wanted to adopt him.
All these mistakes costing lives, even after this shelter knows it’s being looked at under a microscope, is ridiculous and unacceptable. Were I a resident of Memphis, I’d insist on access to their records and I’d go through them with a fine toothed comb, no matter how long it took.
Aren’t shelter records checked and policed by anyone? If not, WHY??? What are we, as Americans, going to do about this? Sharing it and making people aware is great, but until we do something about it, its not going to make any difference, especially to these precious lives that are being snuffed out.
Those in charge do.not.want.to.change. This is long time SOP for this place.
Dumbstruck to even be able to say anything, Such cruelty in the so called Evolved part of the world!! Dogs here, In India are better off. Strays on the street live pretty happy, carefree lives.
Sad state of affairs, but the animals in Memphis have a better chance of survival on the streets than in the killing facility.
I used to live just south of there. “Culture of Memphis” is right. Memphis hasn’t had a decent and effective city government in going on fifty years. The people there got the government they voted for, they got it good and hard, and there is a lot of collateral damage. But expecting a majority demographic of their city employees there to give a **** about their jobs and do them effectively is probably racist or something.
It’s not racist to expect shelter workers to do their job. It’s racist to imply that the reason they don’t is due to the color of their skin. Shelter abuse is not limited by race, gender or any other factor, as is obvious after years of reporting on it.
I have no respect for James Rogers! He hasn’t done one thing to make the changes needed to make the shelter effective and honest! They’re set on killing and withhold interaction of dogs and people! This is one of the lowest Shelters and must be reformed!
Their keying errors kill animals. If they had consequences for their actions, then maybe they’d be a bit more careful with which dogs their killing. So many careless mistakes that will keep happening because they can get away with it. BTW those red “adopted” neck bands are useless because there are adopted dogs that aren’t wearing them, and I stepped on one while at the shelter last week. They fall off the dogs, or are never even put on them to indicate they’ve been adopted.
I’m confused as to why the “review date” is listed as 6/17. Was there a holiday that week or was the shelter closed to the public any days other than Sunday & Monday? Or, has the mandatory 3 day hold been extended? If not, the the review date would have actually been 6/13 not 6/17 as listed on the card. And while having a review date (or kill date) for any animal is disgusting, it is legal.
Your calculation is incorrect. It is illegal to count the day of impound against the animal. It is illegal to kill the animal on the last day of the holding period. The animal gets 3 “full business days” which exclude weekends and any days the pound is closed. MAS kept locking its doors in June, repeatedly blaming parvo outbreaks at the facility. Those days can not be counted as “full business days”. That is the reason this dog’s records were FOIA’d – to see if MAS was following the law during these closures.
You’re on moderation unless and until you can pick a side, asshat.