The city of Norfolk, VA kills animals at its pound. So far in 2014, more than 1600 animals have been killed. Nearly 600 of those animals were killed because the staff at the Norfolk pound didn’t like their behavior in addition to the 230 animals who were killed for being feral. Fifty-four animals were killed for being too old while another 125 were killed for being too young. Five animals were killed for being pregnant, which means their unborn offspring were suffocated inside their mothers but Norfolk doesn’t bother counting them.
The Norfolk pound currently has 8 dogs listed for adoption on its website. They’re doing the best they can, totally.
A former Norfolk pound employee who says she was fired for being a whistleblower has retained an attorney to fight the city’s termination of her employment:
Adrienne Alper, 26, worked for the city-run shelter for about seven months before she was fired in December. She says the shelter didn’t follow procedure when workers euthanized animals, and that management targeted her after she spoke up about it.
She alleges that staff “often carried out euthanasia procedures in a cruel and inhumane manner.”
Specifically Ms. Alper is alleging that Norfolk was killing animals in their cages instead of taking them to the kill room – a violation of state law. She also expressed concern at the needless killing of animals, including a surrendered mama Pitbull and her litter of puppies who were killed upon impound. She says she attempted to go through proper channels before taking her concerns outside the pound:
“I talked to my immediate supervisors but they kind of brushed me off,” Alper said. “They just said that it was the way they did things and the way it was done for years.”
Tragically, Ms. Alper took her concerns to PETA, the Norfolk based pet killing organization. I can only imagine PETA’s concern might have been that the pound wasn’t killing even more animals, faster and more efficiently. And maybe they had some hurt feels that no one called them to come watch the killing of the Pitbull family. PETA would have brought popcorn, no doubt.
Ms. Alper was fired soon after and says her termination letter specifically cited the PETA meeting and “alleged that Alper did not get along with co-workers and accused one of them of killing puppies”. I guess she should have said puppies and adults, to be fair.
The city stands by the puppy killers at its pound, noting that surrendering parties sign a form stating their animals might be killed. So it’s all good, I guess. Presumably the city’s lawyers will have a tad more than that to offer if the case goes to court.
(Thanks Clarice and Arlene for the links.)
How did the pound know she spoke to PeTA? Wonder if PeTA turned her in for speaking to them. I can only assume Ms. Alper did not know that PeTA actually advocates killing.
Wouldn’t surprise me if PeTA threw her under the bus. After all, they like the idea of killing pit bull moms and puppies (not only would they bring popcorn to watch, they’d make cupcakes for all the shelter staff, afterwards).
Good on her for hiring a lawyer and pursuing this! It’s not going to be easy, but it’s the only damn way to make these people feel the slightest bit accountable, apparently. The more I see of these places, the more “that’s the way we’ve always done it” excuse makes me ill. It’s almost like these people enjoy their ignorance and cruelty because they get to run their own little world as tiny tyrants, declaring life and death with a wave of their hands, no need to worry about messy things like scruples or morality.