You may remember Dallas Animal Services from such knee-slapping exploits as oops killing a bucket of kittens while a foster home was being arranged, secretly killing 4 dogs slated for rescue and leaving a cat trapped inside the pound wall to suffer and die. Now, more hilarity as compassionate citizens who care for strays at an area well known as a dumping ground for dogs who appear to have been abused are painted as criminals:
Are volunteers who feed stray dogs committing a crime? Public statements from the city’s own animal shelter agency and an officer in the Dallas City Marshal’s Office suggest that the volunteer group is breaking the law and possibly harming the animals. “You cannot feed in the city of Dallas,” an officer says in a recording taken by volunteers Marina Tarashevska and Leslie Ysuhuayles. He cites an unspecified “ordinance,” an ordinance that CBS-11 was unable to find when they followed up with a story on volunteers’ encounter with the marshal. Afterward, the city’s animal shelter and animal control agency weighed in. Dallas Animal Services posted a “clarification” on its Facebook page, defending the marshal. While there are no ordinances that actually ban people from feeding loose dogs, the shelter acknowledges, the volunteers may be guilty of littering. Dallas Animal Services also says that people who feed loose animals without doing anything else to help are doing more harm than good. “#IfYouFeedItFixIt,” the posts ends, implying that the volunteers confronted by the marshal were only “feeding” and not “fixing.”
Turns out, the people doing the feeding are also capturing, neutering and adopting out the dogs – things DAS apparently knows little about. In fact, DAS is more concerned with outsourcing the killing of its pets in order to “maintain stable workforce” than having its employees actually shelter animals. (No takers so far, which is weird.)
But just so we’re straight: The Dallas pound wants to clarify that, while there are people out there tying dogs’ legs together and dumping them (some dead, others still alive) at this one site, it’s the people feeding the dogs who are, in OJ terms, The Real Killers.
Blaming local rescuers, especially Ms. Tarashevska – an outspoken critic of DAS, is standard fare. The pound’s social media coordinator, Rebecca Poling, appears to get a paycheck for it:
In September, Poling shared [on her personal Facebook page] a screenshot of a post that Tarashevska had written that cites the Observer story and criticizes the way Jones runs Dallas’ animal shelter. A group of other rescuers responds with name-calling. Stacy Smith, a co-founder of the Humane Society of Flower Mound, writes of Tarashevska,”#rescuebarbie.” Kate Larkin, who operates a rescue group called Rag Tag Rescue in East Texas, follows with the short and simple “#bitch.”
Erin Schults, who operates Mazie’s Mission animal rescue in Frisco, writes in the thread that Tarashevska will “eventually fade away. When her face is chewed off by a dog she is ‘saving.'”
Others pounce on Tarashevska’s appearance.
Poling, for her part, doesn’t resort to name-calling, but she doesn’t discourage it, either. “Are people still listening to this skank?” Shults writes in another comment in the thread, to which Poling replies, “Unfortunately, yes.”
Neither Poling nor city spokesman Jeffrey Clapper have responded to an email requesting an interview about Poling’s social media strategy.
Social media strategy. #LOL #YouPeopleSeemNice
If I lived in a city where freaks were abusing dogs and dumping them in plastic bags, I’d be kinda worried. And if it was my job to investigate animal cruelty in that city, I guess I’d get right on that start waving something shiny to distract the public and blame rescuers demanding I do my job for kibble littering. Which is in fact, a gateway crime. Every time someone gets their face chewed off, you can always trace it back to skanks putting out kibble.
Never change, DAS. You keep on trying to find someone to kill your animals for you and blaming the public for all the things and social media strategizing. Your cultural blend of 1940s sheltering philosophy, criminal laziness and Texas sized hate is so uniquely you and becoming harder to find as the rest of the nation progresses unabashedly toward 2016.
(Thanks Nathan and Mike.)
This is not funny – it’s pathetic and sad that DAS is such a waste of taxpayer’s $$, but OhMyDog, I almost snorted water through my nose at “Every time someone gets their face chewed off, you can always trace it back to skanks putting out kibble.” Shirley, your voice of reason is AWESOME!
Can I just say the writing is hysterically amazing!
Please do not demonize an entire state!!!!!!!!!!
?
What’s demonizing? “Texas sized hate?” Nothing demonizing (or even demonic) about acknowledging the larger-than-lifeness of Texas. Also, you should read some of Shirley’s offerings where she says how she really feels. This is babytalk by comparison.
Rebecca Poling is the typical, uneducated, kill shelter defending, No Kill naysayer. When I got the Companion Animal Protection Act (CAPA) filed in Texas a couple years ago, she fought against it. In her blog she wrote “HB 3450, ironically named the Companion Animal Protection Act, isn’t the answer. Simply saying we’re going to stop the killing and keep animals longer isn’t enough.” Obviously, she didn’t even bother to actually READ the bill before claiming it wouldn’t work. If she had, she would have seen that the bill did more than just “say we’re going to stop killing”.
If passed, Texas CAPA would have:
1) abolished the gas chamber;
2) abolished “heart sticks” as a method of “euthanasia” except under certain specific
circumstances;
3) banned “convenience killing” (killing when there are empty cages);
4) mandated collaboration by requiring shelters to work with non-profit rescue
organizations to maximize lifesaving;
5) mandated transparency by requiring shelters to report how many animals they kill;.
6) banned the killing of animals based on arbitrary criteria such as breed, age or color;
7) prohibited selling shelter animals to research labs;
8) protected feral cats and feral cat caretakers, and more.
But Poling joined high kill shelters, and their defenders, and fought against it. She ridiculously claimed that if CAPA passed “There will be stray dogs everywhere – frightened, starving dogs on every street corner, darting through traffic and living in sewers. Abandoned pets will be stacked 4-high in small plastic crates lining the halls of animal shelters; pets in wire kennels on shelves in storage rooms and equipment rooms, and pets kept outside in makeshift shelters when there is no more room inside.” and other absurd claims.
So, after her work to destroy lifesaving Texas CAPA, it seems that Dallas AC has sunk even further. I hope she is proud of “work”.
“It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.”― Albert Camus
Rebecca Poling obviously not a thinker.
That’s right, Bett. And don’t forget about the time Ms. Poling tried to use a quote from Nathan Winograd on her group’s web site: https://saveshelterpets.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/no-kill-imposters/
Michael, I forgot about that. Ugh. Piece of work.
Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog.
Oh my gracious, now That is absolutely spot on target there. Sums up their ‘planning’ skills in a nutshell, “wave something shiny and try to spin social media”. Made me snort my tea. God forbid they actual do something constructive and focused on the animals’ welfare. I for one am sick to death of hearing them act like this is all a sudden unheard of issue. Numerous people have been bringing this crap to their attention for YEARS and suggesting viable changes only to be met with blatantly being ignored, lied to, and submitted to a smoke and mirror fest of let me redirect your attention to this one goid part over here. I have participated with Fran at Gypsy dog for years trying to advocate for the feral dogs to cease being ignored on the street. And I used to think Marena was always a little to hot headed with her approach, but you know what….DAS and the city od Dallas do not listen when you talk. They just yell over you and wave shiny things. They did nothing until they were forced to sit up by dog attacks and potential liability. Then they let it die down and really wanted to go back to ignoring the crap again. So you know what….good for Marena, you go, you yell, you curse, and you damn well throw it in their faces so they cannot ignore it any longer. To hell with who DAS says is responsible for picking dead bodies….they are damn well responsible for stemming the tide of abused, neglected, and feral animals that exist to end up dead in the parks and streets. Pour it in their faces. Because trust me when I say, calm spoken words in the spirit of cooperation will NOT be heard by them.
This is not funny . We as people need to help these animals and keep them safe and warm. There are people in the world who don’t need to have children or animals and apart from bad , horrible dumb people who are not caring or not bright .
I have been a vocal critic of Marina’s methods, and I truly believe it’s not effective. Note that I say I am vocal critic of her “methods”…..not her, personally. I often wonder how different all of this could have gone down, had she taken a different approach (hear me out….). Marina has a lot of supporters are “facebookers” and writer’s/authors/journalists or newspaper people. They give her tons of little heart emoticons and are quick to write an article…..which, by the way, has almost never saved a dog. Those little heart emoticons are cute….really they are, but what good are they when you still can’t find a foster home for an adoptable, homeless dog? Screaming at the “bad people” at the DAS shelter is all fun and everything and makes a cute little story, but does it work? Maybe the DAS is bad, maybe every single employee there is pond scum, I don’t know, maybe she’s right? If she is successful in getting everyone in the world to say….yes, DAS is bad and give her a little heart emoticon, still not one single animal has been saved.
Or……just taking one element in the area of animal rescue….what if (big IF) she had used her voice to promote foster homes for rescues? If DAS killed 40 animals per day in a year, that is 14,600 animals. Marina has over 20K or more supporters that she can always count on for little heart emoticons all day long, every day. Can she rally these supporters to foster a dog and people to volunteer for her rescue? She can rally a journalist to write an article all day long, every day. But, can she rally them to foster a dog or volunteer?
Simple math would tell you that might have freed up some space at the DAS, which would free up some of their time and resources that they would be able to work with her on some of the other problems.
I know it’s not near as glamorous, and who would want to write an article about that boring stuff. There alot of rescuers that have never been on TV, or had an article written about them, but they actually place more homeless dogs in adopted homes than anyone else. Most rescuers just go straight to what needs to be done and don’t carry personal grudges against people or organizations, and they don’t much care if they get on TV or not, but they are rescuing and adopting out more homeless animals than anyone else.
Just wondering if Marina could have used her voice in a different way, and rallied for a “call to action” rather than emotion? Her current methods have made for good newspaper articles, but hasn’t really saved many animals. If her intentions are none other than just to have people just say that DAS is bad and get a good newspaper article, then, she’s done a good job. But, if her intentions are to save more animals, she is failing miserably. If her intentions are truly for saving animals, maybe she should try something that works.
What a waste of a good voice. Such good potential to save more animals to be wasted on harboring a grudge.
Get over yourself, Cheryl . do I hear your green jealous eyes coming through your every word? Oh I think so. Never heard your name mentioned in the rescue world for actually making a difference. I could go on and on but can’t waste my time anymore on you. I have some of Marina’s rescued dogs to feed. Oh and personally I have fostered and placed 7 of Marina’s dogs in 5 months. So sad to hear from you that she can’t find fosters or homes.😊