Last week, four employees of the SPCA Cincinnati transported a pitbull type dog for an adoption fair. In the freezing winter cold, they oops-neglected him to death:
Upon arriving in Sharonville between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Thursday, [SPCA Cincinnati Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Dr. Dave] LeBourveau said, four employees assigned to unload and clean the transfer van failed to follow proper unloading procedure and left the animal in the vehicle overnight.
Roughly 16 hours later, SPCA employees discovered the dog suffering hypothermia Friday around 8 a.m. The dog was not expected to survive its injuries and was euthanized.
Oops. And:
Dr. LeBourveau said the dog had kennel cough.
They were taking a sick dog to an adoption fair? Oops.
LeBourveau said the animal would have been found had the employees followed proper protocol.
“Whoever unloads the van, then they check off a roster to indicate that all the pets were there,” LeBourveau said. “The roster in this case, there was some question whether it was accurate or not.”
Oh see, that explains it. There was some question. I know at my workplace if there is ever any question, we all just err on the side of shrug, crank up the heat in our cars and head home for the night. Because question.
Pitbulls have very low tolerance for cold due to their coats, which anyone working in a shelter in Ohio should know. This particular dog was reportedly sick and likely felt crummy. It is heartbreaking to think of how he spent his last night on this earth.
The four workers whose failure to do their jobs resulted in the needless suffering and death of a dog entrusted to their care have been disciplined. They all kept their jobs.
Dr. LeBourveau describe the disciplined employees as animal lovers and great workers.
Well gee if these are the great ones, I’d hate to run into the adequate ones.
And in case you were wondering:
The SPCA transports nearly 7,000 dogs a year.
No word on the number of survivors.
(Thanks Clarice and Lisa for the links.)
Opps another instance of incompetence at an animal shelter. Does this really surprise anyone???
I’m confused about not seeing a dog in a van. How big is this van? I’ve been in plenty of adoption vans. None are so big that you can miss an animal in one.
Right. Now times that by FOUR.
And that must be one hell of a cleaning protocol too
Open apology posted today.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10153905256148308&id=94792283307
Yeah, it’s suddenly much harder to enforce humane laws regarding cold weather when your organization has killed a dog that way.
Can’t understand why they weren’t fired? But then, I don’t know how many dogs this organization kills a year, so maybe one more wasn’t a big deal to them.
That poor dog spent hours and hours in horrific misery.
Wonder what constitutes “maximum disciplinary action?”
“resulted in the euthanasia of a dog”. Fucking twerps, still can’t own it, even in an “open apology”.
A dog – an apparently anonymous dog whose picture they won’t post and whose name they won’t say – who was sick and never should have been on a transport van to an adoption fair to begin with, who needlessly suffered for hours in the dark and the cold for what must have seemed like an endless night because four people didn’t do their jobs. I’m surprised they didn’t say “resulted in a dog romping in the fields at the rainbow bridge a little sooner than expected, much to the delight of his canine play buddies who were waiting for him”. Their double-speak makes me ashamed to be a human being.
Can’t even own it.
This breaks my heart. My pit has sleeps under the covers next to me. That poor dog.
Ugh, typo. *My pit sleeps…”
This is the location that I worked at for roughly six months and I could write a book on all the things that need to be changed there!
When did you work at the shelter, Marianne?
June-December of last year
Please email me at barb@byoung.name.
Just asked on the facebook page how four people could miss seeing a dog in a transport van. Wonder how they will answer.
They won’t
If anyone lives in Cincinnati, OH and would like to help bring about change to our county “shelter”, please email me at barb@byoung.name.