A man on a work release program was working at the Stanislaus Co pound when he saw a number of dead dogs on the floor of the kill room. He snapped a photo and posted it on Facebook. People were upset by the photo, and rightly so. Taxpayers pay for community pets to be sheltered, not killed. Moreover, it is sinister to force pets about to be killed to see, hear and/or scent other animals who are being or have just been killed.
Stanislaus Co took to Facebook and spun the public backlash this way:
Stanislaus Animal Services says “Thank You” for the ongoing continued support we have received today from the community. We have received an overwhelming number of calls and messages for support of Animal Services expressing their concern and disbelief that an inmate in our community thought it was okay to post a picture on Face Book disrespecting deceased dogs and their owners. The picture is disrespectful to the families of these dogs and was posted purely for shock value. The picture was taken down by Facebook and this person in now in custody.
All good whistleblowers go to jail in Stanislaus Co apparently. Also, nice smear on the “inmate”. I guess we’re supposed to imagine he’s a kiddie rapist or a serial killer or something – you know, purely for shock value.
The local kool-aid drinkers ABC affiliate did a piece on the viral photo in which they asked such hard hitting questions as:
[W]ho would take such a picture?
Probably nobody ever again, after this guy was taken away to jail.
ABC 10 reassured the public that a bunch of dead dogs on the kill room floor is totally normal:
“What’s seen and depicted in that picture is that euthanasia is complete,” [director Phillip] Zimmerman said. “The employees do a double check to make sure these animals are expired. They are getting a gurney which you don’t see, and then they put them on that and take them to refrigeration.”
According to the Sacramento and Stockton Animal shelters, as long as a pet doesn’t have to see a fellow pet euthanized, this is the common practice.
And in the accompanying video, Annette Patton from the Stanislaus Co shelter says:
We never expose an animal coming into euthanasia to see other deceased dogs.
She also explains that pets are killed up on the table, not on the floor.
So ok. I didn’t go to journalism school but I am far less concerned about who took the damn picture than I am about all the dead dogs lined up on the floor. And I have questions:
- Given that the shelter rep made clear that pets are killed in that room and on that table, can anyone come up with an even slightly plausible scenario that explains how these dogs did not see, hear and/or scent all these other dogs either being killed or having just been killed? Because I can not think of A N Y T H I N G.
- Is this how 7248 animals were killed last year at the Stanislaus Co pound?
Depite what the killing apologists at ABC 10 say, having dead dogs all over the kill room floor is not totally normal. The standard, as specified by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians, among others, is rather the opposite:
Animals should not be permitted to observe or hear the euthanasia of another animal, nor permitted to view the bodies of dead animals.
I don’t know if state or local statutes specifically address this issue but maybe, when the sheriff’s office is done tossing bread and water to whistleblowers in the clink, they could check into that.
You know what is “disrespectful” to these dogs and their families (including the families they might have had if the county had done their jobs and sheltered them until adopted)? Killing. You know who is doing the killing, in an apparently inhumane manner? Stanislaus Co. You know who hauled a whistleblower off to jail for exposing that reality? Stanislaus Co.
Spin that, psychopaths.
(Thanks Clarice.)
Is there suppose to be something in the space below the witch photo? The words are left justified and some are cut off?
How is it now? I tried to fix. Looks ok to me but IDK about everyone else.
Ok now. Thanks!
And if they are killing them on the table (as Annette said), they pick them up (all 75+ of fearful creature that knows whats coming), pin them on the clutter filled table that has treats and used needles, kill them and drag their dead bodies of the table ever so gently to set all the bodies in a random order….and go get the next one! Wow they can’t keep any of the lies straight. Thank you for continuing to write, and write well, about the crazy illogical dirties of the Animal Pound world.
Lord Almighty. How do they think a dog coming in being set up on a table surrounded by the DEAD is going to feel? But, I guess the only feelings they care about are their own. Good thing we punished that inmate, huh? Because clearly HE was the terrible person, obviously.
Well you know, the person who took the photo of all the dead dogs was a criminal, therefore warglebargle hocuspocus deflectdeflectfeflect we didn’t do anything wrong and nobody WANTS to kill animals!
Did you know that the euthanasia protocol says that when killing a mom and her litter of puppies, to kill the mom first “so as to not cause stress to the mom about her puppies” made me want to gag after reading that. 😦
Yes I saw that horrifying bit. Just underscores how extremely minimal these standards are. And this place can’t meet them.
This is the horror that is known as kill shelters. When will we demand a no-kill policy at our shelters nationwide? When people wake up to reality and put a stop to killing healthy adoptable pets once and for all.
I would say UN-FREAKIN-BELIEVABLE but the exact same thing in Harris Co, TX. A similar photo surfaced when the Harris Co pound was caught doing this, even though it is against state law. The similar picture is posted here: https://www.change.org/p/citizens-are-still-waiting-for-justice.
A lot of animal lovers went to county commissioners court and spoke publically–which was taped by the media. And one Fox reporter repeatedly reported on this place — i.e A LOT of negative media. After bombarding the county, there was finally an investigation, by the county attorney. The county attorney found that the co pound had been breaking state laws for years, in a number of horrendous ways.
Unfortunately, the county attorney did not see fit to issue any punishment and let the monster who ran the place retire in about a year.
This is exactly what needs to happen ~ shelter by shelter, county by county, and ultimately, state by state. These conditions must be brought to the attention of the public, who are paying the taxes that support these “shelters” ~ who, in turn are accountable to taxpayers and donors, who are making donations generally because they care about animals and want to support their care and welfare. There ARE codes of shelter protocol and ethics. Far too many government-run shelters like Stanislaus Co. are in flagrant violation of these codes, let alone (no, don’t let alone!) demonstrating cruel disregard for feeling, brokenhearted, terrified animals whose lives the shelters are supposed to be trying to save. And all the while, shelter reports to the public about their kill rates and methods are blatant lies. This needs to be made known through official channels to city/town commissioners, it should be raised at shelter administration meetings, and it definitely needs to be broadcast to the public at large. Citizen campaigns carried out in this manner carry every prospect of bringing about change in shelter management and conduct ~ but it is a long, bitterly discouraging process, as the corruption in those shelters that would better be called exterminators runs so deep and has been supported for so long by corrupt county officials… as well as the apathy or denial of too many citizens. The successful outcome of campaigns to call these sickening conditions to light will depend on organized, sustained effort on the part of the public ~ which is often difficult, given that those of us who care most about these horrors are so often overwhelmed in rescue efforts and by the anguish of knowing what is happening to these animals. Another problem is that many animal acvocates are sharing these stories to other animal activists, i.e., preaching to the choir: shelter abuses need to be brought to the attention of the public at large, again, especially those whose tax dollars and donations are supporting these shelters.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund provides excellent guidelines for civil actions, both through legal channels and activist efforts:
http://aldf.org/resources/when-you-witness-animal-cruelty/what-to-do-about-substandard-conditions-at-your-local-animal-shelter/
http://aldf.org/resources/advocating-for-animals/working-with-legislators/
http://aldf.org/resources/advocating-for-animals/legal-guide-for-activists/
The No Kill Advocacy Center also provides information about citizen action toward bringing about change in shelter policy and behavior. There are many helpful recommended courses of action and case histories to be found here (one must sort out information interpersed in between an awful lot of comic-book graphics, but the information itself is good ~ I cut & paste a fair bit to extract the informational text and save it in a more easily readable form.
http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/
http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/uploads/4/8/6/2/48624081/diy.pdf
Furthermore ~ and this is a critical point of law in these ‘whistleblower’ cases ~ There is an existing federal statute known as ‘Section 1983’ which prohobits retaliatory action against those who take action to expose abuses (‘deplorable conditions and mistreatment of animals’) at animal shelters, factory farms, etc.
“In 2008, Los Angeles rescuers teamed up with the No Kill Advocacy Center to file a lawsuit which alleged that the civil rights of volunteers and rescuers were being violated as retaliation for going public with their observations of inhumane conditions and neglectful treatment at the shelter. The court agreed.
In applying a federal civil rights statute to this area, the court gave animal activists a powerful weapon to reform the nation’s broken animal shelter system. Volunteers and rescuers no longer have to choose between remaining silent about abuses or risk losing their ability to help some animals by volunteering or rescuing them from death row…
A federal statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, best known simply as “Section 1983,” can and should be applied to stop and punish action by governmental officials or employees to retaliate against or obstruct an activist’s exercise of his or her First Amendment rights in speaking out against conditions in animal shelters.”
http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=728
No Kill Advocacy Center’s web pages concerning Section 1983 appear to be getting blocked online (some pages I had saved now show ‘page 404 – Page Not Found’), but the same information (word for word) can be found on the web page (see above link) of Nathan Winograd, director of the No Kill Advocacy Center (who, as director of the Tompkins County SPCA in Ithaca, NY for several years beginning in 2001 ~ the same shelter where I, as a volunteer, witnessed the ongoing killing spree of a notoriously sick megalomaniac named Bill Brothers ~ turned the facility into a No Kill shelter, before going on to found the No Kill Advocacy Center in 2004.
If indeed the person who reported these disgraceful conditions at Stanislaus Co. is in jail and/or facing prosecution, or even termination of his/her statutary rights to free speech for reporting these conditions, there is strong legal recourse that can and should be taken. Section 1983 has since been upheld in court action as recently as March 2015, when a Maryland judge ruled USDA “Ag-Gag” laws unconstitutional. (I’m trying to track down other case examples I have come across). The Animal Legal Defense Fund played a critical role in the initial legal recognition and successful application of of Section 1983 in support of animal advocates, and can be considered a vital legal resource in these matters. Every legal precedent is critical. There is certainly no lack of case examples concerning persecution, retaliation, prosecution, and deprivation of constitutional rights and freedoms when it comes to ‘whistleblowers’ ~ concerned, humane, decent human beings who are trying to bring these atrocities to the light of public scrutiny. The legal system will play a crucial part in the long, hard battle to stop these government-funded death camps calling themselves ‘shelters’ from tormenting and murdering innocent animals who have already been victimized, neglected, abandoned, even tortured by uncaring owners, breeders, and animal abusers. It is my hope that this legal statute will be brought into strong public awareness and serve as the basis for strong leverage in the long, hard effort on the part of animal advocates, and animal lovers at large, to bring about change in the sickening cruelty inflicted on feeling, helpless dogs and cats in places such as Stanislaus Co.
And the crappy reporting is one of the reasons I started my own blog. Not that I have time for it, but I couldn’t get the media to cover some of the BS going on in the kill shelters —– for instance apparently 1 shelter killing 7,700 pets per year (or 5 Houston “shelters” killing 80,000 per year) isn’t a big enough story for most of them.
And I wanted to make sure the correct story was told. In the age of instant media, there seems to be little to no fact checking done by media these days. Most reporters just say or print whatever the kill shelter tells them which are generally bold faced lies.
WTH does Disposal mean?
I was wondering that too. I was thinking maybe pickup and disposal of animals found dead in the road, reported by citizens. But the numbers certainly are high.
I’ll chip in for his bail.