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.)