When June Woodall went to the El Reno pound in Oklahoma to reclaim her family’s lost dog, she found him in terrible condition and took him to her vet. The vet determined he was extremely dehydrated. The dog’s urine was black. He had been at the pound for 2 days because the place is not staffed, making it difficult for the public to get inside.
Ms. Woodall went back to the facility later that week, concerned for the welfare of the pets still housed there. She took video of caged pets in filthy conditions with no water or a very small amount of dirty water. Outside, there were animal bones and piles of fur on the ground near the dumpster.
“So, I posted on Facebook trying to get some help. I called the after-hours number, and they said there’s nothing they can do. The police department answered. They said the guy was off work,” Woodall said.
The police department is responsible for running the pound:
“It’s not manned here, but we have two full-time animal control officers. They’re in and out, dropping off animals and then back out on calls,” said Lt. Greg Meeks with El Reno PD.
With one of those officers on vacation, Meeks said it’s been a tough week.
[..]
He said the animals are fed and provided water daily.
If a dog in your care for 2 days is pissing black, your “daily” watering would appear to be insufficient.
Lt. Meeks also told KFOR that people tie animals outside the facility since it’s usually closed. He says the remains filmed by Ms. Woodall may have been dumped there too.
Maybe, although it seems extremely implausible to me that someone would dump bones and piles of fur next to a dumpster at a pound. Most likely the pets were left there in some other state, prior to the extensive decomposition evident on the video. I guess my question is: How do they know that one or more of those pets were not left there ALIVE, perhaps tied to the dumpster or immobile from injury or old age? They say people leave pets there regularly and they don’t know anything about how the bones got there.
In fact Lt. Meeks told News9:
“People will drop off animals, tie them up to the poles in front of the shelter or just tie them to the door knob or dump them off at the dumpster and we asked they don’t just dump the animals because it may be an hour or so before an animal control officer gets back and we want to make sure the animals are left in a safe manner,” El Reno police Lt. Greg Meeks said.
An hour or so. Bones and fur. Reconcile at will.
Here are a couple of screenshots from the video posted by Ms. Woodall. The first shows kittens who appear to be sick and the second shows dogs in a dirty kennel with what appears to be a gaping hole in the floor, possibly an uncovered drain:
I get someone going on vacation but come the hell on. This place either needs to be staffed properly, possibly with the help of volunteers if the police will unlock the doors, or they need to shut it down. Because this is unacceptable. I hope local residents will demand immediate reform in El Reno.
(Thanks Clarice.)