The Franklin County dog pound in Ohio received test results positive for distemper on one dog on September 3. The facility remained open and adopted out 67 dogs before finally closing on September 9.
Franklin Co has since killed 84 dogs due to “distemper concerns” and 6 more dogs “for unrelated reasons”. Rescue groups who tried to save some of the exposed dogs from being killed, including mama dogs with litters, were turned away despite having appropriate quarantine and medical care arranged. All while enabling the killing which, you know, is weird:
Misti Martin-Fuller is the executive director of the I Have a Dream Rescue.
[…]
“The staff who are actually having to hold these dogs, walking them down the aisle, and actually administer the drugs? They’re not at fault,” Martin-Fuller said.
The ones doing the actual killing who won’t let us save the dogs? Oh heavens no, not to blame.
Also weird: Rescue groups went to a county judge to obtain a temporary restraining order to stop the killings. The judge granted the order but is requiring rescues to post a $100,000 bond which they are unable to do. The county’s response, natch: we’ll stop killing if rescues cough up the cash.
Donald Winstel, who just took over as shelter director, wants everyone to know that killing is hard:
For now, he said, counselors have been made available for shelter employees.
“Imagine what it would be like to be the caregivers of these dogs, and then, in some cases, to be involved with the process of euthanizing them,” Winstel said. “We understand those feelings. We’re going through that, too.”
They understand those feelings and they’ve got counselors for themselves but locals who recently adopted dogs are having to find out from the news that their pets might be contagious, might get sick and that if they do, it might be serious:
The shelter is not notifying those who were recently adopted of distemper but they are providing care and consultation at no cost to people concerned.
And I think with that, congratulations are in order: Well done, Franklin Co. If only you’d been able to squeeze in a reference to the irresponsible public, you would have had Kill Shelter yahtzee.
(Thanks Clarice.)
Every bastard with a needle in their hand, the director Mengele of the shelter, and the obviously paid off Hitler of a motherless judge, should each have their pets removed from their homes if they have any, taken to good homes wirh human beings in other states sonthey can never find them, then when they least expect it, street thugs should be hired and beat the living crap out of each and every one of them but making sure they are alive and brearhing and conscious so rhey can feel every possible brutal pain for years to come for the senseless heartless anhillation of these poor loving creatures. This is the only punishment that thes sub human bastards can understand , either physical pain or have entire life savings stripped from them and have them live off alpo in a shelter. These are heartless, inhumane, filth. And the corporations or hidden satanic living feces that are obviously behind this, there is no action appropriate enough for them, this judge was obviously in their pocket…bur alas, karma is real, karma exists and karma comes back trifold when something is deliberate. These people will never have peace in their lives and the next time one of their dependents (i wont say loved ones, rhey are incapable of emotion) gets cancer , or hurt, or in a bad accident , rhey should be srruck by lightning if they dare to look up and say “why me, why” because they all just sealed rheir fate for the rest of their lives. They already have the answer. We should pray for them because therea nothing anyone can do now, its out of our realm, karma…laugh now, cry later….. but as i will continue to say..he who lives by the sword….MURDERERS, GODLESS, HEARTLESS, SUBHUMAN MURDERERS.
I hate people that kill these precious dogs I don’t care what is the problem everything deserves the right tplive
The people that are “habituated” to killing animals at shelters don’t need counseling because what at first (killing animals) may have shocked or disturbed them becomes routine when they get in the habit of doing it.
Unfortunately, we now have the trend of former ACO’S getting ‘into’ donstion-funded animal rescue where they often also call themselves “shelters” so they can justify killing animals donation money attained for them.
They take the animals home (except for when the horse trader/flipper ‘rescues’ “double dip” and have their idiotic followers buy horses for them at the auctions to “rescue them from going to slaughter, but then the un-sellable horses they’ve collected donations on are sold to the kill buyer at the sale and they go to the kb’s feedlot to await shipping to slaughter), “sort them” (just like merchandise) and they kill or disappear the money pit animals that aren’t adoptable with or without a fee.
The problem with rescues being “shelters” is that their is no oversight or regulated reporting, so these ACO’S got into the rescue-biz because they can make far more unaccounted for money in “rescue” AND they don’t have to report the killings to anyone.
If only people would care enough to file complaints, but so far, most people just “let it go” and won’t follow-up on WHERE ALL OF THE SO-CALLED RESCUED ANIMALS ARE.
This just reeks of a population reduction stunt, disguised as a disease outbreak.
In 2007, there was a distemper outbreak in the shelter here which killed several dogs. It was referred to as a mystery illness. Intake of dogs was halted and dogs were quarantined until the nature of the disease was identified by veterinary experts at U.C. Davis. The community was told steps would be taken to prevent recurrence. In April of 2013, our shelter director (who is a veterinarian) lamented the fact that animals enter the building healthy and later get sick. She was advised by an expert in the sheltering industry to vaccinate animals on intake, adopt strict cleaning protocols and separate animals by the categories of isolation, quarantine and adoption ready. In July of 2014, there was yet another mystery illness in the shelter. People were told that hundreds of dogs had to be removed fast or they would be destroyed. We were never told that they mystery illness was. And we know that dogs continue to get sick to this very day as we are told the problem is “the building.”
Here, we have 67 dogs adopted out in a 6 day period. If we follow the shelter’s reasoning that the 84 remaining dogs had to die, what does that say about the 67 put in homes during the “at risk” window/incubation period? Is the shelter offering to step up to treat and test all of those dogs it released during the 6 day period? Of course not. And why? Because there was surely nothing wrong with them. If there was, the shelter would have heard about it already.
What we have here is the killing of 84 dogs for convenience and while hiding behind the D word. Don’t cry me a river about how hard this is on everyone. Vaccinate on intake, develop protocols and keep dogs from getting sick.
And the $100,000 rescue ransom? Complete and utter BS since a TRO should not have been necessary in the first place.
Actually, they strongly suspected that they had a distemper case on August 31st. And THEN they held a big Labor Day special adoption event and moved a LOT of dogs out into the community. And they continued to take in dogs (and are STILL taking in dogs – because we’ve got lots of room now that we’ve killed at least 84 dogs so far).
This shelter director has a history of “clearing the shelter” via death. He’s done it at least twice before and seems to think it’s a good way to get rid of pitties.
They are killing dogs now that are healthy, have had at least one distemper shot AND one booster, and have no behavior issues. Why? Distemper. Behavior. Kennel stress. Something.
All dogs under 6 months were first to die. If they were nursing pups? Mom got killed, too.
This place has a vet on staff. A vet who has been asking and asking for a disease protocol for over a year, now. No protocol was put in place. They had no notification system. No plans to lock down. No idea how to handle it. Which is why they allowed both rescue groups and visitors to walk through all areas of the shelter even AFTER they KNEW FOR SURE that they had distemper on the premises. And why rescue groups are now sweating, wondering if their fosters are exposed, if their personal dogs are exposed, and no one knowing how far it has gotten into the community at large.
Local vets have offered to help, but the shelter is “handling it”. By killing.
The rescue groups were given 24 hours to raise the 100k. Little wonder they couldn’t do it.
Rumor has it that there are plans to kill 8-10 dogs a day. Rumor also has it that the actual number of dead is much higher and the shelter is pretending to kill 8-10 dogs a day to make the number more palatable. Staff won’t speak out for fear of retaliation. Sound familiar?
But rescue groups – who were royally screwed in this and are now spending their own precious funds to test the dogs they pulled – are trying to get a quarantine building set up and manned by all volunteers. A daunting project that would have to coordinate through multiple rescues, but they’re desperate to save lives and the only way that is likely to happen is if they can get dogs away from the kill-happy shelter director.
The commissioner in charge of the shelter is an ass and totally cool with how it’s being handled, btw. Fortunately, I believe he’s up for re-election, soon. That may not go so good for him.
“The county announced Friday that it is working with the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine to test every dog in the shelter for distemper.”
The shelter said they will not kill any dog without a positive distemper test. So far 90 dogs have been killed.
Any of the dogs exposed to the virus before they were adopted or pulled by a rescue group, who are now showing symptoms, can receive veterinary care paid by the county.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/09/16/Distemper_Franklin_County_Dog_Shelter_Friday.html
Stop the Mass Euthanasia at the Franklin County Ohio Dog Shelter.
https://www.change.org/p/marilyn-brown-stop-the-mass-euthanasia-at-the-franklin-county-ohio-dog-shelter?source_location=petition_footer&algorithm=promoted&grid_position=1
12 more dogs killed last night, it’s being reported.
Why the hell are they sending stuff to Wisc to be tested – Ohio State HAS a HUGE veterinary School AND LAB – in the same damn county, for cryin’ out loud?
Wisconsin is donating the tests.
This place also loves to give microchipped and registered animals away then claim there is nothing that can be done even though they broke the law. Look up Piper the Sheltie.
In more recent events, last month they gave a microchipped dog stolen from South Carolina away within a couple of hours. Why? The person who came in claimed to own him. Didn’t check any ID. Never mind that the name didn’t match the chip. She claimed to own him, that was enough to hand over a pet. The police got involved with this one and forced them to track down the person and get him back.
In short, these bastards don’t give a shit about the animals. Much less the law.
http://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/protests-as-franklin-county-dog-shelter-re-opens
90 dogs dead, 1 positive for distemper. They are going to “review” what was done…
http://www.pupjournal.com/shelter-killed-99-innocent-dogs-refuse-stay-silent/
Director Wintsel should be fired and Commissioner John O’Grady should be voted out in November. If I lived in Franklin county, I would be working toward those goals.
There are people who are. I can only hope it’s effective. Change is LONG overdue – and more dogs will die if it doesn’t happen.
I am sickened at the level of brutality at this so-called shelter. There comes a time when each person has to answer for their actions, and I feel sorry for you people who put down all these animals unnecessarily. Those of you who killed the animals with the pretty pink shots, do your kids know what you do at work? Would you go to your kids school for career day and stand up in front of the 2nd or 3rd grade class and say “I kill animals for no good reason.” I’m wondering, if when you administer the kill shots, you get aroused? One would think you’d have to have some personality disorder or fetish to kill that many dogs in a couple of days and then try to hide it and or make excuses for it . Knowledgeable saviors were banging on your door, begging you to let them help you, and you refused them pridefully. Your lack of policy, your lack of Education, your lack of empathy, your lack of motivation, and your lack of a human soul leaves me wondering how in the world any of you ever got your jobs. You know karma’s a b****