The never-ending question for me is why there are always so many psychopaths and straight up animal abusers working in shelters to "protect" animals??? Don't they have to undergo a psychological evaluation before they are hired? Or better yet, turn control of these hellholes over to the rescue groups, who not only have experience in stretching limited funds, but would make these places what they truly should be: a haven and waystation for the lost, discarded and traumatized animals whose lives have value and importance.
A number of years ago, when I was hired to do a top-down assessment for the Houston, TX, pound, employees who scored the lowest on city hiring exams were placed in animal control. In other cities, like Los Angeles at the time, problem employees who could not be fired from other departments because of union rules were transferred to animal control. And the city attorney admitted that in order to negotiate union contracts with departments they care about, like Police and Fire, they rubberstamp the union contract for the animal shelter, making it difficult to fire abusers and shirkers. But the bigger problem is that employees are specifically hired to commit daily violence to animals.
If you admit you have a problem with killing healthy and treatable animals, you are not hired. Given that they are hired to kill, can we really be surprised when they don’t clean thoroughly, don’t feed the animals, handle them too roughly, neglect and abuse them, or simply ignore their cries for help while they suffer from illness or injury? How does shoddy cleaning or rough handling or skipping meals compare with putting an animal to death? Because shelter workers understand that they have the power to kill each and every one of these animals, and will in fact kill most of them, every interaction they have with those animals is influenced by their perception that their lives do not matter, that their lives are cheap and expendable, and that they are destined for the garbage heap.
The reality is that truly caring people, people who actually love animals, either do not apply to work at these agencies or if they do, they do not last. They realize that their efforts to improve conditions and outcomes is not rewarded, their fellow employees are not being held accountable, neglect isn’t punished, and in fact, too often they are for trying to improve things, and they quit. And when they do stay and, tired of watching abuse while shelter managers look the other way, they come forward and become whistleblowers, what happens to them?
In Philadelphia a number of years ago, a whistleblower not only got his car vandalized, but he was threatened with physical violence by another employee. Who outed him? The then-City of Philadelphia’s Health Commissioner who oversaw the shelter and wanted to silence critics. In King County, Washington, a whistleblower was transferred to another department for her own safety. In Miami, the whistleblower who stood up to cruel methods of killing was simply fired by the director.
Tragically, we have a system of facilities where the normal rules of compassion and decency toward animals to which the vast majority of people subscribe simply do not apply.
I know you are right about all this; I had a short-lived stint at The Animal Foundation here in Vegas where I was written up for things like working late to help Animal Care clean, feed and medicate animals who had not been looked at all day (I was "sucking up overtime", and it "wasn't my job as a vet tech to help Animal Care"???), or for throwing treats to the aggressive dogs slated to be killed, prior to sedating them. The extent of the stupidity and cruelty that you've dragged into the sunlight are so exponentially incomprehensible. I don't feel that I will ever make a difference in the lives of animals, with these atrocities occurring every day😢
I can think of at least 20 or 30 people right now that would gladly volunteer their spare time for something like this. I wonder why it hasn’t been done like that yet it must be too good to be true ?
I just do not understand how intelligent, educated, people like Assemblymember Donna Lupardo, can still turn a blind eye to helping shelter Animals — think of all the happy Animals who’d benefit — the large Animal “protection” groups like HSUS, ASPCA are NOT doing their jobs — If SARA were to pass, everyone would gain and there’d be NO losses — I don’t get it — I’m shocked.
Damn so much here. IMHO they are not Shelters if they are killing healthy and treatable animals and needlessly piling up dead bodies instead of collaborating with rescue groups to save lives. Our tax dollars at work. Maybe there is some hope for reform if we tie animals suffering in cages with people suffering in cages. If so-called progressive politicians are truly committed to police reform then it should have an impact on also holding animal control agencies accountable since they also fall under law enforcement in municipal hierarchies.
The never-ending question for me is why there are always so many psychopaths and straight up animal abusers working in shelters to "protect" animals??? Don't they have to undergo a psychological evaluation before they are hired? Or better yet, turn control of these hellholes over to the rescue groups, who not only have experience in stretching limited funds, but would make these places what they truly should be: a haven and waystation for the lost, discarded and traumatized animals whose lives have value and importance.
A number of years ago, when I was hired to do a top-down assessment for the Houston, TX, pound, employees who scored the lowest on city hiring exams were placed in animal control. In other cities, like Los Angeles at the time, problem employees who could not be fired from other departments because of union rules were transferred to animal control. And the city attorney admitted that in order to negotiate union contracts with departments they care about, like Police and Fire, they rubberstamp the union contract for the animal shelter, making it difficult to fire abusers and shirkers. But the bigger problem is that employees are specifically hired to commit daily violence to animals.
If you admit you have a problem with killing healthy and treatable animals, you are not hired. Given that they are hired to kill, can we really be surprised when they don’t clean thoroughly, don’t feed the animals, handle them too roughly, neglect and abuse them, or simply ignore their cries for help while they suffer from illness or injury? How does shoddy cleaning or rough handling or skipping meals compare with putting an animal to death? Because shelter workers understand that they have the power to kill each and every one of these animals, and will in fact kill most of them, every interaction they have with those animals is influenced by their perception that their lives do not matter, that their lives are cheap and expendable, and that they are destined for the garbage heap.
The reality is that truly caring people, people who actually love animals, either do not apply to work at these agencies or if they do, they do not last. They realize that their efforts to improve conditions and outcomes is not rewarded, their fellow employees are not being held accountable, neglect isn’t punished, and in fact, too often they are for trying to improve things, and they quit. And when they do stay and, tired of watching abuse while shelter managers look the other way, they come forward and become whistleblowers, what happens to them?
In Philadelphia a number of years ago, a whistleblower not only got his car vandalized, but he was threatened with physical violence by another employee. Who outed him? The then-City of Philadelphia’s Health Commissioner who oversaw the shelter and wanted to silence critics. In King County, Washington, a whistleblower was transferred to another department for her own safety. In Miami, the whistleblower who stood up to cruel methods of killing was simply fired by the director.
Tragically, we have a system of facilities where the normal rules of compassion and decency toward animals to which the vast majority of people subscribe simply do not apply.
I know you are right about all this; I had a short-lived stint at The Animal Foundation here in Vegas where I was written up for things like working late to help Animal Care clean, feed and medicate animals who had not been looked at all day (I was "sucking up overtime", and it "wasn't my job as a vet tech to help Animal Care"???), or for throwing treats to the aggressive dogs slated to be killed, prior to sedating them. The extent of the stupidity and cruelty that you've dragged into the sunlight are so exponentially incomprehensible. I don't feel that I will ever make a difference in the lives of animals, with these atrocities occurring every day😢
I can think of at least 20 or 30 people right now that would gladly volunteer their spare time for something like this. I wonder why it hasn’t been done like that yet it must be too good to be true ?
I just do not understand how intelligent, educated, people like Assemblymember Donna Lupardo, can still turn a blind eye to helping shelter Animals — think of all the happy Animals who’d benefit — the large Animal “protection” groups like HSUS, ASPCA are NOT doing their jobs — If SARA were to pass, everyone would gain and there’d be NO losses — I don’t get it — I’m shocked.
She's NOT intelligent, she's just a pawn for the money
yes -- I agree
Damn so much here. IMHO they are not Shelters if they are killing healthy and treatable animals and needlessly piling up dead bodies instead of collaborating with rescue groups to save lives. Our tax dollars at work. Maybe there is some hope for reform if we tie animals suffering in cages with people suffering in cages. If so-called progressive politicians are truly committed to police reform then it should have an impact on also holding animal control agencies accountable since they also fall under law enforcement in municipal hierarchies.