Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Living in a quiet hell

Could there possibly be any pregnancy symptoms that I haven't experienced yet?  Today, I almost had to call my husband to come get me and Jasmine from Walmart because I was so dizzy I didn't think I could drive.  I'm going to increase my iron intake tonight and see if it improves any.  I've also been having hot flashes.  Well, it almost seems as if I'm always having a hot flash and I get flashes of what I'm normally supposed to feel like.  My morning sickness this time is worse than with Jasmine.  As soon as I feel better from one symptom, another rears it's mean little hormone ridden head.  I wasn't even going to make the trip to Walmart but we were out of adult dog food.  (I was going to take some of the puppy food for the night to feed them instead)  I'm not sure what really changed my mind.  I think I was bored.

One of the local news stations did a story on the local humane society.  It's been in awful conditions for several months now.  The undercover videos don't even skim the surface.  My husband was there two months ago looking for his mom's cat and he said there were feces everywhere, piling up and blood on the walls and going down the side of one of the cages.  He was in shock when he was telling me about it.  I then told my director about the conditions and she was a little shocked as well.  Most of us were aware that it had been getting worse and worse there ever since the previous director left.  (he left to try and make another humane society better... it got few adoptions and the public had a poor opinion of it... we now pull most of our dogs from the humane society he works at)  They claim to be a no kill shelter but that's because once dogs/cats make it to the adoptable list, they don't euthanize them.  They don't count what happens behind those doors.  I personally would prefer they go back to being a kill shelter rather than having the animals live in the state that they're in now.  If you were to walk into someone's house and see those conditions, you would call it animal cruelty and those animals would be confiscated.  Why is this humane society any different?  What they are doing is disgusting.  And the new director, Carol Eckert (oh hell, yes I used her real name... I despise this woman) thinks she's above everyone.  She says that it's better for the animals to live in overcrowded conditions than to be euthanized.  Seriously, when do we start drawing a line?  You should consider quality of life over everything else, in my opinion.  Most of these animals will die from diseases that they catch from being in overcrowded conditions.  Almost none of them will end up being considered adoptable and then I feel sorry for the families that take an animal home from there.  It would take months of rehabilitating a dog from being kept in a cage for six months to years.  It just makes me sick.  I am very grateful to this station for hearing what we've been screaming at them.  Months ago, they did a story begging the public to help with donations and adoptions at this same shelter.  The public fought back with their allagations of poor care.  Enough knowledgable people came forward with their concerns that the station heard us.  I can only hope that it makes a difference and things change for the better.  I know Carol Eckert is going to be overloaded with hate mail and requests that she reseign her position and anything to do with the St. Joe County Humane Society.  I hope it works.  This woman needs to go.

Who's Watching the Animals? Part 1  There is a video accompanying the story if you want to see how some of the cats are living.  They are in these crates day in and day out.  Imagine living in a cat carrier with your food, water and litter box.  Where is there really room for the cat after that.

 

Someone left a comment on one of the web forums saying this isn't a No-Kill Shelter, it's a Slow Kill.  Very fitting.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The conditions there are dispicable!  I left a comment...  Linda

Anonymous said...

I'm finally able to catch up with you...First off huge congrats and big hugs on the news of your pregnancy. Jasmine will be an awesome big sister.

As for the conditions at the Humane Society...I can't believe someone has stepped in yet and tried to find out a solution, those conditions were deporable. I have a single mother and 6 kittens that are taking over my entire front porch. I can't imagine either being in a crate full time.

(Hugs) Indigo

Anonymous said...

How awful for those poor animals, stories like this make me sick.  Carol is an idiot if that is how she thinks and there is no question she should not be the director.  Why can't someone step in and get them to get it together?  Easier said than done I suppose.
xx
Lisa