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FeedApr 19, 201105:07 PM
Boycott Urged
Outraged over alleged abuse at Memphis Animal Services, also known as the Shelter, animal advocates are circulating a petition urging people to boycott Memphis until a new Shelter director is hired and the Shelter is reformed. The outrage was sparked by an image of a Shelter worker apparently hauling a dog off to be euthanized. In the picture, the worker appears to be picking up the mixed-breed animal by the skin of its back, an act that has prompted advocates to call the animal "the little suitcase dog."
The petition originated on the Care2 Petition Site, a website that allows groups to circulate petitions internationally about topics that range from stopping price gouging on Canada's Internet, to protecting grey wolves in Montana.
The petition, which we received from a Memphis organization called Good Dog Rescue, urges readers to boycott Memphis as a travel destination, saying, "We will not recommend your city to anyone who is looking for a good vacation spot until [director] Matthew Pepper and staff are replaced and the killing stops." The petition also states that more than 3,000 animals were killed between January 1 and April 12, 2011.
Pepper — who was hired in 2010 — confirms the numbers and agrees the Shelter has its problems. "We see what's in the photo and yes, it concerns us a lot," he says. "But we don't know what happened a second before or after that picture was taken. I'm not making excuses, because we do take this report very seriously. We have made improvements in some areas, but we have a long way to go before we make this organization what I want us to be."
The Shelter was raided in the fall of 2009 by the Shelby County Sheriff's Department, and several high-level employees, including then-director Ernest Alexander, were charged and indicted on multiple counts of animal cruelty.
For more information about the petition and to see the photo that prompted the boycott, go to MEMPHIS ANIMAL SERVICES - STOP THE KILLING.
Thank you for this post! We need to keep these problems in the forefront.
We really appreciate the post. There are way tooooo many things wrong at our city's shelter, and they are covering it up by closing the doors to the stray area. Citizens can no longer go into the area and adopt a pet. We can only adopt a pet from the adoption area, which represents only about 13% of the animals at the shelter. This policy keeps the public from seeing what is going on in that area. Plus the staff does not have to evaluate, spay or neuter, or innoculate those animals. Also, the staff does not have to deal with the public wanting to adopt those animals. They are just carried off like luggage to the euthanasia room.
This is outragious! There is no excuse for the treatment of these animals. All areas the shelter should be open to the public, as tax payers, we have the right and the obligation to check on our public employees to ensure they are doing what we pay them to do. The Mayor, city manager, and animal control manager have had more than enough time to "fix the problems" plaguing the Memphis animal shelter. There is no excuse for this continued animal cruelty to be happening.
The Mayor is ultimately responsible - fire him and all the senior city employees and hire people more compasionate to this and other humane issues. It's way past time to shine a bright light on what is happening behind closed doors in this so called shelter - more like torture chamber - where domestic animals are take to die slowly and painfully.
This has been going on for years and years. It is outragious, always has been and nothing has brought much needed changes. What does it take? We know dogs have starved (cant't imagine volunteers, employees, visitors, walking by cages and watch a dog starve to death....this takes a long time)needless killing of adoptable animals, lost animals, hidden animals, animals dying of preventable diseases, dying from infection, not to mention the neglect, ignoring, mishandling and outright abuse of living creatures. Have you ever seen a dog on a catch pole being THROWN with all a man's might into a kennel with other, strange dogs! It's horrible! Yet, Memphians allow this to go on and on and on! Thousands upon thousands of animals have died and will continue to die and be mistreated until humans become humane and demand humane treatment of animals that inhumane humans have abandoned, neglected, abused and sent them to almost certain death to the dungeon called MAS.
If everyone will notice, Pepper has excused the actions of the man carrying the dog by his back.
"We see what's in the photo and yes, it concerns us a lot," he says. "But we don't know what happened a second before or after that picture was taken. I'm not making excuses, because we do take this report very seriously. We have made improvements in some areas, but we have a long way to go before we make this organization what I want us to be."
We don't know what happened a second before or after that picture was taken.
But if you look at photos of executions during the Holocaust they also don't show what happened a second before or after...but we can tell what was happening and why it happened. Unless we follow Pepper's logic which would make the Nazis innocent and those being murdered guilty.
Well I guess if I punched him in the mouth, you couldn't call it assault because you don't know what went before or after. What a load of BS. Assault is assault. Cruelty is cruelty. Pepper get your blinders off and call a spade, a spade In my neck of the woods you would all be out.
Well I guess if I punched him in the mouth, you couldn't call it assault because you don't know what went before or after. What a load of BS. Assault is assault. Cruelty is cruelty. Pepper get your blinders off and call a spade, a spade In my neck of the woods you would all be out.
When you have a bunch of union workers who could care less about animals then this is what happens! Kudos to Marilyn Sadler for getting the word/message out. The MAS should be privatized! Matthew Pepper needs to go back where he came from!
What happened a second after the picture was taken? I'll tell you Mr. Director...The dog was killed!
Why do all you Shelter Directors treat you taxpayers like their simpletons? In reality you are the simpletons! You do not give you homeless animals the dignity they deserve when they come to you at the worse times in their lives. Shelter, all you "tax paid" goverment employees have taken that word and made it into a chamber of horrors for our homeless animals.
Stop the killing and give our homeless animals the chance to have a life in homes that will love and honor them. If you can't do that, then get out of those jobs. You aren't in it for the love of animals. You need to be working at funeral homes instead. They understand death.
I think that Matthew Pepper is an improvement over his predeccesor. However, they still have the same staff. Those who employees who participated in, and/or allowed the cruelty and neglect to go on; should be let go. When I was at a MAS Shelter board meeting recently, it seemed like Mr. Pepper was very quick to 'Thank you for bringing that to our attention; we'll check into it.' Then nothing happens. Several of the items that were brought up, had been brought up for discussion in PRIOR meetings, and NOTHING ever seems to change, (for instance, allowing the public to view the 'stray area'.) They asked how many people in the meeting has visited MAS. The reason why I don't 'visit or volunteer' at MAS..is because of my love for animals. Who wants to go there and risk becoming 'attached' to the animals, knowing in 72 hours more than likely they'll be euthanized. It's like visiting death row!! I believe that Memphis could reform the shelter to a 'no-kill' shelter like so many cities have. I feel certain a LOT more of the public would be involved, volunteer, etc. I don't understand the reluctance to MAKE CHANGES! If we could all take a stand, band together, I have no doubt we could INSIST A.C. Wharton and others make changes!