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A Dog's Life - 4/25/2001
The Memphis Animal Shelter impounds 16,000 dogs
a year. More than 13,000 are destroyed.
Mary Cashiola
PHOTOS BY ROBIN SALANT
One evening
last January,
Brenda Grant
was on her way
home from
work when she
got a call from
her daughter.
An animal-
control officer
was at their
house and
trying to take
the family's
three dogs.
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Cover Story
A pyramid c""inQ i." a
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Here'" th~ .Iate"t news
frQml:lQlhJumls.
City Reporter
City council. school board
II)'..lQuworKQl1Ld!ffiW1J1.CJ1!;.
and othl1r nl1W!;,
City Beat
The Tri-State Defender
has anj"l"re"t[[lg
@RfoaCO.l.o..n.eWs,
http://www.memphisflyer.comIMFSearchlfuIlJesults.asp?xUrom=1&aID=1048
4/18/2003
,
The Memphis Animal Shelter,
with more than 150 kennels
and 200 cages, runs at 100
percent capacity most of the
year.
When Grant
arrived home a
short while
later, there
were four
potice cars surrounding the house; her daughter was
sitting in the back of one of them. Grant's dogs were
in an animal-control vehicle.
According to an elderly neighbor, Grant's 14-year-01d
daughter and the animal-control officer had gotten
into a verbal confrontation, and when the officer tried
to enter the house to get the dog she had seen
running loose in the front yard, Granfs daughter
shoved her arm out oflhe doorway. The officer at
.
.
.
some point decided to take all three dogs, even the
two that were still chained in the backyard.
Grant was issued a ticket for having two dogs
running at large and for four dogs without licenses or
vaccinations. She was also issued a Juvenile Court
summons for her daughter. But Brenda Grant's
ordeal was far from over.
Grant called the Memphis Animal Shelter and was
told that impounded animals were held for three days
for the owner and then were held another seven if
deemed suitable for adoption. Because she works
two jobs, she had a friend call and ask as well, just to
make sure she knew the timetable.
According to Grant, her dogs were taken on
Wednesday night. She remembers because she
doesn't work on Tuesdays, and at the time she
thought about calling her mother but remembered
she'd be at the church she attends on Wednesdays.
Her ticket, however, handwritten by the animal-
control officer, says the date was Tuesday, January
23rd.
Depending on who you believe, Saturday would have
been either the dogs' third or fourth day at the
shelter. Grant, her mother, and a friend arrived at 10
a.m. Saturday, the time the shelter opens to the
public. They found their dogs, took the cards off the
cages - tags used to identify each dog with date
impounded, date due out, sex, and breed - and went
to the frontto pay. They stood in line for 10 to 15
minutes before getting to the window and giving the
tags to the man at the counter.
"He called back to the back and then said into the
phone, 'You're kidding.' And then he looked at me
and said, 'They've already been put down,'" says
Grant.
"They had removed my dogs from cages that had no
tags on them and put them to sleep while we were in
line waiting to pay the fines and take them home."
The Memphis Animal Shelter is a squat gray brick
building near the airport on Tchulahoma Road. Inside
it sounds as if the very hounds of hell have been
unleashed - the barking is ear-splittingly continuous.
The smell is a combination of warm bodies, wet fur,
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4/18/2003
.
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~
fear, and ammonia. And it seems as if in almost
every inch of space is a kennel or a cage with one or
two animals inside, watching everyone who passes
by.
R. Kenneth Childress has been the shelter's
manager since 1991; before that he worked with
humane societies in Orlando and Washington state.
He says that by city ordinance a stray animal - any
animal not surrendered by the owner at the shelter -
has 72 hours, or three days, for the owner to claim it.
"You don't count the first day, you don't count the last
day, and you don't count any days that we are
closed," says Childress.
He says that Grant came in one day after the holding
period but acknowledges that things fike that can and
have happened.
"Saturday is a bad day for us, and they didn't do
euthanasia before the shelter opened one time and a
similar situation happened. Irs just one of those
things," says Childress. "Because euthanasia is such
a part of the daily routine here. Irs picking the wrong
animal. It's not verifying the numbers.
"None of the people can put an animal to sleep if
none ofthat works. They have to corne get a
supervisor and have it signed off, but it doesn't
prevent accidents from happening. It doesn't prevent
the officer who picks up your dog today, on the 17th,
to put down the 16th. And if the dog was entered on
the 16th, and you come in Saturday to get it, it
wouldn't be here.
"On the other side of the coin, from a technician's
and the shelter's point of view, life goes on. You don't
even expect [the owners] to come get [the animals]
the majority of the time."
Grant says that no one ever apologized, but instead
she was told that animal control had been out to the
house on numerous occasions. "Bottom line, they put
the blame on me," she says.
"''ve lost a lot of faith in the system. The card is there
for them to know what dog to get. VWhout the card,
why did they even take them?"
Car
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Automotive advice from
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4/18/2003
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Incidents fike this one, as well as stories much worse,
have kept humane and animal-rescue groups
concerned about what's going on inside the city-run
facility. Although many local group members would
not go on the record for fear of repercussions from
the shelter administration, rumors involving animal
mistreatment at the shelter - if not outright cruelty -
abound within the circle of rescue workers.
Grant's three dogs were just a few of the 16,000
impounded by the shelter each year. That averages
out to 1,300 per month or about 44 per day. Most of
these animals never leave the shelter. Because of
irresponsible e s the shelter's
s ortcomi s in organization, policy, and commun
outreac ,a u anima are es 0
!!!Onth..
Last year, the shelter went through a thorough
evaluation of everything from administrative practices
to the outside appearance ofthe building. And now
shelter officials, still investi atin a ayroll roblem
discover In ate January, say they're in the process
or cnangmg for me better. BUt can an old dog learn
n_ tricks?
HOUNDS IN HELL
Over 20 years ago, Beverly KIng founded the Animal
Protection Association of Memphis (APA) because of
something her sister told her. Members ota humane
society in South Carolina had been trying to outlaw a
euthanasia device they considered inhumane. KIng
found out that the Memphis shelter used the same
device and began a campaign against it that
eventually led to the 1980 Tennessee Dog and Cat
Humane Death Act.
Meanwhile, the group remained involved with the
shelter. During the next 20 years they helped
organize and run the "low cost" and "almost free"
spay and neuter programs at the shelter.
A few years ago, they started hearing about
something that chilled them to the bone. In 1997. the
animal shelter in West Memphis, Arkansas, was
short-staffed. Sherrie Beede was that shelter's
worker charged with the task of bringing Arkansas'
strays to the Memphis Animal Shelter for euthanasia.
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Memphis shelter. Ingram assumed Beede would
learn how other shelters did the lethal procedure.
Instead, says Ingram, "she came back absolutely
horrified."
Beede decftned to be interviewed for this article, as
did Memphis Animal Shelter employees. However, in
a signed statement from 1997, Beede said, "Every
time I carried puppies or cats, they were always
given an ICpntracardiac] injection with no sedation
beforehand. The animals would holler, but no one
ever came back to check on what was happening."
After being injected, the statement continues, she
saw puppies get off the 1I00r and flop around for
about 15 minutes before dying.
Ingram called Grace Thompson, then-president of
the APA, who called Childress and Memphis Director
of Pubftc Services and Neighborhoods Donnie
Mitchell.
The animal activists were told it did not happen and
that Beede did not know what she was seeing. "But."
says Ingram, "an animal is either sedated or ifs not."
An IC or intracardiac injection is delivered directly
into the animal's heart, where it is pumped
immediately to the brain. Of the different types of
pentobarbital injections - intravenous, intracardiac,
intraperitoneal, and intraheptic, injected into the
veins, heart, abdomen, and liver, respectively - the
intracardiac is the fastest-acting yet is also one of the
most difficult to perform. According to the Handbook
of Pentobarbital Euthanasia, a guidebook with input
from the Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS) and the American Veterinary Medical
Association (A VMA), "an injection into a conscious
animal's chest is stressful and undoubtedly painful,
especially if the technician is unable to locate the
heart on the first attempt. For this reason, an IC
injection should be admi nistered only to an animal
that is already unconscious."
Rumors of
other incidents
continuedJQ
proliferate:
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dogs with
obvious medical conditions - broken hips or
wounds still oozing blood - being ignored; a dog
being stepped on to complete a failed euthanasia
attempt; animals that were being put down before
their time was officially up; others that would simply
"disappear." And it was hard not to notice sheller
employees hosing cages down to clean them while
the animals shivered inside.
In January 1999 the APA asked Donnie Mitchell if the
shelter could go through a National Animal Control
Association (NACA) evaluation. The group cited a list
of problems that they had observed "as ongoing" at
the shelter during the previous two to three years,
including various problems with security, housing,
sanitation, food, euthanasia, and violations of city
and state cruelty codes.
"We kept seeing things go wrong," says King.
"Donnie Mitchell didn't know about NACA. We said,
'This is what they do. APA will pay.''' Mitchell agreed,
and the city and the APA split the cost.
Around the same time, though, the sheller in Marion,
Arkansas, was also training a technician.
"She came to our shelter to get some hands-on
training in euthanasia," says Ingram. "She said, 'I'm
just stunned. Irs so quiet.'" Ingram asked her what
she meant and the woman explained that they, too,
had been taking their animals to the Memphis shelter
for euthanasia.
"She said, 'There is no way for me to describe what
they do. It's-horrendous. They were just sticking
unsedated.puppies.'"
Because animals are different sizes and breeds,
finding the heart is not always easy. Ifthe animal is
sedated, it makes it relatively easier for both the
technician and the animal. But If animals are scared,
unsedated, and trying to move around, it can take
numerous tries before the injection finds its target.
Ingram scheduled a meeting that included the
Arkansas trainee, Ken Childress, Donnie Mitchell,
Keenon McCloy (deputy director of the Division of
Public Services and Neighborhoods), and several
witnesses.
~
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After the meeting Mitchell issued a statement reading
in part: "Ingram's group told Ms. McCloy and Mr.
Childress that six months or a year before, one of the
Marion, Arkansas, employees had witnessed one of
our employees heart-sticking a dog without
anesthetizing it first. Upon hearing this allegation, I
immediately investigated the matter and issued a
directive to all animal shelter employees that under
no circumstance $hould an animal be euthanized in
that manner."
NACA UNEARTHS A BONE
NACA is a non-profit organization based in Kansa$
City, Mi$souri. Started in 1978, its primary focu$ ha$
always been training people in animal control. In
1993, however, they started doing program
evalution$ at $helter5 around the country and now
vi$it about 10 shelter5 a year.
Johnnie MaY$, the executive director of the
a$$ociation, and one of his staff member5 spent
about a week at the Memphis Animal Shelter la&t
year, conducting interview5 with &taft and community
member5 and watching the day-to-day activities of
the $helter.
"Our job is to point out the 5trength5 and
weaknesses," saY$ Mays.
NACA evaluated the shelter's physical structure,
administration, field operations, procedures, and
community relations. Then they ~&ted over 100 items
they fell the sheller could improve upon, rating them
as either a 1 (an immediate need), a 2 (should be
implemented in 3-6 months), or a 3 ($hould be
implemented in 6-12 months).
"Overcrowding was a problem. They need more
room," Mays says when a$ked about his general
impressions of the $helter. "There were a\$o some
staffing issues. They were $hort-staffed both in the
field and in the kennel."
NACA a\$o reported that animals routinely &tay in the
kennels while the kennels are hosed down, due in
part to the under5taffing. It rated this situation a 1,
adding that animals should be moved while the
kennels are being cleaned. The report acknowledged
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that such a change would increase staff cleaning
time but would help prevent the spread of disease.
As for Brenda Granfs situation, in which her dogs
were put down while she waited to pay for their
release, the audit suggests this could happen to
anyone: "On one occasion, a staff member was
unable to confion the proper identification of an
animal scheduled for euthanasia. This situation was
brought to the attention of a .supelVisor, who 'signed
off' on the euthanasia without determining the correct
animal had been selected.
"Animals are frequently euthanized prior to the
shelter opening for the public in the moming.
Although these animals may be efigible for adoption
on their fourth day (or even had a potential adopter
assigned to it), some animals are not given the
opportunity to be placed in a new home. A few
citizens intelViewed stated that they had traveled to
the Animal Shelter on the fourth day of an animal's
impoundment, hoping to adopt a specific animal,
discovered that it had been euthanized."
And although Childress says that euthanasia is *
performed'~inthe morning, the study team was
tald that it is performed any time the shelter needs
more space.
But perhaps the most shocking part of the audit was j(
that NACA reported seeing the same thing that had
horrified the rescue groups: animals being given
intracardiac injections without anesthetic.
"During the course of the on-site study, workers were
obselVed on several occasions performing IC ~
injections on alert dogs and cats (these animals were
notoff8l>ld anvenesthetizlng agent prior to the lethal
injection)," said the audit. NACA added a side note
saying'that it, the AVMA, and the HSUS all agree that
intracardiac injections should never be performed on
alert animals.
After he got the report, Childress says he called
NACA to double-check the finding. Then he met with
the staff.
"I said, 'Having somebody from the inspection team
there, why would anybody not follow protocol? I was
nonplussed. It was outrageous," says Childress.
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To ensure it wouldn't happen again, the shelter
manager added another person to do euthanasia and
gave the technicians more time so they wouldn't feel
rushed. And the person Childress suspects as being
the one NACA saw doing IC injections no longer
works at the facinty.
"Shelter workers try to detach themselves from that,
but you've got to be careful," says Childress,
"because all of a sudden you get out of sync and
instead of being caring anymore, you just have a
disregard. And that's a common problem with
shelters everywhere."
Mays also has a possible reason why the IC
injections had been done without sedation.
"It used to be a common practice in this business
several years ago. Typically, it's an issue of lack of
training," says Mays. "I don't see it as people doing it
intentionally (to be crueq."
Before the NACA evaluation, most ofthe training at
the shelter was on-the-job, with a one-day orientation
before beginning work. Euthanasia is done by
certified technicians who have completed three days
of training.
After reporting that "some field personnel have very ~
litIIeconfidence in their own animal-handling
techniques," and that the catch-pole, a device used
to restrain wild or aggressive animals, was overused,
NACA observed that "increased training in animal
behavior end capture technique is needed."
"Training is too often viewed as a luxury and is thus
often the target of budget-cutling initiatives. It is also
common for supervisory and mid-management
personnel to complain about the scheduling of in-
service training because it pulls people out of the
field," said the NACA audit
But even though extensive and continuous training
could solve most of the shelter's problems. there is
one that will remain: the sheer volume of animals
impounded by the shelter each year. And that
problem in tum causes others - such as
overcrowding - that cannot be corrected so easily.
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"The volume of animals - it's unbelievable," says
Mitchell. "it's so many and we're moving so fast,
some of them get euthanized early"
Sixty percenl oflhe roughly 16,000 animals Ihe
shelter impounds a year are strays. The rest come
from pet owners who, for whatever reason, surrender
them to the system.
"People ask how we can reduce euthanasia. 1'lIlell
you right now," says Childress. "I can reduce It by 40
percent. We can just not take in all the pats from the
owners who don't want their animals anymore.'
"Animal control is just treating a symptom," adds
Childress, "a symptom of irresponsible pat
ownership." To him, the public sees animal control as
the villains for putting the animals to sleep. What they
don't see is where the problem comes from in the
first place. They don't see the paople who have not
spayed or neutered their pats, or the ones who don't
train their pets when they're young, so that later the
animal develops behavioral problems and has to be
put to sleep.
"If you asked everybody what causes pollution, they'll
say, well, 'Exxon: or 'all these chemical companies,'"
says Childress. "But you know who causes
pollution?" he asks. "We all do."
CHANGING THEIR SPOTS
After receiving a copy of NACA's evaluation and
suggested implementation plan for the shelter,
Childress began a training program wherein
experienced members of the staff, with Childress co-
training, teach their co-workers.
"The training side was where a lot of things fell
through," says Childress. "rrhe new training program]
is probably one ofthe best things we've done here."
Not that Irs been easy.
"When you run shifts and you run a 24-hour
operation and you don't have enough people to begin
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with, you're stretched. And we've not done training
for a long period of time, so making a commitment to
do it was a big leap," says Childress. But ifs
something to which shelter officials say they are
committed.
The shelter also plans to make another big leap in a
few years - into a new facility. The city has
appropriated $7.7 mimon for the plan over the next
two years and Mitchell says they're currently trying to
find a suitable location, as well as looking at other
shelters around the country.
The current facility on Tchulahoma was built in the
19706 on 10 acres of the airport's land. It has about
150 kennels and almost 200 cages and runs at 100
percent capacity most of the year.
"Ifs the pits," says Childress. "We can't really do
anything else about It.. Recently, they finished about
$100,000 worth of work on ona wing of the shelter,
including new kennels and benches for animals to sit
on while the cages are being cleaned.
"We just went to San Francisco," says Mitchell.
"Thafs the place area rescue people say to go to."
The city has two shelters, one of them run by the
SPCA that will take any treatable animals the other
shelter, run by city animal control, is not able to
place. Mitchell says he Is Interested in implementing
a happy medium between the two.
"We want to move from being a shelter thafs just
warehousing-animals,. says MiteheIJ.
Childress agrees. "The concept when they built this
shelter is going to be different from what our concept
is going to be when we build a new shelter.. Instead
of just a place to house stray animals, Childress
wants a place where people will feel comfortable
coming and adopting a pet.
"We want to get a larger share of the animals going
into homes in our community. We're going to try to
focus on that. Childress says that they're thinking
about working more closely with volunteers and
rescue groups in the Mure to help with adoption
outreaches.
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And in the plans for the new facility Mitchell is also
looking for input from animal-rescue groups. He says
that together they can come up with a system that
works.
'We're not going to run the same type of operation,"
says Mitchell. "We have work to do, and we plan to
do it"
You can e-mail Mary Cashio/a at
cashio/a@memohisf/ver.com.
More stories from Issue # 6361 More stories by
MARY CASHIOLA.
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