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I know there have been a bunch of threads in the past where people have complained about their local shelter and how rude, unhelpful or just plain cruel the staff have been. Stories of animals getting put down pre maturely or staff lying and saying "nope, haven't seen your animal" when it was dropped off that day by a well-meaning neighbor. But now two shelters in my state have really hosed up. The Guilford County and Davidson County Animal Shelters in North Carolina are under investigation from the DEA among other things. They're being charged with 65 counts of animal cruelty because that's all they could fit in the report. And it's real bad. The director of the Guilford shelter had hired all her family to help her run the place. They were committing fraud left and right, filing animals multiple times to get multiple reimbursements from the county or tax breaks. And also had been lying about adoption numbers, saying all the empty spots on the adoption floor were due to high adoption, when really they were euthing tons of animals under the table who weren't even making it out to the adoption floor at all. Since they were all family nobody could touch them, they all had each other's backs and if any staff or volunteers started to snoop they were banned and told not to come back. So a few determined volunteers and staff got together in secret and said "This poo poo needs to stop." they started to slowly uncover more horrors than they ever expected which included the horrifying neglect of animals. And it went as high as the UAC (United Animal's Coalition) which was in control of both shelters. They started reaching out to the County Commissioners for help who were reluctant at first to jump to any conclusions or do anything to accuse anyone. But slowly the volunteers gathered evidence, saved emails and threatening voicemails, etc. They reached out to past staff and banned volunteers to see what they knew and finally they had enough that the County Commissioners stood up and took notice. They started a quiet investigation. http://www.wfmynews2.com/story/news/local/2-wants-to-know/2015/08/07/local-animal-shelters-investigated-alleged-abuse/31294421/ quote:Commissioner Jeff Phillips,of Guilford County, told News 2 over the phone, "Because of the sensitivity of the investigation, it’s premature to talk about this on camera at this time. However, the board of commissioners have received information regarding the (alleged) animal abuse. Pending the outcome of the investigation and learning more facts of the case, we are considering several options, including severing ties with UAC.." They suspended the Director and started an in-depth investigation. http://www.greensboro.com/news/guil...6692b9bf50.html quote:The federal Drug Enforcement Agency is looking into potential violations at both facilities. They came in with search warrants and confiscated all the computers. Warrants released http://myfox8.com/2015/08/18/guilford-county-animal-shelter-search-warrants-released/ quote:Search warrants obtained Tuesday show investigators seized 44 items that included computers, hard drives and digital cameras from the Guilford County Animal Shelter...The warrants state Dr. Norris discovered 64 cases of injured and sick animals brought into the shelter, between May and July, that did not receive either immediate veterinarian care of immediately euthanize to end their suffering. The warrants mentioned recent cases including a dog, shot in the face, which instead of being euthanize or provided adequate veterinarian care the dog was placed on rabies observation for 11 days before being put down. The county commissioners had an emergency meeting about what was to be done. They fired or suspended pretty much all staff (not the volunteers) and took over the shelter themselves. When they ended the contract with the UAC the employees of the UAC had to leave the premises. http://www.wfmynews2.com/story/news/local/2015/08/17/guilford-county-animal-shelter-topic-commissioners-emergency-meeting/31840239/ Problems have been ongoing since the 90's http://www.greensboro.com/news/loca...e30c77665c.html And now the pièce de résistance. The State has released the charges of cruelty to the public for anyone to read. CAUTION these are not for the feint of heart and the text is very graphic. Maybe don't read if you're sensitive to animal neglect or suffering.  http://www.ncagr.gov/vet/aws/Inspections/Guilford_County/documents/Revocation-Order-UAC-Guilford-County-August-2015.pdf The shelter is now completely closed to the public but the volunteers are still allowed in to take care of the animals currently on the premises. And as of 2 days ago, the State opened up the shelter to any and all certified rescues to help take many of the animals off site. Something that hasn't been allowed since 1998 when the UAC took control. http://www.greensboro.com/news/rescue-me-dogs-and-cats-pulled-from-guilford-animal-shelter/article_a16e7112-9a49-51af-926f-75d21c05e32f.html quote:Before 1998, when the United Animal Coalition took over management of the shelter, volunteers with the Greensboro-based rescue were a fixture in the shelter. They would come in and take puppies and kittens to place in temporary foster homes, but they also worked in the building alongside staff, helping adopters and decorating cages and kennels with balloons for adoption fairs. Many told the volunteers who started this to keep their mouths shut, that hurting the shelter's reputation would only hurt the animals chances of ever getting adopted. And while the situation wasn't perfect, they didn't think the boat should be rocked because animals WERE being helped and adopted. But these volunteers didn't stop or give up. They have brought all this to light after months and months of working. Do you think they did the right thing? Do you have any horrible shelter stories of your own? Did you speak up? I'll keep the thread updated as new info is released to the public. Buggiezor fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 14:22
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Here I was expecting a thread on the usual crazy doglady shelter volnteers. Jesus Christ.
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Aug 20, 2015 18:03
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Good job volunteers!
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Aug 20, 2015 18:26
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Wow.
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Aug 20, 2015 20:17
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Holy gently caress, that's my hometown. What the everloving gently caress. The nepotism itself is run of the mill... but this is an example of exactly why nepotism is bad. It allows evil to flourish.
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Aug 20, 2015 21:05
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Here's another article published today with much more information. it's a long and detailed write up about how all of this has gone down. http://rhinotimes.com/Content/Default/Homepage-Article-Rotator/Article/Animal-Abuse-Findings-Open-Door-To-Further-Investigations/-3/5/556 Here's some "highlights" (or lowlights depending on how you see it) quote:Allegations have also now surfaced from volunteers that the Guilford County shelter let cats and dogs die in the cage in order to keep their euthanasia numbers down, and that animals were taken from the Davidson County shelter to the Guilford County shelter to be euthanized and were then counted as adoptions for Davidson County in order to make the euthanasia numbers for Davidson County look better. Misty Mills was one of the Guilford volunteers quote:Mills said at times workers were ordered to let a sick animal “die in their cage” so that those animals would not be added to the euthanasia totals. quote:Nepotism has long been a charge at the shelter. As the head of the shelter, Williams made just over $92,100 a year. In her time as director, a complaint made by an animal welfare group to commissioners stated that at the time that Williams was director of the Guilford County shelter, her daughter was assistant director, another daughter worked the front desk, her son was the volunteer coordinator and a daughter-in-law and two of William’s cousins worked in the shelter. The Rhino has not been able to confirm those claims, but this week one county commissioner said that at one time the number of Williams’ relatives at the shelter was four or five, but that there was still some lack of clarity on that issue. During the course of this the shelter was also ordered to post their intake, adoption and euth stats online. http://www.adoptshelterpets.org/how-we-re-doing/ Buggiezor fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 21:43
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Buggiezor posted:During the course of this the shelter was also ordered to post their intake, adoption and euth stats online. Oh man, those numbers don't add up at all. :/
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Aug 21, 2015 04:32
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Loonie Farms in Ludowici, GA. http://www.examiner.com/article/the-silent-death-of-animals-at-loonie-farms That was a fun time.
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Aug 21, 2015 15:50
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Wow, this is loving disgusting. 
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Aug 22, 2015 04:40
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These people are stupid and insane. Even if you embezzle all the money it's not like there's mad cash flowing into animal rescue and welfare. Why didn't they just become politicians or something? Basically I can't figure out why anyone would make a torture death camp for cats and dogs under the label "animal rescue" for any other reason than money or pure sadism. If they just put them out of their misery ASAP it would still blow but at least none of the animals would be suffering too long and you could very mildly justify population control, but letting them sit in their cages and die doesn't really make too much sense. Edit: I wonder what pain meds they were giving, when they gave them? Edit2: Holy poo poo those court documents give examples of 65 separate instances of abuse, and there was more than that. 65. Shnooks fucked around with this message at 08:23 on Aug 23, 2015 |
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Aug 23, 2015 08:16
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Sirbloody posted:Loonie Farms in Ludowici, GA. This is awful to read. How can people so hosed up get away with such atrocities? Shnooks posted:Basically I can't figure out why anyone would make a torture death camp for cats and dogs under the label "animal rescue" for any other reason than money or pure sadism. If they just put them out of their misery ASAP it would still blow but at least none of the animals would be suffering too long and you could very mildly justify population control, but letting them sit in their cages and die doesn't really make too much sense. I think the biggest reason is letting them die "on their own" means they didn't have to add more animals to their tally of euthanasias. Since the UAC wanted to make the shelters look better to the public, they were bragging about low euthanasia rates when really so many animals were suffering behind closed doors. Plus the bonus of not having to "waste" a dosage of whatever meds they use to euth animals. It's saving money!! Shnooks posted:Edit2: Holy poo poo those court documents give examples of 65 separate instances of abuse, and there was more than that. 65. Yeah, 65 was all they could fit in the report. They literally ran out of room. It's sickening. The silver lining to all this is that now they've been found out and people have been at the very LEAST fired over it. But so much abuse and fraud went on I'll be astounded if there isn't large amounts of jail time in these bastard's futures. The director of the Guilford shelter was making a $91,000 salary and now she's unemployed. The shelter will be put under new management and probably kept a VERY close eye on. Lots of the animals currently at these shelters are getting picked up by rescues and will have a much better chance at being treated and finding homes. The shelter reopened to the public on Saturday and had a fairly successful day of adoptions and another 22 animals were taken by rescues and foster programs. Buggiezor fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Aug 23, 2015 |
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Aug 23, 2015 23:34
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No; this is Terrible; Animals Must Be Cherished; and Treated With Love; they are Helpless Beings. These Individuals Must Be Punished; to the Full Extent of the Law; as if they had injured a Dependent Human; such as a Child or Elderly Person; this is Wickedness and obscene.
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Aug 24, 2015 00:36
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Here is another interview with a past employee. http://www.wfmynews2.com/story/news/local/2-wants-to-know/2015/08/28/former-animal-shelter-worker-says-he-saw-abuse-every-day/71321420/
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Aug 30, 2015 14:40
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Shnooks posted:These people are stupid and insane. Even if you embezzle all the money it's not like there's mad cash flowing into animal rescue and welfare. Why didn't they just become politicians or something? probably because politicians are scrutinized much more than animal shelters
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Aug 30, 2015 19:27
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Actually, there's quite a bit of money to be made off of rescue and shelter dogs. Google "retail rescue" sometime.
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Aug 30, 2015 20:20
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Marsha Williams has been arrested as well as fired. And so have a couple other members of her brigade. Here is an article about their charges which include cruelty, obstructing justice, and possession of a controlled substance. http://m.wxii12.com/news/3-shelter-employees-indicted-for-cruelty-to-animals/35183414 More people are more coming forward to say that not only were the animals treated poorly, so were the employees and volunteers. http://m.greensboro.com/news/local_...f.html?mode=jqm Buggiezor fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Sep 13, 2015 |
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Sep 13, 2015 13:36
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Shelter massacre  http://ktla.com/2015/09/13/we-found-blood-splatter-everywhere-3-dogs-dead-12-missing-after-apparent-jurupa-valley-animal-shelter-break-in/
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Sep 14, 2015 04:11
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gently caress, that's right in my area. I'd heard about it in the news but had no idea just how bad it was. Goddamn people.
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Sep 16, 2015 00:01
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