While I sign hundreds of petitions each week including animal testing, endangered species, animal welfare laws and court case sentencings the ones that truly hit me the hardest though are the ones focusing on animal shelters that are substandard (to put it politely). Despite the fact that I could have just read articles about horrible abuse of family pets or dogs who were used in painful research at universities my anger really gets going when I have to read about shelters (and I use this word loosely) that mistreat, starve, and abuse animals; withhold proper veterinary care, have horrid kennels and even more inhumane people that work there. Shelters, by definition are places where animals are supposed to be safe from the horrors of the street and people who might hurt them. They supposed to be treated with respect and care and given as much comfort as possible in what is already a stressful situation for them.
Today's Speak Up! deals with a shelter accused of failing to uphold state and local animal protection laws in addition to several other charges (and please don't think that they are the only ones....unfortunately there are many, many more out there that are just as bad and often much worse).
Animal Legal Defense Fund and the citizens of Palm Springs, CA have filed a lawsuit against the City of Palm Springs, the Palm Springs Police and animal control officers and the Friends of Palm Springs Animal Shelter for "an ongoing pattern of abuses and failure to follow state and local laws protecting animals at the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, resulting in the
extremely high euthanasia rates of adoptable animals, despite the shelter’s publicizing itself as a “no-kill” facility. In addition to the unnecessary and wrongful killing of scores of dogs and cats impounded annually, the shelter has
failed to provide routine veterinary care to Palm Springs’ sick and injured homeless animals.
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| Photo credited to Animal Legal Defense Fund |
The Palm Springs shelter is advertised as “the only municipal no-kill shelter in [California's] Coachella Valley.” However, a substantial proportion of the cats and dogs impounded there are in fact euthanized—more than 50% for live unclaimed dogs and over 80% for live unclaimed cats during certain periods for which requested records were made available. In addition to disseminating misleading statements about the “no-kill” nature of their shelter to the public, the shelter and other defendants in the case routinely violate local law with respect to euthanasia of shelter animals impounded at their shelter. The Palm Springs Municipal Code prescribes a 5-day mandatory holding period for animals impounded at its Shelter, but
homeless animals are routinely killed prior to the expiration of the holding period. The shelter has also been violating the law by failing to keep accurate records and by discriminating against certain breeds of dogs, like chows and pit bulls, who are euthanized at an above-average rate."
Please join me this week in Speaking Up! for those animals at the shelter (past, present and future) who cannot speak up for themselves and urge Palm Springs to ensure proper protection of their shelter animals.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5154/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6529
