For years, community leaders, outside experts, and animal rights activists have cited Metro Animal Control Center as one of the worst facilities of its kind in the nation. Now, an illuminating report from a volunteer at the facility reveals just how badly the center and its employees treat the stray dogs and cats in its care.
In the journal, documenting the period from January 28, 1999, to March 31, 1999, the volunteer, who prefers to remain unidentified, details blatant cases of animal abuse and neglect. On her first day, she witnesses employees dragging dogs with a choke stick from the top of a cage to the ground 5 feet below. The door to the incinerator, where newly euthanized animals are cremated, was left open, exposing grim heaps of dead dogs. On that same day, she did not once see an employee clean any cages or runs.
In various passages of the journal, the volunteer also chronicles other employee failings, including refusing to clean a small dog covered with waste, ignoring people looking to adopt pets, and going extended periods of time without feeding the animals. One employee, she reported, repeatedly antagonized a vicious dog by poking it on its side through the cage.
“I personally believe that these are not ‘bad people,’ ” she writes of the employees, “but people who simply are afraid or so desensitized by the conditions of the facility that they do not practice basic humane procedures in dealing with animals.”
Brian Todd, the spokesperson for the Metro Health Department, which runs the facility, says that many of the problems chronicled by the volunteer can be traced to then-director John Seales, who was relieved of his post last month. “But as far as now, any employee found guilty of cruelty to animals will be dealt with appropriately,” Todd says.
