------------------------------
The 2nd story I have is quite sad. A woman was hoarding animals at her house in Whiteford. She supposedly ran a rescue operation that saved them and got them adopted, but something happened along the way. She got too many animals, didn't ask for help when she needed it, or something. Animal control went in and seized them on Friday. Many were dead. Our Humane Society took in all the living ones: 69 dogs and 4 cats [that is our final number; the news reports were inconsistent on how many]. It took hours and hours to do the incoming exams. Misty really took charge of the operation since she is the Vet Tech Supervisor and the first thing they needed was a medical evaluation. My girl was awesome. We worked from 8:30pm till 2:30am the next morning, but by that time everyone had had incomings, been given food & water & bedding, and walked around. Many dogs were so matted that they needed to be shaved down and mobile grooming people came to help with that.
I thought this would be a better photo choice than showing the animals in their sad states(if you can stomach that, watch the videos below)
I was amazed at the outpouring of help - people saw the story on the news and rushed over with donations of food, bedding, etc. and to help walk/feed/water the dogs. When we first got the dogs, we had to use every crate we could find (we were already overfull in the runs), so some of the smaller ones like chihuahuas ended up in cat carriers. But, Petco & Petsmart came the next day with huge crates so that everyone could get bumped up a size. That made a huge difference. Misty got the crates lined in rows and I made a huge walking board, so there was some sort of order to the volunteers walking the dogs. The dogs are improving daily (some had never seen grass before!). We actually have more than enough food now.
We hope the volunteers continue to come - 69 (plus those already at the shelter) are a LOT to take care of. Staff and volunteers have been working round the clock. It is simply amazing to see. The shelter had to get a table to organize all the people that showed up to help. As sad as the situation is and as much as the dogs' conditions get to you, you can't help but get a warm feeling seeing everyone's generosity and good hearts.
If you are interested, WJZ News was covering the story all weekend. There is an article here (at least for now) with a couple related videos (the one with that says "warrant charges woman with 118 counts of animal cruelty" has clips of Misty speaking [red shirt; curly hair]):
http://wjz.com/local/local_story_132172457.html
No comments:
Post a Comment