This whole discussion about the Obama pup got me bothered. I really don't give any sort of flying fuck where Bo came from. The discussion we need to be having is about why there is still any kind of mass killing going on in our animal shelters, why law enforcement agencies are in charge of most animal shelters (do they run other social services?), why we have no federal department of domestic animal welfare, why there is no concerted effort to put an end to puppy mill breeding, and why we don't take animal abuse seriously until an abuser crosses that line to hurting humans.
If you're squeamish - be warned. It ain't nice to know some of what still goes on in animal shelters across the country. Over the last two decades there has been an explosion in pet ownership across the country - it is estimated that there 75 million domestic dogs in homes and the pet industry is a 45 billion dollar business. There has also been, thankfully, a decade of reform in many places, leading to lower euthanasia rates, more humane treatment of animals in most shelters and an emphasis on adoption and rescue over killing at the end of the stray hold period. But we are still miles away from all animal shelters fulfilling the role of safe haven instead of slaughterhouse. When a former staff member at the Oakland shelter blew the whistle on the conditions at the animal shelter, her charges included that some dogs owned by people were killed, that a staff member was running an illicit breeding operation, and that dogs were being found alive in the freezer after euthanasia.
Many municipalities including Berkeley are building new animal shelters to meet higher standards of care. Every one except Berkeley is building a larger facility than they have now, to accomodate higher intake as the economy worsens and more and more animals are being surrendered, and more and more animals are being bred in vile conditions in puppy mills across the country. Berkeley is designing a shelter with fewer dog kennels - I can smile about it because it worries me a bit, but the reality is: Berkeley is the only city whose progressive policies have emptied the kennels. My role in that is one of my proudest accomplishments.
I've always loved animals - no secret there. There are photos of me trying to befriend wild ponies on the moors, and pictures of me sitting with small monkeys clambering all over me in Kuala Lumpur, there are tales of my rescuing an owl from a garbage can when I was 6, and the intense relationship I had with my cat Lola when my mother ripped me from our home in Berlin and left the cat behind. My ability to have cats and dogs in my life as an adult was severely impacted by the chaos of my life as I tried and usually failed to stay in one place.
But when I moved to San Francisco in the late 80's, I knew I had arrived 'home'. And by the time I bought my first home in Berkeley in 1997, there were three beautiful dogs and two amazing cats in my household - as well as Susie of course. We adopted Roxy from San Francisco Animal Control in 1993 so I knew what to expect at an animal shelter. I found RiffRaff lying in a gutter in Fruitvale in 1994 and I had 'rescued' Frankie my border collie from a family whose 4 year old child kicked him till his belly was bruised, in 1996. I began to see the abandoned, the abused, the stray and the desperate everywhere. When an exuberant young pitbull mix leapt in front of my car on Third Street, we loaded her up and took her to Animal Control where I argued ' yes, she's a pitbull' as they tried to argue that she was a lab mix. Finally they said 'if she comes in here as a pitbull mix, she'll be euthanised'. I took her home and Susie's sister adopted her the next day. She died recently at 16.
So, by the end of the 90's, I had discovered how to circumvent the probable death sentence for a pitbull mix by calling it a lab mix, and I had come across my first activist vet who helped me trap feral cats and literally snipped the male cats on my neighbors kitchen table before releasing them. I had a primer in animal rescue 101. But nothing had prepared me for how I would respond as I became aware of how badly most municipal animal shelters operated.
At about the same time as a Berkeley animal control officer told me the dog I found on my street would be better off dead, a huge social injustice threw itself in front of me, as I learned about the eviction of the large homeless encampment at the Albany Bulb. Susie and I had discovered the Albany Waterfront where we could run our exuberant dogs offleash and where an unusual mix of outsider artists, the outlaws and escapees from 'normal' society and off leash advocates accepted one another as fellow travelers at this place of wild imagination.
I knew that most homeless people at the Albany Bulb had dogs and cats as companions and that our local animal shelter in Berkeley would routinely impound those animals and usually kill them, as the 'owners' had no money to pay the impound fees, and certainly no proof of licenses as they had no permanent address. They were deemed 'irresponsible' or 'unsuitable' pet guardians. Better to put these animals to death than to let them live in the uncertain world of those without homes. Right? The pure inhumanity of this set all my antenna flailing.
I didn't realise then that I had signed up for a decade of activism and personal struggle as I set about transforming my local animal shelter and defending the rights of the homeless to be treated with respect with regard to their animals. I was not emotionally prepared when I found out what actually happens in animal shelters, the cruelty and the negligence, the brutality and ignorance. In 1999,when the Chief of Police showed me polaroids of a dead 'love bird' with bite wounds on it, it was a total shock when he told me that an animal control officer had bitten the bird to death - as retaliation for it nipping him. What was worse was that I had come to collect the bird that morning to take it to an animal rescue group and was told the bird had just been adopted 'by a wonderful woman'. It's body was actually lying in the office of the Police Sgt who ran the shelter. 'It's just a bird' the Police Chief told me his staff were saying.
When an animal control officer called me secretly and said she wanted to talk about the brutality at the shelter I was stunned by what she told me. A senior staff member walking through the kennels and pointing randomly at dogs and saying 'this one, that one, that one...this one' and one by one those dogs were led into the dirty laundry room, muzzled and killed. She told me that at a BBQ at one of their homes, one officer was telling another about her experimentations with euthanasia drugs, cutting the dose to see just how little she could use to kill, and having to re-administer a second dose if the first didn't work. Female cats were routinely separated from their kittens but could see each other across the hallway and would cry and cry until they were mercifully taken in the back room for PTS (put to sleep). Berkeley Animal Shelter, in one of the most liberal and progressive cities in America, killed 75 % of its' intake 12 years ago.
Today that figure is under 15%. Part Two ahead....
I read every word. I want to know what happened and what is happening.
Posted by: Deb in Minnesota | April 26, 2009 at 04:05 PM
I am not sure when I last felt so heavy hearted. I am not the squeamish type...but there is a lump in my throat now that may beg to differ. I think of myself as an 'animal person' and speak about and against these atrocities...but after reading this...I realize that is a drop in the bucket. What can I do that will make a difference?
Posted by: J | April 30, 2009 at 06:23 AM