GA: FHCS has shortened their adoption hours! It is getting worse there - Read / TAKE ACTION

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PLEASE READ / FORWARD / CROSSPOST / TAKE ACTION!! INFO BELOW

--- On Tue, 11/18/08, gadove2003 <gadove2003 wrote:

gadove2003 <gadove2003GA: FHCS has shortened their adoption hours! It is getting worse there - Read./ TAKE ACTION!Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 5:48 PM

 

 

Here is a letter to the Fulton Commissioners from someone that is a Barking Hound Village patron. I hope you will attend, and urge others to attend. This is such a sad situation for the animals at FHCS, and it is getting worse. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do nothing" --Edmund Burke (1729-1797) ---------- Forwarded Message ----------

 

 

 

Please read and crosspost this experience from this past week.

 

----- Forwarded Message ----Tuesday, November 18, 2008 3:25:49 PMRecent terrible personal experience at Fulton County Animal Services/Barking Hound

 

 

 

Nothing has changed since Randy's report!!!!! Read the personal experience from Trevor Allen.

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:09 AM, Trevor Allen <trevorcallen@ ...> wrote:

 

Hi Everyone: I'm sorry for the mass email. As all of you know, I'm not an activist so I don't lightly send emails like this out. I'm a big fan of righting a wrong, particularly when it affects children or animals as neither can typically help themselves when put in a bad situation.

 

I wanted to share a personal experience that I've had the unfortunate opportunity to experience over the past 9 days. If you think this is wrong, please consider emailing the individuals I reached out to below. If you know anyone in senior management at Barking Hound Village, that could also be effective in making this wrong a right.

 

Please note that I go to many sheters every year. Some of you may have even come with me once or twice. I have a good feel for what's "standard" conditions at a shelter. I also empthize with the difficult situation of having to care for animals that may be feral or agressive.

 

I just feel this situation crosses the line.

 

Thanks for your time,

 

Trevor.

---------- Forwarded message ----------Trevor Allen <trevorcallen@ ...>Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 11:48 PMbarking hound village foundation/fulton county animal servicesJohn.eaves@fultonco untyga.gov, robb.pitts@fultonco untyga.gov, lynne.riley@ fultoncountyga. gov, tom.lowe@fultoncoun tyga.gov, emma.darnell@ fultoncountyga. gov, district6@fultoncou ntyga.gov, william.edwards@ fultoncountyga. gov, zachary.williams@ fultoncountyga. gov, kim.turner@fultonco untyga.gov, oliver.delk@ fultoncountyga. gov, cassandra.jones@ fultoncountyga. gov, paul.howard@ fultoncountyga. gov, rjstanionis@ atlantaga. gov, pmwilliams@atlantag a.gov, AnimalProtection- Administration@ agr.state. ga.us

Dear City, County, and State government representatives: I'm very sad to write you this email as I wish the situation Fulton County Animal Services was different. Please note that I had not seen any of the Fox 5 news reports prior to yesterday. So the information you're about to read was from my own experience, not from something I saw on TV. I tried to be very specific so you can have detail to work with. .

 

In the process of adopting a new dog, I visited the shelter on Marietta Street last Saturday November 9th. The shelter was filthy, I witnessed two dog fights in kennels, and the staff was exercising poor judgement in regards to which dogs should be grouped together. The German Shepherd I had come to meet had a bite on its leg and it lay on a filthy floor bleeding. It was also covered with its own urine. The only way I knew it was alive was because I could see it's chest breathing but it didn't move anything else even when I tried to get its attention.

 

I was told the bite was caused by a dog in a different kennel. Another attendant told me it scratched its leg, (but we all know a dog can't stratch the back of its hind quarters). The good news is I insisted a vet tech attend to the dog and over the next several days, the dog's health improved and it received medical attention. I was very disappointed that I had to insist on a vet tech coming to the dog run in order for the medical attention to be provided. In retrospect, I should have taken a picture with my cell phone but I wasn't really there expecting to see such gross mis-management and I didn't expect to be writing this letter to anyone.

 

Since seeing the conditions, I was more motivated to "rescue" a dog from the shelter than ever. So far, I have visited the Fulton County Animal Services shelter on Marietta street every day for the past 9 days looking for a new dog to adopt. I'm a patron of Barking Hound Village dog daycare at their private facility on 14th street. I'm in shock that Barking Hound Village Foundation would do such a poor job of managing the shelter, as my experience with their private facility had always been a good one.

 

Today, I went for my daily trip to the shelter at 5:30PM to find it closed. For the past nine days, the shelter parking lot was overflowing with cars after 5:00PM as people were looking to adopt after work. Apparently, the shelter has decided to shorten its hours and by doing so, the shelter is making it more difficult for residents to come and adopt an animal in need. Why would BHVF shorten the hours??? It doesn't make any sense. In their private boarding facilities (like the one on 14th street), they accomodate hours until 8:00PM. Clearly they recognize the convenience of providing access to animals after working hours. In addition, the change in hours was printed on a piece of paper that was taped to the door - nothing on the web site, nothing on the county web site denoting the change. Is the government even aware of the change in hours? Does the government know if crminal

activity was occuring at this time?

 

How is it our governement contract allows BHVF to recognize the need for after-work hours for their private business but not when it comes to our tax money that we spend with them as part of their contract to run the facility?

 

I have two objectives with this letter:

 

A. To get the animals in a better situation by making sure BHVF changes the way it's conducting business.

B. To urge you to get some kind of criminal investigation going to see if there's criminal activity occuring at the shelter (i.e. unauthorized animal exchanges, undocumented animal relases, animal abuse/neglect, etc.)

 

In any case, I'm sure you get a lot of grievances from residents. I hope this is one you can empathize with and I'm hopeful you would take the time to respond to my email.

 

Best Regards,

 

Trevor C. Allen

 

 

 

 

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