The immoral stuff being done at the San Bernardino City shelter just continues to happen. Atrocious killing aside, let’s focus on some very specific (and shoddy, shady, absurd) decisions that so often lead to that end…

This was posted today by Maria Sanchez. Please go there and read her testimony, and I will also try to break it down in my own way…
*Maria’s thread has since been “flagged” by someone on Facebook and removed. Not sure on what grounds. Probably no grounds, because that’s how Facebook rolls. You can reach a more PC-version of the new thread here.

First you have to understand how the San Bernardino City shelter operates. This is my interpretation of their policy document. Those strays coming in from Tuesday through Friday get a 6-day hold, are made available to be adopted on the 7th day and then killed on the 8th day. Those strays coming in on Saturday and Sunday get 1 less day. Those strays coming in on Monday get 2 less days! I’m left to assume that this is done because the shelter kills from Wednesday through Saturday. Owner surrenders (implied from the document) can either be made available immediately or killed immediately, based on how their temperament is assessed upon intake. I’m pretty proof positive that the killing portion of that is a direct violation of the Hayden Act.

Anyways, this sweet Pit Bull, now named Harrison and spoken about at her link, was “adopted out” over the phone on 6/1. His Pet Harbor link was then taken down and any other online networking was stopped because those advocating for him (like Maria) were given the impression that he was safely adopted. I can’t tell if the dog physically even left the shelter at all, or if he was simply held onsite for the phone adopter and placed in an area where the public could not see him. But apparently the phone adopter ended up giving the wrong ID# to the operator when adopting him over the phone, so it’s told as if this dog was actually adopted mistakenly. He is then “returned,” freshly neutered and all. Again, not sure if he ever left, or was just returned to the public floor of the shelter. That’s when Maria notices him again. She goes and requests his kennel card. She then notices that both his “intake” date and his “available” date now reflect 6/6. Maria tells a worker that if he came back on the 6th then his new available date should reflect the 13th. She requests that it be changed, the worker claims she updated it, Maria asks for a printed copy as proof and that is what you can see below.

Knowing the worker’s antics, she called later that night to make sure the new available date was still the 13th. Sure enough, it was changed back to the 6th. So the worker essentially attempted to pacify Maria with a false document, not thinking that she’d ever know the difference. Maria then contacted the shelter manager, Ryan Long, and attempted to discuss this with him directly. He claimed that the dog had already been held for its “stray hold” and that the available date would remain the 6th. Why this is important is because Harrison can now be killed, per their policy, as soon as yesterday. As I type this he is still alive, so please visit his many threads in an effort to further network Harrison to safety.

This comes on the heels of a box of newborn puppies being dumped at the San Bernardino City shelter without their mother, and thus being immediately killed by the shelter staff.

Why, you ask?

In what could be called their most callous, hateful move to date, shelter supervisors have declared that they will no longer allow staff or volunteers to contact rescues to save underage puppies or kittens dumped at the shelter without their mothers. If a rescue is present at the time the babies are impounded the rescue can take them, but if no rescue is there the puppies or kittens will be taken to the back and immediately killed.

No rescue coordination, no foster program for bottle babies, no innovation or care at any level. Just death. Again, Maria was actually onsite to witness the dumping of these babies and attempted to let Ryan Long know that she’d be immediately networking them for assistance…

Ryan told Maria not to bother; that she would be wasting her time. That’s when she learned of the new policy – and the deaths of the babies. Ryan and many of the other employees appear to be totally desensitized to the plights of the animals in the shelter. Perhaps staff members suffer from compassion fatigue as they seem to be without concern or care for the innocent lives they take each and every day.

And how about the killing of these 5 puppies a mere 2 hours and 17 minutes after this video was shot on 1/2/13. Wait for it… They were killed for having “parvo.” The puppies were obviously healthy, but even if they were sick, there they sat in general population. The 4 Pit Bull puppies were killed together in less than 1 minute. The Shepherd puppy was killed 2 minutes before they were. Hmm… Using “contagious disease” as an excuse to murder puppies days before they were even made available to the public… Haven’t heard that one before. Actually I have, which is atrocious in and of itself. This is most definitely being done (here and elsewhere) far more often than anyone wants to believe.

I also shot a video that addressed Ryan Long’s attempted retaliation towards Maria Sanchez back in January of this year. If you’d like to reach out and make contact with someone in regards to this type of continued conduct then please see below…

San Bernardino City Council: council@sbcity.org
Mayor Patrick Morris: morris_pat@sbcity.org
Chief of Police Robert Handy: handy_ro@sbcity.org (Police dept. oversees the city shelter)
Shelter manager Ryan Long: long_ry@sbcity.org