Oh, the ironies of ironies! How things change so drastically in six weeks. After Brittany left the group on April 15th, then asked to be let back in, she and Robin and Laura instead went to a pit bull advocacy group in Tucson with cell phone photos they took of the sick or dying puppies that were taken under BAR. One of the photos was one I took of a dog's prolapse, not knowing at the time what it was and asking the vet techs in the group for clarification. I posted a graphic photo in our private group, but Kelli or Brittany took that one as proof that the animals were neglected and abused.
The thing is, that allegation isn't true. At least while the volunteers were there we took care of all the animals, both cat and dog. The dog with the prolapse was taken by Carol to her personal vet the next morning and operated on. The dog convalesced at Carol's house for several weeks, but the dog was cat aggressive. No one else in the group stepped in to take care of the dog so the dog went to the Tombstone Small Animal Shelter, a no-kill shelter. Then the "dog advocates" accused Carol of dumping her at the shelter rather than looking for a new home for the dog. We did advertise the dog; no one stepped forward. No rescue took her, either, and certainly not Robin or Kelli who were then accusing Carol of dumping the dog at a shelter.
None of the others helped financially, either. Denise had created an online fundraiser to recoup the $250 for the vet bill. I donated $48 and the rest came from supporters for the shelter. My total donations to the shelter since I started volunteering has gone up to $771 now and that includes vet visits, treats, food, laundry, gas money for transport, etc. I need to stop that.
It all got uglier after Brittany was refused readmission into the private group. Robin quit the group after Brittany left, after she got mad at me for blowing up at Brittany for wanting to change the Facebook page to showing more graphic photos of the animals and for "screaming" at her in front of the other ten group members online. By the time Robin quit she hadn't been very active with the group anyway. I simply did not want the Facebook page to turn into a very negative page showing every possible suffering dog at the shelter. I am glad I refused to cater to Brittany.
The "rogue" group then got together with Smiling Dog Rescue (SDR)from Tucson, who then got their lawyer to fire back a rather nasty letter to the Huachuca City mayor for having an abusive shelter manager in charge. This lawyer either was told things by Brittany that Brittany got from a county ACO who was out to have Scott fired anyway. (The rescue founder also wanted to make sure Scott was fired as she stated that on her Facebook page May 20th.)
On May 17th the Sierra Vista Herald wrote a detailed front-page article about the abuse allegations and that Scott, the ACO, was placed on administrative leave until the results were in. We had to scramble for placements for the dogs and cats and then the shelter was closed for renovations. We don't know when it will reopen now. June 15th is the date that the new manager, a LT from the HCPD, is striving for. This LT is not a trained animal control officer. He's strictly law enforcement.
A public meeting was held the following Monday with the entire city council. The mayor, Bryon Robertson, said he was unaware of the shelter conditions (he'd never been to it in his four years as mayor!) and neither was anyone else on the council. He and the town clerk Louie Valdez promised the crowd (Brooke, Lisa and I sat up front; Laura, Brittany and Kelli two rows behind us) massive changes at the shelter. Only the police chief Dennis Grey seemed pessimistic about having a no-kill shelter. I agree that a no-kill shelter is a hard goal; I'm happy with a low-kill shelter because some animals will be so badly injured or sick that the most humane thing to do at that point is to humanely euthanize them.
Meanwhile, Brittany, Laura, Kelli and Robin are now fully supporting Smiling Dog Rescue. They have all labeled us the volunteers who "stood around and did nothing" and even the SDR founder posted that we were "ignorant and complacent to the atrocities at the Huachuca City shelter," a post she wrote on her SDR page but which she removed a few days later. If she or any of her other rescue members had actually ever been to the shelter and seen what we volunteers did with all the animals, often without ANY support from the city or its police department, they would hang their heads in shame. None of us merely stood by. We were there for the animals every day. The only thing that kept us from stepping forward sooner was that we knew there would be a new mayor elected, and this new mayor, Ken Taylor, has yet to tell the town what his plans for the shelter are. He may realize that he's inheriting a rather large debt he promised his citizens he would take care of.
The shelter reopened June 25th and immediately had animals for adoption. The police lieutenant relies on his ACOs to do the work for him; some of the volunteers have refused to come back to the shelter and put up with the lieutenant's degrading and sexist comments. Life is tough as a volunteer.
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