January 15, 2010

zephyr

During the winter a 10-month-old puppy died suddenly on a cold night. A few days later a volunteer animal rescuer filed a lawsuit against the shelter and county. LA County officials responded by revoking the adoption privileges of the plaintiff.

The message was both clear and chilling to us volunteers at Carson Animal Shelter: Speak up and you might lose your volunteer privileges.

2 comments:

Cathy Nguyen said...

I understand why rescuers and volunteers are reluctant to speak up when they see violations and wrong-doing at the shelter. However, I also hope that the rescuers and volunteers know that by being afraid, they're allowing Mayeda to have that power over them, at the expense of the animals. When I witnessed a kennel attendant at the Lancaster shelter put her foot with work boots on down on the small of the back of a Papillon mix dog in a kennel that was housing 12 small dogs... a rescuer asked if I think she'd revoke my ability to pull animals for doing so. My reply was I would definitely challenge her to do so. When you have truth on your side, you MUST speak it.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke

Ed Pilolla said...

it's tough to speak up. people, including myself, have difficulty overcoming fear. still, there are, as you know, longtime volunteers who do so much and simply could not have lasted as long as they have if they made public complaints about things they knew about. it's a difficult decision, but volunteers should be speaking to each other and sharing knowledge so no tragedy gets truly buried.