Keith Strange/The News
Surry County Animal Shelter Director Gary Brown said animal advocates were taking photos of dogs at the shelter who weren’t approved for adoption and placing them online. The blue piece of paper attached to dog Doddie’s cage, pictured above, announces that “this animal is currently not available for adoption.”
DOBSON — Citing a violation of policy, Surry County Animal Shelter officials have asked a member of an animal advocacy group to stop taking photos of animals and posting them on the Internet, raising the ire of some animal advocates in the county.
According to Wendy Willard, the leader of a group who is protesting high euthanasia rates at the shelter, she has been asked to leave by shelter Director Gary Brown.
“I first talked to the secretary and then to Gary Brown, and he said that no one will ever be allowed to take photos inside of the building. That they would post photos online as soon as animals are available to be adopted,” she said. “That’s the only time people will see those animals unless they go to the shelter.”
The shelter had originally permitted Willard to photograph animals shortly after a June 21 protest where about 75 county residents turned out to protest high euthanasia rates at the shelter.
According to numbers released by the N.C. Department of Agriculture, the Surry County shelter had a 2011 euthanasia rate of 90.69 percent compared to an adoption rate of 4.53 percent, resulting in what Willard has called “little more than a kill shelter.”
Willard said she was taking photos of the dogs in their cages to show what she calls “the reality of their lives at the shelter.”
“(The photo album posted online) had pictures of random dogs and it was just a few photos to give people the chance to see that the pictures of dogs playing in the grass isn’t the reality of their lives at the shelter,” she said. “I wanted them to be able to see how overpopulated the shelter is and tried to explain to shelter officials that if they’d let me show them to the public they might be able to get more adopted.”
The problem, she said, is that the photos seemed to work too well.
“The more people saw the photos the more they wanted to adopt the dogs and the problem is that those dogs weren’t ready to be adopted,” she said.
But shelter officials say it’s less about the photos themselves, and more about which photos Willard was taking.
“We have a policy in place and the people who were coming in and taking the pictures were told the policy in front of witnesses,” said Samantha Ange, director of the Surry County Health and Nutrition Center, which oversees shelter operations. “We told them to only take photos of animals who had met our adoptability criteria and not those who were undergoing the adoptability test. We told them they were not allowed into the quarantine area.”
Ange said Willard had taken photos of unadoptable animals and posted them online.
“They were told we didn’t want them doing that, and then they were told again. And they took the camera back (into the quarantine area),” she said. “They were trusted to only take photos of what they were supposed to and they broke that policy.”
Willard said she wanted people to see what goes on in the back of the shelter.
“People don’t realize that every animal back there dies,” she said.
Brown suggested that Willard was creating headaches for shelter employees.
“We were getting calls about animals that she photographed and when they could be adopted,” he said of the unadoptable animals. “She violated our agreement.”
For Willard, it’s less about personality or policy and more about getting animals adopted.
“They said that I’d caused them more trouble than helped them,” she said. “I had no intention of causing them problems. That’s not what I wanted to do.”
Willard urged shelter officials to allow someone to post photos of the shelter animals online.
“If they don’t want me there, please allow someone else to come in and take photos of those adoptable animals and post them,” she said. “That’s all I want. It doesn’t have to be me, just anyone.”
Ange said she fully supports increasing the adoption rates at the shelter.
Willard said that since a gathering of protesters at the shelter she’s been striving to work with Brown.
“I don’t know what else to do,” she said. “I really wanted to present the shelter in the best light possible.
“I will gladly turn it over to anyone else,” Willard added. “I just want to stop as much of the killing of these animals as possible!”
Reach Keith Strange at kstrange@heartlandpublications.com or 719-1929.
Obviously the shelter cannot refuse an animal but to promise someone that'll they'll find it a good home knowing they'll kill it is wrong. They should be honest with people that surrender there animals. I have walked through those doors and seen the condition those animals are in. My animals are either rescues, strays, or mutts saved from the pound. So why don't you go adopt one of those poor animals instead of judging someone who's trying to save them, or better yet go protest for something you mentioned before instead of criticizing others that try to do good.
Without protesters & people that stand up for change, nothing would ever be done.
It is so wrong that Gary Brown sugar coated everything and told this lady he would get her dog adopted when he knew damn well he was itching to kill it the minute she turned her back. He did the same thing with the little dachshund that was surrendered before the demonstration.
I am really sorry Wendy Willard was treated this way. I kind of figured that it would end up like that. What else can you expect from someone like Gary Brown? He has no sympathy for the animals what so ever. I believe that a person who has no feelings for animals should not hold the position of a shelter director. He runs that place like a Nazi. How can someone kill all those animals on a daily basis sleep at night? I know it is a hard job, but come one....you can get more adopted than you are doing? Hell, I am one person who rescues. We adopted out over 250 animals in to new homes on 2011. And I don't have even a smidgen of the budget that Surry County Shelter operates on. If one single solitary person can do that, why the heck can't they?
However, I think that shelter staff should welcome publicity. Show the public what failure to neuter & spay causes. Show what abuse & neglect looks like. Perhaps then more funding for their work can be found. Perhaps then low-cost spay/neuter programs can be set up & publicized. Solicit volunteers who can help assess and socialize the animals, and research & write grants for funding. Above all, show the animals who need homes to the public so that homes can be found.
If the shelter is unwilling to submit to scrutiny by the people like me who pay their salaries, then drop the pretense of being a shelter and just admit to being a warehouse & killing facility.
I suspect that is not the case, though, so staff needs to get out of the bunker mentality and open up the doors and turn on all the lights. Educate the public about spay/neuter, about what is involved in assessing for adoption, and what it takes to care for and maintain a pet. Yes, the public is part of the problem, but it is also part of the solution. If staff is unwilling to do this, then I devoutly hope the county commissioners & managers will get rid of them & find shelter staff who will do the jobs of educating the public and helping the animals find homes.
Taking photos of these unfortunate animals is just a reminder of how large the problem is and serves no useful purpose in correcting it.