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Dallas Shelter Dir charged with cruelty

post #1 of 11
8/14/10 at 3:37pm
Thread Starter 
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/081...animal-cruelty

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...1.35e4787.html

This is sick sick sick....
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post #2 of 11
8/14/10 at 6:22pm
I had to read a number of articles before I was sure it is not the SPCA shelter we regularly transfer animals to. Fortunately, it wasn't.

A little further reading shows that the manager was a long-time city employee who had no experience in shelter management and was probably more concerned about an unexplained expense than the life of the cat. In photos of the scene, it's clear they just had to cut a fairly small hole in the drywall, not an unusually difficult job.
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post #3 of 11
8/14/10 at 7:03pm
I don't understand - none of the other employees, or volunteers, or anyone who heard the cat after the first report, no one called the cops? Or, if they thought the cops wouldn't respond, didn't anyone else have a key to the building and after this manager was out of the building (day off, after hours, something), call someone in to cut the drywall? Or do it themselves? Or call a news crew, get a hammer, and have themselves filmed saving the cat - if they feared for their jobs or whatever. Not one person took the initiative to save the cat? Am I just missing something here? It sounded like several employees were aware of this - is this place managed so horribly that all of these people feared to contact any authority on their own?
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post #4 of 11
8/14/10 at 7:53pm
I, too, do not understand why no one else just took it upon themselves to do anything, after they knew the cat had been there for more than 12 hours. Risking my job or not, I would've cut into that wall myself!
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post #5 of 11
8/14/10 at 8:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by white cat lover View Post
I, too, do not understand why no one else just took it upon themselves to do anything, after they knew the cat had been there for more than 12 hours. Risking my job or not, I would've cut into that wall myself!
I am with you on this, you guys. There is something more fishy here... but then... one of the county shelters here --- the employees DARE NOT do anything against what the director tells them. She is horrible and would fire them or make their lives a living Heck.. This is what the world is coming to.

This director is probably part of the good ole boy network in city govt.
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post #6 of 11
8/14/10 at 8:16pm
This particular guy has been with the city since 1993, and has a salary of $66,000. He has never had a pet of any kind. He just took the job to get in a supervisory position, and seemed to have no real connection or attachment to the animals.

That is the sort of guy you would not want to get crosswise to. He would hang you from the yardarms and let the city laugh at you.
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post #7 of 11
8/15/10 at 5:47am
Could the employees have gone outside their chain of command to the chairman of the commission or Dallas City Council or whoever administers the shelter ?

I know there are waaayyy too many Humane Societies where employees are scared to even speak an opinion for fear of bullying or termination. . (The lady here also isn't as comfortable with people as animals, IMO.)

On the other hand, in any other workplace, job security is not a defense to being an accomplice to an animal cruelty crime...


I hope at the least they replace the managers and staff responsible for this negligence with compassionate leaders who understand the meaning of the word 'shelter.'
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post #8 of 11
8/15/10 at 6:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by elayman View Post
Could the employees have gone outside their chain of command to the chairman of the commission or Dallas City Council or whoever administers the shelter ?

I know there are waaayyy too many Humane Societies where employees are scared to even speak an opinion for fear of bullying or termination. . (The lady here also isn't as comfortable with people as animals, IMO.)

On the other hand, in any other workplace, job security is not a defense to being an accomplice to an animal cruelty crime...


I hope at the least they replace the managers and staff responsible for this negligence with compassionate leaders who understand the meaning of the word 'shelter.'
Well said!!
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post #9 of 11
8/15/10 at 7:56am
All great theories, but in this day when people are losing their jobs and being out of work for a year or more with good references, how long do you think it would take to find a good job again if the city of Dallas said you were a bad, insubordinate employee that cost them a good deal of money because of damage to a city building?

That said, I probably would have found a way to do something, myself. Even if it was calling the city attorney to ask him what to do.
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post #10 of 11
8/15/10 at 9:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrblanche View Post
That said, I probably would have found a way to do something, myself. Even if it was calling the city attorney to ask him what to do.
That would be a logical first step. The employees should have first petitioned a trusted supporter of the shelter to warn Mr. McGill directly of the implications of his actions and that legal charges would be sought if if the abuse continued. If that wasn't intervention enough, they should have followed up with the police.

It just shows that people who genuinely care about the welfare of animals can never let down their guard with the need to volunteer, to be actively involved and to act as watchdogs keeping the staff honest and caring.
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post #11 of 11
8/16/10 at 5:05am
I read about this several days ago. What isn't said is that this shelter has had issues for years, more animals have died than just that one cat, people have let it be known that there's problems (things needing to be fixed and people trashing the expensive custom AC/heating) and that the city hasn't done much to help until they had no other option than to do so. Another fun little bit of info, they paid HSUS $25,000 to evaluate this shelter. iirc they did this back in 2007, too. ...$25k could go a long way in a shelter like that.
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