The volunteers and animal rescuers in Texas are furious that even after the Clear the Shelter Adoption Event last weekend when 33 animals were adopted (and the shelter had many empty kennels), seven animals were killed at the Corpus Christi Animal Control since last weekend with more scheduled to die.

Britta, a senior chow who was “normal” according to her kennel card was killed. Penny, a young staffie who was confiscated as part of a cruelty case and who was described as submissive, was killed. Taken from an abusive situation, she wasn’t give a chance to get a loving home. Would she have been better off with a hoarder? At least she would have been alive.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Daryl was also killed. He was heartworm positive. Princess, also killed, had been labeled fearful although volunteers had little difficulty handling her for photographs. Little Drake was a two-year-old rottweiler mix who was killed. He had also been labeled “normal” by shelter staff. Most of those dogs arrived at the shelter the week of July 20th and we killed on July 26th and July 27th — they were only given an average of five days to find rescue or adoption. Volunteers had almost no time to photograph them and network them.

 Because of the way the shelter accounts for live release and killed animals, as with “no kill” statistics, animals who are deemed “aggressive” or “sick” do not count toward the final percentages. And shelters can (and do) label dogs with easily treatable conditions like mange and heartworm as “sick.” So a shelter could theoretically kill 50 out of 100 dogs who they labeled “aggressive” or “sick” and adopt out the other 50 and say they had a 100″ save rate! Those pesky numbers can lie!

An anonymous source says that volunteers at this shelter are afraid to speak out for fear of retaliation. They are permitted (by the Department which is under the direction of the Corpus Christi Police Department) only permits volunteers to work at the shelter when they have signed an agreement. These types of volunteer agreements usually call for confidentiality, even though the federal courts have ruled that such violation of volunteers’ first amendment rights is unconstitutional. Volunteers have the right to speak the truth and share concerns about a county or city shelters abuses. In Corpus Christi, according to some, volunteers have been banned or others not allowed to volunteer if they make controversial public comments on social media.

Please note: Comments will only be posted if they are respectful and profanity-free.