MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) - For a group of animal advocates, it took standing on two feet to fight for their friends on four. They gathered along Schillinger Rd and Airport Blvd to protest the Mobile County Animal Shelter. They're upset at the shelter for its actions this week:putting down 49 dogs because one of them came down with the deadly disease Distemper.
The mass euthanization happened without Mobile County Commissioners knowing. It's a move the protesters call mismanagement by shelter staff. "When the shelter itself does not know it's own policies, then something needs to be done about it," one protester said, "I want to know why, for that quantity of animals to be put down at one time; there had to be something wrong with that."
There's also the issue of Kaitlyn Hughes' cat, Porkchop, who, according to records Hughes said she received from the shelter, was put down after being admitted to the shelter for only one minute before. "It feels like they make these really fast decisions that are going to affect people's lives for the rest of their lives and they feel like there's no accountability for it all."
Mobile County Spokesperson Nancy Johnson responded to the criticism Thursday. She said 2 commissioners launched separate investigations to determine if there were alternatives. "I think they want to make sure any future process and protocol does include notification of them," Johnson said.
The protesters want answers too. What they want even more is a change in leadership at the shelter which they think will protect the ones who have no voice of their own.
"They deserve to be loved and treated well just like anybody else; they are living things."
