One Thing is Clear.......Longview Expects Top $ To Execute the Animals!

I have mixed feelings about what or why or how to continue posting to this blog. Every time an animal is KILLED at the "shelter" in Longview, TX ........perfectly healthy adoptable animals, every single time I make a promise to them and to all the poor creatures who have the misfortune to end up there.....I promise them someday this hell hole will be shut down. (Yes, I said hell hole...I call it like it is.)

I'm certain the tax-paying people of Longview and the surrounding communities are NOT truly aware these animals are being KILLED. I think some of the owner surrenders we curse about are clueless as to what chance their "pet" REALLY has for survival at Longview. This dirty little secret is not so little anymore and not as easy to sweep under the rug. It won't go away....the interim director refuses to see the truth in what is.

The kill rate being reported by Ms Russell appears to be watered down considerably, but I will say this: ANY % of perfectly healthy, adoptable animals being KILLED is UNACCEPTABLE.

Taxpayers of Longview, do you realize this shelter is now asking YOU to pay this shelter nearly $100,000 MORE this year for a total of $260,250 during the 2012-13 fiscal year? Yes, they are asking that very amount! WHY should Longview continue to pay EVEN MORE JUST TO CONTINUE KILLING the animals?

Understand also that amount DOES NOT INCLUDE the free water, sewer and refuge the city of Longview gives them. PLUS add to the $260,250 ALL the adoption fees and donations. PLUS add to that the $ Longview receives from the other communities. Longview has individual contracts with the other communities.

The interim director refuses to step down and she refuses to embrace a NO KILL solution. Kirby TX went NO KILL and they DID IT OVERNIGHT! Longview's excuses are as old as their methods.......

ONE THING IS CLEAR......no matter the building, no matter the director, no matter the mayor or city council or all the advocates combined......IF LONGVIEW DOES NOT ACCEPT THE NO KILL METHOD THE ANIMALS OF THAT AREA ARE FOREVER LOST.

If you love the animals, don't keep quiet any longer. Shut this place down!

RIP

Of the animals pictured in this collage who were "featured" in an earlier post....the following PERFECTLY HEALTHY ADOPTABLE ANIMALS WERE ALL KILLED AT LONGVIEW!

(These animals represent only a tiny tiny fraction of the animals slaughtered in that "shelter".)

  

 

RIP Snowball, Snow, Sally, Liz, Raquel, Buddy and Shep *(

STOP KILLING THE LONGVIEW TX ANIMALS!

I don't know how to start this post. It may seem jumbled, but I'm desperate to speak for all these poor creatures who can't stand up for themselves. They are all at the mercy of a "shelter" that DOES NOT believe NO KILL is even feasible so they continue to KILL!  On whose authority do they justify these deaths? This archaic method of animal control is inexcusable.....ALL THE ANIMALS AT LONGVIEW TX HIGH-KILL SHELTER WANT TO LIVE! ALL OF THEM!

The collage below was made and posted Friday night, Aug 10th of animals in the URGENT album at Longview whose "time was up". Tomorrow when the shelter officially reopens, I will recheck all their statuses to see who made it out alive from this picture. Here's the BEFORE ....(I can tell you right now though that Snow, Sally, Liz and Raquel were all DEAD by Saturday....)



 I will update the status of the animals in the above collage by Wednesday evening.

16 BLACK BEAUTIES OF LONGVIEW

Following are 3 picture collages of 16 of the 18 black animals currently in the URGENT album at Longview. Nine of these animals are black lab mix. Statistics show black animals have a much harder time getting adopted or even rescued out of shelters. And now that Longview has also recently cancelled long-term fostering, cancelled free adoptions to military and raised the adoption fees of cats from $50 to $75, the black animals' chances of living are even slimmer....

This is a STUPID statistic, but it's true. Several people have been posting the past few days actually pleading and begging Longview to do a "special sale" or even give these black animals away FREE all this next week to prospective adopters. I'm posting the 16 black animals photos here in 3 separate collages. One of the shelter's most infamous excuses is, "I can't give these animals out to just anyone." Yep, shelter folks, we GET that and we agree....BUT DEAD IS DEAD! Keeping these animals, denying offers to foster, keeping them just to end up KILLING THEM is SICK!!! 

IF the interim director of Longview is seriously committed to saving these animals lives, she will do ANYTHING to save these animals lives. Because the same old tired and archaic excuses for killing are NOT ACCEPTABLE!

Look at their beautiful faces and memorize their names! ALL THE ANIMALS AT LONGVIEW DESERVE TO LIVE! EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE PERFECTLY HEALTHY ADOPTABLE ANIMALS!

PLEASE LOOK AT ALL THE ANIMALS AT LONGVIEW IN THE URGENT ALBUM. SHARE THEM! SAVE THEM! GET THEM OUT OF THERE! THEY NEED ALL OF US WORKING TOGETHER! NO MORE EXCUSES! NONE!

 

CITY COUNCIL MEETING - THURSDAY AUG 9 5:30 PM

ALL HEARTS 4 PAWS

needs your whole heart participation in saving the animals of Longview TX! PLEASE join their Facebook page and LIKE them to show your support.

Be at the city council meeting of Longview! More information on All Hearts 4 Paws Facebook page!

Please Spread the Word! The animals need all the help they can get!

KILL SHELTERS = DEAD ANIMALS.....ONE TRUE FACT!

It's true that kill shelters means you will have dead animals. Anyone who says different is fooling themselves. It's also true that NO KILL does not mean NO DEAD ANIMALS! It means 90% or more of all animals saved and 100% of all adoptable animals saved!

Pictured here are 12 sweet perfectly healthy adoptable animals killed all on or around July 27th, all KILLED at Longview Shelter in Texas. (NOT put to sleep.....these animals are NOT SLEEPING....THEY ARE DEAD!) The EXACT date is "unknown" because like many kill shelters this shelter is particularly secretive about details of when and how many are KILLED.

Rest in Peace All You Sweet Creatures......Noodles, Gidget, May and Fay, Lounger, Baby Ollie, Tux, Blueberry and Muffin, Marmalade, Baby Strawberry and Cookie. YOU WERE LOVED by many and we pray you're at the Rainbow Bridge awaiting your true forever people......the ones who didn't have time to find you before your lives were unceremoniously taken away.

To end this post......I want to say I recently received two LOOOONG messages from an employee of this shelter who told me my posting about the activities at this shelter was "hard on the people who actually do the euthanizing" (I can't believe they still call it euthanizing.....sigh). I wanted to type back really fast....."I bet it's a LOT HARDER on those poor animals you're killing!"

But I didn't type that. Instead I tried to talk to this employee about NO KILL. I prayed really hard this employee would finally "get it" and know that killing these animals can never be justified. NEVER EVER EVER.......

ANOTHER Kind of Animal Shelter - Take Notes Animal Lovers!

Overhauling the antiquated shelter mindset requires an open mind and a willingness to embrace alternative methods of "sheltering" these animals and preparing them for their forever homes. Throwing OUT some cages and throwing IN a few couches...... Watch and TAKE NOTES! :)



I know a gal in rescue that employs a similar method to house her animals. Funny thing is, her place isn't fancy but the dogs are well cared for and HAPPY! Imagine that!

Want to make things better for the animals, but don't know where to start? Three WEAPONS in this war we are raging against the high-kill shelters.

1. NO KILL 101 PRIMER
2. How to Start an Animal Sanctuary
3. A positive attitude and compassion for the animals!

Please share this post with any and every animal lover you know! Work Together FOR THE ANIMALS!

One Woman Animal Advocate Army in Kirby, TX

Photo Credit KSAT

Christie Banduch is the sole employee at the animal shelter in Kirby, TX.  Since she was hired a year ago, she has been virtually singlehandedly responsible for the180 degree turnaround in saving these animals lives. Prior to Christie's arrival the live release rate was a heartbreaking 4% and under Christie's tenure it's at 83%!

How does Christie do it? She's not only the sole animal control officer, she does EVERY JOB at that shelter because she is the only employee. This shelter is open admission and it also takes owner surrenders. The average intake is 100 dogs and cats each month, which is a LOT for one person to handle. But she is doing it!

This gal could dig up the same worn out excuses that shelter directors and board members have been using for decades, but she doesn't. She's obviously in it FOR THE ANIMALS.

She is living proof that NO KILL works! And yes, she CHANGED it overnight. By not settling for anything less, she is saving many lives. And isn't that what this is all about?

If just one person made this much difference in only the time it took her to come onboard and get to work, just think what an ARMY of Volunteers could do working together FOR THE ANIMALS! Read all about Christie here.  (And she's even got a very informative website here....an ARMY of ONE was all it took!)

And did I mention they do mobile adoption events EVERY Saturday? YES!!!

Thank you Christie Banduch for caring enough for these animals to find the better (and the ONLY) way!  The city of Kirby is hoping to hire a full-time technician for Christie next year. For now, she can always use more volunteers. (210) 661-8515 (You'll have to leave a message because there are no employees to answer the phone, but Christie WILL call you back!)  :)

The SERVICES and PROGRAMS this shelter provides:

Pet Adoption
Stray Animal Pick-up
Low-Cost Dog Training
Foster Care Program
Animal Cruelty Investigations
Humane Education Programs
Volunteer Program
Low-Cost Pet Vaccinations
SNAP Mobile Spay / Neuter

So, animal advocates of Gregg County, Texas......what are we waiting for? NO MORE EXCUSES! Let's do this FOR THE ANIMALS!

LONGVIEW TX NAY SAYERS GET OUT OF THE WAY!

This post covers two topics...

First topic: City Council meeting last night. Here are the video minutes of that meeting where a group of advocates with one elected spokesperson attended on behalf of the area animals. Start watching at 5 minutes until approximately 12 1/2 minutes.

Basically, the city council is interested ONLY in a private/public partnership. And that boils down to $. If the PRIVATE sector doesn't have half the funds ready, the Mayor says he WILL NOT ask the public to vote on a special election. Watch the minutes and take notes.

Second topic: REGARDLESS whether a new facility is built or not, if management and especially the director of the shelter are not pro NO KILL, then 80% of the animals arriving will continue to DIE! They won't be put to sleep, they will DIE!!!

Brand new facility, or not. No matter how shiny the building, or how spacious, if you aren't NO KILL then YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM.

Get yourself educated on what NO KILL entails. Be prepared to ask yourself some really hard questions. If you still haven't read it, here is the NO KILL 101 PRIMER. It's quick easy reading.

NO KILL is not technical. NO KILL means you have to be organized, you have to have lots of volunteers and YOU HAVE TO HAVE COMPASSION FOR THE ANIMALS! And YES, it CAN BE CHANGED OVERNIGHT! It's being done by many shelters across the United States! (AND YES, many are open admissions also!)

And yesterday, (probably while folks were attending that city council meeting) these are just 6 of the animals who were KILLED at Longview shelter. *( 

RIP Dobbie

RIP Terrance

RIP Fluff

RIP Sarge

RIP Butter and Scotch

So advocates, I'm asking you to COME TOGETHER ON THIS NO KILL and COME TOGETHER TO WORK FOR THE ANIMALS! If you're a nay sayer, you don't know what NO KILL is. And if you don't know what NO KILL is, you are of no use to these animals!