In what has to be one of the most evil acts of violence against animals I’ve seen lately, the Hamilton Texas animal shelter killed everybody for Christmas. Yes, everybody; I’m one of those who thinks that animals are people, too. This betrayal of the trust these animals had in the shelter staff is sickening.
This article has been updated based on new information. The update appears at the end of the post. In what has to be one of the most evil acts of violence against animals I’ve seen lately, the Hamilton Texas animal shelter killed everybody for Christmas. Yes, everybody; I’m one of those who thinks that animals are people, too. This betrayal of the trust these animals had in the shelter staff is sickening.
Why did a shelter commit such an atrocity? A picture is worth a thousand words:
You are not seeing a cruel joke. The shelter euthanized everybody simply because the employees who are paid to do the job refused to come in over the holidays and care for the animals.
This is the epitome of cruelty. “No one wants to deal with disposable dogs during the holidays.” Shelters are often the last chance many animals have of finding forever homes. Often, these animals come from neglectful owners and the shelter employees and volunteers are the first experience with human kindness they’ve seen in a while, possibly ever.
What about the volunteers? Were they equally heartless? No. Bill Funderburk, Hamilton’s city manager, responded to that question by saying “there are hardly any volunteers.” Yet, this soulless creature unfit to be cared for in his own city’s shelter of horrors, said that shelter management DID NOT EVEN TRY TO CONTACT the volunteers before killing everyone in the shelter. He defended this atrocity by essentially blaming the volunteers, saying, that everyone knew that the “dogs were there.”
When people started holding Funderburk’s feet to the fire, he took the politician’s cowardly way out and hid behind a city ordinance. The ordinance says that all dogs not adopted within five days can be euthanized. He stuck up for the shelter’s actions saying that since some of the dogs had been there since October, it was “inhumane” to keep them alive in kennels that long.
I think that Funderburk and the shelter’s management need to spend some time in their own kennels. The only bone I’ll throw Funderburk is that the kennels there are actually a cruel place to keep animals. However, fixing the problems would have been more humane than killing the animals.
What are the problems? The kennels are only protected during the winter by some thin tarps that are meant to keep the animals warm. Never mind that the main aisle is open to the outside and the animals are exposed to cold winter air 24/7. It’s not that hard to remedy this, though.
There is a petition (I’ve signed it) asking that the shelter’s management be removed and replaced by people who actually care about animals. I encourage you to sign it, too (it’s at the “Source” link at the end of this piece).
I want to wish you, Mr. Funderburk and those at the shelter who made this decision, a very Merry Christmas. I hope that it’s filled with visions of all the trusting eyes and wagging tails you bastards murdered just because you were too lazy to do your jobs and even too lazy to pick up a phone and call on volunteers who probably would have helped.
I hope these visions haunt your every waking and sleeping moments, just like the three ghosts of Christmas haunted Scrooge.
More than this, I hope your children see the stories and ask you why you killed everyone for Christmas.
UPDATE: It has come to my attention that certain aspects of this story require correction. I appreciate my readers’ understanding.
1) The cover photo. This is NOT, in fact, a photo of the Hamilton Shelter, as was thought based on other sources. However, it still stands to represent a larger problem in shelters across the country – that of “convenience” euthanasia. One source indicates that, as a volunteer for a different shelter, the source witnessed such “convenience” killings every three-day weekend.
While the city manager claims the animals were euthanized following a local ordinance, there is still a great deal of controversy over this issue, based on the comments and posts found at the Friends of Hamilton Texas Animal Shelter Facebook page. The group’s goal is “to help the Animals located at the Hamilton Texas animal shelter find homes.”
2) The shelter wasn’t full. Four dogs were euthanized. Many commenters on the Friends of Hamilton Texas Animal Shelter Facebook page expressed outrage over this act, even though it was “only four dogs.” Some went so far as to say that, had they been asked, they would have taken the dogs home with them.
3) The Hamilton City Council voted to enclose the shelter with sheet metal to protect animals from the elements. This vote was held on December 10, 2015.
Source:
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