News Sims Decides Animal Shelters Need Improvement After All
posted by on April 11 at 15:24 PM
King County Executive Ron Sims (last seen ranting bizarrely that a consultant who did a report on the sorry state of King County’s animal shelters was a single-issue zealot who operated from an anti-euthanasia “playbook”) has apparently had a change of heart. (Among other things, the consultant found kennels covered in urine and feces; sick animals that were “not provided the rudiments of food or water for over 24 hours and possibly longer”; bowls of food and water that stayed empty for days; piles of dog waste all over the dogs’ exercise yard; and dogs “languishing in [their] own waste.”)
Yesterday, in what county staffers referred to as a “kumbaya press conference,” Sims agreed to release $965,000 to improve the deplorable conditions at the county-run shelter in Kent. The county’s animal control program had never spent more than $500,000 in donations it received to improve conditions in the program. The money will pay for improved shelter and medical care, new dog runs, and more staff. Yesterday’s announcement should cool the temperature at next Monday’s town hall meeting in Burien, which you can read all about here.
The title of this entry is exactly like one of those fake headlines that appear in any of the Simcity games.
@1 - hmmm. You're right. I notice we decreased our Prison/Jail funding to pay for it, too.
Will in Seattle makes a good point for once!
Yeah that's great. Now if we could just reduce the number of sanctimonious, self-entitled dog owners and their environment-polluting hounds, we'd have a partial solution to the problem.
Dog owners themselves perpetuate the shelter problem with the endless cycle of breed fads. The thousands of dogs in our area pollute every body of water in the area from Green Lake to Elliot Bay. (Not to mention Lake Sammamish near Marymoor Park. Ew!)
Plus, there is feces on nearly ever block in the downtown area, and probably also on the sidewalk where you are right now.
No, I'm not a "dog-hater". I love animals, and they usually like me too. However, I'm an ignorance hater, and dog owners are pretty much the most ignorant group of people in the Seattle area.
So sure, pour money into the shelters, but the real problem is the oblivious dog-owners and the public's willingness to overlook one of the biggest pollution problems in our region.
Animals don't ask to be put in shelters. They don't ask to be abandoned, abused or neglected. They want love, companionship and care, just like humans. At least they will have a chance if the shelters are intended for finding homes, and not just holding pens for animals to be put down.
@3: Will made a good point? What was it?
That you aren't a dog, @6, you're a muskrat.
I wonder if any other state will adopt California's mandatory spay/neuter law?
Only for muskrats.
Is he going to clean up that filthy kennel you call a home Erica?
At least pick up the turds before the dry out.
mike @4, you could say the same thing about cigarette smokers and their pollution/litter/cost to society. but there is arguably more good that comes from a dog in the world than a pack of evil cigs. i'm going to assume you don't smoke, so's i don't have to suggest hypocrisy. but if you do, then you are.
i meant "hypocritical" not "hypocrisy." i'm sleep deprived.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).