Why do people suddlenly seem to care when things like this get on TV.. Did this make you start donating to your local H.S. All the times you "went in there" and saw the "horrbile condions", did it make you want to DO anything? Like volunteer or donate? I dont mean drop five bucks in the donation jar, I mean DONATE like you do to ASPCA PETA HSUS month after month year, year after year so that they could afford to do something differnt? Shetler dogs and cats cant live off of wanton disire and good intentions.. Its time for US to put up or shut up.. Its time for you to get off your behind make your city administration KNOW THAT YOU CARE.. NOT JUST WHEN THE TV CAMERA is in focus on YOU either.. ALL of the time.. EVERY day, in and out, day after day, year after year. Thats how long these MANY of these employees and volunteers and PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO DO IT OUT OF OUR OWN ANIMAL FILLED HOMES have been at it you know.. Im the hoarder/ rescuer they talk about..

I guess my opinion of this is, How the hell do you charge SHELTER workers with conditions like this when the sorry CITY OF MEMPHIS doesnt bother to build an adequate facility nor properly fund the one they have? Looks to me like you should be charging the CITY TOP DOG with the cruelty charges.. When most shelters moto is " no one gives a damn if they live or die, so just euthanize them" how do you charge other people with cruelty? People ACT like they give a damn, but I never see any of these hypocrits who criticize everyone else for what THEY are not doing, out doing a ANYTHING AT ALL.. Why dont you go down and volunteer if you care so much.. Why dont you stop blaming "employees" for not doing THEIR jobs when no one in the community is doing their job by SPAYING AND NEUTERING.. AFter all , thats why these shelters are overloaded and have to kill tens of thousands of animals EVERY YEAR.. The real problem is, the community dont care unless it becomes a MEDIA CIRCUS event.. With that kind of moral, what do you expect? Most of these workers are prob paid minimum wage at best.. You get what you pay for.. Put some money in, you get something out.. Leave neglected shelters like this one to "run themselves and make due the best way they can", what do you expect?

I have first-hand experience with the horror house that is the Memphis "shelter" The city should be deeply ashamed that this cesspool existed for so long. It has had a well-known and well-deserved bad reputation for years. My experience with them was sick dogs all the time, dogs with incompetent spay/neuters, dog with broken back "lost" in the system...etc etc...plus totally rude and uncaring workers.

I just don't understand why people do these kinds of things. Animals are our children and they need to be treated with all the love and respect we expect to be treated with. The government agencies need to crack down on these situations because they only get worse and the animals suffer greatly. The laws need to be strickter and people need to held accountable for their actions. Make them feel like they make those poor innocent animals feel. Being cruel to animals is so wrong!

I agree with you Karen, that my true feelings on how these "non-human" beings should be treated, that mis-treat (that's an understatement) animals, is not something the ASPCA wants on their page. That said, I don't think jail, beatings, cages, or any other thing the "human" mind can think of to do to them is enough. These so called people are not people among us at all, and we should all beware of these kind of beings, because they are the same kind that committ terrible crimes against people. There is no excuse for them.

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It is hard for me to understand why this is allowed to go on. You hear about it all the time. Its sickening to think these animals are treated this way. The laws have to change and all of us more dilegent about reporting neglect and abuse. It brings tears to my eyes to hear about this. Thank you ASPCA for all that you do.

I would like to know why this went on for so long?? Those in that area that visited the shelter should have brought it to someone elses concern to be investigated long before now. I have worked in animal control and loved the fact that people were receptive to learning how to be better pet owners and we need more out there willing to learn and people willing to teach them. But, sad to say there are too many out there in it for the all mighty dollar. I didn't agree with the euthanasia policies at the shelter I worked at and therefore I was let go. The person that did most of the euths was discrimentory in regards to the breed of dog (she was a cat lover) then the color of the dog, her excuse was that dark colored dogs were less likely to be placed, or if the wrong breed got into the wrong hands they would fight it. I love bigger dogs and couldnt see them being put to sleep just because they were big. I spoke out and got fired for my openness on the way she would chose them. But in the long run I made my concerns public knowlegde and did something about it and there practices. They have regulations they have to follow at all shelters or they don't receive state monies, why wasnt this regulated better by the state with surprise inspections and so on?? This goes much deeper then we have all been told. I think we all need to volunteer to go into any shelter and see if standards are up to date and then report back to ASPCA as they have limited resources and very limited officers to check all sites. If we as the public citizen find an unfit facility them we need to do our part and let someone of authority know. I believe there is an email address we can send our concerns to on sites that are substandard. It would greatly help the animals out as long as the concerns are genuine. I hope all see the point I am trying to make as it takes a liitle time and effort to investigate every concern but if multiple concerns are received on a facility then they are more likely to investigate that facility faster. I hope all goes well for the rest of the animals in that facility. I also hope eveyone does their part to help out. I know I will always. Thanks and GOD bless

it breaks my hart that peaple do this to animals. i agre with james! the abusers should be put behind bars and be traeted like animals.I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW why peaple act stupid and do this?

The director and Janice Taylor should go to jail. She is obviously a corrupt board member who has an ulterior motive (ie., power) for being on an advisory board for animals. The ASPCA nees to take the evidence to Gibbons and charges neet to be filed. It's an absolute disgrace in the first place that a search warrant had to be obtained to storm a GOVERNMENT RUN SHELTER!! Tax payers should be demanding that heads roll for the torture that went on inside the Memphis Animal Shelter.

The best thing all of us(YES all of us)can do,is help our fellow man TO LEARN,the besy med.,is preventive med.!!SPAY &NUTRER.IT IS THE BEST START,There needs to be more organizations,like actors& others..etc, to help!we all know these foul people run wild,if they cant get ahold of the helpless,than they are harmless!!

If i ever see someone being mean to an animal i'll kick there azz!!!!

I despise the fact that there is no organization or foundation that mandates standards for shelters, humane associations, and rescues. Many laws are so outdated and some municipalities use that to their full advantage. I find homes for animals I rescue myself because I don't trust these places in the slightest. "Oh, we'll take good care of him/her." I heard this every time I paid to surrender someone's trusting pet that they decided to throw away like trash. I'd call weekly to check on their progress. At least three times the animal 'died' for reasons I knew were either completely false or entirely preventable. I also volunteered at a local "Humane Society." One week I would socialize with the animals, petting and comforting them all in turn, even knowing many by name and growing quite fond of them. Over the weekend most of them would disappear, replaced by the next wave of lost, stay and abandoned. "No Kill"? The term is used loosely.

The shame of this having ever happened, should be on the people who think that their pets are disposable. They take an animal into their home and lives, and then someplace along the way, they decide for whatever reason that they can no longer take care of that pet. Some of them have been a part of families for years, and then all of a sudden that pet finds that they no longer have what they thought was a loving home, and are wondering just what they did wrong. That is no excuse for the way the animals are treated in these "shelters", they deserve to be treated with love, and caring and are not. A "shelter" is defined in the dictionary as: "A refuge; a haven." I saw nothing in there about it being a haven for the animals, especially those that at the end of a defined period are "Humanely" put to sleep. How humane is that? We as citizens need to step up and be the voice for these poor, neglected animals, for all animals to protect them from abuse and neglect. If you don't, who will?? I do every day...I talk about it to everyone I see, make it known that these shelters and pet stores need to be monitored better than they are right now. I wonder how do the people who work at these shelters and abuse and watch the abuse of these poor animals everyday sleep, or live with themselves? I sincerely hope that they don't sleep well at all!! I saw a small poem written by a woman put to music, called "DOG", in it she says that "dog is GOD spelled backwards".

I live in Millington, which is about a 10 minute drive north of Memphis. I have been to this shelter before. The last time was about 2 years ago when I pulled a Great Pyrenees for a local rescue. If I had told the shelter employees I was doing that I would've been given the cold treatment and an icy reception. Fortunately for myself and the Pyr I was treated professionally. However, one could sense the fear and death hanging in the air. I've heard numerous other stories over the years. Sadly this atmosphere has existed for well over 20 years. The former director was fired shortly after this raid and an investigation is ongoing to determine what crinimal charges will be fired against which employees. A small measure of comfort for the animals that are still alive and too little, too late for the ones that didn't make it out of there.

I hope to heck this isn't that twisted Maltese "breeder" at it again. Sounds A LOT like her but she didn't have cats... just Maltese dogs with their vocal cords cut... over 500 of them that she kept in a barn. BTW, somehow the courts kept giving the dogs back to her even though they had loving homes awaiting them. These mills make me SICK. What I'd LIKE to know is what is it about Tennessee that the mills get busted and then repeated re-opened? These "people" (too generous a term, IMO... the proper term for these "creatures" hasn't been invented yet) that operate these places should be squished into little cages and treated AT LEAST as horrid as they treat our precious little furry friends. I say "at least"... actually, my TRUE feeling would not be respectful to the ASPCA to even verbalize in their page.

They resplonsible people should be locked behind the bars. And they should be treated just the way they treated the animals. What about millions of chicken, cows, and other animals being slaughtered everyday? Isn't that a cruelty?