Four dogs and 30 cats were seized in critical condition from the Tri-Cities Animal Shelter in November 2021, when law enforcement served a search warrant. Furthermore, at least 100 other animals suffering from neglect and preventable disease were also found during the raid. These animals entered the shelter healthy and in a matter of weeks they were so ill that many did not make it, even with around the clock care. One dog was so emaciated that he went into kidney failure and died. Various staff members and volunteers brought this to the managers attention and still the animals were not tended to.
One of the sick cats held in the outbuilding was suffering from an infected throat laceration and was found burrowed "underneath two other cats inside of an empty food dish in that cage."
The outbuilding was filled to the rim with intermixed healthy and diseased cats and dogs, and no one was allowed in; not even the veterinarians who came to treat shelter animals. No animal should ever have to die the way that cat and that dog and hundreds of others did in that hell hole they call an animal shelter. And yet, they did, for nearly an entire year because the city was too careless to check until it was much too late.
Council members and all three city managers Dave Zabel, Marie Mosely, and Jon Amundson have made it abundantly clear that the welfare of animals is not even an agenda topic. Their negligence is what to led to the suffering and death of dozens of hundreds of innocent animals that were under the care of the Tri-Cities Animal Shelter.
The cities contract out for animal services and created an "oversight" group called the animal control authority. Know who is in it? Two police members who don't even bother to show up to the meetings and the parks and recreation director Zach R; all individuals that don't know the first thing about animals, animal care, standard practices in animal shelters or animal control; they know nothing about animals and yet they're the ones responsible for protecting them. They do not even look at the reports they receive from the shelter director. If they had they would have seen a 17.9% death in shelter rate for cats in September 2021 (for comparison the highest rate from previous directors was 4.3%). This is NOT including euthanasia's; this is merely the percentage of cats that died from disease and neglect in the month of September.
City officials insist that animal welfare is not a back burner topic but the city's actions (or lack thereof) on animal welfare for the last several decades have painted a contradictory image.
As one example, the necessity of a new shelter was established in 2009 and the same dilapidated building is being utilized now in 2022. Having the conversation is not enough; swift and decisive action is needed, and it is needed now.
Officials wish to wipe their hands clean of this and continue utilizing the same 'oversight' methods that allowed this abuse to happen.
Sign this petition now to demand that Dave Zabel, Marie Mosely, and and Jon Amundson (city managers of Pasco, Kennewick and Richland) personally oversee immediate action to ensure this NEVER happens again, by creating an animal welfare advisory board to oversee the animal control authority IMMEDIATELY.
