Psadena Humane may be a Boks-Like scam. They put out a plea for help:
URGENT URGENT URGENT - shelter completely out of space! 70+ dogs alone taken in last night due to fires, bringing the total up to 150+ dogs. In addition they asked for money. Then they claimed they took in 300 animals.
CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTO
However, when a rescuer went today, he found:
1. "There were ten dogs, two kittens and a rabbit. Later someone said cats were upstairs and sent a pic. I believe there were some cats upstairs. Their pleas for help now are for money only as per their website. I saw huge donations of pallets of food, those new carriers. They put some food in the trash. Those are carriers, toys, clean towels and blankets in bags in the trash. I took them. I asked two people and they said it was trash. They have tons of storage room. They could have kept these things and given them to others."
"I walked around the shelter and their evac room had ten dogs in it. They said they had 100, nope. I took pics .They kept expensive wire dog crates which were donated but threw the plastic ones in the trash, even new ones. I took all the small and medium sized ones, told friends to take the dog crates, probably 20-30. When I got home I saw the name of a rescue group on three new medium sized carriers. I thought maybe I should call. They had just dropped off those new carriers that morning. They were so pissed Pasadena threw them in the trash. They called pasadena and they said they threw broken, torn carriers in the trash. These carriers had price tags still on them, new. I returned those three carriers to the rescue group but kept the rest. I also got new blankets, towels, dog food from the dumpster. Such a fucking waste! They had tons and tons of storage area. I had no idea they have huge banquet rooms in the shelter, huge huge storage areas, empty. They could have kept them and given them to other groups. That shelter could easily hold four times the number of animals. If you ever go, drive down the alley, park in back, wander through the shelter's back rooms."
Another rescuer wrote:
2. "They asked for donations of carriers, food, toys, money. They took the money but threw the rest in the trash. They sent out a plea saying they were overloaded with pets and wildlife. I didn't see any wildlife except one bobcat."
These emails are from very reliable sources. I have asked for more photos and will post when they arrive. I assume the dog photos are the only evacuated dogs.
16 comments:
Wow, is this true??? What the heck? That's so strange and heartbreaking. Why would they trash all that stuff?
Wow, seriously? I was collecting donations to take up there.. not anymore.. i'll take them somewhere else now.
This is shocking to say the least!
That is what Pasadena does. They send out a plea for help, telling people they are saving hundreds of animals when they're not. They just want money which they spend on administration, not the animals. It's like HSUS begging for money to help Katrina animals. They kept the money and made the other groups care for the animals.
This is so distressing. I took them some towels and wee wee pads on Monday, and the person who took them gasped in delight as if they really were in need of such things. I was going to take the things somewhere else, but I felt that PHS really needed them right now. If I had known this, I would have taken them where they would be used and appreciated.
California Federation of Dog Clubs responded immediately to their pleas for assistance - took over about a dozen wire crates and some food - they were DESPERATE they told us!!!!
We transported 36 dogs out of Pasadena HS Monday morning and I if I recall correctly, Best Friends pulled 11 small dogs sometime last week. Others may have pulled animals out too but I don't know this for a fact. This was done to help free up kennels and move animals out of the banquet room into kennels. While we were there loading dogs, people were showing up to board their cats/dogs and it looked like those animals were being taken to a different building specifically for boarding animals.
There's no excuse for trashing the donated items you found in and around the dumpster. There's plenty of other folks who can use that stuff.
Some of those crates in the trash look in bad shape. Maybe burned? Or else very old and dirty. There could be a problem using crates that have fire damage around pets. So be careful in examining that photo. I don't see an entire stack of brand new crates by the trash. I not saying there aren't any, a small number could be new, but some very grungy ones are quite prominent right next to the dumpster. Who knows what is in that grunge. And that may not be best to expose dogs/cats to in an emergency when their immune systems are challenged.
I know from experience because I went through a big fire some years ago and had to deal with evacuations of my animals. It was VERY hectic as to who was going where, etc. There were ASHES on EVERYTHING. It was a problem for breathing even after we returned. You don't want all those ashes being breathed in by the animals. If that is what is on those crates. And what is actually on them is hard to say from a picture. What if there is something infectious on the used crates and some poor evacuee gets put in one? Then how would people feel? So I would say slow down in condemning before more facts are known.
Also in evacuations, things change RAPIDLY. There may be many animals in a place at one time, then they are quickly moved to make space for others, then the others are moved out. I saw that happen myself. When the fire changed directions or for other reasons. If they find another place, the animals can be moved. So someone needs to verify how many animals came in and out, not just how many are there the moment of his or her visit. Situations in an emergency change simply BECAUSE IT IS AN EMERGENCY. I don't know that is what happened here, but I saw this happen in 2003, so I wouldn't be surprised that it would happen again. And emergency personnel were working FULL OUT as hard as they could to help. The worst is NOT always true. A cry for help may well have been answered in this case and the animals in need relocated. We don't know yet. Maybe and maybe not. It is just these days people are way too quick to assume the worst.
Perhaps Anonymous should buy a pair of glasses !!!! and or open their eyes
I was there. I went through the trash. Three new medium carriers, one new dog carrier. You can see the price tag in the photo. There was one crate that a puppy had chewed the corner of. The rest had a tiny bit of mud under the bottom like they were stored outside. Nothing that I saw was smoke contaminated. They were spotless except one with mud under the bottom. The towels were clean, folded and in those trash bags. Half of the carriers had clean, folded pretty blankets or pet beds inside them.
Anyone with FEMA training for disasters knows the concept of Resource Management. I suggest the shelter administrators avail themselves of these free online courses.
Pasadena just lies up and down. They still kill animals for space, but just deliberately mislabel them as behavioral, injured, etc.
How about asking for an official response rather than hurling irresponsible accusations. a lot of folks in the SGV are dealing with a crisis and you fault them based on speculation and one photograph?
Pathetic
What speculation Carolina? In the next post there are two other photos. Others have said they saw no where near 100 animals let alone 374. Others said the shelter was throwing away stuff all day long and rescuers were taking it from the dumpster area. Did you read the comments and see the links to other photos?
What speculation?
The person who took these pictures remains ignorant to what was really happening.....would she want her loved pet to share a crate with a scorpion? They were filthy and not safe for the animals. She walked through the shelter unescorted and assumed to know what she was talking about. I think that is called trespassing.. Please, before you condemn the shelter...ask yourself how you would handle over 350 extra animals within 48 hours......
#15 - perhaps some of the crates were dirty and not in the best of shape but why should any of us accept this as an excuse to simply toss them in the trash when others with less funding and resources than PHS are willing to retrieve the items and restore them? And how is this helping the community in times of need?
With respect to how many extra animals PHS actually took in during a 48 hour period; all they have to do to prove this is indeed true is to release their animal records.
Brad Jensen
Cypress, CA
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