Word About Pasadena Humane Spreading

Pasadena Humane uses fires & animals to con donors
by Pasadena Inhumane ( PasadenaInhumane [at] yahoo.com )
Tuesday Sep 8th, 2009 7:34 PM
Pasadena Humane Society used the recent fires to con people into donating. They kept the cash then threw away new pet carriers, towels, blankets and food donated by the public and other rescue groups. They stated they housed hundreds of evacuated pets when photos show only a few. They stated they took in wildlife injured by the fires when they took in none.
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On August 30, 2009 Pasadena Humane Society put out an emergency plea for pet products to help pets evacuated from the Los Angeles Station fire. They requested pet carriers, towels and pet food from the local animal rescue groups.

Mary Temple the supervisor at Pasadena Humane stated "Can any of you rescuers and animal lovers help PHS out by bringing crates to our shelter for the fire victims' animals and rescue some of ours?"

Animal rescue groups responded by donating pet carriers, towels, bedding, food and toys. They also went to the shelters and adopted over 30 dogs to make room for evacuated pets.

Then they sent out a wider plea to the general public. "Wildfires Causing an EMERGENCY Situation at Pasadena Humane Society!!! EMERGENCY EMERGENCY EMERGENCY!!! URGENT URGENT URGENT - shelter completely out of space! 70+ dogs alone taken in last night due to fires." They again asked for pet carriers, towels, bedding, food and money. They added a link to their donation page begging for money saying they could not afford to hold these evacuated pets. All of their supporters were posting the donation link on everyone's Facebook page and on craigslist.com.

Pasadena went on to request help with "wildlife injured from the fires." They stated "the Pasadena Humane Society is the only licensed wildlife center in the 30 mile radius of the wildfires. They are rapidly taking in displaced & injured wild animals, in addition to domestic animals & livestock."

There are actually quite a few licensed wildlife rehabilitators near the wildfire ares. One such local licensed wildlife rehabilitation organization heard their plea and instantly offered to take all wildlife from Pasadena Humane. Pasadena accepted their offer.

When the rehabilitator arrived at the shelter she was told that there were only 12 baby squirrels which arrived before the fires began. They said that was the only wildlife in the shelter. There were no "displaced & injured wild animals." The rehabilitator offered to take the baby squirrels in order to make room for pets evacuated because of the fires. She also offered to take any future wildlife that arrived at the shelter. She and her volunteers called daily and no wildlife injured from the fires ended up in the shelter.

While the rehabilitator was at the shelter she took photos of their evacuation area. The goal was to show that Pasadena had a huge almost empty banquet hall ready to take animals if needed. There were approximately ten dogs in the evac area even though the shelter said they received 70 evac dogs just that morning.

As the rehabilitator was leaving the shelter around 2:00 p.m. she passed by the dumpster in the alley. Inside and around the dumpster were pet carriers (see photo). Some were new with price tags still attached. There were bags of clean folded towels, blankets, pet toys and food. She asked two employees if this was indeed trash and if she could have it. They said yes. She filled her car full of new and almost new pet carriers. As she left she took a photo so she could tell other rescuers about all of these free pet carriers.

When she got home she noticed that three new pet carriers had the freshly printed name of a local dog rescue group. She decided to call the dog rescue group to see if they had other carriers they didn't want. The dog rescue group stated that they heard the plea earlier that day and had dropped off those new carriers to Pasadena to help out. They were very upset that their donation ended up thrown in the trash.

The rehabilitator returned the three crates to the dog rescue group. The dog rescue group contacted Pasadena Humane. Pasadena replied that they only threw away "rusted, broken" carriers. The dog rescue group then promised never to help Pasadena Humane ever again if they were throwing new carriers into the trash and lying about it.

The rehabilitator posted the photos of the trash and evac areas to her Facebook page. The caption on the photos stated that there were free pet carriers in the dumpster. It also stated that Pasadena was ready to accept evac animals if anyone needed a place for their pets. They had tons of room.

Most commenters were very upset that Pasadena begged for crates only to throw them in the trash, same with towels, bedding, food and toys. Fortunately other rescue groups went and took all the crates out of the trash. Some complained to Pasadena about the donations being trashed.

Pasadena responded on Facebook stating that the crates in the trash were "rusted," "broken" and "full of scorpions, ick!" The rehabilitator responded with larger photos of the crates stating that they were new, almost new or merely had "some dirt on the underside of the bottom of the carriers." They were clean crates with "no scorpions." She stated "what do they do when the crates they're using get dirty, just throw those out too?"

Since then other information about the practices of Pasadena Humane have come to light. Pasadena Humane states on their website that they place 94.3% of cats. Their statistics in their annual report show that they actually only place 35%. They euthanize 59% of all cats. They arrive at these numbers by deeming most animals as "unadoptable" then they didn't count them. They actually just deem any animal not adopted as "unadoptable."

They did the same funny math with dogs. They claimed they placed 97.6% of all dogs when they actually placed only 46%. This is much worse than even Los Angeles City shelters which place 74% of dogs. One would think a smaller shelter with more volunteers and money would be able to do better than the embattled Los Angeles shelter system.

One person commented on the Facebook thread that they took their euthanasia class at Pasadena. They had to kill three dogs for their final. These dogs were deemed "unadoptable." One was very frightened, the next slightly frightened, the last was a super sweet loving dog that was wagging her tail and kissing everyone up until the second before she was killed. The first two were deemed potential biters, the third was "food aggressive." Right before the students killed the last dog they gave her a muffin, then snatched it away. The dog was not food aggressive at all. In fact the shelter stated that this dog was offered up for adoption in the shelter for 30 days. She was merely deemed "unadoptable" because she was not adopted within 30 days.

Pasadena stated they are licensed to take in wildlife. In their annual report they state that they took in 1,387 birds. 72% of those birds died or were euthanized, 28% were transfered to licensed rehabilitators or released. They took in 964 mammals. 57% of those mammals died or were euthanized, 43% were transfered to licensed rehabilitators or released. 65% of all wildlife brought to the shelter died or was euthanized. Pasadena's statistics for died/euthanized for wildlife is much worse than the state average for rehabilitators. It's also interesting to note that they transfer most of the animals to other rehabbers who then care for them to release, another numbers game. They may take in 2,377 wild animals a year but they only cared for a few of them themselves.

For years people have stated that Pasadena fudges the numbers, deceives donors, and treats the public poorly. There are pages and pages of poor reviews by customers online. I guess it takes just one act to make people take a closer look at their numbers and actual practices. Do your research before you donate to any non-profit organization.

*Spay and neuter your pets. Don't buy a new pet, adopt one from your local shelter or rescue groups. If you find ill, injured or orphaned wildlife, contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Head of Pasadena Humane admits they received no wildlife. They also admit that they aren't taking any animals in right now. They admit receiving a ton of donations

Ed Muzika said...

Can you post that admission? Is it a video, news release, or what?

Gloria said...

Wow! I was looking on here to volunteer my time to a respectable shelter and considering Pasadena. I just can't believe what people do for greed. I'm just shocked! What can I do to help?

Anonymous said...

How does an agency that has animal control contracts for six different cities, plus what I'm betting are lucrative contracts with American Humane for classes including how to kill animals, qualify as a non-profit? And how does it, in any semblance of honesty, qualify as a "Humane" society?

Anonymous said...

Look, I sent a volunteer over to the shelter to ask what they needed and she was told they only needed cat food and could use puppy pads. She was told the did NOT need crates and she was not asked for money. So I'm not suggesting the person who took the photo is lying and that everything was done 100% the way we would like, but come on let's not get carried away.