The rate at which pets are being abandoned has grown and Miami-Dade Animal Services ran out of space at their spanking new, $15-million adoption center shelter in Doral. So, they are keeping some dogs and cats at the old shelter in Medley and animal advocates worry about horrible conditions.
After all, this is the worn out, grossly “sick” building, the “house of horrors” for both the animals and staff, that had to be replaced pronto.
“It lacked everything needed for the proper care of our animals. But, here we are, seven years later, finding that this ‘old shelter in Medley’ is again filling up with cats and dogs,” said Rita Schwartz, one of the founders of the Pet’s Trust and organizer of a protest Saturday at the old facility, where dozens of animal lovers with signs chanted against the abuse. The biggest concern is the chronic heat.
“This awful place with no air-conditioning, in this daily 100 degrees heat, with no air flow system to stop the spread of disease, with no physical activities for these animals, is plain and simple animal abuse,” Schwartz said in a statement. “When the new shelter opened a new name was proposed that included the words ‘protection center.’ Those words ‘Protection Center’ were featured on the front page of the Miami Dade Animal Shelter (MDAS) website.
“Look at the MDAS website now. Those words are gone. Instead you see ‘critical capacity’ and basically, please don’t bring us any animals. We’re full and it has been full for a long time.”
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After complaints and a video of the shuttered shelter with dogs barking inside went public, animal services people let local TV stations in on scheduled, guided tours, pledging that the dogs were being cared for properly. Animal Services spokeswoman Flora Beal told them that there are 650 dogs at the new shelter and about 130 at the Medley facility with no air conditioning. But there are fans, she said.
And the place certainly could have been cleaned up for the cameras before they let them in, as advocates claim. County officials also say some of the dogs at the old facility are getting treatment and that an “enhancement team” comes in twice a week to give the animals some love and attention.
But is there any way to confirm that? Can we hear from those people?
Schwartz and fellow Pets’ Trust co-founder Michael Rosenberg rallied a group of animal advocates to protest the county’s treatment of animals Saturday afternoon. “It is hard to look at this place and use the word protection to describe anything that goes on in there,” Schwartz said.
Not only is the word protection gone, but so is the former Animal Services Director Bronwyn Stanford, whose sudden administrative leave is the result not of bad management and turning stray animals away, but possibly because of a lawsuit accusing her of slander on an animal activist.
Meanwhile, the budget for animal services is increasing this year by about $3 million to about $37 mil. That’s almost double what it was when the Pets’ Trust initiative was passed by voters in a landslide, non-binding vote in 2012. And in 10 years, nothing has changed, Schwartz said.
“Not only are there still over 30,000 animals coming in each year, but also multiple thousands turned away. Many those are dying on the streets. Adoption rates are going down, and spay/neuter surgeries are flat, when they should be increasing dramatically.”
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The pressure is also going to be put on Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, especially during the public budget meetings that start next week. The allocation process is not over and advocates hope the mayor can find money in the budget to fund the Pets’ Trust initiative, which is basically a massive spay and neuter program aimed at controlling the stray population.
La Alcaldesa should be concerned about 2024. It is her lack of action, her complete turnaround on the Pets’ Trust — which she supported — that has led to the situation today.
“All of this is happening on her watch,” Schwartz said. She and many pets advocates are disappointed in her about face on the Pets’ Trust, which supported her candidacy. “It is obvious that Candidate Cava is not the same as Mayor Cava and the proof is right here.
“This dungeon for our animals should not be happening.”
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In 2012 and 2013 when the then Mayor (now Congressman) Carlos Gimenez and BCC told voters that it was illegal for voters to approve their own tax increase to fund the Pets’ Trust–they said only legislators had the power to increase taxes. About ten years later voters approved a tax increase to fund increased school safety and teacher pay. Hmm. What changed? (Coincidentally about the same percentage, 2/3 of voters, approved both ballot items. Clearly we Miami-Dade voters are willing to spend a little money for good purposes.)
As the homeless animal population continues to increase, will we look back in another ten years and say that we should have done something sooner, just like we’re saying now? I can’t speak for the whole county, but my Westwood Lake neighborhood has a noticeably growing cat population. I occasionally walk two or three miles for exercise before sunrise (and heat) and I always see many cats. There are many traversing my yard every day.
The protest had it right–the buck stops at the top, and Mayor Cava has to lead. Short term, I suggest the shelter should accept all surrendered animals, no more closing the shelter because it’s full. And deal with the excess animals by paying local animal rescue and local veterinarians to care for these animals. We also have a county zoo with a staff to care for animals–I’m sure they could accept some of these animals. Long term, clearly the Pets’ Trust primary component of a five- or six-fold increase in spay/neuter surgeries. No one really likes the idea of returning a sterilized animal back to the wild where it was found, but if that’s the only choice, then it’s the only choice. But the key is dramatically increasing these surgeries to stop future reproduction. (I’ve read Pinecrest is going to sterilize peacocks to prevent their reproduction.)
In 2013 when the local veterinarian association lobbied Mayor Gimenez and the BCC to block the Pets’ Trust plan, they said they would step in and provide the services that the plan proposed. So now it’s time to go back to those veterinarians and get them to commit to 100,000 spay/neuter surgeries each year. (I seriously doubt in these past ten years that private veterinarians have performed surgeries on homeless animals.)
The homeless animal problem belongs to all of us. It’s going to take all of us to solve it. That means our government has to do the job on our behalf. We agreed to pay for it–now Mayor Cava, it’s up to you to put it in the budget now.
We have a two face MAYOR !