Euthanasia and Cruelty in Monterey County Must Stop!

Behind Closed Doors: Euthanasia and Lower Shelter Rates Revealed

The following story is based on conversations I have had with a long-time Animal Control Officer (ACO) and Humane Officer who has worked for many years for both the SPCA and government municipalities. The story I heard rocked me to the core, deeply moved me and gave me compassion for all involved: the animals, of course. But also the people who have to euthanize the overwhelming overflow of unwanted pets and what it does to their psyches, and even the field workers who sometimes, often-times, abandon their animals when the picking season ends and they must move on to the next town. The ACO spoke on the condition of anonymity.

I had many talks with this particular Animal Control Officer. She had been doing this work for over a decade. But one night we had a talk like no other. We were discussing the news agencies in Monterey County and how she felt they could help save more animals. Here is how the conversation unfolded:

"Why don't they go in there and do a story on euthanasia? Why don't they go film it and show what it really is? No, really...from start to finish, picking up the strays, bringing them back, euthanizing them?" She asked. "How come they don't tell the truth about how the animals die? Why don't they go in there? Shoot it all", She challenged.

We began to discuss how she had found abandoned animals. "The (migrant workers), they leave the dogs in the fields when they move on after the picking season and cannot take the animals with them". She sighed, "Sometimes they leave food and water and blankets, and the dog just stays there, hoping the owner will come back for them, they don't leave!" She began to cry, "They wait for the owners...and I get there, I take the time to gain their trust, they come with me. And I take them back to the shelter to die....I take them back to die!" She is sobbing now, her voice cracking.

"Sometimes, I got dogs tied up in boxes", she says, "I picked up starving animals, emaciated animals, wounded and sick dogs. Now there is no one to help those animals". She is referring to the fact that although the Board of Supervisors fully funded County Animal Services both this year and last year, the money never actually went to animals. The Health Department did not fill the two vacant Animal Control Officer positions (or many others), although they had 65 applicants for just two jobs. So there has been no ACO in north county for 18 months and no ACO in south county for 14 months. Instead, the Health Department used the Animal Services money, almost $500,000, to balance their own budget. Now the only two remaining ACO's are on "light duty" and there are often no ACO's at all to answer calls-strays, dog bites, rabies, vicious dogs, cruelty reports, enforcement of the county breeding ordinance, nothing. The Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) is an almost $200K a year job and the worst thing that ever happened to animals in Monterey County.

"Why?" Asked the ACO, "Why don't all these agencies-why don't they work together to help animals? They have had this competition for years now", she says between sobs, "Why don't they do what's right for the animals? They should be helping the animals!"

"And I...I, you know, I go to get dogs out of their cages and they wag their tails...they wag their tails" she starts to cry again, "And I take them into the room to die! To die! Why can't we stop barreling animals, killing them and throwing them away like garbage, like they are worthless! We have to stop this, barreling these animals!" She breaks down and begins sobbing again.

You must understand that by the thousands, healthy animals and some who could certainly be good pets though they have issues, are euthanized and piled into barrels and put in a freezer until they can be disposed of. This is just the reality.

There are so many unwanted animals and not enough homes, that's just the plain math. Even with rescue groups, there are still thousands that must die or be left to starve in the streets or fields (leaving unwanted animals in the community in order to bring down shelter rates often leads to this outcome).

"One time a dog...it attacked a dead dog (that had already been euthanized), it knew what was coming" She said sadly.

The SPCA and the county have decided that all that matters to you, the public, is euthanasia. So bringing down their shelter intake rates, and therefore their euthanasia rates, is their main objective. I am here to tell you that this approach is cruelty personified. When animals are turned away in droves or there are no ACO's to pick up strays, you have perhaps saved them from euthanasia, but have often sentenced them to a lifetime of suffering.

Remember, you are leaving an unwanted animal in the community and while there are times when people will re-home them well, more often than not, they will give them to just about anyone out of desperation. These animals will wind up as 'backyard' dogs without any love and often without shelter; or worse they may wind up being used for bait animals for dog fighting or be grabbed by a hoarder and live a life of terrible neglect and even starvation. They may be taken by someone who sells them for medical research purposes.

The real answer is low-cost and free spay and neuter, as well as well funded and organized TNR of feral cats (trap/neuter/release). But that costs money and takes time and effort. Outreach to communities throughout the county, well organized press and ad campaigns and funding low-cost and free spay and neuter are the only truly honest and humane ways to lower shelter and euthanasia rates. Doing one low-cost or free spay/neuter event every 3-6 months, as it's been done, only fixes 30-34 animals and a total of less than 100 a year. Even the SIX rescues/agencies that have formed Fix Monterey in reaction to SNIP, are only doing one clinic a month. While it is more than they have done in the past, it's only 30-35 animals a month. SNIP has done 4-6 events every single month, doing between 30-50 animals each time and a total of 2300 animals this last year in Monterey County. That is with very little funding in their first year.

With help from donors, SNIP can do twice that many animals next year. The bus going right into communities and for only $25, reaches so many people who otherwise cannot make the 1.5 hour trip each way from lower south county, to those who cannot afford $175-500 to fix a dog. SNIP volunteers knock on doors, go to churches and work hard to trap feral cats for TNR. They often pay the $25 out of their own pockets, if people don't have even that.

Keeping in mind that SNIP is working on a shoestring budget, these other six rescues/agencies have a combined total of at least 34.5 million in assets and bring in over 10 million dollars a year. If they were doing six mobile clinics a month like SNIP has, then they would really be putting all that capitol to good use. One clinic a month is not enough. "Smoke and mirrors", the ACO told me, many times, about how all the PR works, "It's all smoke and mirrors".

The ACO and I continued to discuss issues around rescue:

"The specialty rescues, f-them, why? Why can't they take other dogs, they should take all dogs, not just purebred dogs, this is bullshit! What about the ugly ones? What about the pit bulls?" Anger flashed again and then melted into a terrible story.

"Ten puppies, in one day, I had to help kill ten puppies! The rescue wouldn't take them because they weren't pure Labs, they were mixed. F-that, why? I had to kill them, why? Because they weren't pure Labs!" She cried hard, guilt and remorse and anger and sadness overtaking her, "I have (emotional scars), you wouldn't believe, PTSD from that"....more sobbing and sobbing, "These f-ing fights with other agencies and taking credit in the press, over money, with SPCA and ego and power, it's bullshit!" More and more crying, "It's all about the money!"

She had rescued many dogs herself, as many as she could:

"Like my little guy Gizmo here. No rescue wanted him, no one would take him. He came in with cigarette burns, he was mean and he hated me, but look at him now! He's on my lap, he loves me! He was going to wind up in the freezer! Or my little guy Sanchez, ugly dog, no one wants an ugly dog. He's a great dog, why should he go in the freezer? Just because he's ugly?" She had told me before that she had taken in another dog who was nearly starved to death by the owner. "Look at my babies, no one wanted them! They are the greatest animals. Why should they wind up in the freezer? Why?"

Yes, dogs come in with cigarette burns or worse. No, you don't see them at your local rescue, because they are euthanized, not rescued. First they are abused severely by their owner and then they are killed because naturally many of them have behavioral problems and the rescues don't want anyone to see a dog with cigarette burns because then the public may get a peek behind the curtain to what's really happening to animals in greater Monterey County.

And she told me of how judgmental other animal advocates had been, "I'm terrible, I'm an Animal Control Officer, you know?" My heart broke for her, for the dogs whose tails wagged, going to the kill room, even for the farm laborers who left behind their dogs in the fields with food and water and blankets. These migrant workers live a hardscrabble life, moving around, nothing to their name, no real home, no rights, no personal boundaries, hard work in the hot sun, month after month, year after year. Maybe a child got a dog that can't come along when they move. While real animal abusers are getting away with intentional cruelty like dog fighting, the rescues are wasting their judgment on people who are making mistakes without malice, as they prefer to punch down.

Big Ag makes billions of dollars in Monterey County off the backs of cheap labor, about 4.2 billion a year. If their workers are heavily contributing to the shelter rates and dumping, then they owe it to the community to contribute to the solution: Why don't they sponsor free SNIP clinics for their workers, every farm and vineyard? Why shouldn't they?

"I have done this for years, watched all those animals die, for what? We can't do better (in a rich county like) Monterey County?" The ACO asked, "How come the county, the SPCA and the press don't stop this shit and get together and help animals, we should be helping these animals, not (playing games)!"

"A dog came in, emaciated, broken ribs, matted", She had once told me, "Management wanted me to give it back to the owners no questions asked, 'Hell no', I said".

"A lot of animals suffering out here in Monterey County, a whole lot of suffering, can we get it together, it shouldn't be about the money, or who gets credit-all for money, you see?" More crying, "You are the one that doesn't judge me for the things I have done" she almost whispered.

"No, of course not", I said. She didn't create the unwanted animals, she didn't make the rescues territorial-choosing to go to great lengths to cover up the animal suffering instead of dealing with it, she didn't make the Board of Supervisors coldhearted to animals in rural Monterey County, she had no control over lack of rescue and county funding for low-cost spay and neuter all these years and she had no access to the tens of millions of dollars in rescue funding. All she did was try to take animals from dangerous people, to protect them from suffering, to give a home to as many unwanted and ugly ones as she could take.

Ten years ago, the local rescues supported the state wide mandatory spay/neuter bill, so they understand that spay/neuter is the answer. When that failed, one director told me they were going to support low-cost spay/neuter. Ten years have gone by and the three largest rescues have taken in well over 100 million dollars. Over one hundred million dollars! How much have they spent on low-cost spay/neuter?  AFRP has a mobile bus that is used rarely and a 2 million dollar bequest, they alone could do six clinics a month for six years straight.

Since SNIP bus came along, SPCA has decided to beef up their $25 spay and neuter for Salinas and Seaside, but now there is a month long waiting list for these. The feral cat program is $25 but you have to show up at 7 a.m. with no appointment, and you must have a trap and know how to trap.  Plus they only take 2 cats per resident, with a max of 4 per day.

This is a call for all of us to do more-donate to SNIP, please call to sponsor a clinic! Since the failed spay/neuter bill, the county and the larger rescues had 10 years and over 100 million dollars to get this done and didn't do it.

The system is broken, we all need to do what we can to fix it. Low-cost spay and neuter can save animals from abuse, neglect, starvation and euthanasia. Alone it is not the only answer-the county must also hire the funded ACO's and start enforcing their breeding ordinance and shutting down illegal puppy mills. First, they must stop the Health Department from continuing to gut Animal Services.

Along with enforcement of cruelty laws and the county breeding ordinance, low-cost spay and neuter is essential and everyone in this county who cares about animals needs to act now to demand it, to fund it, to promote it, to donate to it. Let's do it now!

SNIP goes into the communities where this is needed and stops the cycle of unwanted animals at the root. Funding is badly needed in rural Monterey County, where dogs are suffering terribly. You may not see the suffering here on the Monterey Peninsula, but I can take you to rural county and show you how dogs live out lives of quiet desperation, or how an abused puppy now lives an isolated life in Seaside and how another Seaside German Shepard does too. I can show you a video about mutilated dogs dumped in the Salinas River in South County. To donate or sponsor a clinic or to keep SNIP treating the root of the problem by sponsoring a year of SNIP, please contact me 831-394-2344. All donations are tax deductible.

To sponsor a clinic (30-40 animals) $3,000

Sponsor ten clinics (300-450 animals) $30,000

Sponsor SNIP for the year (4-6 clinics a month=about 1,500-2,500 animals) $144,000-250,000

Call 831-394-2344 to arrange a meeting with the owner!

Call and email your District Supervisor demand that Animal Services money be used for animals, that ACO's are hired NOW and that the county start enforcing their breeding ordinance! You pay their salary, they work for you!

Frequent Questions and Concerns:

1. Why should I pay to get someone else's animal fixed?

We fix animals to lower the rate of unwanted litters that can wind up in bad situations, suffering bad fates or being euthanized

2. People shouldn't have animals of they cannot afford to take care of them!

Should the sins of the owner be visited upon the innocent animal? People are going to have animals, so we don't judge as that just gets in the way or is used as an excuse to not help animals! Judging only hurts the animals!

3. Why should the SPCA or other rescues fund SNIP?

Because it's the right thing to do for the animals and SNIP has proven that they have the model that fixed the most animals a year! Rescues from all over California want SNIP to come, let's keep SNIP in Monterey County!