In November, Christine Attanasio went to the Prince George’s County Animal Shelter to adopt a dog. She fell for a healthy beagle mix named CeeCee, a 2-year-old female scheduled to be euthanized that day.”No, no, no,” Attanasio recalled telling a shelter worker. “I’ll take her.”The shelter would not budge. Attanasio asked to speak to Rodney Taylor, head of the county’s animal management division. Taylor arrived after about 15 minutes, but it was too late. CeeCee had been euthanized.
Clearly this dog did not die, as some would have us believe, because there are “too many animals and not enough homes.” There was someone willing to take this dog and give her a home and hopefully love her forever. All we can ask is “why?” Was it easier to kill this dog? Did someone, God forbid, enjoy killing this dog? Why did this happen?
Even worse, it seems this is a not uncommon event at this “shelter.”
Taylor said 2,600 animals were adopted and 6,000 were euthanized at the shelter last year.
That doesn’t really give us enough information to determine the kill rate, since we don’t know what percentage of animals were returned to owners and fell into other categories, it does give us enough information to know it is abysmal.
Lisa Ordakowski, a volunteer with a Northern Virginia animal rescue group, said she went to the shelter on a Sunday about six weeks ago to evaluate canine rescue candidates. Two days later, she returned for a dog that was chosen for rescue. But she learned that the animal had been euthanized the previous day, Ordakowski said, even though the shelter had paperwork showing that the animal was slated to be rescued.
“The saddest part was the shelter wasn’t even completely full that day,” Ordakowski said.
So they’re killing animals for no reason. Got it.
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Here’s the contact info…you know what to do!
Prince George’s County Animal Shelter
8311 Darcy Road
Forrestville, MD
