VICTIMS OF THE NEVADA HUMANE SOCIETY LEADERSHIP

I am Pine, and this is my story… 

I no longer exist except in the hearts of those who still carry my memory with them, for I was euthanized.

I was always a favorite among the walkers and dog staff alike. I was easy going and didn’t bark or put up a ruckus in my kennel, I had noisy neighbors, but I never let that rile me.

I enjoyed my walks and was happy to get out and about. I was affectionate and never gave my walkers a problem.

I LOVED my purple spikey ball and my skull and cross bones coat. 

I’ll be honest, wasn’t too crazy about other dogs, but it wasn’t always that way. I think the longer I was in the pound, the constant frenzied barking took its toll on me and little by little my patience with other dogs began to wane. This is a common occurrence by the way among my fellow members of Dog Nation. The isolation, the lack of enrichment, it can really take its toll.

I would get fostered or adopted and end right back here in my kennel because while out in the “real” world I didn’t know how to channel that reactivity to other dogs. No one tried to help me though. Every time I was brought back it was business as usual. Did I mention NO ONE EVER TRIED TO HELP ME THOUGH?

I was such a loving dog with people, but I would just get stuck back in my kennel and wait for my next go around on the outside. Why didn’t anyone try to help me? Supposedly there were people there who knew how to work with “behavioral dogs”, but they never tried to help me. Why?

The last time I got fostered didn’t go so well, I was out with my foster people and I had an incident with another dog. No one had told the fosters that I have reactivity issues with other dogs. I am not saying what I did was right or excusable, but once again, I had been set up to fail by my humans. There was an injury, police, Taser, and a whole lot of ruckus. I was brought back once again, and once again, NO ONE TRIED TO HELP ME. 

Shortly thereafter I was euthanized…

Why didn’t anyone try to help me?

As I said in the beginning, I live on in the hearts of those who carry my memory with them, but my life was cut short because the “no kill” shelter found it much easier to euthanize me than to try and help. This is my story, but I am not unique, there are plenty of others. 

Thanks to those who did love me, did walk me, did give me treats. If only I could have had more time with them...

We were sent this picture by someone who was trying to adopt a cat at the NHS recently. This was her account:

"I was the only customer in the place for the 20 minutes that I was there. In spite of having three staff members in sight, no one acknowledged me or greeted me. I walked around the main hall, looking in the windows. I kept wondering, where are all the cats? The two big cat rooms were empty. I thought at some point, one of the employees would at least come up and ask if they could help. No one did. So I decided to stand up by the front counter and wait until someone acknowledged me. I stood there for two minutes until one of them finally asked if I needed help. I told her that I noticed there weren’t any cats and wondered how many cats they had for adoption. She said she didn’t know and then she looked in the computer and said there were 33 cats available for adoption, and that they  were all older cats and would not have any kittens for a few weeks. She never once asked me any questions like what kind of cat are you looking for? Do you have any other pets? No questions at all. it was just a very odd experience. Her name tag said she was the adoption manager, but it didn’t seem like she was interested in doing any adoptions."

Millie was a senior dog who had been at NHS for several weeks. She was standoffish at first, but once she got to know you, she was a sweet old gal. She slowly deteriorated during the time she was there. 

One day when I came in to walk dogs, I saw her laying in the real-life room, a volunteer was sitting with her to comfort her and dog staff was coming and going. 

I asked this volunteer if help was coming for Millie, and she said she had spoken to Staci and Amber [managers with no animal welfare or shelter credentials], both of them said they needed to get “everyone to sign off on it.”

I heard that she spoke with them at least a couple of times, as it was apparent that Millie was suffering and possibly dying. It seems that a veterinarian should decide when to euthanize for medical conditions, so what “sign off” was needed? Any such process that results in the delay in euthanizing a suffering animal does not seem like a humane process.

When I came back, I looked in again and the volunteer was still sitting there with Millie and Millie seemed much worse now, having much more difficulty breathing! It was awful to see a dog suffer like this! It had been at least three hours since the first time I saw Millie. 

I saw the COO, Rory Adams [quit after a few months], who headed that way and he went in to check on her. He left the room quickly and within 5 minutes – after hours of waiting – a veterinarian finally walked in with a tech. 

Later, I heard Millie was finally relieved of her suffering. This should not happen to any animal anywhere, but it most certainly must not be happening in our own local Humane Society!

Spoiler Alert: I bit someone and my tragedy ends with me being euthanized.

But there were two other characters involved in my story, and nothing happened to them even though they set me up to fail. 

I will say right up front, I was a reactive dog, but EVERYONE knew it. Despite this knowledge, no special precautions were taken with me. I was walked just like the other dogs at NHS.

A little background on the other two characters involved in the event that led to my death:

1 - Tall, scared, timid lady who lacked confidence – I had only ever noticed her walking the more sedate dogs, and rarely  the blue dots. IF she did walk bigger/stronger dogs, she was known to walk them together with another walker.

So why? Why did she walk me that fateful day? It was obvious to all I was not her usual type of dog.

2 – Short, bite magnet, Napoleon syndrome lady – this lady was not a walker, but a staff member of NHS.

It should be noted that this person had been bitten at least three other times.

Is anyone seeing a pattern here? Also of note, none of the other dogs that bit her were killed, just me. Why? She was the one with the history of bites? Why was she allowed to continue to even be near dogs? 

Never once was I made a purple dot, and dogs have been made purple for less than reactivity, behavior problems or unpredictability.

Why did those in charge and who are supposed to be looking out for our welfare, NOT do their jobs and make me a purple dot, or have the so-called trainer (David Smith) or behaviorist (Joshua) work with me?

I heard plenty of dog staff and walkers alike say they were just looking for a reason to euthanize me. Well, they got it and they did it.

If you listen to the two accounts of what happened, they don’t even make sense. 

And me? I couldn’t speak then, and I still can't speak, even if I could, because I’ve been euthanized.

I was never given a chance, Nevada Humane Society FAILED me. 

This NO KILL shelter does kill, even though they supposedly have people who can help dogs like me. 

But wait! The insult to this already tragic tragedy? Dog staff told two walkers as I was being euthanized:

“Capone got to play in the yard for an hour, he got a big juicy hamburger and we gave him a big bone last night. He had a good ending.”

But guess what, all the one hour play times, juicy hamburgers and big bones in the world don’t make up for the fact that… I am DEAD! And I am not the only one. There was an 8-week old pitbull that also got euthanized because he bit a staff member who grabbed him by his microchip wound on the shoulder. 

There used to be three free-roaming cat rooms at the NHS. But recent visitors report that all the cat rooms are now empty. What has happened to all the cats? What has the NHS done with them?

These cat rooms were sponsored by donors: there are reports that they may be in the process of getting converted into offices. How does the NHS justify not using the rooms for the purposes they were intended by donors? 

I am Moose, next door neighbor and friend of Tyson and I am telling Tyson’s story because Tyson is no longer with us, he was euthanized.

Tyson was an older gentleman, I heard one of the dog walkers when they read his card and they said he was 10 years old. Knowing how his story ends, I sometimes wonder if he was euthanized because of his age and they (the very people who are supposed to help us) just didn’t want to invest time and resources in him. You decide.

Anyway, Tyson was a nice neighbor, he didn’t bark and was always very quiet. It seems to me he had a hard life, again, I heard dog staff talking about how his human was put in jail and that he, Tyson was on the emaciated side. He liked his treats and depending on who gave them to him he would take them one of two ways, people who just threw them in or walked up and stuck them in, he would kind of nip at the treats. Others who came up to him and talked to him and asked him to sit, well, he took them real gently and he would always get praised and told he was a good boy! Some people just don’t have a clue about us members of Dog Nation. Sure they can walk us, but do they really understand us? No, but they label us and before you know it we get called “Alligator Mouth” or are deemed "reactive." Anyway I digress…back to Tyson’s story.

From what I was able to see from my neighborly vantage point, Tyson was walked and didn’t have any real problems while being walked. He just wasn’t one of the favorites or one of the ones that a lot of people paid a lot of attention to. He had problems with bleeding paws and other places too, but again, no one seemed too inclined to help him. 

I remember one day two walkers were giving us all treats and one of them noticed blood all over his kennel floor. The one asked the other walker about it and they said no one is doing anything about it and that they had written it up days ago. The one walker said she would go find someone. A while later David [Smith], Dog Supervisor, came in and the walker came back too. All the members of Dog Nation were sitting at the front of their kennels watching because none of us like David Smith and we knew the walkers were not happy with him, we knew Tyson was having problems. 

David gave the walker a hard time about having him called to Tyson’s kennel, but the walker didn’t care, she asked him what was going on with Tyson and told him she noticed not only a lot of dried blood, but a big splotch (don’t know what a splotch is, but it can’t be good) of fresh blood, plus a bunch of diarrhea and that was new since she’d left Tyson to go find him. 

His reply? He was standing right in front of my kennel, so I saw and heard it all…he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Ya, that’s Tyson”, and walked away! 

The walker called after him and asked him if he was going to do anything or tell anyone and he just waved his hand and kept walking. Two other walkers were standing there listening and asked her if they had heard that right? We were ALL speechless and barkless! She said yes, the others made the comments: He should be fired! He should be written up! 

A few days later, dog staff came and got Tyson and walked past some dog walkers standing there and told them whoever had signed out Tyson, he wouldn’t be able to be walked because he was on his way to clinic...

I never saw my friend Tyson again. He was 10, he needed help, BUT HE HAD A LOT OF LIFE STILL IN HIM. Was he euthanized because they didn’t want to invest time and resources in him? You decide.