KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasHumane Society's Report on Animal Conditions at Lied
A highly critical report by the Humane Society has been released showing just how severe conditions were at the Lied Animal Shelter when it was forced to shut down in February.
More than 1,000 animals were euthanized because of outbreaks that included the parvovirus.
The report is more than 200 pages. It paints a clearer picture of what was happening inside the shelter. In the first few pages the Humane Society determined, after touring the Lied Animal Shelter, that the massive disease and overcrowding at the shelter arose not by accident, or ignorance, but as a result of a no kill policy.
Eyewitness News talked to the director of the Lied Animal Shelter who says they are doing all they can to follow the recommendations made by the Humane Society and make the shelter a safe place for the animals.
It's a makeover in the works -- dogs and cats in clean cages and a healthy environment. But the environment at the Lied Animal Shelter wasn't always like that.
The report by the humane society says it all. For example, a cat was found with severe oozing sores on all four feet and it was unable to bear weight without obvious severe pain.
This example is one of several hundred. When the Humane Society asked why animals lived in these conditions, the report states, "The understood policy at the shelter was to wait for 'gravely ill' animals to die on their own, rather than provide euthanasia, which is the standard of care at animal shelters."
Christine Robinson is the new the executive director of the Animal Foundation, which runs the Lied Animal Shelter. She says major changes have been implemented.
"That is the organization of this past February, not the organization of today. Nothing about that organization is the same," Robinson explained.
She says after the report, the board adopted every recommendation by the Humane Society.
Robinson continued, "The focus is on the shelter's medical care. A dedicated vet is now assigned full time and responsible to move through the shelter caring for individual animals."
It's a position the Humane Society felt was needed.
Veterinary expertise is not required to realize that dozens of animals with severe diarrhea, vomiting, bloody respiratory discharge, comatose or dead, represents an urgent problem.
It was problems like these that has animal activist Gina Griesen furious. "Letting animals suffer in cages so that they die instead of having to be euthanized so that those numbers don't count against you, cruelty doesn't seem to cover it."
Griesen feels those who worked at the facility when it was closed down in February should face some type of punishment.
The Animal Foundation paid the Humane Society to conduct their investigation and provide the report. While they say they didn't realize it would be so lengthy, the Animal Foundation feels the money was well spent and continues to make improvements at the shelter.
The no-kill policy at the Lied Animal Shelter has since changed.
