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When owners bark or bite
Lied Animal Shelter’s intensifying struggle with visitors who lose their cool
Sam Morris
As Candy Orellana, with daughter Natalie, hands over her license Wednesday at Lied Animal Shelter, Sara Orellana passes a dog across the counter to Sandra Robinson. Unclaimed animals are to be euthanized 72 hours after they arrive at the shelter, the largest of its kind in the nation — a policy that has occasionally led to violent behavior.
Friday, Jan. 2, 2009 | 2 a.m.
A wall at Lied Animal Shelter is covered Wednesday with missing-pet posters. In 2008, the shelter took in more than 50,000 animals.
The shelter is investigating the case of Barbara Marques, whose cat was put down this week mere minutes after the 72-hour window expired and after Marques had promised to return with the proof needed to retrieve the animal.
Sun Archives
Beyond the Sun
Emotions have always run high at Lied Animal Shelter, but outbursts and violence from angry pet owners there have gotten so bad that the shelter is planning to remodel its lobby to protect workers from the public.
“We’ve had people come over the top of the counter and grab staff,” James Seitz, the animal shelter’s acting director, said. “One day, it took six of us to get a guy out.”
The man’s dog had been captured and brought to the shelter this past summer, two or three weeks before he showed up.
The shelter must euthanize unclaimed animals 72 hours after they arrive at Lied, so the man’s dog was long gone by the time he arrived at the shelter.
When the staff broke the news to him, “he just went berserk,” Seitz said.
Seitz, a retired judge, said he and the rest of the Lied staff understand how devastating that kind of news can be to a pet owner. But Seitz said he has since noticed an increase in the frequency and intensity of enraged reactions at the shelter.
Lied employees now call Metro Police or city marshals for help about three times a month for the most serious incidents, Seitz said. The shelter tries to alternate between the two agencies because of how often the calls must be made.
Dust-ups for which law enforcement is not called — the shouting and “verbal assaults” — occur every day, said cashier Sandra Robinson, herself the owner of three dogs, four cats, three birds and goldfish.
“They’re upset because their animal is here,” said the 50-year-old grandmother who has worked at Lied for about 18 months. “You try to keep calm, agree with them, then try to tell them their pet was put down.”
A few weeks ago, Robinson said, a pet owner whacked a cashier in the head with the receiver of the Lied desk phone.
Sometimes the phone is used in another way — for threats. Some are left on the shelter’s voice mail — including this one, from the owner of a cat that had been taken to the shelter early in 2008.
“The next time somebody hangs up on me, that is just disrespectful. And if somebody comes on my property? To take an animal? I will shoot them dead. That is trespassing. I will (expletive) shoot them,” the man says in his three-minute tirade, which ends with him giving his real name and a false claim that he is a police lieutenant.
He warns the staff that he will be in the next morning to pick up his cat, then adds: “And I am not paying a (expletive) fine for nothing!”
Metro was called and the man arrested, Seitz said.
But it’s not always the Lied staff on the receiving end of the anger at the shelter.
On the morning after Christmas, a woman in her late 40s was pushing her way to the front of a line at the shelter when a man in his 70s called her on it. She turned and punched him in the face. Officers handcuffed the woman and put her in a squad car, but the man declined to press charges, accepting the woman’s apology instead.
Seitz attributes the increase in boil-overs to the bad economy, the fact that people are losing their homes and their jobs and do not want to lose a beloved pet as well.
Lied also sees a larger number of people than do shelters in many other cities, because it is the largest single-site, open-admission shelter in the country.
“San Diego and New York take in similar numbers of animals, but they are spread over six and seven several shelters,” Seitz said.
For 2008, through Monday, the shelter had taken in 50,103 animals, an average of 138 per day. In that time, it also adopted out 10,320 animals.
On Tuesday afternoon, a steady stream of people arrived to look for their pets at Lied’s “Lost and Unwanted” office. The office, which the staff knows as “lost and found,” is about a decade old. The paint on the concrete floor is worn away. Seven unmatched seats for the public line one wall. A 15-by-10-foot room in the waiting area was designed, according to a plaque, as a video/education room, But now it houses two vending machines.
Cashiers sit behind a low wall with the swinging door open to offices in back.
The office is open until 7 p.m., and it’s usually later in the day, as people get off work, that is busiest.
About 4 p.m. Tuesday, Leah Gibbons arrived with David Dewitt looking for their two dogs, Max, their Chihuahua, and Asia, a Thai ridgeback.
Gibbons’ face was racked with anxiety. She dabbed her reddened nose with a kerchief while Dewitt rubbed her back.
Their landlord had evicted them from their apartment. They went to find moving boxes and when they returned an hour later, Gibbons said, their apartment lock had been changed and their two dogs were gone. The apartment manager sent the dogs to Lied, she said.
When the cashier told Gibbons it would cost $120 to retrieve her dogs, she said she was unable to pay because she couldn’t find her credit card. Gibbons said she would come back the next day. At that point the couple had 48 more hours. They repeatedly asked for assurance that Max and Asia would not be marked for euthanasia.
“If they kill my dog,” Dewitt said, unwavering, “I’ll come down here with a vengeance. I’ll drive that Ryder truck right through this wall.”
If a pet owner doesn’t have enough money for fees, Lied staff can negotiate if the animal was captured in Las Vegas or North Las Vegas, because those cities won’t always demand full fee payment. If it was caught in Clark County, Lied usually can’t negotiate because the county demands full payment, Seitz said.
Lied receives private donations and funding from Las Vegas, Clark County and North Las Vegas but is operated by the nonprofit Animal Foundation.
The foundation is working on a several ideas to address the outbursts at the shelter.
It is seeking bids to remodel the lobby. Instead of waiting in lines, people will take numbers and wait to be called. Staff will be behind a partition.
New brochures are also being designed to explain the payment of citations, detail the intake and rescue process and talk about the need for proof of ownership.
Understanding the citation process is important because if a pet owner owes fines, he can’t get his animal until an animal control officer arrives to give him a citation. That wait can be two hours if the only officer available is in Laughlin, Seitz said.
The proof of ownership requirement is another frequent flash point.
People sometimes “wait in line 40 minutes when they are already emotional, then find out they have to go home to get more proof,” Seitz said. “That’s when they blow up, and start yelling, ‘I’m going to get my dog, I’m coming through!’ ”
Seitz, who is one of several in the running for the director’s job at the shelter, says shelter employees know and understand that in some cases the people they are dealing with have good reason to be upset — people like Barbara Marques.
About 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Marques and her husband drove from their North Las Vegas home to the shelter to look for their cat, Puddles, her indoor-outdoor cat that had been missing for a few days. When Puddles saw Marques at the shelter, “he came to the front of the cage like, ‘Oh, she’s here to get me,’ ” she said.
Told she needed proof of ownership to get her cat, Marques went home and returned to the shelter at 3:40 p.m. with pictures and receipts from a veterinarian.
Too late, she was told. Puddles’ 72 hours were up at 3:17 p.m. He was put down at 3:35 p.m.
Marques can barely tell the story, dissolving several times into sobs about the black-and-white feline she had for five years.
“I had told the man, ‘Would you please put a statement on the cage not to euthanize? I’m coming back. Don’t do anything to him.’ He said, ‘I’ll do that, but he’s not up for review until tomorrow anyhow, so there’s nothing to worry about. But I’ll put a note on the cage.’ ”
When she returned to find Puddles was dead, the man told her he forgot to post the note, she said.
Seitz said the shelter is investigating the incident, which he called rare since 2007, when Lied instituted new procedures. That includes scanning animals for identifying microchips twice, once upon intake and once just before euthanization, just to be sure.
“But if we have one of those (accidents) a year, it’s too many,” Seitz said, adding that Lied is the first place people should look for a missing pet. Photographs of most captured animals are also posted the Internet.
Before Chris Robinson took over as executive director of the shelter in April 2007, Seitz said, about one accidental killing took place each week.
He also said the shelter is not robotic about its 72-hour euthanization policy. Seitz said he held an animal, at the request of an owner from England, for three to four weeks to give the owner time to fly back to Las Vegas to retrieve the animal.
He believes what happened to Puddles was the result of “an unfortunate sequence of events.”
The employee Marques dealt with is the second newest person on staff and likely forgot because a matter came up with another customer about the same time that he was going to put up the note, Seitz explained.
“But it’s not all the culpability of one individual,” he said.
North Las Vegas has an ordinance that does not allow pet owners to let their animals, even cats, to roam, Seitz pointed out. Puddles was trapped by someone who called animal control.
Puddles also didn’t have a tag indicating he had been vaccinated for rabies. Marques said he was vaccinated but his collar broke off.
Later, when Marques, a 59-year-old medical assistant, was told about fears of violence at the shelter, she admitted that before the Lied staff asked her to leave, she got very loud. But, she added, that was only after she was told that her cat died less than 20 minutes after his 72-hour window had expired, and just a few minutes before she returned with the proper paperwork.
“I just couldn’t believe they would be so efficient, that they couldn’t just wait until the end of the day,” she said. “Especially since I had been there just two hours earlier and told them not to do anything.”
“So I lost him,” she added as she teared up again. “He never went far and used to sit in the driveway and wait for me to come home. I know — I know I shouldn’t get so upset about a cat, but when you care for them and everything, you get so attached. He never hurt anyone in the neighborhood. He would just sit and watch birds.”
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Yes, the economy stress; lost jobs, inability to be re-employed quickly, all have to do with people's irrationality. I agree new a office reception area is needed because the honor system of a "line" doesn't work with people already straining to be helped. The explanation of shelter rules is also needed before a screaming person is face-to-face with the shelter clerk over that low counter.
A pet becomes a family member and the loss to 72-hour mandatory destruction is devastating to an owner; as much as the loss of any family member.
Interesting that this situation doesn't happen in Reno. It takes LIEDership from the management, not walling off the public.
In Reno they take in 35,000 animals and are also the only open admission shelter in town. Yet, 8 out of 10 animals are successfully returned to their owner. They are a no kill shelter. The public loves them and they have 1100 volunteers.
Dear Animal Foundation board and management - Why can we be like that?!
I wish I hadn't read this.
72 hours is just not long enough in many cases for an owner to be able to locate and pick up the pet. I had high hopes for Lied when new management took over but it seems that it has gone the other way and is in worse condition now.
What happened to Marques is a classic example of why 72 hours is not enough. To be at Lied and find your animal, then beg a staff member to put a note on the cage, only to find your cat dead minutes later is horrifying. How does management explain that except that the employee is busy?? That is called either incompetence or someone has sadistic issues.
Why aren't these pet owners more responsible? How does their beloved pet get there in the first place? Did Animal Control pick up the animals b/c they are roaming the streets? If my cat was missing, I'd be there the same day and willing to pay whatever it cost b/c it was my fault that it got out in the first place. Only in Vegas are the animals more civilized than the pet owners.
Here's another concept that defies imagination. Why aren't these animals tagged? Don't think they would put down a pet with a name and phone number on it.
Comment removed by staff.
Lied shelter also has a policy that you aren't able to take your kids back with you to look for a lost dog. I've seen instances where a single mother had to choose between looking for her beloved pet and leaving her toddler alone!
Lied shelter is a prison like environment. What a mess.
Comment removed by staff.
How does an animal end up at a shelter? No matter how responsible a dog owner is, accidents happen. A dog or cat may escape thru a door the owner thought was shut. When my lab was a puppy, she loved to run up to people, and one time her collar broke while she was pulling trying to go greet some people walking across the street. Thank God there were no cars coming, and the people were nice enough to pick her up and hold her for me. Accidents happen, and just like kids get lost, pets get lost.
I'm not advocating violence towards the shelter employees, but it's appalling that Lied only waits 72 hours before killing perfectly healthy family pets. I could never work at a place like that. Don't they have people to foster the animals, or can't they call breed rescue groups around the county to take them in? Plenty of other cities have no kill or low kill shelters, I'm sure Las Vegas could follow their example and save a lot of heartbreak and violence towards the shelter staff.
Lied is charged with animal control. And if anyone did the math they saw that about 40,000 animals were euthanize last year. Sadly and of no choice of their own, Lied's animal control responsibilities mostly center on reducing the excess pet population in the valley. If your pet is caught is up in that system they lack the resources to do what should be their primary job of keeping the community safe from dangerous animals and protecting the good ones. My animals are micro-chipped. They are also fast runners with a sense of adventure. The last time I picked up one of my dogs from Lied I asked the attendant,"why don't you scan for the chip?" Well, the blunt reply was we intake about 150 animals a day and there is no time.
But with the exception of North Las Vegas, any effort to establish spay neutering laws has been fought tooth and nail by the backyard breeders in the state. It is time for the county to adopt a spay and neuter law that respects legitimate breeders rights but cuts down on the unnecessary deaths that occur daily at Lied.
Thanks, jacqueline and peter351 for starting to point out the shortcomings of Lied. I think it's interesting that, in the article, management doesn't really take responsibility or offer any creative long-term solutions for a situation everyone can agree is horrible (tens of thousands of euthanized pets last year). Most of the commenters also seem more interested in arguing about whose fault it is that a pet goes missing than in getting to the root sources of the problem.
While it seems clear that Lied is mismanaged, no amount of rule changes or reorganization will make a difference until the root causes of the situation are addressed.
One obvious culprit is pet overpopulation. Another is a lack of well-advertised minimum standards of pet care that all owners must adhere to. Maybe our civic leaders can identify others, then start talking about solutions. What they need is a plan to move out of damage control mode and into effective prevention and education.
this article brought tears to my eyes.
People today are faced with more loss the ever before. Job loss, income loss, house loss.... and then their beloved friend.... it becomes too much to bare. I can really understand why people go crazy.
Lied charges $155 to adopt a pet... the most expensive pound in the nation. Most shelters charge a mere $25.00 to adopt a new friend.
Lied would rather kill a loved and wanted pet, then work with someone with a payment plan to pay the expensive impound fees.
Less then 20% of animals ever make it out of Lied.
a 72 hour time limit... is just horrible.
yes, People need to spay and neuter their pets, and people need to be a responsible pet owner ....but sometimes accidents do happen...even to the best of pet owner. I feel so sad for that one pet owner who came back with all the required proof less then 2 hours later to find that her cat had just been put down... it would be enough to make anyone... even the nicest of people to lash out, and become abusive and crazy.
poor animals, poor people.
this article has made me ever so sad.
on a side note- I adopted my best friend from Lied nearly 8 years ago. I paid about $125 for him. When I got him home, I notice that my new pound pup did not want to drink any water, and seemed pretty lifeless...so I rushed him to my vet, and it was determined that my pup had parvo (a very deadly canine virus). I called up Lied to report that my new dog has parvo, and was told to bring him back, and pick out another dog.... Even though I only knew my dog for less then a few hours, I was already in-love... and there was no way I would ever take him back to Lied to die. About 5 days and $1,500 dollars later, my parvo and pound survivor pup was able to leave the vets and come home. Today my dog is my very best friend, I can't image my life without him... even just the thought of him no longer with me causes me to cry.
This animal shelter is PATHETIC!!! They show no compassion what so ever. I liken them to Hitlers men working in the concentration camps.
I really hate this shelter. It is so sad to know that they really dont care about the animals that they so call rescue. Killing them 72 hours after they come through the door is not rescuing them. 3 weeks ago someone broke into my yard and let me 2 beloved dogs wander. We frantically looked for them. Finally someoone called us after they had seen our flyer and told us that they brung our dogs to Lied. The man at the desk was so rude and heartless. I was in tears after finally seeing my dogs and knowing that they were okay. All he wanted to know was how I intended to pay, fines, fees ect.., cash or credit. Those people are heartless and could care less about how those animals are treated or how they treat the people that are there trying to retrieve their pets. It is a shame and the county should do something about this. There should be some way to persuade the county that they need to change Lied into a no kill shelter!
WHAT CHANCE DOES AN ANIMAL HAVE OF GETTING A HOME WITHIN 72 HOURS?????????GO TO YOUR CITY LEADERS AND CHANGE THE WAY ANIMALS ARE BEING TREATED IN THIS SHELTER & WHY HAVE A SHELTER ANYWAY IF THE ANIMALS ARE ONLY THERE FOR 72 HOURS???
SHAME, SHAME,SHAME ON ALL OF THE CITY LEADERS WHO ARE ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN.I HOPE YOUR LOVING PET NEVER ENDS UP IN THAT SHELTER.
So so sad... Here is something for ALL OF US to think about, we as TAX PAYERS (City of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and County) PAY FOR THIS "SHELTER". Thats a funny word isnt it, It means to PROTECT. That is hardly what they are doing at good old lied. Let's paint a picture; you are out of town, you have your neighbors watching your dogs and they get out because the landscaper forgot to lock the gate. The dogs are a little nervous because you were not home and they run away. They get picked up by animal control! You are 3000 miles away from home THEY ARE DEAD...! You could not change your ticket to get back to SAVE YOUR DOGS. Yep folks, that's what we are PAYING FOR, makes you feel so good inside... Now the flip side, we have backyard breeders just trying to make a buck on the mamma dogs that have nurtured and birthed these poor babies (which should have been spayed or neutered in the first place). People that go to puppy stores and get the cute "puppy in the window" have no idea what it takes to provide a good home(not to mention ALL OF THE POTETIAL HEALTH PROBLEMS). Then we have to look at the FACT that a POUND/SHELTER (ironic that word SHELTER) WOULDN'T EXIST if everyone was a responsible pet owner........
No doubt Lied is a mess, and is in dire need of a major overhaul. However, the major contributor to the overpopulation problem is puppy mills. Maybe Clark County should address the overpopulation problem by limiting where Pet Stores, hundreds throughout the valley, obtain the cute little puppies and kittens they offer for sale on a daily basis, or just shut-down the distribution channel for puppy mills.
NBC News last night had a piece on and organization that matches private pilots with shelters that need dogs to be flown to their new or foster homes. I checked out their web site and they have pilots in the Las Vegas area. I e-mailed Lied's Exec. Director and Director of Operations the web site in the hope that they might work with this organization to help save some of those animals. The web site is pilotsnpaws.org, and these are the e-mails for the Operations and Exec Director at Lied:
Executive Director
crobinson@animalfoundation.com
Operations
jseitz@animalfoundation.com
I'm not holding my breath that they will start using the pilots' services, but at least they know that they have alternatives.
I hope that they become a no kill shelter. The shelter in Reno is a no kill shelter, and they get a lot of support from the community. They hold adoption drives on a regular basis at places like Petco. If Reno can support a no kill shelter, I'm sure Las Vegas could do the same.
My condolences to Ms. Marques, I hope that you get the justice you deserve for what they did to you beloved kitty.
The Executive Director - Christine Robinson's previous job was in Air Quality. I wouldn't hold your breath for reform from her.
For all those who have made comments here, I would like to ask who has actually volunteered to work at the shelter to try to make a difference? Or of any of the people who have made a comment and have taken a seat at Lost and Found for even just an hour or two and watched people come in droves to dump their dogs knowing that most will never leave? Yes I agree that the shelter has issues. Im sorry that the woman lost her cat but as a rescue owner that takes dogs on their last day, people rarely come to look for their "beloved" pets. The story depicted one persons tragedy. Perhaps it should be noted of the animals the shelter finds, what percentage of people who even bother to come and look.
I lost one of my rescue dogs when he got out and the dog was at the shelter at the end of the day. I had animal control calling me as soon as he got there and the next day to make sure that I would reclaim him.
If the public wants less animals at Lied then perhaps they need to stop breeding them in the first place. If you dont like how the shelter is run, then do something about it. And just to let you know, when I get dogs on their last day, they were there alot longer than 3 days waiting for their owner to come forward but they never do show up.
I have worked extensively with Lied, Best Friends (GREAT group!), NSPCA, and the Henderson shelter. Lied is the only one that is a constant mess because honestly the fish stinks from the head down.
To change - the Animal Foundation will need to focus on REAL reform like a low cost spay/neuter program for the public (like they have been promising for a year now) and stop focusing on the socialite money grubbing fundraising events like Best in Show. They get MILLIONS of dollars in city tax revenue every year and yet they adopt out only a miniscule amount of animals. But I don't know why I'm posting this - this article appears in The Sun. Locals know this "shelter" is all about the politics and not about the animals.
My daughter adopted a small dog from Lied a couple of years ago. We returned recently to look for another one, as Cocoa was such a success! As we live in far away we cannot constantly visit the shelter but found a tiny female chihuahua in the kennels kept for "not up for adoption yet" animals. We were told these dogs are too scared to be seen. We were not allowed in the building. We were told not to even ask about those dogs housed in that particular facility but we could keep checking back. I sent several emails over the next couple of weeks as I had her ID number but no one bothered to reply. I even gave my phone number to the staff with the ID number of the dog, so they could call me when she came up for adoption. No one called. So, what happens to the animals that are "too scared"? Does this mean they do not have a chance to be adopted by someone who is willing to give them love and security? I got the feeling as I walked around that shelter that many, many animals do not get a second chance because the focus there is not to adopt out but to go through the motions of sheltering with the end result of destroying. Here we were trying to adopt a dog that was kept locked up, alone, depressed and scared and not one person took an interest in its well being! I do not know the politics behind this shelter but Las Vegas needs an animal shelter in the real meaning of shelter....not death row!
also, we noticed many empty kennels, so why do they euthanize when there is room and the shelter is definately not overcrowded. It seems like they do not give the owners of missing pets a chance to find them before their "time is up"...
I feel very sorry for Ms Marques as she did everything right and lost her pet. Maybe the shelter administrators should try to figure out WHY there are so many angry people in their lobby!
Found this on CL - fascinating stuff. Time for board member Janie Greenspun to resign. Yep Greenspun like in this newspaper.
las vegas craigslist > pets
The truth About Lied from a PRESENT EMPLOYEE!! (The Truth)
Date: 2009-01-17, 1:08AM PST
I currently work at lied, for obvious reasons I cannot divulge details, however, I will tell you what REALLY happens! In general the employees are VERY unhappy there.. The pay is extremely low(unless you work in admin), and they are daily mistreated by the higher ups, and ALWAYS on the verge of losing their jobs, every day.. They kill maybe 100 animals(or more) a day.. However, on average they receive about 120! There is no gas chambers, I assure you, but there are murders galore! The vets have ALL the power there, including firing employees, and what they say GOES! If a cat or dog sneezes, they are dead! If an animal has diarrea, they are dead! If a cat has a stubby tail, they are dead! If a kitten is under 2 pounds, they are dead! All in all though, 90 percent of the employees(the peons only) really care about the animals.. There IS NO ABUSE going on there, no broken limbs or beatings, just murders.. The administrators don't care about the well being of the animals, or of the lower echelon employees at all.. The animals always have 3 days at least, and while there, they do get food, water, blankets, etc.. Only the cream of the crop make it to adoptions, the rest are killed, period! They do scan for microchips there, usually at three separate times.. However, if an employee notices a missing dog from a flier(pic) they ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CALL THE OWNER ANYMORE! They will get fired for this! Remember, this is coming from a present employee of Lied, I am not defending them, or bashing them, but simply laying out the truth for the public... Judge for yourselves....
I think we found our little girl at the NSPCA...they constantly rescue animals from Lied but we do not not know how they choose which ones and who decides under what criteria...hmmm..interesting. Lied does not protect these animals...their only hope is that the NSPCA chooses to rescue them!
How do we petition to fire the management at Lied. Our tax dollars pay for their salaries.
Reno is No Kill. What's it gonna take to make Vegas a No Kill?