Budget’s death in a triple occupancy kennel
EDIT: Updated the dogs’ return to the shelter due to the owner’s ongoing medical emergency.
“In response to Monday’s audit, Vega Pederson said she was pleased with the amount of progress that’s taken place at the shelter since she took office. ‘This timely assessment provides us an opportunity to see how far (Multnomah County Animal Services) has come in a short amount of time,’ she wrote.”
Background
Budget, ID# 320453; Gizmo, ID# 320452; Phoenix, ID# 320454
On August 08, three dogs were taken into MCAS custody when their owner was hospitalized: Gizmo, MCAS 320452, a Labrador Retriever mix; Phoenix, MCAS 320454, a Labrador/Rottweiler mix; Budget, MCAS 320453, a dachshund.
At first, the 2 large dogs were housed together apart from the small dachshund. The MCAS contract worker who picked up all three dogs from a temporary caretaker, providing care for them while the owner was hospitalized had run out of resources. The worker housed the 2 larger dogs together in one kennel, placing the dachshund in a separate kennel after describing him as very fearful.
July 16, 2024:
“I loaded up the three dogs and transported them to the shelter two of the dogs were friendly and easy to handle and I cannot them together in a large kennel. Their belongings are in a labeled bag behind the adoption desk. The third dog was fearful on arrival at the shelter and I had to use a control pole. That dog is kenneled separate in intake 14.”
At some point during their stay at MCAS, management decided to house all 3 dogs together.
August 8, 2024:
“Arrived MCAS 22:51m placed all 3 dogs into intake kennel #16 (double kennel), they are very much bonded to each otherwise”
On August 12, Budget, the small fearful dachshund was found fatally injured, deceased in the shared kennel. No one noticed any commotion until then.
August 12, 2024
“Phoenix 320454 and Gizmo 320452 were housed in a double kennel with Budget 320453. All three dogs had come in together. Budget was found deceased in the kennel today; he had bite wounds on his ventral neck and blood coming from his mouth. He had most likely been killed by either Phoenix or Gizmo. Phoenix and Gizmo were placed in separate kennels and added to Rounds Review to determine pathway.”
The fact that all 3 came in together doesn’t justify kenneling all 3 together when grouping in small kennels is generally unsafe. Especially when the small dog was kenneled separately on that July 16 intake.
A day later on August 13, the contact person for the owner called and MCAS reported that the Budget had been attacked and killed by one or both of the 2 other dogs in the shared kennel. The contact person responded that the owner:
“would occasionally mention that Phoenix would pick on Budget and that she was not entirely surprised that Gizmo jumped in with her sister. I let her know that we planned to proceed with Euthanasia in the morning of 8/15, and gave her a telephone number telling her to contact prior to 5:30 PM 8/14 if they had heard from the owner.”
Earlier on August 13,“Rounds met and due to kennel incident that resulted in death of 3rd dog, electing euthanasia at end of hold time unless reclaimed. [Follow up on] 8/14.”
Phoenix was redeemed by the owner on August 14, 2024.
These are nice dogs. MCAS created the circumstances that led to Budget’s death. They took no responsibility whatsoever. Instead, they planned to kill both of the dogs after they failed to protect all 3 dogs. That was their misconduct. They had no plans to review their culpability or hold themselves accountable. The only plan was to conceal misconduct and destroy the evidence.
According to the records, they had planned to kill the other two dogs immediately at the end of the legal hold time of 6 days, on the morning of August 15. They planned this despite knowing that the owner was placed on mental health hold at the hospital. They knew the struggle she was going through, and cruelly decided that killing her dogs while she couldn’t possibly respond to their calls was an acceptable decision. The owner reclaimed her dogs before the deadline on August 14, but was unfortunately hospitalized again on August 22. Her dogs are back at the shelter, and likely to be scheduled for euthanasia on August 29.
That is what they do day after day. If careless adopters harm animals then return the dogs, MCAS managers don’t review what went wrong with their adoption. They just destroy the victims and move on. Nothing changes.
Gail O’Connell-Babcock