Operations Manager Marian Cannell, the current defacto MCAS director, came on board the Titanic in November 2022. Since then, a significant escalation of dogs held indefinitely in legal custody has occurred at MCAS. For example, September 29’s intake records show 25 out of 50 dogs were there on an indefinite protective custody legal hold (record attached). Dogs on protective custody legal hold are subject to the shelter’s notoriously poor animal care. It is as though the dogs are being punished for the alleged misdeeds of their owners.
The dogs held indefinitely on protective custody legal hold represent a dramatic escalation. The rationale behind why they are being held is worth asking. The reasons they are being held cannot be reviewed since these are legal cases and the records, including the animal care records, are redacted until the case is closed. In two recently released cases where the records have been released (attached below) the dogs were the victims. MCAS killed both once the legal cases were resolved, lending ironic meaning to the term “protective custody.”
Managers will tell anyone who asks that they are holding the dogs in custody for the city and county but it is MCAS that seeks and filing the charges most of the time. It seems a zealous focus on enforcement over sheltering, without any clarity about why so many more dogs are on legal hold, lending to the perception that the agency has been repurposed as a dog prison. Like a prison, the shelter suffers from over capacity issues because so many become long term residents, but unlike a prison, dogs don’t have the rights to not be killed for space because the prison needs “room.”
Marian Cannell, with Director Erin Grahek’s full cooperation, has redirected the agency’s mission away from its funded intention of prevention, education, and service to one of treating animals not as companions whose lives deserve respect but as potential pests, nuisances and liabilities best killed.
The kill rate for dogs judged “unadoptable,” for reasons that are not professionally justifiable, has escalated dramatically. For example, a distressed dog who snapped when a muzzle was forced on him and also when a loop leash was swung over his head, was judged “unsafe,” unhealthy, and untreatable, then killed. He was not. There were solutions short of killing him for signs of agency stress.
No one in government has meaningfully addressed the regression that fails to meet the needs of this community, let alone national standards for animal care. There are less draconian solutions than impoundment, followed by execution, for dogs placed on protective custody legal hold. The shelter is uninterested in alternatives and has not explained why there has been such a dramatic increase in enforcement cases and custody holds. Is it a need or just a matter of preference?
When MCAS complains about space limitations, in large measure it is self inflicted. The response from a failing agency that makes poor choices has not been creating a system of accountability, but more funding to support failure after a pointless review process.
Gail O’Connell-Babcock
Two records, formerly protective legal custody holds. Redactions have been applied to protect the identities of private persons and non-managerial staff.
MCAS In Care Inventory snapshots: September 30 2024 vs September 25 2023.
Redactions indicate dogs in protective custody legal holds.