Residents of Marlin, Texas, USA, are calling for the arrest of the Marlin police chief for allowing dogs to die of starvation and dehydration at the dog pound that he is charged with overseeing. And the residents are calling for the arrest and prosecution of the city manager and animal control officer.
Nathan Winograd helpfully provides me with his report on this which comes from a local newspaper 10 KWTX.
Nathan says that a man was looking for his lost dog and went to the pound and saw dead dogs. He saw starving dogs and filth. He took photographs and uploaded them to Facebook. The police chief refused to answer questions about what’s going on.
Marlin’s mayor, Susan Byrd, has promised accountability. She said that, “as a proponent for dog rescues we are all working to cooperate with the investigation by the Falls County Sheriff’s Office. Upon completion of the investigation, the city of Marlin will do our best to ensure the responsible parties are all held accountable.”
The above-mentioned newspaper said that a group of around 40 peaceful protesters demanded change. They are protesting after disturbing videos were revealed showing underfed dogs surrounded by their own faeces at the shelter.
One dog was lying dead in a kennel. And according to the Falls County Sheriff’s Office multiple dogs were dead at this pound.
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Comment: once again, I don’t want to sound too cynical or too negative but in my experience the police (in any country) do not have a great record on being concerned about animal welfare. Or promoting animal welfare. Perhaps this is partly because the police are generally right wing and right people are more human-centric than left wing people.
I make that assessment from many stories on the Internet of police officers shooting dogs. On these occasions the dogs are often innocently approaching the police officer because they want to be friendly.
The officer shoots the dog dead. That’s happened on more than one occasion. This indicates to me underlying problem concerning training and attitude. And I’ve read stories of officers killing cats sometimes brutally when it is entirely unjustified.
That said, I cannot tar all police officers with the same brush. There will be many who are fantastic with animals and deeply concerned about their welfare. It’s just that there appears to be too many police officers who have a poor attitude towards animal welfare on my personal assessment.
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