Regime change at Memphis Animal Shelter

Embattled Memphis Animal Shelter administrator Matthew Pepper threw in the towel on August 9. The story broke this evening on WMC-TV; h/t to Ryan Clinton:

Pepper sent his letter of resignation to Director Janet Hooks on August 9.

Pepper was named to the position in February of 2010.  In the year since he took the job, the shelter has been plagued with problems, including employees charged with animal cruelty.

Blogger Shirley Thistlewaite at Yes Biscuit!, who has been covering problems at MAS relentlessly for more than a year now, had this to say:

He leaves in his wake a city pound in turmoil, with one ACO facing criminal charges on multiple counts of animal cruelty, daily webcam images which appear to show needless killing and abuse, and locks on the doors to the stray area where hundreds of dogs languish without hope.

I hope, with all my heart, that the annual slaughter of thousands of healthy, friendly Memphis pets ends here.

[....]

This is your moment Memphis.  You have a choice.  Please, stop the abuse.  Stop the killing.

From your keyboard to Dog's ears, Shirley.

Photo: Just one of thousands of heartbreaking images from the MAS webcam, as published on Yes Biscuit!

Comments

[mikken]

I truly hope that they get someone there who is willing to turn that place around. When Mayor Wharton hired Matthew Pepper, he knew that Pepper's kill rate at his previous shelter was more than 70% and yet he hired him anyway.



Maybe Memphis can set the bar a little higher, this time around.

[mary francis]

This story should be covered by the national media...international too - I am sooo grateful for Shirley.

[Mary Murray]

Very good news....am praying for intervention...someone that embraces the No kill mission.

[Social Mange]

It will be interesting to see how much stuff 'n nonsense will come out of the Mayor's office and how little things will actually change.



Memphis has a city administration that doesn't pay to keep schools open, you have to wonder about the acumen, whether they even realize how their city looks on the world stage and how unattractive it is to investors (new businesses) and tourists.



The city administration is jabbing Memphis with blue juice while they dither.

[David S. Greene]

This truly is a fork in the road for Memphis, as Shirley correctly pointed in a blog post. The decision they make right here, right now, will dictate their future. If they have the vision and determination to become the country's newest No Kill city, the deaths of all the animals that ended up at MAS and never came out won't have been in vain.