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Marion shelter website is shut down just wanted to let everyone know.Hope all the animals are rescued and not euthanized.

Looks like alot of the dogs are getting adopted......I am interested on how many dogs are left........None of those dogs should be euthanized........What is going on with all the cats that where at the shelter?????????? can anyone post some recent info on this please.

I really appreciated the mayor's response. I think this is the power of zootoo. Of course, all of us continue to worry about the dogs at the current shelter. Whenever a shelter has to close--because of poor management, because of fiscal issues, whatever, I think every shelter in the area should do its best to help adopt out and take in any remaining animals. No one shelter should be seen as having to do this - since these two shelters are not really connected to expect them to just take in all the dogs seems a bit unfair. It sounds like they have tried to work with the current shelter and given them a time frame based on what the shelter told them.
I hope the Marion area responds to the closing of this shelter by helping get the dogs adopted. I hope anyone at the old shelter that is angry at the situation can see beyond it and make sure that their work is still all for the animals in their care.
I also hope Richard sees how the zootoo site has been utilized to get informaitonout and then to get information clarified. Now I just hope we see that in the end the animals are taken care of by all concerned. then I would say zootoo has shown it's value!

I have emailed the mayor and got a very nice reply. I have also spoken to somebody in the mayor's office just 5 minutes ago to make sure I understood everything.

Here is the email from the mayor.


Dear Betty

Let me first begin by telling you I have 2 dogs that I care for very much. My Mom has rescued mored than a hundred animals and has spade and neutered all of them at her expense. Now the Marion story.

It is true that we have said to the humane society group that we are not going to take their animals to the new shelter. We have said that because their shelter is very poorly run and they have had all kinds of issues. They also have a very bad reputation in the community. Although there are SOME good people down there doing the best they can do under some horrible conditions. We have told them that the day the new shelter opens they will be paid $10,000.00 per month for 2 months to close their shelter. We came up with this number of 8 weeks because they told us animals only stay at the shelter for 6 weeks before they are moved.

When no one in our community would step up to help the shelter with their horrible building we as the City stepped up and are building a new building. We are also hiring 2 animal control officiers and buying them 2 new trucks. We are also hiring an executive director, this is where the problem has started. There are a few down at the shelter who are not happy that we have hired a new director so they have began this nasty and untruthful e-mail around the World.

We do not run the old shelter and do not have any employees that work there. If they kill animals it will be because they decide to kill them. We do not make those decisions. Our current contract with them is for $125,000.00 per year. We will now be providing a new shelter and about $350,000.00 per year yet some how we are the bad guys. It is our fear that the people who have sent out this e-mail will kill animals to try and put the City in a bad light. They are doing all this because they are afraid that they will not have jobs when the new shelter opens.

We have received many threats in other e-mails about the World watching us. We welcome this because everyone will see that we as the City have taken a very horrible Inhumane Society and will be turning it into a well run and state of the art Humane Center.

I hope I have spread some light on this issue. Please feel free to call me at 765-668-4401 if you have any questions.

It is also our hope that the true story will spread across the World as quickly as the slanderous one has traveled. When you have truth on your side you always come out in a better position.

Thank you,
Mayor Wayne Seybold

------------

So always ask before jumping to a decision that might not be the right one.

Christie-your photos are great. I think everyone should also e-mail Ellen and get this story to her. Maybe she'll do a quick story on her show.

I hope everyone on zootoo is writing to the mayor, calling, jamming up the lines, etc. I think this is the power of zootoo that Richard mentioned in his visits. A million responses gets attention. How ridiculous to build a new building and not transfer the animals already in their care to it. That's like building a new house and throwing out everything you had in the old one. Shows the disposable view the City council has of pets. Plus I always hate that "We're not permitted to talk about it" comment. Everyone is so afraid of lawsuits that they forget the animals. I'd take a dog but I seem to have just brought one home from the Maxfund (OMG) so my house is "maxed" out with animals. Shame on Marion, Indiana!

This is awful. I'll contact the animal adoption center I volunteer for in hopes they can help.

I just sent this email to the Mayor Seybold of Marion IN. His email is wseybold@marionindiana.us

Dear Mayor Seybold,

My name is Betty Peyton and I am the shelter director for the Madison County Animal Shelter in London Ohio. I am writing in regards to an email that I have received for helping the animals of Marion-Grant County Humane Society.

From what I have gathered, the humane society will be moving into a new building and any animals left in the old building come June 1st will be put down instead of being moved.

This question has been asked to the Marion-Grant Humane Society and got the answer of " It was the decision of the Marion City Council to not allow any of those animals to be moved and the shelter is not at liberty to discuss that."

I am considered that this will not be a good move on the part of the city and maybe your are not aware of this decision to kill innocent lives.

I am asking you why has your city decided to kill innocent animals because there is a new shelter. That makes no sense to me and would like an answer. If you are not the person to give me that answer, please tell me who is so I can contact them.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Betty Peyton
HSMC Board Member
Madison County Animal Shelter Director
www.hsmcohio.com

I just called the Marion-Grant County Humane Society at 765.664.1111, which is the phone number listed on their web site (which is a direct link from the City of Marion web site). The woman who answered verified that:

1) These animals will be killed in June if not adopted/rescued.
2) The Marion-Grant County Humane Society is working with rescue groups to avoid having these animals killed.
3) The Marion-Grant County Humane Society is moving into a new building.
4) It was NOT the decision of the Marion-Grant County Humane Society to kill these animals.
5) Not permitting the current animal population to move from the current building into the new building was the decision of the Marion City Council.
6) When asked why the Marion City Council made this decision, she said "I am not at liberty to discuss that."

She referred me to the Marion City Council. I attempted to call the City of Marion at 765.662.9931. Unfortunately, their hours are 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. At the time I placed the call, their offices had already been closed for 40 minutes.

Your Roving Reporter
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
2:36 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time

Hmmm strange....I called the 1-847-371-1147 # and it says subcriber is not accepting any calls at this time and I called the 1-847-404-8143 # and got a voicemail from Christy saying they cannot answer any calls do to the overwhelming response into saving the animals so if you are interested in a animal you have to go to the shelter or if you are a rescue group you need to email them.
But if you go to the Thier website it does not say anything about the shelter closing but are asking help for a new building and are taking donations through paypal.
I hope someone can clarify this situation so these animals can be helped and saved.
June is only a few weeks away.

I personally emailed and called this shelter for two days last week to make sure this was true and to offer assistance. They still have not gotten back to me. There is nothing on their own website stating they are shutting down.

Does anybody live there to check on this.

I just sent the following message to zootootv@zootoo.com. It can't hurt to try!

*****
Go to following link on zootoo. There is a shelter closing down in Indiana. Their plight could use some attention. Could Zootoo do a story on this? This is a worthwhile cause!

www.zootoo.com/journals_j_adoption/fwdshelterinneed_mgagnepn

This is terrible. The shelter needs to hold A LOT of adoption days and maybe that would help in getting the word out that these animals need homes NOW! I hope all these animals find homes before it's too late and the doors do close to an empty shelter. I would hope that other shelters would be able to help out in this situation but i dont understand why they are still taking in animals if they need to get them all out. I hope the community will step up and ensure this animals do not die!

My gosh. How sad. It breaks my heart to look at the pooches who don't have "saved" next to their name. I truly hope that they all get great homes from this. Thank you for letting us know about it - I will definitely try to spread the word. I wish you all the luck in the world. These puppies deserve all the help we can give.

That's really sad. I hope the various surrounding rescues and shelters can help out.

It's interesting that some areas (Indiana, for example) seem overwhelmed with animals, while others (Vermont) are having animals transported from places like Indiana to rescues (I've driven legs for transports from Indiana to Western New York, Ontario, and Vermont).

I hope this works out :-(

Please, somebody, HELP them..........

Perhaps I'm not reading enough or not given enough information, but why would it be they would euthanize all dogs? I would think that most shelters work with other shelters, very few shelters are standalone, isolated shelters. Even MaxFund, DEnver's only no-kill, works with Denver Municipal and other shelters when they can so if animals need to be "out" of these kill shelters, but they think its a good dog or cat, other shelters (ours) will work with them to get those dogs adopted.
To me, making a blanket statement like "we are euthanizing all our animals when we close our doors" is a cry for help - they want to get the animals adopted, no doubt, but I would think that there would be some other shelter where the dogs would at least have a chance at.
Also, according to their website, they state "animals are coming and going..." so they know they'll be shutting their doors but they are still accepting dogs?

Maybe I'm missing part of the story or something, and definately not trying to sound unsympathetic to the situation, I hope all the dogs get adopted into loving homes and none of them have to be unnecessarily euthanized! Just seems to be very unusual...

I hope that everyone will have "saved" by their photos before the shelter closes! Best of luck in this effort.

Hi,

I just took your journal entry and posted it as my comment on Richard's journal entry for Cat Welfare. I think it might get more notice there, and hopefully someone reading it can help. I hope all of the dogs get adopted out or taken by other shelters before it is too late.

Mary

The situation is dreadful. Does anyone know why the shelter is closing? Do they have a foster network that can care for the animals until they are adopted? There are several groups in NYC that don't have any facilities. They rely entirely on fosters and do a remarkable job. Maybe this shelter can work on establishing a foster network quickly and can establish and/or maintain a Petfinder website so that people can still view the animals in need of a home after the shelter closes its doors.

If they can get the word out to the local media that the animals will be put down, they may find crowds lined up at their doors.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

So sad; makes my heart ache! I wish that I had the means to help alot of animals; unfortunately, I only have an 1/2 acre lot that our house sits on and financially...well, let's just say that our townships' wonderful leaders missed the deadline to apply for grants and we have to pay over $6000.00 by May 31 to tap into mandated sewage. I don't like to hear stories like this one...if anything, we need more shelters.

This is so sad. I wish I could take in more rescue dogs. More people need to hear about this, and come to the rescue of all these sweet pups.

I'm in Denver, but I'm going to comment on this journal so that it gets into the "Most Popular" section. THIS needs to be seen by as many people in that area as possible.

Thank you so much for passing on the word about this shelter. I live too far away (near St Louis) but I'm going to email some family/friends who live closer to your area in Indiana. I'll be praying for all those dogs to get homes ASAP!

I have send this out and I know that our shelter director will as well. We're in Ohio and not too far away so there may be shelters and rescues that are willing to step up.