The “Locked Ward”
At Birmingham Jefferson County Animal Control
Called the “Isolation Ward”, there is a locked room where animals are kept unavailable to the general public. Sometimes this is for good reason, sometimes not. When I worked there from 2002 to 2004, we housed in that room primarily groups of animals seized in cases of animal cruelty. Most often these would be a number of pit bulls, taken from dog fighting rings. There were other individual animals placed in that kennel for a variety of reasons, usually due to poor health which required daily monitoring and treatment until they were claimed by their owners, euthanized on their due date, or became healthy enough to be placed up for adoption or with an animal rescue group.
Animals that came from cruelty situations were kept for very extended periods of time, often up to a year or so, until a disposition order was handed down by the judge in charge of the cruelty case. As you can imagine, this situation was (and still is) problematic at best. There were 2 sizes of runs in this kennel. One third of them the long runs same as you see in the public male and female wards, 2/3’s were the same size as the smaller runs against the walls of those wards. The dogs were not allowed outside in the only pen we had available for exercise, which in fact was not properly designed for this purpose to begin with. Too small. These animals were not allowed to interact with each other. Of course with the fighting dogs, this makes sense because although they were most often sweet and playful with humans, they were trained to kill other dogs. The psychological impact of such unnatural confinement was profound, and worsened as time went on.
They were fed poor quality and inconsistent diets, resulting in lots of stool production which was often soft, the consistency of cow manure. Diarrhea was a frequent problem for these dogs. Because of this, I contacted Hill’s Science Diet because they have a program in place that provides their high quality food to nonprofit shelters and rescues for just 10 cents a pound. Because their food is designed to maximize absorption of quality nutrients, which minimizes stool volume which is of a firm consistency, I felt this would be very helpful for these poor dogs whose quarters were so confining they had no choice but to step all through the feces, causing inflamed and infected paws. Not only did Hill’s offer to do this for our animals in isolation, they offered to provide this arrangement for all animals in our facility, EVEN THOUGH WE WERE A “FOR PROFIT” ORGANIZATION. God bless them! I prepared all the paperwork and took it to the man in charge, Steve Smith, unfortunately but not surprisingly, he ignored it. Passive refusal to sign the contract. The food used at BJC was provided at no cost from Bruno’s groceries. Every Friday a truck returned from their warehouse loaded with bags of unsellable dog food, usually because the bags were torn. Most of these foods were brands that I would never feed my own dogs. Very poor quality, very poor nutritionally. The key here is that the food was FREE. I may not remember the numbers correctly so don’t quote me, but I believe I was told the budget given him by the city and county allocated $25,000 for food alone. I bet no one realized we, as taxpayers, were “paying” for free dog food, huh?.......naughty, naughty man.
Be that as it may, there are many serious issues with this room and the building as a whole that will need to be addressed in the near future if we care anything about the quality of care these animals receive while “incarcerated” at this facility. The issue at present is the findings of the women from Commissioner Carn’s office that many dogs in this room appeared to be malnourished.
Was BJC at fault for this? I have tried over and over to give them the benefit of the doubt regarding these malnourished dogs, that perhaps there was a reason behind this other than GROSS NEGLECT AND IRRESPONSIBILITY, but hard as I have tried, I can think of NOTHING.
As the first STAFF veterinarian hired by BJC, I developed protocols, among others, to provide detailed guidance for the care of these animals. This is basically how things went:
Immediately upon their arrival, these dogs were given a complete physical exam, check for internal and external parasites, weighed, and more. Notation of each part of the procedure was written into individual records for each dog, to become a permanent part of their composite record while at BJC. All treatments indicated by the findings were initiated the day of their arrival, (except we did not treat them for heartworm infections) and continued, or repeated as necessary. Any animal with health issues more serious than could be dealt with under my care with the limited resources available were taken to a local veterinarian whose practice was close to the facility. Daily notations were made in the records of each dog, monitoring their appetites, their bodily functions and their mental status. Weights were taken weekly, and quantity of food was adjusted as needed. It doesn’t require a scale, or a veterinarian to see that a dog is malnourished. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what needs to be done. As I see it, there is no reason or excuse for so many animals to appear malnourished. I was very proud the day Dr. Dewitt, a kind, gentle and tenderhearted veterinarian in Forestdale, came through this room and commented that the dogs appeared better cared for than they would be at his facility. But it wasn’t just because of me. There were a few others that worked there that helped me keep an eye on all the animals in the building and would alert me to anything amiss. This is what disturbs me the most. Of all the kennel workers, field officers, veterinarian, and others that worked there day in and day out, and saw these animals day in and day out, WHY DIDN’T SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING???? And when this information came out in print in the BLACK AND WHITE NEWSPAPER, again, WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY DO SOMETHING???? These dogs were literally starving, as best I can tell, and that in itself is cruelty. I keep thinking how absolutely horrible it must be to be so hungry and yet be locked up with no way out, no way to search for food.
Why is it that the Birmingham Police Department’s Animal Cruelty Officer did nothing? When I worked there, she visited frequently. Not because she gave a damn about the dogs, but because she had “buddies” there. I don’t recall her ever showing any interest in any of the dogs that came to the facility as a direct result of her arresting someone on cruelty charges. She sat in the front offices with them, played computer games with them, and often went to lunch with them when perhaps she should have been monitoring the care of the animals and doing what was within her power, nay what she was sworn to do as an officer, to put a stop to all this mess?
I hope I have said enough so far. I have to stop for now, because dealing with this is so difficult for me. But it has to be done. Perhaps I could let this go if I knew the animals were today getting better treatment, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. I am still hearing stories of “malnourished animals” in that horrid place…..
Check back. Perhaps when I have had some time away from this, I will add to this commentary.
Thanks for listening,
Virginia Woolverton, DVM