Pound Puppies

I had a little run in with the Montgomery Humane Society yesterday and felt inclined to write a letter notifying the Board, which I mailed out earlier today. There is no real point in me posting it on the blog, except for just sharing my frustration with friends. Here it goes:

I am writing in order to express my concerns on a recent encounter I experienced with the Montgomery Humane Society. I have always supported local humane societies, shelters and all other rescue missions. Pets are one of the most reliable and fulfilling aspects of our world, whether it is a dog, cat or any of God’s creatures. I by no means intend to question the mission or the intent of the Montgomery Humane Society, but I do not feel it right or just to let this go unaddressed.

A friend of mine called me this morning asking me to help her and her husband find their dog who had run away in the middle of the night during a storm. My friend is nine months pregnant causing her to be unable to take any time off work before the baby gets here, and her husband was out of town. The first step we took was to call the Montgomery Humane Society to see if he was there and report him missing. At this time we were told he was not there, but we would be called immediately if he was to show up, and we had full faith in receiving immediate notification from the Humane Society if our missing dog was to show up.

After I spent all morning searching for the missing dog, I decided to go to the Humane Society myself to see if he was there. I filled out the form only to find out I was not allowed to walk through the kennels to see if he was there, because I was not the actual owner. I do understand and appreciate the concept of protection this rule is intending to hold, but I do believe there is a lot more that can be done along with this policy to help the missing dog.

How is it that I could not simply walk through the kennels to see if he was there with full intentions of leaving him there for his owners to come pick him up, but I could have walked through the kennels freely if I had expressed an intention of adopting one? One of the volunteers/staff members did take my missing dog report and supposedly checked the kennels for me, but seeing as how he returned in less than two minutes to tell me our dog was not there I would have to say this was no comfort what-so-ever.

My concern is with the honesty, loyalty and dependability of the Montgomery Humane Society staff and volunteers. I was told our missing dog was not at the kennel, and I was not shown an ounce of customer service or support. I stood in your lobby with tear filled eyes, wondering where our precious dog could be. I have to confess that my eyes are again filled with tears for many reasons at this moment. One reason being that we now have our precious dog back in our care after a long 24 fearful hours, but the second reason my eyes have tears is because he was at the Montgomery Humane Society all day long. He was there when I came to find him, and he was there when your staff supposedly walked the kennels and looked for him while I was left outside.

I have recently moved back to Montgomery and have been planning on spending my free time at your facility volunteering. Today’s experience completely turned me away from the desire to work with such an unwilling staff. Now, I plan on looking for a way to make a much stronger, positive impact on your organization.

Again, I commend your organization for its mission, but hope to see improvement on your execution of this mission.

Sincerely,
Searcy Yoder

*As an update. I did receive a letter back from one of the Board members. He stated that he has expressed both his and my concerns to the Humane Society Director. This at least made me feel like I was heard by someone on the Board and the issue has been addressed even if it doesn't get solved, it was heard.