Dallas Animal Services (DAS) workers are receiving death threats over the euthanization of animals, according to a report from Fox 4 News. The organization has filed four separate police reports this year concerning the threats.
“Most of the threats have been threats to euthanize our staff after reports, often false reports, that an animal has been euthanized,” said DAS Assistant Director Whitney Bollinger. “Some have had details about how they plan to carry that out.”
DAS employees are apparently not the only shelter workers to have faced death threats.
“Research is showing that more than 75% of animal shelter workers have been physically threatened, related to their work, and [that] is not something people expect to be part of this job,” the assistant director explained.
As much as the public may decry the euthanization of shelter animals, the animal service workers dislike it even more.
“No one here wants to see an animal euthanized, especially a placeable pet. This is the only industry where the staff are tasked with caring for these animals and also euthanizing them,” Bollinger said.
The work can take an emotional toll on the staff. Julie Squires, a “compassion fatigue” specialist, said that working “in a helping profession” is emotionally taxing, “and animal welfare workers certainly are vulnerable due to the repeated exposure to pain and suffering they witness in the animals, the humans surrendering them, and their co-workers.”
In addition to the emotional aspect of their work, overcrowding and lack of space for animals combined with a lack of adequate staff to share the workload all contribute to a high burnout rate among shelter workers, Bollinger noted. The added stress of death threats only exacerbates the problem, leading to more staffing shortages.
A shortage of staff, along with space issues, is what led to the euthanization of 23 dogs in one day last week. The Dallas shelter is almost at full capacity for large dogs, which means more euthanizations may be necessary soon in order for the shelter to continue accepting dogs.
According to Bollinger and DAS Director Melissa Webber, the solution lies partly with people who can help through fostering, even if only for the weekend. Of course, animal adoptions and shelter volunteers are always welcome.
In response to requests for more transparency and community awareness about dogs at risk of euthanasia, the Dallas Animal Service said it plans to regularly put out a list of its most vulnerable pets on its new website starting at the end of the year.
If these people who are making threats care so much for animals, they should consider adopting animals themselves or put forth an effort to find people to adopt. Volunteer time at the shelters to see firsthand what the employees have to deal with…the hard work and the sorrow. You know, do something constructive instead of just being rabble-rousers, inciting fear and chaos, which accomplishes nothing. Get composites of the animals available and send out mass mailings. Try to put forth an organization through donations that will pay for sterilization of adopted pets, to make adoption less costly. You know, be proactive.
Instead of making threats, why don’t these people adopt an animal or shut TFU!!
These employees do the very best they can under the circumstances and I have witnessed that first hand. If some owners would spay/neuter their pets, get them vaccinated at numerous low cost centers, microchip their pets and also have collars with a phone number on them it would greatly reduce the numbers of animals that are taken in. People dump animals on the street for various reasons many times and those strays are subject to harm and even death. This group tries to rescue these animals as much as possible. I agree with the comment above, why not try and help by adopting, fostering, or volunteering instead of threatening the very people who are under emotional duress and have no joy in having to euthanize animals that are adoptable. Also, our city needs to increase the pay for these dedicated workers in order to encourage hiring of more staff. Most importantly, budget money for improvement of this facility and adding on more space for unwanted animals!!!!! It is all of our responsibility to help helpless animals in our community any way we can!!!!!
TO Alll Animal Control Emploees: Please accept my deep gratitude and respect. The work you do is some of the most difficult in the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you and God bless you.
If people would be responsible pet owners then animal shelters wouldn’t have to euthanize animals. These people have a hard job and they don’t get paid enough for death threats. If the people that are doing the threatening would work at the shelter for one week they will see what these people go through.