There is a petition on Change.org calling for an end to the corruption at the Memphis Animal Shelter! Go to Change.org, click on Animals and scroll down till you see Memphis Animal Shelter and sign! A shelter is suppose to be better for the animals than them being on their own, but not our shelter where animals are frequently starved to death, abused and sold into God knows what! We Memphians need to stand against this and call for an end to the corruption!

If you aren't guilty of something then you have nothing to hide. Why are these people at this shelter so nervous about web cams being installed? Animal abuse needs to be brought to the attention of law enforcement and dealt with properly. It is a crime and it sure seems like it is being committed all the time at this shelter.

What the public everywhere needs to understand is that there are other cities that are doing things differently in order to save as many animals as they can, even during difficult economic times & challenging circumstances. Your taxes could pay to save lives, make sick pets healthy & adoptable & prevent unwanted animals from being born. You are currently paying to kill lost & homeless pets & orphaned dogs, cats, puppies & kittens, & cats born outside. Even though volunteers have offered to visit the shelter & take photos of adoptable animals so they can be posted online so the public will know they are available, those in charge have refused to allow this! Why would any sane & caring shelter director refuse such help? Your taxes are currently paying people who have demonstrated that they aren't interested in doing things differently & there's no reason to hope things will be different in a new building; it will be the same stuff, different pile. The City is breaking the law by denying your right to attend certain meetings: According to the TN Sunshine Law, the mayor-appointed advisory board can not meet privately – the public must be allowed to attend any and all meetings. The secret meetings of the current advisory board appears to have violated that law. (More info, Info courtesy of http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/action-alert-mas-advisory-board-meeting-tonight/) While the public loves animals & is opposed to animal abuse & killing pets in shelters, the killing will continue unless YOU make your voices heard! Information about the life-saving programs & the no-kill equation are available to everyone. Please see http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/ - Please speak up & take action & be the voice for the pets at the shelter. See how on http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/memphis-animal-services-links/

So far, I've seen no justification to remove the webcams. They are still needed for the same reasons that they were installed in the first place. My guess is if the webcams are removed, more observers will be needed to visit the "shelter".

If there weren't a gazillion pictures coming off the shelter cam to show that some of the workers at the shelter were abusing the animals...they wouldn't be worried about the cameras.

Little says all "records" are available to the public. What about the recordings of the 'internal' security cameras? Will they be available to be viewed by the public at any time? (n-o-t) 70-80% of the dogs in that shelter are NEVER SEEN by the public, because Pepper had deemed that NO ONE from the public can go into the stray area. The only exception would be someone who is there specifically to look for THEIR lost dog. Their adoption rates will NEVER increase, because having only 30-40 dogs to choose from means that many people will NOT find the dog they want on any given day. If the public can see the other 150-300 or more dogs in the shelter, they are much MORE likely to find a dog that they want to adopt. For a stray, all they have to do is go back after the 3-day holding period to adopt. But Pepper apparently thinks that is a BAD idea, so the vast majority of strays that enter that shelter are KILLED with NO chance AT ALL of getting adopted. The shelter does NOT police itself. If it DID, there would have been NO raid in 2009, and there would be no employees indicted for felony animal cruelty in 2011. Over a dozen pit bulls were stolen from the shelter in late 2008. It was report that it was an inside job because there were NO signs or evidence of any break-in from the OUTSIDE. The shelter had security cameras. Has anyone ever heard about that case being solved, or has anyone every been charged in that crime? NO. The shelter has not and WILL not police itself and downtown will not make them - nor will downtown hold anyone accountable for any abuse. Only because of public pressure did the police investigate the Kapone case and issue a warrant for Demetria Hogan.

"While critics have said going without web cams will make the facility less transparent, Little said that’s not the case. 'People can come and visit anytime. The records will be available,' said Little." --- What garbage. See YesBiscuit!'s blog entry today describing the WEEKS of runaround a concerned citizen was subjected to by the city and the shelter when she wanted to help a dog shown in the webcams. By the time she finally got the information, the dog scheduled to be killed the same day. It's an incredible story. http://yesbiscuit.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/dog-needs-out-of-mas-uh-immediately/#comments This woman only knew the dog was there because of the webcams. Once they are eliminated, there won't even be a way to know most of the animals in the shelter exist! Pepper won't list most of the animals online, though it would be easy and he's been asked to do so repeatedly, and he won't let the public into the area of the shelter where most of them are held. "Available"? Really?

Little's decision? He's costing AC quite a few votes with that decision. If I were running for Mayor or advising, I'd have my person declare there WILL be cameras and asking AC to repudiate and reverse his unelected underling on this.