Hollywood star celebs have supported the Humane Society for years but it is not likely many of them have heard this story. So listen up Bob Barker, Carrie Ann Inaba, Carrie Underwood, Ellen Degeneres, Hayden Panettiere, Jenna Elfman, Jon Lovitz, Kristen Bell, Maria Menounos, Melanie Griffith, Moby, Pierce Brosnan, Russell Simmons, Teri Hatcher, and William Baldwin. The animals need your help donating to fund an emergency medical services foundation. Why? Because one local Humane Society has been euthanizing pets when people can’t pay up in full at the time of service for emergency medical services.
Hollywood star celebs who are pet friendly need to step up to the plate and make the non-profit organization the Humane Society treat animals and pet owners ethically and with a sense of charity during the economic recession. Why? Because bad policy at the Phoenix Arizona Humane Society turned deadly for a nine month old kitten on Friday.
Since the shelter refused to take a telephone credit card payment for medical care for the kitten, a 49-year-old recovering substance abuser lost his best friend to euthanasia when he could not pay up in full in cash at the time they performed emergency medical services on his best friend.
When he couldn’t pay, they killed his kitten intentionally (rather than spending any more time treating it).
WTF?
Somehow, we doubt this is what green celebrities who are pet friendly Humane Society donors (like Bob Barker, Carrie Ann Inaba, Carrie Underwood, Ellen Degeneres, Hayden Panettiere, Jenna Elfman, Jon Lovitz, Kristen Bell, Maria Menounos, Melanie Griffith, Moby, Pierce Brosnan, Russell Simmons, Teri Hatcher, and William Baldwin ) had in mind the shelter do with money they donated to their fav non-profit organization.
Pet owners across the nation are appalled to hear about this bad news when it comes to animal welfare rumor mill reports. Some volunteers angry donors are even saying things like, “I am ashamed to have volunteered my time there…” and “Never again will I help them… I will be donating to the ASPCA and Peta this year before I give another dime to [the Humane Society].” Obviously, so they can’t be singled out, the people quoted have asked to remain anonymous with the hopes they speak for all the donors seeking rectification of this tragedy and immediate policy changes.
Now that the story broke, the Humane Society is trying their best to do damage control. They have hired a PR firm, have been deleting posts and comments about when Daniel Dockery took his 9 month old kitten to the Phoenix Humane Society to have an injury treated.
They are scrambling to apologize for the very real fact that when Dockery was unable to come up with the $400 payment, he made arrangements to have a relative help out, rather than let Scruffy go untreated. However, “the Humane Society cited policy when it declined to accept a credit card over the phone from Dockery’s mother in Michigan or to wait for her to wire the money.
The staff said if he signed papers surrendering the cat, Scruffy would be treated and put in foster care,” according to the Huffington Post. “Instead, Scruffy was euthanized several hours later.”
The most outrageous part of this tragedy is the lie the Arizona branch of the Humane Society told Dockery, and there is only one obvious reason for them to tell it; they thought they could get away with discriminating against a man and his pet based solely on his wealth.
There is no denying that money can buy more than privilege, it can buy life. A lack of money for Dockery left a nine month old kitten at the mercy of a merciless animal shelter in Phoenix Arizona.
There is a terrible divide in America today that separates behavior by more than social class. In the case of Dockery and his kitten, it is an abyss of moral distinction that turned deadly on an innocent kitten and the man who loved her. Let’s hope for animal rights benefit that the Humane Society staffers who have a heart and know better can get their act together quickly. Otherwise, pet friendly Hollywood star celebs will not be likely to give their celebrity endorsement to the non-profit organization.
However, it is also important to note that the one heinous act by this particular group of people does not represent the spirit of the organization as a whole. Further, not every group that uses the phrase “humane society” is affiliated with the larger organization.
For instance, Sarah Burnett (an employee of the Humane Society of the United States), says, “I work at HSUS (in online media communications)… I believe there is some confusion, and so I wanted to reach out and clarify that what happened at the AZ Humane Society didn’t involve the HSUS [Humane Society of the United States]. We’re not an umbrella organization, and local shelters and humane societies [like the one in question] operate independently of us.”
To that end, despite the very real fact that many Humane Society groups protect animal welfare nobly, there is a huge need for celebrities and the wealthy to make the donations necessary to a new and nationally accessible pet protection fund — to ensure no other animal shelter in America perpetrates a similar, worse, or equal tragedy because a loving and otherwise doting pet owner does not have enough money.
If you work for or volunteer with the Humane Society or have any experience dealing with them as a non-profit animal welfare organization, please feel free to discuss your impressions of the group in the comments section.