My wife and I are animal lovers. We donate money to various animal causes every year. We stopped donating to National Humane Society when we found they only give 2% to the animals. We have never given to PETA, since we believe they are a radical group, like most left-wing groups. Now are sure we were always right. There has been a story make the rounds of the Net about Sheriff Joe Arpaio taking over Maricopa County animal control and saving millions of dollars. Here are the facts about all of the above. Sad, but true.
The facts:
PETA acknowledges they euthanized 95% of the animals at a shelter at their headquarters in 2011. The brutal tally: 1,965 of 2,050 were euthanized. This radical group that protests using animals for food, clothing, experiments and throws blood substitutes on women in furs is really a heartless group that kills animals in their care.
The facts:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s no-kill animal shelter, MASH, was created to house and care for animals that have been abused or neglected by their caretakers and rescued by the Animal Crimes Investigations Unit. The purpose of the shelter is to provide a safe, healthy and healing shelter for these tragic animals, who must necessarily await the outcome of their owners’ cruelty cases in court. Hopefully, their ultimate outcome will be adoption into loving, permanent homes.
The first shelter opened by Sheriff Arpaio is in the First Avenue Jail, located at First Avenue and Madison Street, Phoenix, Arizona. This 30-year-old jail previously held inmates, but was closed for repairs to plumbing in December 1999. Though no longer suitable for housing inmates, the jail looks like paradise to the four-footed victims now housed and recovering there.
The MASH location in the First Avenue Jail is air-conditioned, and the cells have been reconditioned to comfortably house animals. Some critics have said that it’s inhumane to put dogs and cats in air-conditioned quarters when inmates don’t have air conditioning. A good answer came from one of the inmates assigned to care for the dogs. When asked if she was resentful about not having air conditioning, she gestured to some of the dogs and said, “They didn’t do anything wrong. I did.”
Persons adopting animals from the MCSO Animal Safe Haven must promise to treat their adopted animals with care and affection, and:
Provide adequate meals and water
Provide a safe environment
Check animals daily (including ears and toes) for anything harmful to them – like burrs, foxtails, ticks and fleas
Brush and bathe animals regularly, and keep their nails clipped
Use flea and tick prevention
Do not hit the animals, even with a rolled-up newspaper
Use praise and humane obedience training
Obey all leash laws
Return unwanted animals to a “no-kill” shelter, or to MASH
All MASH animals available for adoption have started their shot series and have been spayed/neutered. Persons adopting animals will be responsible for continuing shot series and ongoing medical care, if needed.
Remember:
Animal cruelty is a violent crime and should be taken seriously. Animal abuse often occurs in homes where domestic violence, child abuse, and/or elder abuse are present. FBI studies confirm that several murderers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz (the Son of Sam) and Albert DeSalvo (the Boston Strangler), all tortured and mutilated animals as children. MCSO Animal Cruelty Investigators depend on the public to spot and report animal abuse.
The myth:
Joe did not take over all animal control in the county, nor did he save all this money nor much of the other claims in this story. Snopes has it right. The following story which you may have received is mostly not true. It’s smoke blown. Editor
SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!
Oh, there’s MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!
Maricopa County ( Phoenix and environs ) was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs.. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.
The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily.. He now has prisoners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who’d like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.
The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him.. Cost us $78.
The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.
I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.
He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 – $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.
Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he’s in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn’t doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He’s kind of a ‘Git-R Dun’ kind of Sheriff.
TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO
HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF
AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY
