Colbert County Animal Shelter
COLBERT COUNTY – Things were getting out of hand this morning (Friday) at the Animal Shelter. At one point over 100 people were standing around at the facility, hoping to adopt one of the pomeranian or Yorkshire terriers. Thursday there had been some rumors, some from media outlets, that the dogs rescued from deplorable conditions at a Barton puppy mill would be available for adoption.
“I came over from Mississippi, and the guy inside (the Shelter building) said we couldn’t get us a dog,” said a woman who asked not to be named. The situation was getting out of hand, some pushing and shoving within the crowd, so the Shelter was closed until Monday.
They came to the Animal Shelter to take home a puppy. No Luck.
The animals were never to be offered for adoption at this early point, a Shelter employee told The Quad-Cities Daily. She said it is a usual and customary practice that rescued animals are evaluated for health condition and are held for a time before anything like adoptions can take place. She said, however, that there are plenty of dogs and cats in the Shelter that are ready for someone to give a home.
This all started when, earlier this week, Animal Control Officers and Sheriff’s Deputies discovered almost 130 puppies at the house on U.S. 72 in Barton. The dogs were said to have been living in deplorable conditions. Some were found in cold, filthy cages without space to move about. According to investigators, a few of the puppies had their coats actually frozen to the floor due to the cold.
Debra Catledge – Booking Photo
Dabra Jane Catledge, 53, of Barton was arrested on multiple charges of animal cruelty. District Attorney Bryce Graham’s office indicated that there may be additional charges filed against Catledge, who is presently in Colbert County Jail awaiting a bond hearing.
9 comments
Colbert County Animal Control doesn’t adopt their dogs…they put them to sleep.
As a volunteer, I can tell you that is absolutely not true. There are plenty of animals awaiting adoption and I’m not referring to the puppy mill dogs. Those are going to licensed rescue organizations.
I CALLED the Colbert County Animal Shelter at appx, 1:15 pm on THURSDAY Dec. 12th and ASKED AN EMPLOYEE who answered the phone when and if they would be adopted out. Unless people just walking by answer the phone at the shelter and are Joe Schmoe off the street, I was TOLD they would be adopted out on Friday Dec 13th @ 10:30 am and that if I was interested I had better get their early it was FIRST COME FIRST SERVE (the “employees” EXACT WORDS! So the shelter is lying about the information they put out and the news (if you want to call this that) outlets are helping the cover-up. Not that I disagree with the decision to move them and I even told my coworker (who I was calling for that had just lost her little Yorkie) that this seemed a little soon. But don’t make the folks who were misled and some who had driven 100’s of miles to adopt one of these dogs into the bad guys!
The one time people are there ready to adopt and can’t. Don’t wanna hear anymore advertisements from Colbert county animal shelter begging people to adopt. You had your chance.
I was at the animal shelter on Friday and it was a very chaotic scene. Frist off the shelter was completely overwhelmed with all the new dogs from the puppy mill and secondly it was not entirely the shelters fault. The Shelter did have dogs from the puppy mill that were ready to be adopted and others who had to be cared for first. But the shelter had gotten a last minute request from the Prosecuting Attorney in the puppy mill case to not have any of the puppies available for adoption. True the shelter should have immediately let the public know of this change. But they were very overwhelmed with the whole situation. The Fault also lies with the public for not being proper citizens and instead acting like an unruly mob. If anything they could have atleast helped walk some of the dogs that were available and maybe even adopt one of those. Those dogs are very good dogs who have spent some time in cages too waiting for a family to take them home. The real blame lies with all of you for making a bad situation even worse.
“Marty” IF you are the employee who gave me the misleading information as I am sure was given out to ALL those who called in regarding these dogs adoption prior to Friday, THE BLAME LIES WITH YOU! IF you are a volunteer; while I applaud your efforts to help the animals, after reading all the self righteous posts on the Colbert County Animal Rescue’s page, it may be time to come down from your “Holier than Thou” mountaintop! If YOU had driven long distances to get something you were hopeing for and AFTER the fact and the time involved were told to turn around and leave; YOU probably too would be disappointed. Also, first person accounts from some of those standing in the crowd in the wind and cold related there was NO unruly mob, only disappointment and in some cases very justified ANGER for being LIED to. The call to the sheriff’s office seems like a diversionary tactic to cover up lying and to blame it on those who were there to adopt. The bottom line is the fault lies with the Colbert County Animal Shelter for making a bad decision to go public with adoption information TOO SOON and allowing and encouraging the misleading of the public!
Michael, Sorry to hear you had problems with the animal shelter. However I have been disappointment many times in life but that does not justify the anger I saw on Friday. I was simply a volunteer who had some time to kill so I figured I would spend some time with the dogs there. I didn’t know they had such a hectic situation until I arrived and heard many complaints and seen some people threaten the animal workers. When I went to sign in I over heard a phone call between the Prosecuting attorney and the shelter about how under no circumstances are they to release any of the dogs. If you truly came a long way then why not spend time with the great dogs there? instead you seemed to fill your time hating and blaming those because you couldn’t get your way. That is sad, all the dogs at the shelter needed kind people. I choose my time to help out the shelter rather than complain that I had driven a far distance and didn’t get my way. Instead I walk and played with many dogs there and had a fun time something I would recommend you try. It was shameful that workers were threatened and the police were called because they had feared someone would cause harm. I do believe the shelter could have let people know sooner but then people should have taken the news better. The problem is people are too angry that they didn’t get there way and that a lot of dogs didn’t get adopted because people could not work beyond their anger and see what truly great animals were available.
Thank you Marty for volunteering at the shelter and trying to make sense of the chaos that occurred. Selfish people wanting a high end breed dog for free (or a small fee), need to get over theirselves. The shelter is at the mercy of the detectives, district attorney office, and ultimately are just trying to do the best thing for dogs.
Got to love all the drama from professional people.