“Cats were pulled out of kennel cages, injected in the chest cavity and then dropped on the floor to die.”
I don’t understand how there’s any question that this person should be prosecuted:
Yet, a former HCAC employee told Harris County officials and Fox 26 news that, while working at Harris County animal control, she found a live Chow in a freezer. Apparently, after a HCAC employee attempted to kill him, he was put in a freezer. It is believed that he had been in the freezer for at least 24 hours but the dog had managed to claw his way out of the trash bag and survived. It is clear that not one employee of HCAC bothered to confirm the cessation of vital signs on this dog, as required by state law, before placing in him a garbage bag and throwing him in a freezer.
This story almost had a happy ending because, after finding the dog alive in the freezer, a HCAC employee offered to adopt him. But, this almost happy ending became horrific when we learned that, after surviving an attempt to kill him by injecting him with poison and after surving in a trash bag in a freezer for 24 hours, Dawn Blackmar ordered him killed (again). Instead of adopting the dog out to the person who offered and giving him a chance at life, Blackmar chose to have him killed. Blackmar’s behavior, although shockingly not illegal, is outrageous and should be unacceptable, especially as Director of a so-called “shelter”.
What can you do? Adopt a pet, never buy one, and support your local Humane Society.
Uncrunched 
Why should domesticated animals be treated any differently than farm animals?
Animal cruelty comes in many forms.
What does this mean? That we should eat dogs and cats instead of treating them like companions? Are you insane? Have you ever had a dog? A cat? What the fuck planet are you from? Um, they should be treated differently because they are domesticated, moron.
They can’t take care of themselves any longer because all of their survival instincts have been bred out of them over thousands of years. We are responsible for them. They can’t hunt or feed themselves. They don’t know how.
That doesn’t mean that animals that are part of our food supply should be treated like shit, but c’mon. This is one of the stupidest comments to a legitimately compassionate person’s post about how a dog survived an attempt at destroying it and instead of being given a chance — when was was offered, this dick head had the dog murdered.
“They can’t take care of themselves any longer because all of their survival instincts have been bred out of them over thousands of years”
And farm animals are so different?
You grossly misunderstood Raj’s point. The violence/cruelty against animals that enable non-vegetarians (and non-vegan’s) to eat the way they do is several orders of magnitude more frequent and more intense than anything described above. Like using a hot knife to cut off a chicken’s beak without any pain medication or desensitizing agent, in order to prevent it from pecking the other chickens to death in compressed cages. Or starving young cattle until their muscles are so deprecated that they are incapable of standing up, for veal of course.
And what is up with the tone of your reply? Yeesh.
I don’t think anyone is suggesting it’s OK to put a live cow in a freezer for 24 hours. Where are you getting that?
I’m suggesting that animal cruelty extends to all animals not just domesticated pets.
Violence towards animals, even those that we eat, is abhorrent.
TOTALLY AGREE! ALL BEINGS SHOULD BE TREATED EQUALLY- PLANT BASED DIETS AND BE KIND AND COMPASSIONATE…..You never know what awaits you after this life!!!!
Adopt a pet, never buy one and *be a vegetarian* too 🙂 🙂
You saying it! I like!! …..but Vegan please … cruelty to milking cows is some times far worse than anything else going on today….people are a disease!
Do you eat root vegetables? Jains would not like that. You are not the only one who holds the moral high-ground.
This thing of animal control in the US is something unbelievable. I have been living in the US for four years now, coming from Italy. In my home country, it is prohibited to kill animals even at pet shelters, even if the shelter is full of dogs. Of course, living conditions must be controlled and pets must live in reasonably good conditions. I don’t understand why here in the US pet shelters can kill pets! It’s inhuman.
Here ya go http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1395093 (NSFW)
Also, horses routinely die in the race in the Sienna.
It took me my whole life to inch my way to becoming vegetarian, and another 3.5 years to finally become vegan. I am fully convinced that consuming animals in any way is at the top of the list of human atrocities, but it’s so embedded in our culture that it probably won’t change anytime soon. Animals need somebody fighting for them, and the answer is not more grandiose PETA superbowl commercials.
Nope, consuming meat is not an atrocity. It may be harsh, but it is quite natural. It’s a part of how evolution works, really.
Similarly, you’re a little off when you say it’s embedded in our culture. It would be more accurate to say it’s embedded in our species.
That said, the commercial meat production industry does commit atrocities in the name of profit, and on that subject I’m all for tackling the problem without holding back -but let’s not confuse bad actors with the process in which they partake.
All animal cruelty is sickening to me. I only donate to animal charities and am a huge animal lover. My objective at http://www.mytab.co is to build a really strong cash rich company so I can use my personal salary towards ending this. That’s always been my objective.
Yep, there’s some muddled thinking going on here. As Raj says, there is no valid reason pets should be treated better than farm animals. And farm animals are treated very badly, even in countries that love their cats and dogs. It’s a kind of schizophrenia.
Thank you. We’re deeply conflicted as people when we selectively apply violence and reject it at the same time.
Adopting shelter animals isn’t the solution. Shelter animals are the symptom of irresponsible pet ownership. Maybe there should be a license required before pet ownership. If you aren’t going to spay your pets, you need to strictly control their breeding. If you are going to sell or give away puppies you have to be willing to take them back if the new owners can no longer keep them for some reason.
This is not true. Many open admission shelters have managed to adopt their way out of killing and are now saving 90% or more of all animals entering their doors. Some are saving 96%! Lists are here: http://www.nokillnews.com/ and here: http://bit.ly/qO0pe4
All of these communities have the same amount of “irresponsible public” yet they still manage to save all healthy and treatable pets. Blaming the public has been an excuse of kill shelters which has allowed them to continue killing millions of animals every year, and some do it in the most inhumane, and illegal, ways possible. But this blaming the public does not solve the problem. Licensing has been instituted in many communities and it has not stopped shelter killing either.
There is a model of sheltering that does solve the problem, and stops the killing. I encourage everyone to search the No Kill Advocacy Center website. There are step by step instructions on exactly how other shelters, in several countries, have stopped killing. http://www.NoKillAdvocacyCenter.org Become aware, then demand that your local shelter implement the programs that No Kill shelters are using.
The truly horrific thing is that we we can find true stories like this on a daily basis if we look for them – for most of us it is just too hard to witness on a regular basis. We have two dogs that are rescued from the pound and yet every time I see a dog (or cat for that matter) that’s up for adoption it pains me that I can’t adopt them.
Recently I witnessed a guy driving full speed on the highway with a dog on the flatbed back of his pickup (no rails or guards or anything to contain the dog), tied to the truck only with a string around his neck. We called the highway patrol while driving, the cops said they can’t do anything as long as “the cargo” (meaning the dog) is “secured sufficiently” (meaning the string around the neck. Brutal. Laws have to change and needless cruelty has to stop.
What I’ll do: Never buy a pet (always adopt), support the local Humane Society and face and point our cruelty wherever and whenever it happens.
Thank you for posting a link to my article and the Fox report. We urge everyone to PLEASE contact Harris County officials and demand that Blackmar be prosecuted for breaking state laws. If we do not speak up in great numbers, it is likely that Blackmar will keep her six figure salary, and she will continue running this House of Horrors indefinitely.
No Kill Houston has listed the contact information for all relevant Harris County officials on their website. We have even posted a sample letter to help get you started. We have also posted a link to petition which will email all Harris Co officials when you sign.
Please do tell Harris Co officials that you want justice, and don’t forget to tell them that YOU VOTE as most of these people will be up for re-election this year. You can find contact information here: http://www.NoKillHouston.org and http://www.NoKillTexasAdvocates.org
BTW: Peter, normally we agree that people should support their local shelters, however in Houston, we have five kill shelters with very high kill rates. (Together, they kill 80,000 pets every single year) Houston’s Humane Society has an 89% Kill Rate, according to the Mayor’s Task Force Report. So, although I would encourage people to adopt from HHS to save animals’ lives, personally I would not donate to them as you have no guarantee that your donations will not be used to purchase Fatal Plus (the drugs used to kill shelter pets).
We suggest donating to your local No Kill shelter, and also demanding that the kill shelters implement the programs that are working across the country to create open admission, No Kill shelters. Also, demand that your elected officials support laws like the Companion Animal Protection Act so that we will have laws that actually protect the lives of shelter pets. Right now, Texas has no laws that protect their lives. Shelters have free reign to kill any animal, any time … and they do.
How about we prosecute PETA for killing >90% of all of the animals they take in?
Unfortunately, it is not illegal for “shelters” to kill shelter pets…. yet. They can kill anything and everything, and they do.
This is why we need the Companion Animal Protect Act to be passed in every single state, so this mass slaughter WILL be illegal. Check out the Rescue50.org website for more information, then urge your elected officials to pass it in your area. It is the only thing that will actually protect shelter pets from being slaughtered.
Link for PETA killers:
peta kills
HSUS is not the ASPCA. HSUS operates no shelters and spends most donations lining the pockets of their executives and politicians.