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After receiving a complaint from a resident whose puppy had been taken to the Oklahoma City Animal Welfare (OKCAW) facility for safekeeping and was mauled to death by another dog in a kennel overnight, PETA requested public records about canines who’d been injured or killed at the city’s publicly funded animal shelter. What we learned was horrifying.
The following recent death and injuries occurred in the span of about a month and within hours of the animals’ arrival at OKCAW:
- A 4-month-old puppy was taken to OKCAW by police personnel on July 30 to be held temporarily while her guardian was hospitalized. She was put into a kennel with a dog who’d been taken in as a stray and was attacked and killed overnight. Records show that the puppy was found dead in the kennel on July 31, less than 24 hours after police took custody of her.
- A 6-month-old stray dog was taken to OKCAW on June 21 and was mauled the next day by the incompatible dog she’d been caged with. She required several weeks of veterinary treatment for painful injuries that she had sustained to her face and jaw, including bloody puncture wounds to her muzzle and pus-filled wounds that required the insertion of a drainage tube under her chin.
Photo on the intake form for the puppy who was attacked and killed by another dog at OKCAW
Intake photo of Serra, who was severely injured when she was mauled by the incompatible dog she’d been caged with at OKCAW
Public records and our correspondence with OKCAW suggest that dogs are routinely, as a matter of policy, being recklessly crowded together at the city’s animal shelter. The dangerous conditions and practices there are typical at facilities with “no-kill” policies, which place “live release rates” above the welfare and safety of animals and human residents.
In response to PETA’s letter of concern, the facility’s director, Jon Gary, stated, “We must balance what is humane and healthy for the animals and lifesaving,” recognizing that supposed “lifesaving” comes at the cost of basic quality of life for some animals and horrific injuries or a violent death for others. Leaving a puppy in a kennel with a larger, unfamiliar, aggressive dog is the furthest thing from “lifesaving.”
OKCAW has also been refusing to accept animals, leaving them in the hands of people who don’t want them or can’t care for them and who often abandon them to die from starvation, disease, car strikes, and worse. While the city’s taxpayer-funded facility refuses to accept animals, claims to be chronically “full,” and has been caging dogs together indiscriminately—apparently in an attempt to avoid having to euthanize animals—dead dogs are reportedly being found across the city skinned and rotting next to dumpsters and abandoned in suitcases seeping blood and other fluids. These gruesome cases exemplify just a few of the many fates that are far worse than the administration of euthanasia by trained, caring professionals.
Please take action today by demanding an independent investigation by an unbiased (non-animal–related) auditing agency into policies and practices at OKCAW and by urging city leaders to require that the facility accept all companion animals taken to it.