MIDLAND, Texas — During the week of Thanksgiving, Midland Animal Services released a late list that had a number of animals who were at-risk of being euthanized. The list caused a stir among Midlanders who wanted Midland Animal Services to have had better communication and not release the list with such little time for the animals to be rescued.
That's why Midland Animal Services held a meeting Monday to try and clear up some of those issues while promising more transparency and better communication.
Normally, the animal population at the shelter is evaluated on Mondays. Animals who are deemed at-risk of being euthanized - such as those who are sick, injured, have behavioral issues or have been in the shelter too long - are added to the list.
While these animals are going to be euthanized immediately, the lists are then sent out to rescue partners to give those animals a chance at being rescued.
A list wasn't supposed to be sent out during the week of Nov. 20, but outside factors forced the Midland Animal Services' hands.
“We had no plans of releasing a list. Unfortunately, we had to euthanize over that previous weekend because we had over 120 dogs come in," Midland Animal Services Manager Melissa Griffin-Hobson said. "Unfortunately, I think we had over thirty dogs come in between Monday and Wednesday and we just didn't have the resources.”
Griffin-Hobson agreed with the public that the way the message was sent out could've made it hard to understand what was happening.
“I think that the way we got the message out was challenging to the rescues, I don’t know that any procedure that is currently in place would have affected it," Griffin-Hobson said. "I think that some of the challenge in the past were definitely from the standard operating procedures and maybe processes not being put into place.”
Speaking of those standard operating procedures, those are currently being reviewed to keep them more specific to Midland while trying to condense how many there are to streamline operations.
“We have like three different protocol books running around the shelter, we’ve condensed those into one book. We’ve hired one company called Texas Humane Educators to help us rewrite these protocols," Midland Fire Chief and Managing Director of Public Safety Charles Blumenauer said. "We are currently reviewing all of the ones they gave us that are kind of a standard basis for the nation and making them Midland centric, making sure that what we do here in Midland follows those things and matches our shelter.”
Midland Animal Services will try and learn from their mistakes as well for the sake of the animals who need rescuing and for the people who are trying to get them loving homes.
“I think that we will probably do a list regardless of space, so we probably should’ve just put out a list on Monday. That would’ve given those animals more time that we didn’t think would be in that situation," Griffin-Hobson said. "Going forward, let’s not put ourselves into that situation. Let’s create a list regardless.”