Never said animals were killed for 'fun'

When I saw the outrageous letter from Rod Moore in The Record-Couriers May 15 issue I was astonished at the excessiveness of it and the use of quotation marks where there shouldn't be any.

My initial thought was to get the audiotape of the meeting and use it to dispute what he said.

Unfortunately when we tried to get the tape from Parks and Recreation we were told that the quality was so poor you couldn't hear what was said. I can understand that because I couldn't hear some of what was being said and I was in the room. And then when I was speaking a woman near me had her cell phone ring and she proceeded with a loud conversation until someone in the next seat made her stop.

Since I do not do well speaking extemporaneously I always write out what I want to say and speak from my notes. The sequence of what I said is as follows. I began by introducing myself, explained that the Douglas Animal Welfare Group is the support group for the Douglas County Animal Shelter, stated that my comments did not relate to whether or not we think the motocross is a good or bad idea, only that it was a terrible location. What I said next was meant in a concise fashion to establish the DAWG group as a stable hard working group that accomplished something huge. "When I first came here the staff would sit down every week and have to decide which dogs were to be killed, but then, starting in August of 2000 through DAWG's efforts the shelter was turned into one of the lowest kill shelters in the state of Nevada. A premiere shelter that the residents could be proud of." Then I went on to talk about the detriment to the animals in having the track so close to the shelter.

I'm sure everyone is horrified to know that dogs were being killed every week, but unfortunately that was the truth of the matter. I was so horrified that I decided to try and do something about it and since 1993 have been a weekly volunteer out at the shelter.

Was this a unique situation to the Douglas shelter? No! Every government run pound/shelter was faced with the same situation; cleaning up after people, who couldn't/wouldn't spay/neuter, rehome or medically care for their pets. And all the shelters were working with very limited resources.

However the Douglas shelter was able to make a change because of the enormous commitment made by the DAWG volunteers. What started as a small group now has over 135 members, plus another 720 supporters. Our members spend thousands of hours working to raise money, walk dogs, transport dog/cats s, train dogs, pay vet bills, care for the animals in any way that is necessary to maintain there well being.

Could the shelter staff have done this on their own? Maybe, however none of the others around here have been able to. Try calling any of the other local shelters and ask them where they are in their evolution. The answer will be that they would love to become a low-kill shelter but none of them have the manpower or money. What they need is a volunteer group to make that happen.

To address Mr. Moore's accusation that I said the staff enjoyed killing.

What an absurdity. I don't know what he misheard but I did not say that. First, I do not believe that. Second, When my purpose at the meeting is to establish credibility for DAWG with the Park and Recreation Commissioners to say something that inflammatory would not make any sense and would take away from my whole purpose in being there.

I think that our community is a great one made up of wonderful people who love animals and totally support what we do. The dogs and DAWG thank you all.

Cherie Owen is the president of the Douglas Animal Welfare Group.