For months, volunteers and animal activists have been donating items to help the more than 100 dogs braving the summer without air conditioning inside this shelter in Medley, set up to deal with the overpopulation of animals in Miami Dade County.
It started when Antonella Re, a Medley shelter volunteer, shared a video on social media in May calling for help keeping the dogs cool.
“That video went viral, luckily, and we got a lot of support from the community,” Re said.
Soon, the community starting donating items to help the dogs, including several commercial fans donated by the company Big Ass Fans.
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At the time, volunteers and activists asked the county to hold weekly adoption events at Medley to help clear it out. They did but didn’t get the results they wanted.
“We only had four adoptions this past month out of Medley,” says Miami-Dade Animal Services Director Annette Jose.
Though Medley was meant to be a temporary shelter, in her current budget, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava set aside $77,000 to repair and renovate the facility this year but NBC6 found almost all that money went into repairing the old structure and not a single taxpayer dollar was used for renovations.
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“Basically, all the renovations that we've seen so far in the past year, have come from the community and not the shelter,” Re said.
The renovations funded by the community include playpens that were recently installed with money raised by Antonella Re and the nonprofit FOMA. Asked why the county set aside money for renovations in Medley but didn’t use it, the mayor says plans changed.
“We don't really want to maintain medley in the long term so we're making sure that it's safe clean habitable and the plan is not to rebuild the shelter,” said the mayor.
The county is working on sending some of the Medley dogs to other states where they have a better chance of being adopted and continue to promote local adoptions.
In the meantime, activists say they will continue fighting to improve conditions inside all the shelters citing a respiratory disease that spread among pets.
Activists also claim, despite having a “no kill” designation, many animals die in Miami-Dade shelters. Public records show at least 25 dogs were euthanized this past year after they were found to be aggressive or because they were sick.
Pets like Chanel who was put up for adoption after her family surrendered her when they became homeless.
“I went and adopted her,” said Roger Amador an animal rights activist.
Amador says Chanel was friendly but before he could take her home, animal services said they had to spay her.
“I went to pick her up the next day she was so hurt she couldn't get up out of her kennel when they tried to force her out they alleged that she growled and they labeled her dangerous and they euthanized her,” Amador said.
Director Annette Jose disputes Roger Amador’s story. She claims the dog had shown signs of aggression before.
“The more we saw her around other dogs we realized she would not be a good candidate for adoption especially with someone that has dogs like Mr. Amador,” Jose said.
When asked if it was a mistake to let Amador adopt the dog Jose replied “That was a mistake yes.”
The director of Animal Services says they have a 93% save rate and only euthanize dogs that are aggressive, are in behavioral distress or are suffering from a medical condition that can’t be treated.
She agrees with activist that pets don’t belong in shelters, they belong in a loving home which is why she urges people to consider adopting a sheltered animal.
