The Missaroo

The Missaroo
Ready to Take on the World

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

A Step in the Right Direction

The killing of animals continues in Milwaukee. I attended Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Care and Control's (MADACC) first operations committee meeting of the new year. There the board discussed how the staff was doing, how the staff had the flu, and how much a new fence would cost. Oh yeah and more than 5,000 animals were killed by them last year. Although the staff is humanized during these meetings, the animals are nothing more than numbers and statistics. Sick. About a week later, MADACC announced it had hired a new executive director.

The new executive director is definitely a step in the right direction. She comes from a neighboring No Kill humane society in a Milwaukee suburb. The question now becomes, will the board support her No Kill practices? Right now, based on the meeting I attended, I'm not too confident No Kill is right around the corner. I truly believe it only takes one person to say "we will no longer kill healthy animals and we will work to ensure the health of every animal that comes through our doors" however, this board seems to be straight from hell. I had the privilege of attending operations meetings regularly as an intern at Found Chicago. There we talked about how the animals were doing, how many more animals we could save, and we used their names, we did not refer to them as numbers. It wasn't about numbers, statistics, and money. It was about giving each animal the time it needed to be adopted into the right home. And we certainly met more than once a month. The MADACC board acted like they never saw each other outside of the meeting, so they had to use the meetings to catch up, instead of discussing the needs of the animals. I hope this new director can change this, but it seems to be a philosophic and culture that needs to be changed, not just a position change.

It is still an uphill battle and so the emails continue. Right before I wrote this blog I sent an email to my mayor letting him know the board still needs to be changed and he needs to get involved in order to help the companion animals of Milwaukee. I will continue to email, blog, and show up until Milwaukee goes No Kill. I hope you will take the time to get involved as well. Please help the Missaroo, Mister, and me make a change in our city.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Happy New Year!

It's that wonderful time a year again when it feels like a fresh start is right around the corner. When everyone is hopeful about the days to come and the end of the cold is getting near. It's also a time to update you on how the dogs and I are doing. Over the Christmas holiday Missy got Kennel Cough for the third time. We made a trip to the vet who mentioned she might be one of those sicky dogs who catches everything. Um, yes that describes the Missaroo to a T. Well, she suggested putting a little powder immune booster in with her food. I know I have said this about a thousand times but I love our vet! Instead of just saying "yep kennel cough again here's some expensive meds see you next year" she gave us something to prevent Missy from constantly returning to the vet every few months. AND the best part is Missy doesn't mind the powder over her food. So much better than forcing her to take pills.

Other than that, the dogs seem to be adjusting to Milwaukee quite nicely. They, however, hate the mass amount of salt thrown outside our door and on every sidewalk in the city. It burns their paws and forces us to stay inside most days. Too long of a walk (more than 15 minutes) and they start limping around. I also have to make sure I wipe their paws and get in between their paws, which also means shorter walks because this is more time consuming. Something I don't have a lot of during the work week.

As for our plans for the new year, they are pretty simple.
1. Continue to push for No Kill in Milwaukee. I have taken my email campaign to the mayor's office. Screw you alderman who won't email me back.
2. Call Bill more. We're off to a pretty good start so far. :)
3. Visit Bill. I'm not sure when he will be ready for visitors, but I think he might be in the next six months.
4. Save lives. We are also in the process of this as we speak when it comes to animals. Plus, I can give blood again in less than a week, so humans you are included in this goal as well.

So how is your new year going? We would love to hear from you. Also we wish the best to you and yours and all of the pets in the world. No matter what happens this year, let's agree to make this world a better place than it was last year, OK? Love!