17 cats mysteriously died on the way to a veterinarian from a San Bernardino County animal pound

Rescue cats. Image supplied.

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is a report from Nathan Winograd to me in an email. It is very disturbing. Nathan Winograd is America's greatest advocate for the No-Kill movement in animal shelters. He tells me that staff at the Devore pound (animal 'shelter') in San Bernardino County, California, USA, say that 17 cats on the way to a veterinary clinic mysteriously died. But there has been no explanation. 

No one believes the claim. Nathan Winograd hints in his email that the cats were killed deliberately because this particular pound has a record of killing animals unnecessarily.

He says that Devore staff routinely and systematically kill animals. And according to rescuers Devore killed 35 cats including young kittens in three days.

RELATED: Nathan Winograd’s No Kill Advocacy Center Reviews US Statistics on American Shelters.

Rescuers have accused the pound of the following:

• Routinely mislabeling friendly cats as “feral” to kill them because it does not have a community cat program;
• Allowing healthy cats to get sick because of poor protocols and filth and then killing them, even if the condition is treatable;
• Killing pregnant cats so as not to foster or provide veterinary care;
• Killing entire families of cats — mothers and young kittens together; and,
• Not providing prompt and necessary medical care “leading to suffering and even death.

And when rescuers complain about these unnecessary killings, the administrators of the pound retaliate by killing animals that the rescuers have offered to save. It seems extraordinary. This report indicates that there is a complete breakdown in the way this pound is managed.

And the pound is managed by Brian Cronin. And Winograd also reports that Cronin has been the subject of complaints dating back decades. For example, in 2006, it is said that he returned an abuse dog doused in gasoline and set on fire to the abuser who was awaiting trial at the time. This caused worldwide condemnation.

Winograd also accuses the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, who oversee the pound, of allowing the long-term neglect, abuse and killing of animals and the pound.