Four dogs and 30 cats were seized in critical condition from the Tri-Cities Animal Shelter in November 2021, when law enforcement served a search warrant. Furthermore, at least 100 other animals suffering from neglect and preventable disease were also found during the raid. These animals entered the shelter healthy and in a matter of weeks they were so ill that many did not make it, even with around the clock care. One dog was so emaciated that he went into kidney failure and died. Various staff members and volunteers brought this to the managers attention and still the animals were not tended to.

One of the sick cats held in the outbuilding was suffering from an infected throat laceration and was found burrowed "underneath two other cats inside of an empty food dish in that cage."

The outbuilding was filled to the rim with intermixed healthy and diseased cats and dogs, and no one was allowed in; not even the veterinarians who came to treat shelter animals. No animal should ever have to die the way that cat and that dog and hundreds of others did in that hell hole they call an animal shelter. And yet, they did, for nearly an entire year because the city was too careless to check until it was much too late.

Council members and all three city managers Dave Zabel, Marie Mosely, and Jon Amundson have made it abundantly clear that the welfare of animals is not even an agenda topic. Their negligence is what to led to the suffering and death of dozens of hundreds of innocent animals that were under the care of the Tri-Cities Animal Shelter.

The cities contract out for animal services and created an “oversight” group called the animal control authority. Know who is in it? Two police members who don’t even bother to show up to the meetings and the parks and recreation director: all of which do not know the first thing about animals, animal care, standard practices in animal shelters or control, or animal welfare.  They do not even look at the reports they receive from the shelter director. If they did they would have seen a 17.2% death in shelter rate for cats in September 2021 (for comparison the September rate from the previous director in September 2020 was 2.1%). This is NOT including euthanasia’s; this is merely the percentage of cats that died after entering that shelter in the month of September, not including euthanasias. This data was available to the ACA several months before they decided to do a walkthrough. If they had an oversight board with knowledge of standard practices of animal shelters, this would not have been missed. 

Right now Benton Franklin Humane Society is running the shelter, and they are doing it well. However, they are only a bandaid and have a 6 month only contract with the cities. After that, the same three people that make up the Animal Control Authority will be choosing a new director (the same people whose judgement and oversight led to the disaster in November 2021). 

The city wishes to wipe its hands clean of this and continue utilizing the same 'oversight' methods that allowed this abuse to happen. 

Sign this petition now to demand that Dave Zabel, Marie Mosely, and and Jon Amundson (city managers of Pasco, Kennewick and Richland) personally oversee immediate action to ensure this NEVER happens again, by creating an animal welfare advisory board to oversee the Animal Control Authority IMMEDIATELY.