DUMPING BINS - A CATALYST * see below

I am writing this in the first person because there is no way I can do so as a journalist.  It's a personal issue.  In July of 1999, someone sent me a newspaper clipping about a Tennessee pet dumping bin.  People know I appreciate receiving stuff to share in my magazine columns but this was over the top.  Wondering how I could possibly write something objective and acceptable enough for a magazine that prides itself on good taste, I laid it aside.

Went on with my day. Had nightmares that night. The image of that father holding his little boy over a steel "dumpster" so that the child could drop the puppy he was dangling by one leg kept popping into my head.  I couldn't help but imagine the puppy struggling upside down, his soft baby ligaments stretching, tearing, his big brown eyes wide with terror as he heard the "help us" death wails of other dogs at the bottom of the dark hole, and then, his gasp as he was released to tumble down the chute into a melee of agony below.

The father's face haunted me too.  He was grinning.  The little boy was braced against his dad's thighs but held ever so tightly around the waist so that he could lean waaaay out over the black hole. Thankfully, the child's face was not visible.  Didn't matter.  What I saw was a child learning the rules of a society wallowing in self-centered indulgence, violence, and deceit.

I knew I could not construct a column from the thoughts that tumbled like demons in my mind.  Sure, we're a throw-away society.  So?  Why not throw away a puppy?  And, stupid me, isn't it perfectly logical that we would dump garbage in a dumpster?  Well???

So what if there might also be one mutilated kitten alive down there?  No, a kitten surely wouldn't have lasted long.  A kitten's little heart would have failed from fright as it landed and realized it was surrounded.  No, another image popped in my mind.  It wouldn't last even that long.  A desperate heat-maddened dog would have grabbed a kitten before it landed in the bottom of the iron oven.

The photo showed a gap of about an inch around the bottom of the bin. How much air could it draw in through that slot, air that radiated off black asphalt super-heated by reported temperatures in the high nineties?  There was a brick or block wall behind the dumping bin, no shade, only hot air radiating off the "humane society" building.  Oh my God. Surely they would have died quickly?  Right.  And that disgusting thought saves that county a lot of money, not having to kill all those animals by whatever means they usually employed. And of course, there would be lower payroll and no inside clean-up or facilities needed because the rendering plant could just come and pick them up in the late afternoon after the sun had done its work. Am I going crazy? 

Yes. 

The article said local people are working to stop it. But didn't the article say it had been that way for a long time? And what was it I heard about some sort of "dump" right here in North Carolina?  I didn't believe it then. I believe it now.

Even as animal lovers in Tennessee struggled to stop such atrocities, my husband took the photos you see here. No steel "incinerators" in this case, but look closely, the little animal must be shoved through the small opening above the walk-through door. From a height of over five feet! OK, credit to Rutherford County, they put signs up so you know not to drop a litter of kittens down into the dog cage. Sure. No kid would think of doing that on a dare or just because he wanted to see the fun…. Well, at least the animals can get air and if their bodies survive the drop onto the hard pavement, they are taken inside within a few hours. 

Are they? I had to know so I called and spoke with Officer Reeves. The Rutherford County Animal Shelter is operated by the Sheriff's Department. He assured me they are taken inside, even on the weekends when the "shelter" is closed.  (Ergo, it's pretty hard to adopt if you are a working family.)  Officer Reeves said the vet comes three times a week but if the animal is injured bad enough, the staff there is trained and can go ahead and put it to sleep by lethal injection.  The deputy sounded like a regular guy. A family man. Protector of the community. I believed him when he said that part of his job "made him sick." I asked him how many pets are dumped there? He said it averaged over 5,000 per year. The county-wide population is only 56,918 people! Ten Percent abandonment? What are we doing? Another subject….. 

The mental torment subsided when out of the blue, I was given the means to fight it on a NATIONAL level.  Politicians, budget managers, idiots; they only listen when their jobs are in jeopardy!  It takes a big, big voice to get the ear of a corrupt law-maker. It takes a lot of voters to get an ego-driven politician to stop stumping long enough to actually do something for the constituents whose vote he seeks. 

So now you know how TheDogPlace.com came to be. I know nothing about computers or the internet. But by the Grace of God and good fortune, other people do! TDP is not only the voice of the people, it is the voice of OUTRAGE. It is your enlightened voice that will serve the dogs, the people, and these Projects. If ever there could be a shred of good out of something so horrible, then we all owe that callous father and the depraved officials of one Tennessee town a debt of thanks.

My sanity came back because I found a way to deal with the horror. I hope you find a way too.

BJ Andrews June 2000
Photographer, Bill Andrews

* dateline Apr 2005  If you are part of a group that is working locally on these problems, we need your input.  And other groups in other states need to know of your progress or lack thereof.  If you are part of an online discussion group, you are encouraged to post link and ask others on the list to contact our staff.  We have received less than encouraging feedback from local political action groups but TheDogPlace is willing to set up a National Group with funding. 

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