MIAMI – Animal rights activists protested outside of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in Miami Thursday where they will request more resources for the local overrun shelters.
The advocates have continued to share videos saying they need Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to see the condition of the shelters where the county is keeping dogs without air conditioners and in what critics call “deplorable conditions.”
Miami-Dade County officials are expected to have a meeting Thursday evening to discuss the overall budget to see if these shelters can receive any funding to improve their conditions.
The organization, Pets’ Trust Miami, is leading the demonstration and will attend the budget meeting to voice their concerns based on the reported conditions of these animals.
“We are here today at the first hearing to advocate to finally get to the root of the problem because our animals are suffering and dying because the shelters are overcapacity,” said Rita Schwartz, Co-Founder of The Pets Trust. “They’ve now put the animals into the old shelter which is a house of horrors. This is animal abuse at the highest degree.”
Protesters have made previous claims that Miami-Dade Animal Services has over 100 dogs at the Medley location living in deplorable conditions.
They continue to call on Miami-Dade County officials to remove the animals from being housed in the old Miami-Dade Animal Services building or make serious efforts to fix the facility.
“The old shelter was deemed deplorable seven years ago. That’s why we have a new shelter in Doral. This old shelter in Medley, there’s no air conditioning, It’s 100 degrees (and) these animals are outside in kennels,” Schwartz told Local 10 News last month.
Back in July, MDAS let Local 10 News inside the Medley facility and said they’re using every available resource to house the homeless pets since the newer shelter in Doral is at full capacity.
“As you can see, the facility here is really clean. They have food, they have water that they can drink,” said Flora Beal, a representative of Miami-Dade Animal Services told Local 10 News last month.
As far as heat concerns go inside of the facility, MDAS says it’s not as simple as just putting on the A/C since it’s mostly an open-air facility.
“There are fans all around and when you walk through there, you can feel the breeze and the dogs feel that breeze throughout the day,” said Beal.
Local 10 News spoke with animal advocates who weren’t impressed with the tour and said they believe the area was cleaned up for television purposes.
“This is animal abuse to the highest degree and Mayor Daniela Cava is the one responsible for this,” said Schwartz.
According to MDAS, the facility houses dogs that need to be quarantined for medical reasons, are under treatment, or present behavior concerns, and an enrichment team visits the facility twice a week. They also said that all the dogs at the facility are available for adoption.
“Animal Services has had to use every available resource to adequately care for shelter pets including housing more pets at the Medley facility,” MDAS said in a statement last month.
Local 10 News spoke with animal advocate Mike Prysiak, who said he went to Thursday’s protest to hold local leaders accountable.
“The citizens in this county are good people. If you tell them there is a need, they are willing to pay a little bit of money each to fix the problem,” he said.