Paw-tearing grates replaced

After nearly a year, Broward County’s new pet shelter says it is replacing the kennel grates that caught the paws of some dogs, ripping their nails and leaving them bloody and in pain as they waited to be adopted. The work is to finish Friday.

FORT LAUDERDALE – Kennel drain grates that have injured an untold number of dogs at the Broward County animal shelter are finally being replaced, nearly a year after the shelter opened.

Crews started installing the new grates Monday and are expected to have all 220 grates replaced by Friday, county officials say.

“The sooner the better,” said Henry Sniezek, director of Broward’s Environmental Protection and Growth Management Department, which oversees Broward County Animal Care and Adoption.

Five dogs were left bloodied and injured when their nails got stuck in the grates in the first 13 days after the $16.5 mil- lion shelter opened in November 2016, records show.

More were injured in the months to follow, based on emails among staff; but no one can say how many because shelter workers were not tracking the injuries.

The replacement grates are costing taxpayers $25,000.

Sniezek said he learned of the problem in June from former shelter director Thomas Adair, but was not aware of the extent of the injuries until getting an email from a prominent animal advocate in September.

“I was misinformed about the scale of the problem and the level of pain the dogs were in,” Sniezek said. “There’s no excuse for how long it took.”

County records show staff alerted their supervisors to the