Cruelty beyond belief at shelter
Reading the front-page story Thursday morning about former Memphis Animal Shelter employees pleading guilty to felony aggravated animal cruelty charges surely turned some stomachs — even those of folks who are not “pet people.”
Torturing a dog just before it is to be euthanized is cruelty beyond belief. What Archie Elliott III and Frank Lightfoot Jr. pleaded guilty to Wednesday just reinforces the feelings of some Memphians that an array of problems at the shelter will never end.
The men were accused of choking dogs nearly to death before injecting them with a fatal solution. Animals are supposed to be sedated before the euthanasia drug is administered. The men’s actions were witnessed by an undercover police officer, who was planted in the shelter as a worker because of persistent complaints about animals being mistreated and procedures being ignored.
There is an incorrect perception in the community that most of the shelter’s workers are participants in the city’s Second Chance program and, because they have criminal records, working there is their only job option, regardless of whether they have the temperament and skills to deal with the animals. The truth is that working at the animal shelter, where scores of animals are euthanized daily, is a dirty and stress-filled job for anyone — animal lover or not. But there can be no excuse for any employee neglecting, abusing or torturing an animal, especially in its last minutes of life.
City officials have taken several steps to improve conditions at the animal shelter — including adding cameras, hiring a new director and forming a shelter advisory committee. But Wednesday’s guilty pleas show that abuses were still occurring there as recently as last February. Citizens need to know, once and for all, that such incidents will not be allowed to happen again.
We’ve said before in this space that the administration of Memphis Mayor A C Wharton should seriously consider upgrading the qualifications needed to work at the shelter, perhaps including bumping up the pay. More emphasis must be placed on hiring people who care about animals and have the temperament to deal with the good and bad of working there — and on effectively monitoring their performance once they’re on the job. Economy: B In January 2009, the month Obama took office, America lost 818,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was the biggest monthly loss in six decades, and many feared a complete banking collapse.
Obama rescued the banking and auto sectors. Independent estimates suggest his stimulus may have saved or created more than 3 million jobs, and an anemic recovery began. The Economist magazine, conservative by nature, assessed: “His handling of the crisis and recession were impres- sive.”
However, the administration blew it with overoptimistic comments that shredded its credibility. It was also too generous to banks in negotiating their rescues, and it often seemed oblivious to resentment of crony capitalism, and to broader issues of economic inequality.
Worst of all, Obama dropped the ball on housing, betraying struggling homeowners. Far fewer mortgages have been modified or refinanced under administration programs than expected, and some Americans have lost their homes as a result, exacerbating inequality. Underwater mortgages have been a drag on the entire economy. Education: ADemocrats traditionally favored every antipoverty program except the one that might be most effective: reform of inner-city schools. Finally, that has changed under Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan.
They have pilfered Republican ideas and repositioned the Democratic Party to make school reform a top priority. They
Obama gets credit for ending “don’t ask, don’t tell” and allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in our armed forces. He took a step toward immigration reform by allowing certain young immigrants to obtain work permits. Above all, he achieved health care reform — a goal of presidents for more than half-a-century. Foreign policy: B+ Obama brought troops home from Iraq and took out Osama bin Laden. He was superb in providing bold leadership in Libya, at a time when so many American experts were saying that the intervention wouldn’t work. His unusual move in picking Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state has paid off brilliantly, and it’s great to see the State Department pursuing a 21st century agenda that includes girls’ education as well as, say, arms control.
Then again, Obama’s “surge” in Afghanistan has accomplished little Communication: F A president’s central job is not policy wonk, but national team captain. There Obama failed us. He has not made the case for his policies, nor has he comforted the nation as Franklin Roosevelt did in his fireside chats. Presidents always campaign in poetry and govern in prose, but the prose doesn’t have to be chilly Latin.
In short, we have a mixed picture, not as triumphant as the Democrats in Charlotte, N.C., claim, but still much better than many Americans give Obama credit for. A pithy summary comes from Vice President Joe Biden: Osama bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive. That’s not a bad re-election bumper sticker. Nicholas D. Kristof is a columnist for The New York Times.