Thanks again for your continued concern for animals at Animal Humane Society. First, I will answer your direct question, then I would like to comment on what appears to be some false assumptions woven into your posting.

The short answer regarding whether or not the housing you describe is legal or not cannot be answered without a better description or video or photos of the conditions. If you can document these conditions, then email the photos or videos, descriptions of the caging, etc. to shelter@animalarkshelter.org. Animal Cruelty laws are pretty specific, requiring pretty specific amounts of space for each animal in housing. They are also required to receive "regular" exercise, which has typically been interpreted to mean every 8 hours at least 15 minutes of "free will exercise" outside of their cage. Other conditions also need to be met.

To compute the floor space requirement a dog needs in their cage, use the following formula:

Measure the dog from the tip of its nose to the base of the tail. Add 25% to that number. Then multiply it by itself. That will give you the space in square inches. Divide that number by 144 to get the square footage...

Or, you can simply use Animal Ark's Puppy Mill Cage Size Calculator. This calculator uses USDA requirements, which are slightly different than MN State Law, but they are similar enough to give you an idea of the space required by law. The space required by law is not very much, unfortunately.

If AHS is NOT meeting these requirements, a complaint should be called into the local police department in the City where the animals are being housed. That complaint should be made as soon as the next "shipment" arrives.

Now, onto the assumptions you seem to be making in your post: You seem to think that AHS cannot be both "open admission" and no kill. That assumption is false, and proven to be false by the number of open admission no kill shelters spreading across the country. Statistically speaking, if AHS euthanized the terminally ill and seriously dangerous, they should achieve a save rate of more than 90%. Doing so would mean they were not killing healthy or treatable animals. Instead they would be using the term "euthanasia" based on its dictionary definition.

Furthermore, a Pioneer Press article last summer covered the whole issue of importing animals. The reporter looked at the kill statistics at a shelter in the south that had recently sent a bunch of dogs to AHS. While AHS has a kill rate for dogs and cats approaching 50%, the shelter that sent them these dogs had a kill rate of around 20%. So, the idea that AHS is only taking animals that would be killed elsewhere is totally false. In fact, in other contexts, Sr. management at AHS has explained the strange practice of killing local animals while importing others from other parts of the country as a means to ensure there is "a good selection" (i.e. "variety") on the adoption floor.

Hello AHS Worker,

I appreciate your taking the time to post. I certainly do believe everything you are saying, with one exception. Before I get into the single point with which I disagree, let me first highlight the many areas with which I do agree:

I fully believe that AHS is still killing cats they deem "feral", which is why the title of the article ends with "Sometimes".

I am also well aware of the grossly dysfunctional policies about which you speak, that result in the unnecessary killing of at tens of thousands of animals. AHS policies on upper respiratory, ringworm and other minor, treatable conditions that are common in animals are repugnant and unacceptable in an organization that is supposed to be committed to helping animals. Furthermore, the numbers of animals being imported into MN by AHS - often being "rescued" from facilities that have LOWER kill rates than AHS has - certainly creates a lot of drama. The practice, however, results in more killing at AHS, not less.

The size and style of the caging at AHS is out-dated and cruel, resulting in behavior problems with animals - behavior problems they then use as excuses to kill animals. So, there is a lot we can agree about.

I also feel much sympathy for you and appreciate the plea for help. Beyond what I have already been doing to call attention to these things, there is little more that I can do, other than that as a worker inside the organization, maybe it would be helpful for you to connect with other employees there and work up a plan to document your experiences. There are many skilled and talented staff at AHS, many of whom feel like you do.

The problems are almost entirely with sr. management who are ill-informed, disconnected, disinterested and who use sheltering ideas that are, literally, more than 100 years out of date.

The one area with which I disagree with you is your ability to distinguish between a companion cat and a "feral" cat. I understand that you may believe you can tell the difference. However, if the choice you make is always to kill the "feral" you will never have an opportunity to see when you are wrong. Furthermore, because MN State Law does not define the term "feral" the term is irrelevant and pointless in a discussion about following impound laws in the State.

The fact that AHS is still not in compliance with MN State Law is not being debated. We fully believe they are breaking the law still, and are preparing to take necessary action to stop, at least, that one aspect of the gross dysfunction taking place at AHS.

So I work at AHS and I agree they do a lot of good for the community and the animals. I am one of the lower level workers that actually deals with the animals. You CAN tell the difference between a feral cat and a domestic cat you are in denial if you don't agree we are still putting cats down as long as a vet verifies that it is a feral cat. I also agree that feral cats should be put down because there quality of life isn't very good out there on their own we get a lot of poor domestic cats with frost bite on their ears from being left in the cold. I want to help you fight for lowering AHS's euthanasia rate by giving you these well hid facts on our euthanasia protocols that I do believe are wrong. This is a list of what we euthanize.

~We spay pregnant moms no matter how far they are along and pull out the babies and euth. them.

~Mouthy pit bull puppies and adults

~Scared pit bulls even if they are the littlest bit scared.

~Cats that get upper respiratory a 2nd time in the shelter (unless someone really fights for them)

~Cats that come in with upper respiratory even kittens and even if they are just sneezing a bit.

~Pit bulls that are too hyper excuse me I believe the words they use are "highly aroused" even if they have been without exercise on the adoption floor for a month.

~Puppies that are food aggressive I understand why an adult would be put down for that but isn't that a puppies natural instinct.

~Dogs with separation anxiety if they are hurting themselves to get out I understand but that isn't always the case.

James, you need to get past what people are saying. People say things. AHS says they have "limited resources" in spite of the fact that they have more than $20 million in reserve and an annual budget that averages around $11 million. I don't know about you, but I don't personally know anyone that would call $20 million in reserve "limited resources".

Furthermore, the end result in this case is a result of AHS refusing to follow the law. Our job as animal welfare advocates is to, well, advocate for animals.

The vary least we should expect from a very large so-called animal welfare organization is that it follows the law. If they refuse to do so, following nearly 2 years of opportunity provided to come into compliance with the law, then the resulting litigation is a result of their actions.

Kristen is obviously wrong on 3 counts.

1) A Ark did post her comments
2) There may be room for different ideas of animal shelters, there should be no room for breaking the law
3) Not holding strays for required period is not excused by the fact that people don't keep their cats inside.

and you probably won't post my comment because you don't agree with me. how pathetic.