Thursday, December 25, 2008

Lehigh County and rescues


This poor husky sat patiently at LCHS waiting for a home. I don't know if he was adopted or killed. There are many husky rescues that could have been contacted by them.
Does Lehigh Co. work with enough rescues to keep the amount of animals they kill as low as possible? Well, ask some local rescues who have tried to get dogs from there into their rescue. They were refused. Seems the shelter would rather kill them than let another find a home. Could it be just more loss of revenue?
So many questions, too many secrets.

56 comments:

  1. This is just one example of what they don't do. Here's another. I called them to see how they handled requests for low cost spay/neuter services. The desk person referred me to Pleasant Valley Animal Hospital - the hospital owned by their Board member, Dr. Bruce Puchat. The cost to spay a female cat would be $66.00 and that did not include vaccinations. I told them that this was a little steep for me and that I would have transportation problems - it's in Coopersburg. I asked if there was anything cheaper and closer. The response was, "This is the one we refer to." Again I said I couldn't afford that price, nor could I get there. I again asked if there wasn't some closer and cheaper option. She replied, "This is the one we refer to." At this point, I felt my blood boil and dropped my cover. I said, "You mean you don't refer people to No Nonsense Neutering or Itty Bitty Kitty, or Forgotten Felines or the Center for Animal Health & Welfare? You don't tell people all about these cheaper and more local options?!" She said, "NO." This is truly unbelievable. They could be a major source of public awareness of the resources that are out there, but they simply refuse. For a complete list of low cost spay/neuter options go to www.nokilllv.org and click the webspawner link. Go to the drop down for low cost spay/neuter. I think there should be a phone campaign to LCHS demanding that they give out this information since, because of their high profile, they are the place that many people are likely to call.

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  2. A shelter with a 2 million dollar budget should be spaying and neutering every animal that needs it.
    And I agree, they need to offering the public this valuable information about other, closer, cheaper places to spay/neuter if they can't do it themselves.
    It's obvious and pathetic that the reason the Fritch's do not offer this information is because they don't want to lose the revenue. They see the shelter as a business and not an animal refuge.

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  3. Does anyone know if the shelter has opened its spay/neuter clinic and if so are they actually using it?

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  4. yeah hey killed my 4 cats and they should rott!

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  5. I wanted to adopt a dog that was a owner turn in they told me the vet would have to up date it on vaccines and to come back the nex day so i go back the next day AT OPEN io mean i was there when they fliped the sign i walk in and they told me the dog was adopt i was like i was just her yesterday how can the dog be adopted if you told me to come back today they said someone new accidently took a application a little after i left i was so mad and upset because i spent 2 hours with the dog the day before they need to get there stuff straight this isnt the first time this has happen either

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  6. I wouldn't be surprised if the dog wasn't even adopted and will killed by them. They have a reputation for doing this.

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  7. This place is a mess. I am a animal lover myself and i have 5 female cats that need to be fixed two now and 3 later cause they only 8 weeks old. And i am low income and i cant afford to pay for it. So I was told to keep them inside and cry all day while they in heat since you can not afford it. That is so sad cause we are told to fix them but then no one helps for people who are low income...Such a shame and my daughter who is 16 wants to do volunteer work at an animal shelter they say they don't do that...she is an animal lover and i think that is messed up for a teenager who wants to do it voluntary...someone needs to really check this place out down on dixon st...god bless all the animals that they put to sleep...

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  8. My personal dealing the LCHS is one of outrage. They are not concerned with the welfare of the animal they are worried about how much money they can get out of the deal. They are no better the puppy mills. Many years ago I helped in a raid on a horse farm. We took 3 of the horses and got them back in shape. I wanted to adopt the one and they told me the money I offered (fair value) was not enough. I lost any respect at that point. The one behind it was Mr. Fritch. He will definitely go to hell. Don't deal with that place if you can help it and please please please don't take any animals there.

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  9. i went in to check out the dogs and saw a cute little one-- i had been looking for months for a dog like this one-- and so they told me to come back the next day to fill out the application because they were "closing" (even though it wasnt even time) So i came back at the opening time and they told me the dog had been adopted! how is that possible!?? they told me it had been adopted by someone volunteering there and that person get senority before "regular" people. never again will i go there!!!

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  10. I have gone there on numerous occasions and attempted to adopt numerous dogs from them and every time I was turned down and told the dog was adopted to someone else. I dont know if it is true or if they just put them to sleep. I finally gave up and dont even bother anymore. I think they are all evil.

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  11. This shelter is one of the worst I have ever seen. Not just the shelter but the animal control officers that really don't know what they are doing. Years ago before the new building and the new big britches.............the thoughts were with the animals...It is nothing but shameful now. I am sicken by the fact that this is all we have in our valley. They should be closed down.

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  12. Same crap goes on at the PSPCA in Stroudsburg. They would rather kill animals then see them get adopted! LCHS said I couldnt adopt one of the pit bulls there because I already owned a pit. What difference does that make?! I was trying to rescue another one and give him a good home. Next day he was gone, probably euthanized even though they told me he got adopted. Not a highly adoptable dog, looked like he had been through hell. I was there at closing time and went back the following day at opening to see if I could convince them to let me adopt him and they said he was adopted. How did he get adopted when they were closed??? Its so sad. Dont understand why they would euthanize an animal rather then see them go to a loving home.

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  13. I've worked with southern shelters who gas animals to death (some still do in PA too) and as evil as that is, the workers try so much harder to get the animals into homes than Lehigh Co. does.
    One day the manager of a Georgia shelter went to the shelter at midnight to take a photo of a dog that was on 'death row' so that I could post it to find a home before morning.
    In her pajamas doing whatever she could to keep an animal from being killed. Can you imagine any employee of the Lehigh Co. shelter doing this? Even if a worker wanted to, the Fritch's would certainly fire them for caring so much.
    Caring and compassion is not allowed at Lehigh Co. Humane Soc. Just ask any ex-employee or volunteer.
    The more your interest in an animal, the less chance you have of getting it.

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  14. I would not bring in any animal to this shelter.
    They need to be shut down . I guess if enough folks got together and actually peacefully held a picket out side they would start to respond. Just venting on this computer gets no where

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  15. you know what? i work for this shelter. we do what we can do and thats all there is to it. you want a no kill shelter? go to fucking animals in distress. we kill what we have to. none of you people have any idea how hard it is to work at lchs with bitchy staff members and even bitchier guests. We get paid MINIMUM WAGE to work with the worst people in the world and its not even worth it. the only reason i do it is because of the animals. I try to medicate every sick animal that I can. if you have a beef with the lehigh county humane society, then why don't you personally come in and voice your opinion, because, clearly, your voicing your opinion to other stubborn closed-minded people who spend their time dicking away online on a stupid website. Why don't you try working at the humane society? Let's see how you feel at the end of the week after having to put down every single trapped cat we get in because owners aren't responsible enough to keep them inside or even get their pets fixed. If you think the humane society is sick, take a look at what everyone else has done to help with the animal population. You'll see that we're at least helping, not hurting.

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  16. If any of you think your a big enough person and really actually care about animals, you should come in and speak to one of our workers and maybe you can see how hard it is to work with them.

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  17. This is for the staff member who wrote the past 2 comments: stop telling people they cant adopt then you wouldnt have to euthanize as many animals! Duh! I was more than willing to adopt pitbulls from LCHS but was told no and I'm a vet tech! They would have had they best care and lived a happy life but instead LCHS killed them,screw you.

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  18. Also a comment to the employee of the shelter;

    You complain about how bitchy the staff is there.. well since your on the 'inside' why don't you try to make some changes by contacting people that can do something - call the media, take photos, keep a journal, tell people what's going on instead of thinking your silence is helping the animals. Keeping silent is killing them.

    You do not have to be killing every feral cat that comes in and you do not have to sit by and silently watch in pain. Other high kill shelters have great adoptions rates and have dramatically reduced kill numbers by taking some of the steps outlined in Nathan Winograd's No Kill Solution. Have you read his book yet?? Email me, I'll send u a copy.

    If you truly care about the animals then take the steps needed to change things. Will it be easy? No way - but you have no choice. You can't sit back and justify murdering hundreds of thousands of animals in the name of bitchy guests or staff members or irresponsible owners.
    There is so much Lehigh Co. could be doing to reduce kill rates. Some of these things include:

    * Utilizing the many many rescues that have offered help to place animals. LCHS refuses to give up 'ownership' They would rather kill the animals.

    * Initiate a wide spread foster program to keep shelter numbers down and keep the animals socialized which helps them to be more adoptable.

    * Do weekly if not daily off site adoptions at Pet stores like no kill and other shelters do. This greatly increases adoptions and keeps the public informed on pet overpopulation. Lehigh Co does nothing in the form of public outreach or true education on this issue

    * Open up their spay/neuter clinic to ALL animals, whether adopted there or not. Offer FREE spay/neuter regardless of income just to reduce populations.

    Do you see where I'm going with this?? There are so many stones unturned by the Lehigh Co. Humane Soc. And to quote Bruce Fritch, "Nobody will take away my right to kill animals ...this is a business"
    Need I say more...

    Bottom line, DO SOMETHING. Contact me privately if you want to talk further.
    onevoice4animals@yahoo.com

    you can't just do nothing - that is the ultimate betrayal to the animals you claim to love so much.

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  19. this IS the staff member who posted those comments. I apologize for my behavior but some people really don't understand how hard it is to work there. just walk in and see how horrible our management is and then you might understand. hearing our boss, whose name i won't mention, walks into the backroom, points at an animal and says "oh its got a broken jaw and two kittens..just kill them..so we won't have to pay the vet bills." and you know what? we still have those cats. we give her soft food and medication even though our boss is too fucking money hungry to pay for a simple operation to fix the cats jaw. thats just one of the stories that has gone unheard. i've seen and heard many things which i wish weren't true. animal cruelty starts with one thing..humans. careless stupid arrogant humans who are only concerned with their own health and wellbeing rather than the animals. i find this sick and disgusting. as much as i want to quit my job there, i know that i would be hurting the animals by letting some horrible monster set their fate for them.

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  20. To the staff member who posted, I am a previous employee that worked there for 2yrs. Do what you can for them while you still work there, I regret every day that I did not get in contact w/ onevoice4animals until after I left there. I know how you feel that place is a hell hole. I witnessed a fellow employee throw 2 kittens across the room, I reported it and nothing happened to this employee. I also stood there trying to get Alice's attention as a cat died in my arms, trying to get her permission to send this cat to the vet. The cat died in my arms, she was to busy with a personal phone call. That only begins my horror stories of that place. But please do something while your still there don't wait until your out of there. Please contact onevoice4animals!!!

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  21. I have tried to adopt a dog there before. She was an older dog and we really fell in love with her. After filling out an adoption form they rejected it because our 11 yr old female dog wasn't fixed. We were trying to adopt another female. It wasn't like we were going to try and breed two females.
    Anyways, a couple days later we went back looking for her and she was gone. I hope she found a good home, but I fear that since she was so old...
    And we took a mother cat and a few kittens there last winter that we found in our yard. But they would not take them. They seriously just told us to leave them outside. And when we said there was snow and it was sooo cold they just replied "the mother will take care of them."
    We were so disgusted. I know that they have a lot of cats but it was awful. They were so rude and showed no compassion.
    So we took them in.
    And in my senior year of high school, a couple years ago, I tried to do fundraising for them. But they told me I could not since I was only 17. So my help wasnt good enough. But I did raise money for Forgotten Felines and Fidos, and they were so grateful for the help.
    LCHS....wake up. Look around.

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  22. ughh alice...im so glad she got fired.

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  23. Thanks for saving me a trip to this shelter. Their website still has a Thanksgiving notice so I guess their dog list is outdated, too. I am sending the link to this blog to various shelters in the state. Most are very, very good.
    cdog

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  24. Who did they replace Alice with???
    With regards to their website - I wonder how often they update their animal list. I know I've called for many dogs that always were adopted already. Do I believe them? No.

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  25. Hi all! I just spent several minutes reading many of your comments.My husband and I adopted a dog from LCHS 2years ago. She is a 170 lbs dog, that was initally pending adoption when we looked. But I couldnt get past her gate.And I wasnt leaving with out playing with her. I got my wish!! Yeah! Anyway the staff told me she was heading home the next day. Great, not what I wanted to hear! I simply said if the adoption fails I want to be contacted asap! The next morning at 9am I had a call from LCHS, I could fill out the adoption papers.But with their short hours and me living out of their county and my husband getting off work at 3:30 we had to wait 3 days till they would be open in the evening. Anyway we went down on a thurs night I beleive. They told us the owner had walked in there today and was trying to reclaim ownership after abandoning this dog and others.This ment she could not be adopted because the crueluty officer needed her for evidence to prosecute the owner and that they didnt have claim on her yet. We kept going to see her weekly up to 3 times in a week. By the secound week we talked with the officer in the investigation and asked about fostering the dog. He never thought about it he said, he would have to talk with the "board of directors". My husband and I got a phone call to fill out fostering paperwork and we would be her foster parents! I was ok with that and so was hubby. Mind you the reason we went looking for a dog was just befor this I had a 10 year old Dalmation that we tried to save with sugery to remove cancer. The only thing we did was extend my Damations life by 3months.The day came to put her down. The hardest thing I ever had to do in my life!!!! I didnt want a pit because of my home owners insurance policy and of my idot neighbors. The dog Im talking to all of you today had my Dals same personality! I was not giving up on her with out a fight!After 9 months and some odd days we gotthe call from the officer they won the case against the accused,and the dog we had fostered is now the ownership of LCHS. If we wanted to keep her we needed to come down with the dog and fill out adoption papers.That was a very long phone conversation!! In the end the officer went to the board again told them all we had down, like feed her for 9 months, shots,tags, training etc( I know she was'nt my dog ,I spent the money on her I didnt care. The dog gave me joy and pleasure even tho I knew she may never be mine.).He simply told them ad up all those cost and said we(LCHS) would of had to spend all that for one dog. They agreed to drop the adoption fee but we had to get her fixed. No big deal we planned on it anyway.So for $200 some dollars we finaly had our dog ownership and pedigree papers and all! Yes she was a purebred!So the fight was worth it for us.

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  26. I am very glad you got to adopt your dog from LCHS. This is truly a unique story as most people will not spend this much time fighting for a dog and the shelter would rather take the easy way out which means putting the dog down. The investigation delayed the dogs death and you fostering the dog certainly kept him from being killed after the investigation.
    Lucky dog. Great ending, thanks for sharing.

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  27. It's very ironic i found this blog by chance. I own a pet-related store and was speaking with a long-time customer of mine who tried adopting from LCHS a couple months ago. They had a 3-year old dog (adopted from somewhere else) and wanted another dog. They went back and forth, by phone and in person, with LCHS several times in the course of 3-4 days about one dog and, long story short, it was almost dead on to the other stories posted here. Two days later they drove to North Carolina to adopt an adorable puppy from a rescue. These are hard-working people who have a nice home and take good care of their animals.
    What on earth is going on at LCHS? I know from working with several rescues that they are also packed to the hills with dogs due to the economy and what not. I was a little leery of what this couple told me, though maye it was just a misunderstanding but apparently not. This place almost seems as bad as "that kennel"...you know what i mean.
    As for the employee that posted the rant above, i know how hard it is to work in bad conditions and especially when you are around defensless animals. But if you are resorting to posting those types of comments then for your own well being, please leave that place ASAP. I know jobs are hard to come by but for your own well-being please consider what you are doing to yourself. Even if you have to volunteer at another shelter for the time being.
    I adopted my oldest dog there almost 13 years ago (a pit) and she has been the best dog I've ever had (and I've had/have many).
    This information about LCHS REALLY disturbs me.
    Let's hope something gets done.

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  28. I don't know what the hell is going on if people are going there at 'closing' time and told to come back in the morning, and the dog is gone and they are told it was adopted...It doesn't make sense. How can the dog be adopted if the shelter was closed?

    That only leads me to think the dog has been killed. Which is truely horrible. Why kill the dog if it could have a pending home the next day?

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  29. This is typical of what this shelter does. The 'tag' all the dogs 'adopted' when in reality they are on death row. Don't ever show an interest in an animal and then try to adopt him. Seems they only want people who could care less. Maybe this way they know they'll be getting the dog back again and yet another adoption fee. Oh wait, they also get paid from the county for each animal they kill. It's a business to the Fritch's. They need to keep the revenue flowing so they can pad their 2 million dollar bank account.

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  30. Here is my own personal horror story from this shelter.. a few months ago I decided to adopt a dog for my boyfriend and I when I saw a dog that looked familiar on their website, it was my friend's pitbull, I wasnt sure how he made his way to the shelter but as soon as I saw him I headed straight there to see if I could adopt him. I had tons of pictures of us with the dog, knew his name, medical records, EVERYTHING, and was told that I could not adopt him because he was being adopted by another family, so although I was disapointed that I couldnt bring him home, I was still happy that he was getting a home. So I decided to go to the SPCA in Easton and adopted my dog with NO problem.

    I always look at the pets on petfinder just to see what dogs are in the shelters, and don't ya know it, there was the SAME dog I tried adopting just a few weeks earlier, so again, I head straight for the shleter and try to get him out of there, he looked worse then ever, so underweight, scared shaking, skittish, I couldnt stand to see him like that and well at this point I was very angry. They let some dead beat family take him in just to throw him out a few weeks later. So I went to the front desk, explained my ENTIRE situation and filled out an adoption form.. I went down to the shelter the very next day.. at OPEN to visit with this poor animal (because I dont think they get much attention unless someone interested in adopting them wants to see them) and he was gone! Gone! I asked what happened to him and they said he was "adopted", I asked how that could be when I left at close the day before and came at open, but they just repeated the same excuse over and over again.

    So I decided to go with their story and not bother the what was now a very annoyed woman, and went back to look at the rest of the dogs. I walked a few just so they could move a bit and thought to myself, why not volunteer here so I can at least give these dogs something to look forward to each day. So i go back to the very annoyed woman from before and asked what I needed to do to volunteer at the shlelter. She replied in a very short and angry tone.. nothing we don't need any volunteers. I was shocked?! I said it says on your website that you are in DESPERATE need for people to help, she had nothing to say. I became SO mad I did'nt even know what to do, so I left.

    I now volunteer at The Center for Animal Health and Welfare in Easton, and they were MORE than happy for the extra help. Now there is a place who's got their stuff together!

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  31. Hello To All Reading this Blog. This is the first Blog I have subscribed to & hope my experience & yours may change the future. Please read this in its entirety as at the end there is a story I am hoping can save some dogs lives. On MANY different occasions I have been extremely disappointed in this Animal Shelter. When I was a teenager, my friends mom was a worker at the shelter. I would be told of the stories of them gassing hundreds of cats & dogs a week. Mind you this was 14 years ago! Then in 2002. I took my sweetiepie cat, Snickers there. I had just had my son & she was so very jealous. At night for 2 weeks straight she would pee on my head in my sleep. I felt horrible but had no choice, after we tried happy pills for her & verified she was healthy. When I took her in & explained she was a bit jealous of my son. The lady at the counter screamed, " Euthanasia." I asked her who it was for. She replied, " Your cat". I quickly grabbed Snickers and out the door we went. Most recently, I live out of Lehigh County, but a friend does not. Somebody in their neighborhood has 2 pitbull dogs out in the freezing cold with no shelter living on a 2nd floor patio. The dogs are severely emaciated & have frost bite on their limbs & ears. They have no food, frozen water, no coat, no doghouse, & NO Human Interaction. They get kicked & punched as they smother & lick their owner half to death because they finally get seen. I have contacted them MULTIPLE times. These 2 dogs are STILL LIVING on the 2nd floor patio. If you can help do something or save them. I do not know if they have much time. They are located between 7th/ 8th Streets & Cedar/Greenleaf in Allentown. Anytime walk through the alley back there & look for the 2nd floor patio with 2 dogs huddled in the corner shivering to death. The one is a puppy & the other is a male. The owner's are abusive & violent with them. Not to mention they also have a female & a liter of puppies living in their basement way barking 24/7 wanting to be loved. When the officer contacted me he said they investigated & found no cause for concern. I know thats a bunch of BS because anybody can see what I see & know!! I hope together we can get this place changing its ways or closing its doors. They have no good intentions for any animal that walks through its doors. God Bless to All & especially our furry friends in the dreadful hands of the Lehigh County HORRIBLE Society. Happy New Year.
    February 3, 2009 9:09 AM

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  32. I am also an employee of the LCHS. im appalled by conditions at the shelter. Because of the small amount of space and large amounts of animals that come in, I have witnessed 40+ animals being euthanized, simply for lack of space. With our 2 million dollar budget, you think they could atleast come up with adaquate room to house animals while they are waiting to be adopted, but no, they rather put money into stupid projects. Ive witnessed a dog come through a few months back that was young and spry, with a lot of life and love to give, with a horrible wound on its back leg. It needed vet attention immediatly, but when asked, we were told to euthanize it because it was 'just another pittbull.' HOW CAN YOU CLAIM TO BE AN ANIMAL LOVER WHEN YOU SEE LIFE LIKE THIS?!?!?! I completely agree this place should either be shut down or put in the hands of someone other than Bruce and Connie Fritch....

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  33. ^^^ and I am in the process of quitting this awful place. And for all of you who have witnessed the dissappearances of these dogs and cats, yes, they were put down after closing time, usually due to sickness or aggression, or lack of space. PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!

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  34. What can be done.. because this is just ridculous, isn't there anyone that should be monitoring how the shelter is run, someone higher up then the people who own it? I don't know how to go about even trying to fix this but it makes me sick just even reading these entires.. any ideas or suggestions? I would be more than happy to help any groups that have ideas for change.

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  35. can any employees please contact me confidentially BEFORE you leave there.. We are working on something that you could possibly help with. If not, I completely understand. But at least let me present it to you.
    Thanks for caring,

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  36. My wife and I volunteer at another local shelter and cannot imagine the situation at LCHS. My wife donates money to the Humane Society every year, but because of this blog, we will definitely be sending our money to a different shelter. It's frustrating that so little can be done. We are willing to help out in any way. Please keep us posted with any plans for action against LCHS. Is this how all branches of the Humane Society are run, or is this specific to Lehigh County?

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  37. The Lehigh County Humane is not a branch of the Humane society of the United States. Bruce Fritch once stated 'his' shelter was a 'business' ...

    The animals at LCHS need to get out of there immediately. Bruce and Connie Fritch need to retire and a new, caring board needs to take their place.

    Bruce Fritch does not want to lose his 'right' to kill animals - he has stated so himself. Just call and ask him.
    610-797-1205
    He's listed in the phone book if you want to try his residence as well.

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  38. CAN THE PERSON WHO POSTED ABOUT THE TWO DOGS shivering in Allentown on a patio PLEASE CONTACT ME - We would like to go there but need more information.
    Onevoice4animals@yahoo.com

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  39. O my! How can I help? my email is chrisandra_marie@yahoo.com

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  40. I would very much like to help do anything to get these horrible people out of this shelter. Anyone with any ideas please email me. I am up for picketing the place for a week straight, contacting the newspapers ect. KaliSlain@yahoo.com

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  41. also, can we find out if they are sending them off to those experiemental facilites???

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  42. I work at a law firm... I am going to inquire as to any kind of legal action we can take (possibly a sort of class action-as a group) against them both individually. that will make at least the budget come out.... and their salarys! please contact me. chrisandra_marie@yahoo.com

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  43. I a former employee that worked there, and i do know that we do NOT send them to experimental facilities, even though they may get better arangements there than at that place

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  44. Shut that place down.And get rid of that f..... doctor.And quite honestly if all that is being said is true which i believe it is than the staff that work there should be ashamed of themselves and hopefully none of them have any pets of there own.

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  45. God I feel so lucky to have been able to save the dog that my family kept bugging them about. And finally adopted her on 7/14/07! We are curently looking for a buddy for her. I know not to go there,but my heart bleeds for those pets stuck on the inside of that place. To the group you may count my family in on your fight against LCHS.

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  46. i am a former employee of the shelter i worked there from 1998-2001 it is true that they put alot of animals down. there where days that we put 40 animals or more down in a day. if you really want to see just go to the back door that faces the creek in the back between about 8am and before shelter opens then you can see how many animals they stick in the freezer. i have worked at many diffrent shelters in diffrent states. i had talked to the fritchs about diffrent programs and events that had minimal cost that could benifit the animals at the shelter but they blew them off. there were two small projects that me and another former employee organized that mad some money for the shelter, but after that nothing else was done. what the county needs to do is when the contract is renewed stipulate that they fritches be removed from the board of directors or if anyone wants file a complaint with the hsus.

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  47. Please don't let the horrors at Lehigh County keep you from adopting animals there. They need to get out even more because we know they have no chance of getting out alive if we don't.

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  48. this place needs to be shut down I tried 4 years ago to adopt a dog from there and they make it vertiually immpossible for even the best dog owner to adopt. what can we do to shut the place down and get those animals to places where they will be taken care and given to people who want to adopt them?

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  49. my best friend who is a dog groomer, owns her own home and has a huge fenced in yard was turned down when trying to adopt an aussie. Another woman i know tried adopting a 14 yr old chih and they wouldn't let her because she didn't have a fenced yard. she just wanted the dogs short time left to be spent in a home where she was loved and not in a shelter. i wanted to adopt a parrot that they had and i asked one of the workers if the birds are tested for disease (i already had a small parrot and i didn't want him to get sick or die because i am rescuing a bird). She snapped at me and said that there animals don't see vets. this place is just f*ed up.

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  50. LCHS told me the spay was now handled at Pleasant Valley Animal Hospital - DO NOT USE THEM!!!! I took my dog there to meet the vet before getting her fixed just to see the place- THANK GOD I DID! IT WAS EXTREMELY DIRTY and no one knew what they were doing or where they were located ( i was literally one mile up the road-one turn away, and no one including the dr. knew how to describe where they were at. From people I've talked to=they lose medical records, and many of the dogs who get fixed form nice infections around the sutures.

    LEHIGH COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY put our friends dog down within THREE HOURS of bringing him in for adoption! They didn't even take him out to visit and he was extremely friendly, house broken, great with kids. She was having extreme allergic reactions and THOUGHT they would do their best to find a home.

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  51. Even with all the bad things being said, I have to say a positive.

    We've been trying to adopt a dog for months and EVERY SINGLE place we've been to has extreme requirements for adoption, some cases taking 2-3 weeks before you even find out if you get the dog. They also don't charge you a fortune.

    At least Lehigh Valley gives you the dog you want within 24 hours.

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  52. DO NOT GO THERE!!! LAST WEEK I STOPPED BY AND ALL DOGS HAD KENNEL COUGH, POOPED UP RUNS, AND INFECTIONS!!!

    AGGRESSIVE DOGS WERE BEING PLACED RIGHT BEHIND AGGRESSIVE DOGS- YES I DO MEAN BEHIND - AS IN THEY SIMPLY SLID THE PIECE OF PLASTIC DOWN IN BETWEEN TWO RUNS.

    I've been to a LOT of kennels and this one is boarder line abuse!

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  53. Listen, all you are doing is causing more animals to die by telling people not to go there to adopt. You should be telling everyone you know who wants an animal to go there to get these animals out of there. This has been an ongoing problem with this shelter for a good 20 years. There doesn't seem to be anything ever done about it. I have also heard they are unwilling to cooperate with the other shelters in the area that don't kill animals, which is a real shame. But by refusing to get an animal from there is not a smart way to help. This has to come from legislation and legal recourse. If everyone stops going there for pets you are simply guaranteeing that ALL of them will die.

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  54. I've posted many times that people should not stop saving animals from this shelter. All of this information means we should be getting them out, I agree.
    We also need to be pro-active and speak up to the board of directors of this shelter. They should be confronted with their incompetence.

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  55. PLEASE GO TO THE SHELTER AND SAVE THESE ANIMALS.
    THE POSTS HERE ABOUT HOW HORRIBLE IT IS THERE MEANS THEY NEED TO BE SAVED EVEN MORE.

    PLEASE GET THEM OUT...

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  56. OK, the attorney I was referring to is in and ready to act. ANYONE who has pictures, could make statements, or ANYTHING to help the case, please contact onevoice4animals or myself (chrisandra_marie@yahoo.com).
    Also, if anyone knows of a rescue willing to help with their services, that would be a great idea too. If we're going to do this, we'll need as much support as possible... Thanks!

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Did he make it out alive?

Did he make it out alive?
doberman at LCHS