The legitimacy of animal cruelty allegations made by Wagga pound volunteers has been called into question by an anonymous whistleblower.
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An anonymous source within Wagga’s Glenfield Animal Shelter, the facility at the centre of controversial animal cruelty claims, has accused volunteers of falsely blaming rangers for the incidents at the pound.
In a letter to The Daily Advertiser, the source said too much rebuke was placed on pound rangers with regard to the “frozen cat saga”, which saw a cat found in a freezer surrounded by bloodstained claw marks, when volunteers also played a part in the unfortunate event.
According to the source, a shelter volunteer placed five puppies in the cattery to roam around freely, a procedure not encouraged by rangers.
A ranger then entered the cattery holding a newly turned-in kitten, who “went beserk” upon seeing the dogs, clawing and biting the ranger’s arm in an attempt to escape.
“The ranger had to squeeze the kitten, as that was the only way to get it off,” the source said.
“They placed it in a cage and returned to the office badly bleeding, but told the second ranger present they thought they might have killed the kitten.”
The second ranger went to check on the kitten and, upon finding it “lifeless, limp and showing no vital signs”, placed it in the freezer, though it was not bagged up as per pound procedure.
“The cat was not placed in a bag as the ranger wished to attend to the injured worker, who was still bleeding badly,” the source said.
Former pound volunteer Myriam Hribar said, while letting small dogs into the cattery was not safe practice in hindsight, it demonstrated the poor policies put in place at the shelter and was not the fault of the volunteer.
“As volunteers, we wouldn't do things that we weren’t allowed to and we always asked permission, so we were totally at the mercy of the poor procedures of the facility,” she said. “The idea this is a volunteer’s fault is ridiculous, because it’s a lack of procedure and policy that’s led to this incident.”