Well, this is a bit of a shocker: Nathan Winograd says this about the animal shelter ‘industry’ in the US in commenting about an animal control officer who stole a dog:
A New York animal control officer was arrested for stealing Hope, a family’s 9-year-old dog. After Hope was found by a neighbor and taken to the local shelter, the officer sold her to people in Ohio. When Hope’s real family came forward, the officer told them that she had died. Hope is now back with her family. While animal control insiders want to pretend that the officer is a rare bad apple, the tragic fact is that uncaring and corruption are endemic to the industry. And though the facts of this case may be somewhat unique, uncaring and corruption aren’t.
Nathan Winograd, America’s most expert animal shelter advocate.
He references the criminal case of and animal control officer who stole a Yorkshire Terrier which I report on below (my thanks to The Leader which has the best report).
I think by the way that Winograd is referring to the way a good percentage of animal shelters find excuses for killing shelter animals such as there are too many intake dogs and cats and not enough adopters when in fact, they are failing to run an efficient shelter. He has consistently accused animal shelters of failing to do enough to save lives. He knows as he is the country’s arch exponent of the No-Kill MO. For example the authorization in NY City to kill shelter animals suffering mentally. How do you assess that? An excuse to kill?
There have also been a number of corruption cases concerning animals shelters in the states.
Animal control officer allegedly stole shelter dog
The Steuben County Sheriff Jim Allard reports on this on their website. The incident occurred on October 26, 2023. The animal control officer, Scott Casterline, 51, of Church Creek Road, Lindley, has been charged with official misconduct, false written statements and theft (as appropriation of property).
The story unfolded like this as I understand it. A nine-year-old Yorkshire terrier named Hope was lost in the City of Corning a couple of months ago. The dog was found and taken to the Chemung County SPCA who called Casterline, who at the time was the Corning City dog control officer. He picked up the dog and took them to his kennel in Lindley.
Hope’s owner called Casterline in their efforts to track down their lost dog but he told them that their dog was dead. They became very distressed.
Hope’s owner then called the sheriff to look into the matter. The police called Casterline and were told by him that the dog had died and that he had put the body “in a pile and scavengers must have taken it.”
The police then received a tip off that Hope was alive and that Casterline had sold the dog to a family in Ohio. The police found a telephone number on Casterline’s phone confirming that he had called from Ohio. They contacted the person who purchased the dog from Casterline.
A photograph of the dog was then sent to the people who had bought the dog from Casterline and they confirmed that it was the dog that they had purchased.
The police then visited the Ohio family who apparently agreed to release the dog to them having been told about the alleged theft. The police were then able to return the dog to their rightful owner in Corning.
Casterline resigned as a Corning City dog control officer. He’s been charged and released to return to court.
Investigators traced the sale to a location in Ohio, located the missing dog, retrieved and returned the dog to the rightful owner. Mr. Casterline was charged with Official Misconduct, Misapplication of Property, and False Written Statement. Mr. Casterline was released on an appearance ticket to appear in Lindley Town Court at a later date.
Steuben County Sherrif’s Office NY
Some links to more on associated topics:
I wonder how many times he’s done this when a nice pure breed dog is picked up? He had a kennel?
This isn’t the first story I’ve read that this has happened and won’t be the last. One families dog was sold to a university for use in experiments and had already been killed. It was even microchipped.
Yes, good point. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was making money on the side for a long time. The opportunity presented itself and he wasn’t the right sort of person to be in animal control.