A lot of you have weighed in my investigation into the numbers of adoptions/euthanasia at the Regional Center for Animal Control and Protection.
I thank you all for taking the time to write on our Facebook page and our website.
One viewer pointed out how the anchor tag in the story (the part Jay Warren read after the story’s conclusion) on the RCACP’s adoption rate lacked context.
We think that viewer was right.
Here’s part of that viewer comment below:
Posted by kemper_fant on Feb. 25, 2011 - 3:03 p.m.
I’m really shocked at the lack of acceptable reporting in this piece. What a hack job. The adoption statistics sited are grossly inaccurate due the to the reporters lack of thoroughness and failure to understand and properly report them. I’ve only seen this online version and it appears amateurish at best. The statistics are here http://www.rcacp.org/about/RegionalCenterStatistics.php so take a look at them for yourself. 2009 had a little over 40% of the dog intake euthanized. Unfortunate, of course. But, this is a community problem and not an organization problem.
What the viewer pointed out is, of the Regional Center’s nearly 7,000 animal intake in 2010, it was able to reunite around 900 owners with lost pets.
It also transferred more than 1,300 animals to another facility, most of those of course going to the Roanoke Valley SPCA.
The adoption and euthanasia numbers I cited in the story were correct.
I wrote an update for Friday’s 6 o’clock show with that information.
Others had opinions on the blog I wrote after the stories aired on Thursday, like Gerald Waters from the North Carolina, who wrote me an email saying:
“Mr Leamon, I do agree with a comment you made about yourself. Your are a knuckle head. That is being nice. I own a station in N.C. and if you worked for me, it would give me great pleasure in firing you. “
To put his email in full context, he wrote me commenting on a story I covered a few days ago about six beagles being seized in Botetourt County after investigators say they were left alone for hours inside one of those dog boxes in the back of a truck.
A hearing is scheduled to take place on March 3rd where a judge will sort all of that out.
He had obviously read the blog I posted last night where I said some of you will think I’m a “knucklehead” after my RCACP story.
He went on to write in his email:
“Please come to N.C. and do a story on me. My dogs eat only once per day. When I am going to field trials, they ride for hours with out food or water.”
Nice.
Of course some of you wrote saying you found the story interesting and informative.
I learned a lot from covering this story about research and context that I hope will make me a better reporter in the future.
Posted by Scott Leamon at 07:12 PM. Filed under: leamon •
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Posted by ( randy vaughan ) on April 07, 2011 at 4:01 am
Agreed that “context” is indeed everything. Equally true is that often what is left unspoken (or unwritten) hints at greater “context” that needs and deserves further investigation. So for example, 7000 pets taken in, 900 reunited, 1300 transfers translates into some 19 pets being “put down” every day of every week (five days per week time 52 weeks, not allowing for holidays) or nearly three every hour! Now with all due respect to the facility management—and no pun intended—that dog just won’t hunt. No wonder he has “technicians” (plural) to handle this “job”. So another question left unanswered is the obvious: What is the disposal procedure for these dead animals? I mean does this facility have its own pet cemetery? Are the carcasses “handled” and “disposed of” by regional government and if so, how, where, and so forth? Fair and reasonable questions, I think. And though not a gambling man, I’m betting you won’t get answers to these questions from the RCACP. In short, it sure sounds as if someone is hiding something.
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