Jackson Jambalaya

Oh wonderful... because the government always does such a better job of running things than the private sector! This is such crap. When are the citizens of Madison going to wake up and realize they have a Mayor and a board full of alderman who have let their power go completely to their heads and get them out of office? Completely ridiculous. And now innocent animals will have to suffer. In case none of them were paying attention - that poor completely malnourished and intentionally starved dog lef for dead before Christmas named "Mercy" was a citizen of Ridgeland's (yes, that's right folks - in MADISON) dog - a citizen whose identity the authorities are completely aware of and yet who they have refused to prosecute. THAT is how the City of Madison treats animals. If anyone cares at all for animal welfare, they better call City Hall and raise holy hell about this totally uncalled for government takeover of a private not-for-profit organization that was doing a d--- fine job!!

This letter is not signed. Why?

Mother Mary at work again. She couldn't make someone take down the peacocks so now she is taking over a non-profit no kill animal shelter. How sad for the animals that will be left behind. When do the people of Madison say enough is enough. It is time for some new blood in the Mayor's seat in Madison the City.

Did the above posters bother to read the memo from the city (referenced above by Kingfish). Unless I misread it, the city plans to continue with the no-kill policy and had offered the operators of the non-profit certain items (such as a truck) for one dollar per year but that was declined by the ARK operators. If it can't be run correctly (not emotionally) it needed to be 'taken over' by somebody.

Madison, The City, has a leash law. It takes more than showing up on the ABC affiliate once a week stroking a dog to handle all the animals that are picked up. I agree with the leash law and its enforcement. As Kim Waide sez, "Something's gotta be did".

3:08,did you know that Ridgeland and Madison are two different cities? Wise up.

6:18, your post makes no sense whatsoever. the city has a pound and the ark is a not for profit charitable rescue organization. apples and oranges. you are an idiot.

There were a lot of other, behind the scenes, parts to this. First off, the City was in control of the Ark already. The Ark had just broken away towards the end of last year (2011) and became an independent non-profit. Also, the "facts" stated in the press release aren't entirely true. It was not that the Ark did not want to "claim resonsibilty for the repair and upkeep of the facility" (might not be exact quote...cant see the article right now on this device). The City wasn't willing to work with the Ark on those facilities. However, I do know that this is yet another "I want to be in control" move by our lovely municipal government.
I wish the Ark nothing but luck and will continue to support it to the best of my abilities, but this certainly puts another black mark ok the City's page in my book.

From what I understand from an employee on Ark's Facebook page, The Ark will be called a No Kill Shelter and that's a LIE! There won't be any actual killing @ The Ark. The "bully breeds" and other dogs/ cats the facility considers to be ill or dangerous or who look at them wrong will be sent to MARL and MARL kills them.

What are the costs of repairs and maintenance of the facility formerly known as The Ark and newly named the Webster Animal Shelter? Perhaps city officials believe it requires an updated appearance to fit in and The Ark felt funding should be spent on the animals' needs.

Obviously most of the posts here are purely emotion-based and speculative. One facebook thread I was forwarded called for everybody to rush immediately to the Ark to save the animals that were about to be euthanized.

If you people think there's some sort of profound glory or fuzziness to be found in a municipality operating a damned dog pound, you're in a dream world. If I'm not mistaken, the city was/is pouring two hundred thousand bucks a year into this facility. That's a lot of taxpayer money. What we have here is too many peyote-sniffing greenies who are letting their hormones rule their thoughts.

In my personal experience the Ark was poorly run. Three years ago my daughters and her friends volunteered there and said the staff were "mean" to them. They changed their volunteering to CARAQ after that, except one girl who went back and whose father stayer with her for the entire day, and the staff was not mean to her while an adult was present.

I tried to get my son in there to volunteer over his two-week Christmas break last month and they didn't return two messages left for them. He also eventually went to CARA and loved it, and wants to return to work there again.

I'm no fan of Queen Mary but if taxpayers are putting $200K per year into the operation and getting these poor results then a temporary takeover seems justified.

I have volunteered for the Madison Ark over the past few years and I can tell you without a doubt that it will be run a lot more poorly now that Mayor Mary is running the show. Of course they can continue to call the Ark no kill because they will simply send the animals down to MARL so MARL can euthanize them. What happened was Mayor Mary pulled the funding for the Ark a few months ago hoping that it would dissolve on its own. However this did not happen because they got plenty of donations to keep it up and running. She couldn't handle not being in control and pulled the lease yesterday out of spite. I am sincerely concerned for the animals there and HOPE the citizens of Madison stand up for their shelter. I think we need to let people run the shelter that REALLY care about the animals and are dedicating their lives to rehome them. This is tragic. My heart hurts for these animals because they now have an uncertain future. :(

10:22 to say a shelter is poorly run because they didn't return phone calls is silly.

Maybe they needed volunteers to answer the phone?

Saying a charity that ignores people trying to volunteer to help the charity is well-run is like saying a business that refuses to return calls from potential customers who want to give the business their money for some item will be profitable.

Please note our previous experience three years ago when the Ark staff were very unpleasant to my daughter and her friends who volunteered. CARA was delighted to have them volunteer after that episode.

three years ago the ark was run by a different board of directors. They split up and turned The ARK over to the City and Mary to be a quasi private/public shelter. Only October through
December was it totally run by the current board of directors. and Mary did not provide the budget from October through December they ran it on their own with promises from Madison/Mary to repair the building. Also, when one's children are concerned with volunteer actions... well, one much consider that the children didn't want to follow directions and behave...

I'll ask again ~ What the hell sense does it make to you whiners that a municipality, mayor, board of aldermen or any other city official would want the burden of running a damned animal shelter? You whiners, greeners and occupy-types talk as if it's some sort of plum or crown jewel to have the opportunity to run the place. As if the mayor has pulled an end-around in an effort to seize the chance to run this place.

Looking at some of the so called volunteers featured on news segments, I thought I was being transported to Smith Park, watching occupiers without a cause whine and moan.

It's too bad an animal shelter has to exist in the first place, but, as long as they DO, they need to be run correctly, responsibly, professionally (OH, but we've got a new board now and we had an old one then and then there was another one) and they are not a repository for retread losers to gather with small bags of donated food in order to whine and pretend to be caregivers.

Move on and save a toad. Or protect the fallen leaves at a park in Flowood.

8:07 you are clearly a jerk. Are you that person who shot 100 dogs and dumped their bodies in a waterway? Hate animals do you? What's wrong, your mother not love you as a child? That's probably because you're not actually lovable. I bet you're angry that compassionate people actually exists, but none care for you.

Oh well. Too bad. Maybe if you were a worthwhile human, someone would.

It seems to many of us, ( from their inception ) , the " Madison ARK " crowd have always been more concerned about making sure their cocktail
parties were covered in the Northside Sun, VIP , JFP/BOOM ect. rather than caring for the poor animals.

Did these people actually consider a hurt dog as a citizen of Ridgeland ?

Not surprised at all.

Maybe it is because i am suspicious, but i think the city will eventually close the shelter.

As they should. A municipality should not be in the business of running a hotel for homeless animals any more than they should be in the business of rescuing people from under bridges and putting them up at taxpayer expense with three squares a day.

5:41 says, "8:07 you are clearly a jerk. Are you that person who shot 100 dogs and dumped their bodies in a waterway? Hate animals do you?"

Look dipstick; I've literally rescued more animals than you've said an Episcopal prayer over while clutching a wine stem.

I've never shot a dog but have hunted down someone who did. I've never killed a dog or cat but have ceremoniously buried at least a dozen.

Rather than sitting on your sofa, with a coffee table full of Jxn Free Press garbage in front of you, clicking away about things you don't know jack shit about, how about you whiners put up or shut up. Give some proof of what you say. provide some evidence of your alarmist claims of euthanasia other than what some ditzi woman told you to say.

You won't because you can't and you can't because there IS none. But, if you manage to find something, provide it to Kingfish and I'm sure he'll do a followup. Otherwise, hack up your furball and quitchurbitchin'!

I was one of the original founding board members of the Madison Ark. Our original agreement as a non-profit organization was that the Ark would lease the building from the City from $1 per year. After a couple of years in operation, the Ark entered what we thought would be a positive and beneficial arrangement to accept additional funding from the City. Within one month of signing that agreement, the majority of the original, founding board (if my memory is correct, seven out of 10 of us) including me, resigned due to extreme disagreements with the mayor over how the shelter should be run. The person who posted something to the effect that we "turned the shelter over to the City" should understand that we had no choice since the City owned the building - it was the mayor's way or the highway, and despite our passion for the cause we began, the majority of us chose the highway. Trust me when I say that the current situation there is political and has zero to do with personnel issues, maintenance problems, or the proper running of an animal shelter.

@10:09 ~ Why should I 'trust you when you say' the current situation is political? What evidence do you have to offer? How do you gain my trust by posting anonymously? It's been asked here several times (yet remains unanswered) ~ What possible political advantage could there be to operating a dog pound?

It's like operating a waste treatment plant. First, you'd rather it not have to be in the community. But, since it is, the thought is that it ought to be operated correctly. It's more of a sacrifice to be involved in operating an animal shelter than it is a lapel pin to wear.

Again, where is this mysterious political advantage some of you think the mayor has snatched into her clutch? Name it. Show it. Reveal it. Give evidence of it.

As far as the claim the employees were mean to the volunteers. Did you know that before November that it housed mostly city employees and only 1 ARK paid employee? I too was a volunteer and so was my child. And it was the CITY employees who were mean and rude and would be sitting in the front all day or outside smoking. And it was the CITY employees who were speaking inappropriately in front of teenagers about things and subjects that should not be discussed in front of other people’s children much less in the front office of a public building. And the ARK was run with care and compassion because that is what it takes to run a rescue. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of volunteers to help. And as far as not answering the phone.....why did you not volunteer to do it? Or did you know that the ARK employee was not always there because she had to run the adoption drives or attend work until late at night cleaning up animals or taking care of foster puppies or dogs at her house. And where were you again? We need to teach our children to take pride in OUR LOCAL community. So why did you drive your children to Clinton?