Mission shelter fined $15K, dogs kept at separate business
MISSION, Kan. – The Kansas Office of Agriculture has requested Danielle Reno, who runs Unleashed Pet Rescue, to stop operating as an animal shelter at a t-shirt small business in Lenexa, Kansas, which is not accredited to residence animals.
The department also ordered Unleashed Pet Rescue in Mission, Kansas to pay in excess of $15,000 in civil penalties for violating the Kansas Pet Animal Act on Wednesday.
Practically half of the civil penalty sum arrives from health inspection violations that were being documented through a one inspection in late Oct, records from the section show.
All through the inspection, the shelter was cited for quite a few violations, together with cockroaches, insufficient spacing in doggy enclosures, flooring totally covered in drinking water, a deficiency of resting surfaces for cats in cages, insufficient ventilation, fecal make a difference on the walls, and a lot more, records clearly show.
The division proceeds to seek revocation of the shelter’s license.
The motion comes two months immediately after FOX4 Trouble Solvers launched its investigation into the controversial pet shelter.
Cockroaches, overcrowding and bad administration are just a number of of the lots of complaints Challenge Solvers acquired on Unleashed Pet Rescue for the duration of a four-month investigation into the shelter.
Final Monday, the section issued an crisis get to Unleashed Pet Rescue to quit using animals.
Reno has maintained that the shelter operates at the greatest benchmarks and has denied many of the allegations produced against her by previous staff members and volunteers.
New results from Kansas investigation
Documents acquired by FOX4 Trouble Solvers from the office over the weekend reveal the city of Lenexa discovered Reno experienced been using an unlicensed residence to home or keep “overflow” of animals in the shelter’s treatment.
Terra Merys, a former staff at Unleashed Pet Rescue, claimed relocating animals to avoid the state’s detection is not an unheard of practice in just the shelter.
“Yeah, I do know of puppies remaining place into cars and trucks and becoming shuffled all over and being put into the Unleashed van and all stacked up in kennels,” Merys mentioned.
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Information from the Kansas Section of Agriculture demonstrate illustrations or photos taken by a point out inspector when documenting wellness code violations at Unleashed Pet Rescue in Oct. (Photo offered by Kansas Section of Agriculture) -
Illustrations or photos from the division show cockroaches crawling on the walls and windows inside of Unleashed Pet Rescue in Mission, Kansas. (Photo offered by Kansas Section of Agriculture) -
Unleashed Pet Rescue was fined at the very least $1,000 for keeping canines in enclosures with standing drinking water. (Image offered by Kansas Office of Agriculture)
She said she comprehended that the reason animals have been getting moved all-around is because there were being as well numerous puppies in the shelter.
“It’s normally a scramble when the state shows up,” she mentioned.
A former volunteer with the shelter sent Problem Solvers social media messages which displays Unleashed Pet Rescue volunteers inquiring staff to travel to the t-shirt business enterprise to take treatment of pet dogs there on Reno’s behalf.
Records show animal management officers responded to an animal welfare grievance in late February at the t-shirt printing enterprise in Lenexa.
Reno’s workforce advised officers that two canines currently housed there had been Reno’s foster puppies and that “the premises is often applied to maintain canine offered for adoption, wherever potential proprietors would meet up with the canines and conduct the transfer of animals there, and where by canines would rotate to and from (the shelter),” documents clearly show.
FOX4 called Reno’s attorney for remark at the very least two moments but did not receive a reaction. FOX4 also visited the t-shirt company in Lenexa but Reno was not on web site.
Continuing investigation
Nearly a 7 days following FOX4’s initial investigation, the section explained it experienced received over 20 new complaints.
In early March, the city of Mission introduced it was no lengthier partnering with the pet shelter. The city had, till a short while ago, detailed the shelter as its supply to household missing and stray animals.
“If Danielle or Unleashed is not doing just about anything wrong, then the investigation will establish that – that’s how I search at it,” Gillian Gollehon, former volunteer and animal foster at Unleashed Pet Rescue, beforehand instructed FOX4. “Any backlash that I’ve obtained, that’s what I tell people, ‘If they locate very little incorrect, I believe in in the method of the process.’”
In January, Difficulty Solvers were invited on a tour of the shelter. At the time, Reno mentioned she only experienced 37 pet dogs in the shelter.
A six-12 months evaluation of condition inspection experiences from the Kansas Division of Agriculture Division of Animal Health reveals that for Unleashed Pet Rescue, 37 canine is remarkably very low.
In 2022 by itself, Unleashed Pet Rescue was inspected at least five situations. In the course of each individual inspection, knowledge exhibits the amount of adult pet dogs housed in the shelter in no way stayed down below 65.
In March, the facility experienced 91 grownup canine. In September, it experienced 89, point out inspections confirmed.
“There have been always way too numerous dogs,” Merys explained. “Always.”
