A bombshell report released recently showed that at least 277 dogs died in 2024 at an Alabama humane shelter, primarily due to lack of care and neglect by shelter staff.
The report stated that the number of deaths at the shelter could be higher, but poor record-keeping by the shelter staff made the true number of deaths impossible to determine. Likewise, the cause of death of many of the dogs was also unclear.
However, reporting from sources inside the shelter and autopsies on the dogs showed that the most common causes of death were lack of oversight, fighting among the dogs and staff feeding the dogs improperly or allowing improper chemicals to come into contact with the dogs.
Additionally, the report stated that many of the dogs were left to suffer for weeks or months on end, often without being provided even basic medical care or given routine medications for common ailments that developed into more serious illnesses. Dogs were left to both freeze to death and die from extreme heat, in some cases literally begging for relief.
When confronted with the facts, the shelter staff and management repeatedly lied about the causes of deaths, blaming many of the deaths on accidents.
The shelter is one of the costliest to operate in the state, with taxpayers spending millions annually to house and care for the dogs. To date, the overcrowded shelter remains operational and conditions inside its walls have not improved. Dogs are still suffering and still dying at staggering rates.
By now, you are most certainly wondering the name of this dog shelter. You’re already planning on how to save these poor animals. You want the names of those in charge, and you want to make sure they pay a hefty price.
And that’s great. You should be outraged. You should be mad as hell.
Except, we aren’t talking about dogs here. These are humans I’m talking about.
Humans housed in Alabama’s prisons. Humans housed in conditions worse than we would ever, ever accept for dogs. Humans dying at preposterous rates. Humans left to languish and suffer for no reason other than our indifference to their suffering.
More than 277 humans dead. In a single calendar year.
All of them dead while allegedly residing in a place where they are monitored every moment of every day at a staggering rate of taxpayer money.
During a Joint Prison Oversight Committee hearing last week, we were all once again treated to the horror stories—told by those who are or have been living them—of what life is like when you or a loved one wind up in one of Alabama’s prisons.
We’ve heard many of these stories before. They are gruesome, stomach-churning stories of violence, degradation and suffering. They involve torture, extreme sexual abuse, murder, beatings and forced drug use. They involve extortion, with inmates using violence or the threat of violence to force families to pay protection money for their loved ones.
Then there are the drugs. An illegal drug trade so prevalent and pervasive that it is an industry all to itself at this point.
And we have a prison system that pretends that it is helpless to do anything about it all.
Well, except, that is, spend more than $2 billion on a couple of prisons. A couple of prisons that will not solve our overcrowding problem and won’t solve our understaffing problem and won’t solve our lack of medical care problem and won’t solve our lack of mental health treatment problems. But otherwise, a top-notch plan.
The reality is, though, this is on us. Because if this was that bunch of dogs that I talked about earlier, instead of humans, this problem would have long ago been solved. The outrage would have been swift and it would have been harsh. A week into it, some state lawmaker would have a goofy-acronymed bill that addressed the problems, and it would have 100 co-sponsors by the end of the week.
But no, these are just humans. Humans who made a mistake somewhere along the way. Most of them mistakes that could have happened to any of us, because most of them are in prison thanks to illegal substances and/or addiction—in one form or another.
No matter their crimes, though, we have set in place a system that, by its very name, says our ultimate goal is rehabilitation. That’s why we call it the Department of Corrections, and not the Department of Retribution and Indifference. Because our ultimate goal is to correct the bad behavior, provide guidance and education and deploy that once wayward human back on the streets of our society with skills and a mindset that will lead them to be a productive citizen.
We’re not doing that, however. We’re actually doing the opposite of that at this point. We’re placing petty criminals in our state-operated system and, in many cases, churning out either full-blown criminals or dead people.
It is sickening. It is disgusting.
And you know damn well that we wouldn’t treat dogs this way.
