The Laurel-Jones County community is reeling from the recent discovery of animal neglect found at the local animal shelter SWARM – Safe and Warm Animal Rescue Mission – located in Ellisville. The rescue’s name itself makes you question how this could happen, because several of the dogs found on the property by Hub City Humane Society on New Year’s Eve were far from being safe and warm.
According to Sally Crane, Hub City Humane Society public relations and marketing officer, on New Year’s Eve HCHS was alerted to the condition of two dogs that were found on SWARM’s property and decided to immediately mobilize and pull all dogs needing medical attention from the property. One of the two dogs, named Cash, was close to death and the other, named Meana, was extremely emaciated and weak as well. HCHS removed 22 more dogs and six cats from the SWARM property on New Year’s Eve.
After being introduced to food slowly and eventually receiving a blood transfusion, Cash was showing positive signs of recovering. Crane said the journey back to health for a dog that has been starved to near death is a rocky road with ups and downs along the way. Crane said according to the veterinarian, the dogs had no medical condition that would put them in the shape they were in. “It appears that they just had no food and didn’t have the strength to get to water,” stated Crane.
Crane said of the 40 dogs on the property that they took the ones in the first group that were in the worse shape and in need of immediate attention and fostering. As of Friday, January 3, Crane said after quarantine and evaluations all but seven of the first 22 dogs have been fostered. The other 18 dogs were removed from SWARM’s property on Thursday, January 2 and fosters are needed for them. SWARM agreed to close the rescue and remove all equipment.
In October SWARM received help from other rescues in and around the Jackson area and several dogs were transported then to help give SWARM “a more manageable number of dogs to deal with.” But, the condition of approximately 19 dogs found on the property New Year’s Eve did not just happen, especially Cash and Meana.
HCHS is contracted with the city of Hattiesburg and Lamar County to take care of animals. The addition of 40 animals from another county puts a strain on the organization.
“We need people willing to foster, and we need financial donations,” exclaimed Crane. “We provide each foster family with all the supplies needed to take care of these fur babies and get them healthy again and ready for their forever home.”
Crane described the chaos of rescuing so many animals at one time. “There’s a lot of barking,” explained Crane. “We were all busy getting things settled and getting each one fed. Suddenly it was quiet. We looked at each other and turned around, and the dogs were all curled up on their blankets thankful to be in a real safe and warm place.”
There are 37 cats remaining on the SWARM property and according to Crane, HCHS is paying someone to take care of them. HCHS facilities could not handle the 37 cats. Crane said crowding the cats into their facility would not be fair for any of them.
We are happy to report that as of Monday, January 6, Cash is doing so well that he may be able to go to his foster home soon to continue his rehabilitation.
The Impact reached out to SWARM and the owner, Jackie Penney, by phone and Facebook messenger. As of publication time, we have received no response from either.
The following two post were posted on SWARM’s Facebook page.
1/1/2020 at 6 p.m.
“We know you all have a lot of questions about the neglect of some of the animals at SWARM, and so do we. First, we want to tell you that we have hired an entirely new staff at SWARM to care for the animals we still have. We are doing our best to find out how such a horror like this could ever happen, especially at a place where so many of us see these horrors and work to put an end to them.
After the death of two of our employees we asked Hub City for help in moving some of the animals because we were so short staffed and over-burdened. That is when we were made aware that there were animals on part of the property that was hidden from sight. While we know there is no excuse for this, we can only tell you what happened.
There are no words to explain the heartache and grief of finding out this happened to our very own animals that have already been through so much. We had people hired and purchased the supplies to have our animals properly cared for, yet those supplies went unused and the animals were harmed.
Our cats were under the care of a different staff member, so they are all fine. Although we know that many will be unforgiving, we still have animals in our care and we will continue to care for them. Please do not let the actions of a few soil the hard work of 4 years of saving 100s of lives.
The rescue is now under new management and we will do our very best to repair our reputation. Apologies are not enough change what has happened. SWARM has done so much good and we will make sure this will never happen again.”
1/2/2020 at 5 p.m.
“We want to update you on the current situation at SWARM. Unfortunately, after assessment of the property and equipment, we will no longer be able to keep the rescue running. We are devastated that any animals suffered in our care and the repairs to make it a suitable habitat for animals would be too costly. We have reached out to other organizations to remove the animals that are currently at SWARM. All of them will be removed by Tuesday and will be going to Hub City Humane Society, Hope Animal Sanctuary, CARA, and the effort will be supported by In Defense of Animals.
We will be keeping our resale store open to pay off the vet bills. Thank you to all of the people that helped us save so many lives over the past 4 years. Nothing we can say will undo the situation but we are doing what we can to make sure the others are safe. Items that were purchased for SWARM or by SWARM will be donated to Hope Animal Sanctuary.”