Five dogs, waiting to be adopted at Nowata's Animal Shelter. A shelter, some say the city has badly mismanaged.
"I would like to see it bulldozed and rebuilt completely," says pet owner, Herman Anders.
Herman Anders has a family of shih tzus, including puppies. He says he would never want his pets to spend even a night at this shelter, saying, "It's bad."
"I would destroy them before I put them out there," says Anders.
Others in Nowata are expressing their outrage on the local newspaper's Facebook page.
Janet writes: "I will no longer keep silent. For the record, I was told if I stayed off Facebook, Smyser (the city manager) would let my son volunteer!!!!!!!!!!! (At the animal shelter) How is that for some crap from our wonderful city officials??????????????????"
Les wants to know:
"Why was it ever allowed to get that bad in the first place ????? Just saying!!!"
Locals tell me, the shelter has had a flea and tick infestation. I asked the Nowata Chief of Police about it but he was less than eager to show his face.
"They were saying there was a big flea and tick infestation, too. Is that true?" I asked the Chief of Police. "I don't know," he responded.
"That's a question for the shelter keeper."
But that's someone we couldn't find. The chief admits, the shelter has had an ongoing sewage problem.
There was some back up issue, not running into the floor.
"I hope the city does something about it right away," says Anders.
I spoke with the city manager off camera and the mayor, they both tell me that problem has been fixed. Apparently, the original pipes were too small, for all the waste you'd expect to find in a shelter.
