HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — Maryland’s prison agency said Wednesday it has suspended one facility’s program allowing inmates to prepare rescued pets for adoption after a prison worker and an inmate were bitten by dogs in separate incidents in recent months.
The civilian worker required stitches for a bite in the face, and the inmate suffered a puncture wound to his hand, a spokesman said.
The suspension of the Prison Pets program at the medium-security Maryland Correctional Training Center near Hagerstown does not affect animal-centered programs at nine other Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services institutions, including two programs similar to Prison Pets, spokesman Robert Thomas said. Most of the other programs involve inmates training service dogs.
Thomas said the Prison Pets program was launched at the 180-bed prison with good intentions but without higher approval of any guidelines or agreements with the animal shelters that supplied the dogs and cats, which otherwise would have been euthanized.
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4 comments:
This is a real shame it was good for the inmates as well as pet lovers everywhere, why cut something because of one dog, one incident?
Can't this be appealed what can we do?
anon 2:16 it did not make the brass look good. Program is finished.
These are criminals. Why do they get so much during their incarceration. When my dog died due to natural causes (He was 15 1/2 years old), I went to an animal shelter in Cambridge, MD to get another companion. The cost after immunization, neuter was off the rocket. The paperwork was ridiculous. And, the pet that I really wanted was not available. But, I played with him fir an hour. And, I cried when I left him behind. All that money I donated to the scpa wouldn't get me a free healthy pet. But, a dam Inmate can take care of a pet while incarcerated. Dam.
3:45 PM
It's not like they get to keep them. These are rescues from kill shelters and are at the prisons as foster pets until they can be adopted. If the program didn't exist, a lot more animals would be put down.
Prisoners who are exposed to pets get the same benefits as everyone else, as in lowered blood pressure, less depression, decreased aggression toward others, etc. In the end it costs the public less.
And yes, adoption itself is expensive. No argument there.
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