Protesters lined up on Saturday outside Coffee County Animal Control in Manchester to peacefully protest how the facility is currently operating.
On the other side were demonstrators protesting the protesters.
A Facebook page called Audit the Pound had these questions to raise..
"WE AS CITIZENS OF TENNESSEE DEMAND ANSWERS:
Where are the missing dogs?
Where are ALL your records on all dogs brought in, as required by law?
Why do you NOT want volunteers socializing and giving them attention.
Why refuse donations of bedding and blankets for these puppies?
Why did you KILL five dogs on Jan.5th, 2013 while rescuers and adopters waited outside the locked doors trying to save them?
And why did you think it was necessary to destroy perfectly healthy young dogs when the kennels had extra empty runs?
Why would you NOT allow pictures of dogs taken by volunteers to help promote adoptions before execution date?
How would YOU like to be hosed down in 26 degree weather when your cage was cleaned? And have YOUR SCROTUM frozen to the concrete?"
The animal control facility has earned a less than five-star reputation with the public.
"They don't let volunteers come in and help, and we'll call and they don't answer the phone," Janice Milner of NO Kill Manchester to WSMV News reporters. "We'll go down there and sit for two or three hours. We've done this many times."
Other stories that have circulated include a worker who shot the dog belonging to the mayor's son last June, then tossed the dog in a back dumpster.
Another, that because the cages are hosed down even in freezing temperatures, the dogs do get stuck to the concrete. To get free, they have torn their own skin.
One protester's sign simply read "Open Coffee County Animal Control to the Public!"
"While Coffee County Animal Control Director Kevin Brown declined to appear on camera, he told Channel 4 by phone he gave several dogs to rescue agencies last week. He said the dogs that were euthanized had not been claimed.
Brown said animal control has actually reduced their kill rate from 40 euthanized in a month a few years ago to only 10 animals euthanized last month because he is working with rescue groups. Milner said there's not enough cooperation."
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