Response to Riverside County Animal Services’ social media statement

We have an update tonight on our investigation into the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

Over the past two months, our Mary Strong has documented many allegations that the county’s animal shelters are killing large numbers of healthy dogs rather than adopting them into homes.

During this investigation, the county declined our repeated requests for an interview.

Now that our stories have been broadcast, the province has still not agreed to an interview, but did put a statement on Facebook and Instagram this afternoon.

It reads in part, quote: “Our review revealed multiple inaccuracies, and we believe the segment provided a misleading representation. We responded to questions and offered a personal meeting with the reporter, without a response.”

But that’s just not true.

Anticipating this accusation, host Mary Strong sent Animal Services an email this morning, listing all six times she had requested an interview from someone, anyone, at the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

Whether by phone or email, every request was outright rejected or stonewalled. The Riverside County Animal Services Department was given ample opportunity to tell its side of the story. They refused.

After our stories aired, someone from the Animal Services Department reached out to say they would be in for an interview next week. Mary has spent the last 36 hours trying to arrange a time and place for the interview, but so far the province has still not committed to when they will make someone available.

To be clear, we want to state the province’s side of these allegations. We have been asking them to answer our questions since March 4.

Instead, their statement today concludes: “We value accurate reporting and are committed to transparency in conveying our story. We urge the public to be aware of misinformation.”

We also. You can read all of Mary’s emails detailing our interview requests, as well as the full statement from Riverside County Animal Services, here:

This story is far from over. We will continue to seek the truth about what is really going on in our provincial animal shelters.