LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Nala, Yoshi and Flash were three of many dogs euthanized at the Lee County Animal Shelter this past year.
Geri Cerilli and her group Animal Justice met on the steps at the Lee County Courthouse before the commissioners meeting and held up signs for those dogs and all the others who have been put down.
"If I walk away and give up, what chances do these animals have? You know, they have no voices," Cerilli said.
The past few months, Lee County Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades showed viewers why Cerilli and former volunteers are concerned. Find previous reporting here.
They showed Rhoades time logs that dogs were kept in kennels for more than 24 hours at a time.
Rhoades took those concerns to Assistant County Manager, Marc Mora in September.
Mora oversees the shelter, and when asked to see a policy that lays out how often the dogs are allowed to go outside he said, "You're going to find that not everything they do there is written policy. It's just basic common sense."
Cerilli said answers like that are unacceptable, so her group went to the commissioner's meeting, Tuesday.
"We are pleading with the commissioners to please, we are not here to, I got a lot better things to do if the shelter was ran the way they say it's ran, but it's not," she said.
Watch Lee County Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
Fox 4 went with a group of former volunteers when they filed a complaint with the Lee County Sheriff's Office, hoping it would open an investigation into conditions at the shelter.
Now, the former volunteers hope a petition will get them somewhere.
"We pay all the salaries. We pay to take care of these dogs, so we want to know what's going on," former volunteer Kathleen Decourte said.
They said they have more than 1,000 signatures on the petition which can be found here.
Their goal is to pressure commissioners to make changes.
Cerilli said, "We'll never go away, and we'll never quit until we get justice for these animals."
The county didn't respond when FOX 4 asked the commissioners for a comment.
You can contact Animal Justice at pawsforjusticefl@gmail.com
