The woman at the centre of a social media brouhaha about the Cowra pound has asked people to stop baying for the blood of local ranger Michael Ryan.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Instead Mandy Hartles, who took the photos of Mr Ryan's own dog which had been mauled to death by a bull mastiff, is hoping to leverage the huge amount of public support generated by the photos to improve conditions at the pound by forcing Cowra Council to re-examine its staffing and animal housing procedures.
Ms Hartles, who owns a menagerie of rescued pets, went to the pound with her friend Chere Michael on Wednesday to feed a cat they knew was impounded there.
Followers of a Facebook site which posts pictures of impounded animals hoping to reunite them with their owners or find them a new home, Ms Hartles said they had planned to take a few photos of the animals while they were there.
Upon arrival, they were surprised to see a bull mastiff free of its cage.
They were also surprised to see a kelpie lying there motionless.
"I could see part of the kelpie and I said to my friend, 'that dog's not moving, it hasn't acknowledged anyone that's here, it hasn't moved its tail or anything' so we went out the back to have a look and it was dead. It was very confronting," Ms Hartles said.
"I came home and I wanted to do something about it."
Her daughter Taylor uploaded the images to Ms Hartle's Facebook page as well as several local forums, attracting thousands of comments and shares.
"It just exploded from there," Ms Hartles said.
Ms Hartles said when she returned to the site with a television crew the following day, she found very little had changed.
"The bull mastiff is in a cage now, they would have poled him into a cage yesterday," Ms Hartles said.
"There was an empty tin of dog food in the dog cage with him and his bowl was full of dog sh*t."
Ms Hartles said the photos were symptomatic of what she sees as a wider problem at Cowra pound.
"Take the dead dog out of the picture. The conditions are horrific. There are no blankets, nothing to keep the dogs warm, they're always wet, and now apparently whoever feeds them just throws an open can in there. There's always dog faeces in there because it's not a manned pound," she said.
But she believes the personal attacks on the ranger himself are misguided.
"I don't want to lynch Michael Ryan. I have no personal problem with him," Ms Hartles said.
"The problem I've got is with the Council who won't employ somebody [full-time] there. There's only one ranger who has a huge job.
"I feel for him losing his dog and I don't want this to be a lynch mob - it's about the animals and getting the problem fixed and getting him some help and some staff."
Chere Michael is calling for the pound's tapes to be made public in order to clarify the events which led to the dog's death.
"I've heard about the pound for months and months. I'm not calling [anyone] a liar but please show us the footage," Ms Michael said.
"Council should always be transparent. They're voted for by us, they're meant to be there for us. If you don't want to employ anyone [else], allow experienced volunteers to help, that would be more conducive to re-homing [the animals]."
