Yesterday morning, a threatening phone call led to the evacuation of the Maricopa County Animal Care and Control's West shelter. The threat, described as expressing intent to blow up the building, was reported around 10:15 a.m., causing workers and animals to vacate the premises. Kim Powell, MCACC Communications Officer, shared with FOX 10 Phoenix that, "As soon as we got in, I heard that there is a situation. There’s been a phoned-in threat, and we need to evacuate the building immediately."
During the evacuation, some of the staff and pets were relocated to a nearby climate-controlled building. Following the threat, Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies conducted a thorough search and, finding no device after the sweep, declared the building safe. This incident left a temporary void where individuals, looking to adopt, instead found the facility unexpectedly closed. According to AZ Central, the shelter was cleared by 12:30 p.m. and subsequently reopened at 1:30 p.m.
During this morning of anxiety and alarm, two dogs, who were in surgery, faced an abrupt change of scenery as they were evacuated whilst still under the effects of anesthesia. Powell highlighted the swift actions taken by the shelter's staff, stating to FOX 10 Phoenix, "The two dogs they were working on were just getting closed up, and still needed to wake up from anesthesia, so we took them with us," ensuring their ongoing care outside the shelter's walls.
The East shelter location was not impacted by the day's earlier disarray and continued normal operations. County officials have responded to the disturbance with a commitment to pursue those behind the threat with the necessary legal response. "County management, Board of Supervisors, they take any sort of threat to our employees extremely seriously," Fields Moseley declared, in a sentiment that echoes through the hardened arteries of the civic body, aiming to uphold the safety of public servants. MCACC ensured the public that all the animals at the shelter were safe and accounted for after the incident, as confirmed in a Facebook post by the agency.
While the motive behind the threatening call remains under investigation, the county has delivered a clear warning to the perpetrator: actions such as these have consequences, and accountability is not a matter to be taken lightly. Kim Powell remarked on the incident, underscording the sensitive nature of animal welfare and the inappropriateness of such threats, "Animal welfare is an emotional line of work. You can look at any of our Facebook, Instagram comments, and you could see there’s always a number of emotions running through those comments, and it’s a shame that someone took the rhetoric to a different step, and put our staff, volunteers and our animals in potential harm," she told FOX 10 Phoenix.
