Viewers Voice: Roanoke pound story stirs comments

Scott Leamon's story on the kill rate at the Roanoke pound brought in a host of comments from the viewers this week.

Some expressed appreciation for Scott's work.

Margo of Hardy called to say, “I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the staff at Channel 10 for your wonderful expose tonight on the animal control in Roanoke. It's been long overdue. The animals deserve so much better. It is inexcusable that some many animals are being killed needlessly. Good animals that could be going to wonderful homes giving so much love to so many people. Thank you again for doing this.”

Other viewers asked that we do more, including this caller: “I think you need to cover that in more depth. There is something going on and it needs to be uncovered.”

And Sherri Aleshire emailed, “Why are you and your news team not blowing the top off this story? Someone's pockets are filling up and the animals are paying for it. How much does this ‘DIRECTOR’ get paid?”

And others offered some frank criticism including Denise Preuss, who wrote: “Your story left a lot of important information out and I am afraid that in the long run, the RVSPCA will suffer for it. All of the indignant people who want Mr. Watson's head on a platter should know that the citizens of the Roanoke Valley and surrounding areas are the biggest contributors to the animal deaths that occur at Animal Control.”

And Sharon Hubbell added, “I do not feel all the facts were presented in your story and some that were presented were taken out of context. Therefore, I feel your story has caused a lot of concern for the public." She went on to write, “I understand a lot of people are now concerned that the money they donated to the RVSPCA for the animals was not used appropriately. They think the Roanoke SPCA and the Regional Center for Animal Control and Protection are the same. They are not!!!!  RCACP is government supported with tax dollars. The RVSPCA is non profit, supported by donations and does not receive any money from tax dollars.”

WSLS responds: thanks for all the comments. For those of you confused by some of the facts presented, we did provide a clarification on the number of animals put down the following day and we also aired a subsequent story that differentiated between the Center for Animal Control, what we often call the pound, and the SPCA. It should be noted that some of the confusion comes for the arrangement between the two groups, given that both organizations are housed in the same compound and have the same executive director.