Where Are All of St. Louis' Self-Righteous Animal Lovers?

Everyone loves adorable pets, right?

​C'mon, we know you're out there -- crazy animal lovers. You gotta be. Why else would television stations always bait their newscasts with sob stories about injured puppies and wet kittens? It's because you're a sucker for those heart-wrenching tails tales. And you represent the vast majority of the population cause everyone goes berserk when animals are mistreated. Right?

Wrong. At least not in St. Louis and not when it comes to the city's decrepit animal shelter that Mayor Francis Slay in February declared unfit for human -- or four-legged -- habitation.

Back then Slay said the city pound would close by summer "at the latest" and that he'd put out for bid a plant to privatize the care and treatment of the city's stray animals. Now -- with the mayor's summer deadline just a week or two away -- City Hall is suddenly turning an about face.

The Gasconade pound isn't that bad after all. As Scooby Doo might say: Rhuhhh?

Here's the deal: The city only received two bids for operating a new shelter. One of those was a collaborative deal with Randy Grim of Stray Rescue and the Animal House Fund -- a group that was raising money to build a new shelter but never came close to its fundraising goals.

The other bid came from a private veterinarian who was rejected by the city because the bid was turned in late. (Seems like a fair policy 'cause what we want is the best treatment for animals and anyone who has the audacity to turn in a bid late obviously isn't up to the task.)

That left the city with only the Stray Rescue and Animal House Fund proposal. But now as the Post-Dispatch reports, Randy Grim has withdrawn his bid. He'll take strays from the city's dog-catchers and nurture them at his Stray Rescue facility, but he won't be going in on the operation of a city shelter. 

Animal House Fund says it will retrofit a building for the care of stray cats, yet the cash-strapped agency won't say when or where that will happen.

Left with no other options, the city now plans to keep the Gasconade shelter open for the indefinite future -- maybe several more months (or several more years).

So the question is: Where are all St. Louis' self-righteous animal lovers? Aren't you outraged by all this? Or are you too busy watching newscasts like this?