After nearly 170 cats and dogs were euthanized Monday at the Tangipahoa Animal Shelter in Hammond, and people who worked there are speaking out.

Some are questioning how the shelter was run and why such drastic measures were taken.

Karen Whittington spends her free time photographing the many shelter animals in the Tangipahoa Parish Animal Control facility in Hammond.

She gives them a second chance through foster homes and rescue organizations across the U.S. and Canada. But she says when the current director took charge, the adoption and rescue-friendly environment changed.

"The runs and the cages were not as clean as they used to be. I know I was told that they were no longer allowed to stay late on their own time to clean, which they used to do," said Whittington.

She says sanitation suffered as well as rescue workers' ability to foster out animals. An alligator was allowed in a run next to dogs with only tin separating them and she says in general the euthanasia she witnessed was not done humanely with animals waiting in plastic containers out in the sweltering heat.

"The temperature goes over 100 degrees back there. The girls, when they are euthanizing, are working as fast as they can so the animals aren't suffering in there," said Whittington.

 She and other sources also say there was tension among the workers who went above and beyond their jobs with others who seemed not to care.

"I saw people walk by and stare at other people and just walk off. I saw people watching other people working and then go and sit at a desk and put their feet up," adds Whittington.

A former shelter worker says two veterinarians came to the shelter when the euthanasia of 170 animals was carried out. Those doctors would not return our calls and one sent word through a co-worker saying "no comment."

But veterinarian Dr. Wendy Wolfson, who for 22 years has worked in shelters and now is on the faculty of LSU Veterinary School, says that disease outbreaks in shelters are extremely hard to manage.

"It's very difficult to put dozens of animals on IV fluids, antibiotics and then it spreads the longer you keep those animals the more it spreads," said Dr. Wolfson.

There is still no confirmation of what the diarrhea causing illness was. One former employee was told corona virus. The parish president Gordon Burgess says it was airborne, but corona virus is spread through feces. Wednesday, he told Medical Watch that he has several parish people looking into all of these allegations at the shelter but believes the director was doing his job.

Dr. Wolfson does not have first hand knowledge of the Tangipahoa situation but says officials will need all the facts before a determining what happened. "It's hard for any shelter to euthanize and no one does euthanasia with out very careful consideration and I'm sure that they gave very hard and extensive thinking before they euthanized so many animals."

Two shelter workers have voluntarily resigned because of the management at the shelter. One other was put on administrative leave.

(Note: The dog in the video version of this story that is being examined by Dr. Wolfson, is available now for adoption from the LA/SPCA in Algiers.)