Phone threat prompts evacuation of Maricopa County Animal Care and Control facility
PHOENIX - Maricopa County Animal Care and Control says its West shelter was evacuated on Wednesday morning due to a phoned-in threat to blow the facility up.
The shelter is located just north of 27th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road.
"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," Kim Powell recounted.
Some of the workers were taken to a nearby air-conditioned building following the evacuation. Some pets were also evacuated.
"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," said Powell.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says deputies swept the building and no device was found. The building's closure lasted several hours, saddening those who drove over to adopt a pet.
The exact details of the call remain unclear.
"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," said Powell.
The group's East shelter, located near McQueen and Baseline Roads in Mesa, was not affected by the incident.
Meanwhile, Maricopa County officials warn that violators will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.
"County management, Board of Supervisors, they take any sort of threat to our employees extremely seriously," said Fields Moseley.