Three longtime volunteers at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control say county staff dismissed them after the animal shelter received bad publicity last week about extreme heat in kennels.

Lorena Bader, Jordan Bader and Erika Edmark were told Aug. 1 they no longer would be allowed to volunteer at the shelter.

"We were not given ONE reason as to why we were fired," the women posted in several public Facebook pages

But they have a hunch.

Last week, multiple Phoenix TV stations reported that the temperatures inside the county's west shelter topped 100 degrees, citing photos sent to the stations showing hand thermometers with temperatures reading as high as 108 degrees.

The volunteers say they were wrongly blamed for tipping off the media about the conditions in the shelter, on 27th Avenue near Lower Buckeye Road, and management retaliated by stripping them of their volunteer opportunities.

Fields Moseley, Maricopa County spokesman, said in a statement Tuesday that the media attention was not the reason behind the volunteers' dismissal. Rather, they were asked not to return "because of their own actions."

"The three were part of a conversation on a social media platform where they conspired to undermine the Animal Care operation and denigrated County employees. This type of behavior from employees or volunteers will not be tolerated," Moseley said.

County denies extreme heat

Moseley said the temperature in the county shelters never reached the high temperatures seen in the photos circulated on social media, and that Edmark and the Baders tried to gin up the false narrative.

He pointed to a screenshot of a private Facebook message between numerous shelter volunteers that was provided to the county.

"We should just send random people with temperature guns to (expletive) with them," Edmark wrote in the group.

Edmark told The Republic that the comment was intended to be humorous within the private group chat.

Moseley said the temperatures inside the kennels were never above 100 degrees.

He said the thermometers used in the social media posts were laser thermometers, pointed at the metal doors that connect the kennels to the outside, which is why they registered high temperatures.

He said the ambient temperature inside the shelter was always between 88 and 89 degrees, and that there was never a problem with the cooling system. He said that while the shelters always get warm in the summer, they were never at a dangerous level.

Jordan Bader acknowledged the messages provided to The Arizona Republic by Moseley and said it was a private conversation between a dozen or so volunteers.

Bader said she volunteered at the shelter 20 hours a week. Her mother volunteered 40 hours a week.

She said the volunteers did encourage local animal advocates to come to the shelter with their own thermometers to test the temperatures in the kennels because they were concerned about the well being of the animals.

"All of the volunteers were going to management and asking for help, and the dogs weren't being taken care of," Bader said.

She said the temperatures were well above 89 degrees. She said the thermometers were not pointed at the metal doors but directly into the air.

"There was nowhere under 90 degrees," Bader said.

After the media attention, community donations started pouring in. On its Facebook page, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control showed multiple local businesses donating ice blocks, coolers and other supplies for the animals.

"They would have never gotten that if us volunteers had not reached out and said this is the problem," Bader said.

Tensions between volunteers, staff

The dismissals of Edmark and the Baders, prominent volunteers, led to a significant backlash against the county on Facebook.

Several animal advocates posted their support for the dismissed volunteers and shared their own stories about the treatment of volunteers at the county shelter.

The screenshots of the private Facebook chat show hostility between the staff and volunteers.

In one message, Edmark referenced a video that included a disparaging comment about the department's public information officer.

Lorena Bader replied, "Wow! What we all are thinking but can't say."

Jordan Bader said that the conversations were private and should not serve as grounds for dismissal.

She said there's always been unhealthy tension between volunteers and staff at Maricopa County Animal Care and Control and volunteers are discouraged from expressing any concern about the shelter or the animals.

"It's always like that. It's always been like that," Bader said. "People are afraid to ever say anything because they can get fired just like we were."

Reach the reporter at jessica.boehm@gannett.com or 480-694-1823. Follow her on Twitter @jboehm_NEWS.

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