ST. MARY PARISH, La. (KLFY) — PETA is putting pressure on St. Mary Parish officials as animal advocates are speaking out about conditions at the animal shelter.

Animal advocates say the problem is that there’s no vet on staff at the shelter.

Former volunteers say this means when animals of cruelty cases are brought in with severe injuries, the animals sit in pain at the shelter until an animal advocacy group can come in and get help for the them, which could take days.

“All the pictures I sent you, those dogs were sitting there like that for at least a week in pain with broken legs, broken jaws, tumors. You name it,” said animal advocate Michaelyn Accardo Campbell.

Campbell said recently, an animal advocate picked up several Pomeranians who had been brought to the shelter.

“She called me right away. The dogs were peeing blood. They were severely matted, full of fleas, full of worms. So that’s four months they’ve been sitting at the shelter like that,” she claimed.

Campbell says in January, she brought this issue to the attention of the parish council.

“They said they were going to go do surprise visits and check everything out. Still three months later, they haven’t been, and nothing has changed,” she added.

Parish President David Hanagriff says they’re doing the best they can with the funds they have.

“If they have major issues that we can see and evaluate, then we will give them medical attention, of course, but we do not have a vet on staff that’s going to be there 24/7, that’s going to give them the attention a lot of the animal advocacy groups would like. And I think that’s part of the problem,” he told News Ten.

Hanagriff says every weekend, an animal advocacy group comes in to care for and check on the animals.

The shelter’s supervisor denies the allegations that the animals are left to sit in pain and invites anyone to come in and see for themselves.

The supervisor agreed to give a full tour of the facility and the animals at the shelter to News Ten on Tuesday.