Received yesterday from the blogger of Rattlin’ Georgia’s Cages
on

Joe Pritchard notified of euthanasia violation March 2011. (Red text is that blogger’s comments.) -jsq

One thing I’ve learned in reviewing a-n-y document that the Ga. Ag. Animal
Protection Divison prepares, is to do just that – review, review and
review.

In regards to “missing cc’s”, there isn’t a law or Ga. Ag Animal
Protection “Rule” that covers “missing cc’s” or even “missing euth
poison”.

The code that the Ag inspector cited for a violation is 40-40-13.-08
(11) which reads:

(11) Euthanasia records shall be kept on forms
approved by the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the State
Board of Pharmacy and shall be signed by the person performing
euthanasia and the witness.

Source: Ga. Animal Protection Rules

http://www.files.georgia.gov/AGR/Files/GA%20Animal%20Protection%20Rules.pdf

Did the shelter staff have their records/euth poison logged on the proper
form – but just missing that particular’s day/date?

The violation may
should have been issued for “Record Keeping”.

And, with all respect to the supervising Veterinarian, :

(10) The supervising veterinarian shall be subject to all record-keeping
requirements and inspection requirements of the State Board of Pharmacy
pertaining to sodium pentobarbital and other drugs authorized under
paragraph (3) of this rule section and may limit the quantity of
possession of sodium pentobarbital and other authorized drugs to ensure
compliance with the provision of this Code section.

May not be not important – but then again, may be. i.e. would the shelter
(staff) itself be “subject” to euth poison inventory or would the
supervising Veterinarian be subject, as is mandated in the above excerpt.

Also, the related pdf of the March 15, 2011 inspection conducted
by the Ag inspector, and supervisor, is in conflict with what the
State Auditor’s Office – Russell Hinton – recommended in his 2000
state audit and 2003 state audit follow up regarding the writing
out of each individual 25 criteria regulated during an inspection.


http://rattlinggeorgiascages.wordpress.com/animal-protection-state-audit/

“The Program should also take steps to reduce the amount of time its
inspectors spend preparing the inspection reports.

An on-site observation of two field inspections found that it took
longer to prepare the reports than it took to conduct the inspections
even though no significant violations were found.

The amount of time spent preparing

*The inspection reports released involving a 2008 “high volume breeding operation” showed that the inspectors were still hand writing out all 25 criteria.

inspection reports should be reduced.

In addition to completing a checklist indicating a facility’s compliance
or noncompliance with specific requirements, the inspectors also write
out a description of what they found regarding each item, including
those with which the facility was in compliance.

The inspectors also write out descriptive information about the facility
that is identical to information contained on prior reports (such as
the size of the facility).

Program personnel have indicated that the narrative information is
required in case disciplinary action is taken against the facility and
to develop an inspection history of the facility. Copies of inspection
reports are purged every two years, however, preventing the compilation
of any type of long-term data.

The Program has indicated that it no longer requires its inspectors to
prepare a detailed report when no violations are found and that it is
revising the inspection form.”

Really? So, why then, in 2011, is an Ag inspector, and supervisor,
still writing out the same detailed report that they were during the
2000 state audit. .

And in the 2003 State Audit Follow Up:

“Since the time of the audit,
the Program has taken steps to reduce the amount of time inspectors spend
writing inspection reports. According to Program staff, inspectors have
been instructed to stop writing duplicative data in the written portion
of the inspection report unless it relates to data needed to verify
license fees paid by the facility (such as a holding capacity and/or
gross sales information).”

Perhaps it’s time for another state audit.

-An Outsider Looking In