Tag Archives: animal shelter

The horse from the shelter Ruby —Susan Leavens

Received 28 June 2011. -jsq
This was Ruby, she was seized from her owner by me because she had a hole in her back and her body condition was a one (1) on the Henneke scale per the American veterinarian standard rating scale. There was no feed or grass/hay on scene. While in the protective custody of Lowndes County Animal Shelter she got maggots in the wound on her back. Ruby also had
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Falsified logs at the animal shelter?

Previously I’ve posted briefly about the notarized statement by Susan Leavens of 5 May 2010. Here is more detail, with pictures. The statement alleges animals smothered, strangled, stabbed in the eye, cut, torn, beaten, slapped, thrown. Improper drug use “who signed this thing?”. Racial profiling and discrimination. Unresponsive county officials and threats from them. Oh, yes, and falsified logs of euthanasia.
“And it was time for the abuse, neglect and deceitfulness to stop.”

Susan Leavens stated:

“On 4/28/2010 I came in from checking traps around 1030 am, I was told while euthenizing a cat, the syringe I was draw pentosol out didn’t matter what mattered was the 10cc syringe, so if it was not enough to euthenize the animal then set it aside it would die. But the 10cc one is the one that needed to come out right. I said “WHAT!” Tim Cook explained that to me he went and got Ryan Curtis and he explained the very same thing, he said even if you don’t have a full cc of pentosol, say it’s a cc on the log because the 10 cc syringe mattered not what we were using to euthenize with! It was very apparent that human[e] euthanasia was not important that the numbers were. This was very disturbing to know we were being made to make the animals suffer because the numbers might be off!”
In the statement she names multiple people she says were witnesses to the falsification of euthanization log entries, and even to the complete rewrite of a log and shredding of the previous copy.

Her statement also describes: Continue reading →

Lowndes County has transparency issues —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 28 June 2011

No unfinished drafts will be published while Ashley Paulk is chairman, or so he told us.

I asked him how he recommended citizens provide input to the budget process? He said at every meeting.

So I said I wondered why the county attorney seemed to be overbudget. No response.

Then I got to my main point, which was that the county seems to have a number of transparency issues, such as the missing ordinances he’d just heard about, or Vince Schneider’s Foxborough McDonald’s issues, or the animal shelter issues, or the T-SPLOST list that the Commission approved on the basis of a one page list of one-liner with no details that turns out to include things like $10 million to widen New Bethel Road to Lanier County.

I said I would like to compare the county’s submissions for T-SPLOST funding to the county’s Thoroughfare Plan and the Comprehensive Plan; if I could find those plans online. The Chairman said my five minutes were up. I said “Alrighty” and moseyed back to my seat. As you can see for yourself, it was actually 4 and a half minutes.

-jsq

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Missing records at GA Dept. of Ag. Animal Protection

Earlier I asked: “So if the investigation takes more than 2 years, do the earlier files about it start to vanish?” It appears that there’s no need to wait 2 years for records to vanish from the Ga. Department of Agriculture Animal Protection.

Blogger Rattlin’ Georgia’s Cages wrote at some unknown date about State Audits:

The author of this website is NOT an attorney, nor is attempting to provide legal advice to ANY person or organizational entity. The author of this website does not, nor does this website, represent, nor is affiliated with, the Ga. Department of Agriculture Animal Protection Division. The author of this website is a previous employee of the Ga. Department of Agriculture, employed as an Animal Protection Inspector, from Dec 2003 until July 29, 2004.

The Ga. Department of Agriculture Animal Protection
Office was audited in 2000.
This office was also reviewed, by the State Audit Office, in 2003,
for a follow up – to determine if this office was adhering
to the state auditor’s recommendations.
* My comments are in red text.
I’ve included here a couple of examples from that audit, with that blogger’s comments in red. -jsq
The Department has the authority to suspend or revoke a facility’s license. If a facility is found to be operating without a license, the Program notifies the facility of the licensure requirement, provides a copy of the standards that must be met to obtain a license, and schedules a pre-license inspection.

* Unlicensed breeders found to be operating unlicensed were not, during my employment, monetarily fined for violations. Under the authority of the Ga. Admin Procedures Act, Ag AP could, but rarely did, fine a person.

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How to bring a case to the Sheriff’s attention

Sheriff Prine was at last night’s budget hearing (his office accounts for more of the county budget than anything else). Afterwards I asked him how matters such as the complaints about the animal shelter could be brought to the attention of his office. He said that was a code enforcement matter, and if code enforcement thought it rose to a criminal matter, they would take it to Magistrate Court, which would issue a warrant, which would go to the Sheriff’s office, where it would be pursued.

Remember who code enforcement is in Lowndes County. Continue reading →

Why make it hard to obtain the budget? —Jessica Bryan Hughes

Why, indeed? -jsq
This is ridiculous.

-Jessica Bryan Hughes

This comment came in yesterday on Proposed Lowndes County Budget published by LAKE.

Animal cruelty does not require malicious intent to be illegal

A blog called Rattlin’ Georgia’s Cages wrote at some unspecified date recently:
I beg to differ with Mr. Pritchard’s opinion regarding “malicious intent”.

Lowndes County Manager Joe Pritchard says, “I don’t believe through our investigation, nor through any info we received from the Department of Ag, are able to indicate any malicious intent.”

Mr. Pritchard should understand that it matters not if this was done with “malicious intent” or not. “Malicous intent” should be determined by the investigating criminal agency, not a county manager. “Malicious Intent” is only important in determining whether the crime should be filed as a felony, or a misdemeanor.

The law is crystal clear regarding the denial of necessary medical care, and/or humane euthanasia, for any animal deemed to be in need of such. Any time a shelter impounds/houses a live animal, the shelter is required, by law, to afford that animal with humane care – to include necessary medical care or treatment.

The blogger then goes on to quote Georgia Code, which only brings in the word “maliciously” for higher fines or imprisonment for aggravated cruelty to animals.

The blogger summarizes: Continue reading →

Gov. Deal celebrates Juneteenth by recommending indentured agricultural labor

Remember 85% of people in the prison system are black, and Gov. Nathan Deal recommends during the week of Juneteenth celebrations, according to David Rodock in the VDT today, Parolees to replace migrants? Gov. Deal says put probationers in fields
With the recent exodus of undocumented Hispanic migrant workers leaving Georgia to avoid the consequences of House Bill 87, Gov. Nathan Deal made a statement on Tuesday suggesting that probationers could potentially fill the approximately 11,000 open jobs in the state’s agricultural economy.

“Specifically, I asked Department of Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens and (Department of Agriculture) Commissioner Gary Black to review the current situation and offer possible options,” said Deal in his statement. “Commissioner Owens has indicated that there are 100,000 probationers statewide, 8,000 of which are in the Southwest region of the state and 25 percent of which are unemployed … I believe this would be a great partial solution to our current status as we continue to move towards sustainable results with the legal options available.”

The potential move would allow probationers who are unable to find work to have a source of income, provided they are able to meet employer standards. Income can then be used to pay probation fines, along with other state fines that are a requirement of their probation sentence.

This fits right in with Joe Pritchard’s rumored suggestion to replace animal shelter employees with interns.

Hey, if there’s one thing Georgia is good at, it’s locking up more people even while other states realize they can’t afford to do that anymore.

So if probationers don’t want to pick onions, lock ’em up again, in the new private prison VLCIA wants to build in Lowndes County! That will benefit private prison executives and investors and not us in Lowndes County, but hey, that will serve those immigrants right!

-jsq

I am disappointed these matters are being swept under the rug —Susan Leavens

These comments came in yesterday and today on Find out the truth about allegations of animal cruelty and abuse. -jsq

Yesterday:

Tomorrow will be a week and I have had no response! Very disappointing.

-Jane Osborn

Today:

Mrs. Osborn,

Thank you so much for your support. The County manager and several county employees interviewed all the workers after a drug screen was conducted on all employees back in late august of 2010. Several (4) employees advised the people conducting the investigation (Joe Prichard, Mickey Tillman, Page Dukes and Suzanne Pittman) of the charges brought to the Department of Agriculture. From the

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Find out the truth about allegations of animal cruelty and abuse —Jane Osborn

This came in to the submission address Thursday. More in this topic and this VDT story. -jsq
From: “Jane Osborn”
Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 23:21:09 -0400
Subject: criminal issues

Here is what I just sent to the Sheriff’s office by email:

I wanted to ask if someone who witnessed the alleged abuse of animals at the Lowndes County Animal Shelter has to make a direct report to law enforcement for an investigation to be started or if second-hand information from the media would be good enough. I will include a link to a video of the testimony of a shelter officer at the Lowndes County Commission meeting this week. I am under the impression that animal abuse is a criminal offense and that just having these reports go to the Department of Agriculture will only result in a fine for the shelter, not resolution of possible criminal wrongdoing.

Here is the link: http://lake.typepad.com/on-the-lake-front/2011/05/neglect-abuse-suffering-falsifying-documents-susan-leavins-lcc-24-may-2011.html

Please let me know if it is possible for a criminal investigation can be started to find out the truth about allegations of animal cruelty and abuse.

Thank you. Jane Osborn

If the commissioners will not handle this, perhaps law enforcement will. Jane

Jane F. Osborn, MSSW
Valdosta, GA