{"id":1650,"date":"2011-08-11T09:37:35","date_gmt":"2011-08-11T13:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/where-did-your-promise-go-commissioner-gary-black-susan-leaven.html"},"modified":"2011-08-11T09:37:35","modified_gmt":"2011-08-11T13:37:35","slug":"where-did-your-promise-go-commissioner-gary-black-susan-leaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/08\/where-did-your-promise-go-commissioner-gary-black-susan-leaven.html","title":{"rendered":"Where did your promise go, Commissioner Gary Black? &mdash;Susan Leaven"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Received 9 August. -jsq<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.votegaryblack.com\/default.asp?pt=doc&#038;doc=about\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/www.votegaryblack.com\/gallery\/garybio.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nFrom: SUSAN LEAVENS<br \/>\n<br \/>\nTo: gary.black@agr.georgia.gov<br \/>\n<br \/>\nSent: Tue, August 9, 2011 4:51:54 PM<br \/>\n<br \/>\nSubject: Where did your promise go? We were counting on you Commissioner Gary Black.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nDear Commissioner G. Black,<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nOn July 26<small><sup>th<\/sup><\/small> 2011,<br \/>\nI contacted you with anticipation of a response to matters of concern regarding Animal Protection problems in your<br \/>\ndivision, as well as issues involving Lowndes County Animal Services.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nOn July 30<small><sup>th<\/sup><\/small>  2011, I sent a second email to your office, indicating\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nthat perhaps you just didn&#8217;t get the first email on July 26<small><sup>th<\/sup><\/small> 2011.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nMr. Black you are in a position of authority over the Georgia<br \/>\nDepartment of Agriculture, which includes the Georgia Agriculture<br \/>\nAnimal Protection Division. In respect to your position, it would have<br \/>\nbeen appreciated had you, or your office, acknowledged receipt of my<br \/>\ncorrespondence.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nAs 2011 progresses, I&#8217;m sure you are aware of the problems involving<br \/>\nthe Animal Protection Division &mdash; from employee turnover, untrained<br \/>\n&mdash; or inspectors unwilling to fulfill their job duties, and management<br \/>\nemployees that appear to &ldquo;pick and choose&rdquo; whose phone call they<br \/>\nwill return, as well as which licensee (county, license type, etc) that<br \/>\nthey are going to &ldquo;go after&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nThese issues are only continuing to add to an already troubled state<br \/>\nregulatory office, riddled with poor management, as well as allegations<br \/>\ninvolving illegal behavior from within this state office&#8217;s management.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nDuring your campaign, you stated that you would personally be<br \/>\naddressing the numerous issues within this department, and bringing it<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/06\/energy-as-a-national-security-challenge-col-dan-nolan-solar-summit.html\"><br \/>\n&ldquo;into the 21<small><sup>st<\/sup><\/small> century&rdquo;<\/a> &mdash;<br \/>\nonline, as well as in practice and<br \/>\nprocedure. With all due respect, Commissioner Black, 2012 is quickly<br \/>\napproaching, and the animal advocacy community has yet to see any real<br \/>\nprogress being made.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nCreating an Animal Protection Steering Committee, I&#8217;m certain, stemmed<br \/>\nfrom good intentions, however, are you aware that you have a registered<br \/>\nstate lobbyist as a member, along with several of the very persons who<br \/>\nher legislative organization represents, and supports?<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nI encourage you to keep in mind that the Animal Protection Division was<br \/>\ncreated to ensure the protection of the animals &mdash; not a dog registry<br \/>\nclub, hunters nor Veterinarians &mdash; this office was created, by law,<br \/>\nfor the protection of the housed animals in Georgia. The Akc, nor<br \/>\nsportsmen\/hunters, have anything to do with animal protection &mdash; as<br \/>\nwell, the Animal Protection Division regulates neither of these<br \/>\nentities.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nI realize that you probably have no idea what the Animal Protection<br \/>\nDivision is about, but I can assure you that it is not about &ldquo;picking<br \/>\nand choosing&rdquo; who your office will respond to, or help, for any given<br \/>\nday. All taxpaying citizens of this state should be treated equally by<br \/>\nthe Animal Protection Office, as well as by the Commissioner of<br \/>\nAgriculture in Georgia.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nI realize you are a busy man, and I think I have exercised patience<br \/>\nwith waiting on a response from your office. But it is appearing, to<br \/>\nme, that I am only wasting my time in sending you any future emails<br \/>\nsharing my concerns. I would like to remind you, Commissioner Black,<br \/>\nthat your staff will only follow your lead in how they respond to, and<br \/>\ntreat, the general taxpaying public &mdash; by observing how you respond,<br \/>\nand treat, the general taxpaying public.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nI appreciate your time in this very important matter.<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nThank you,<\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">\nSusan Leavens\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Received 9 August. -jsq From: SUSAN LEAVENS To: gary.black@agr.georgia.gov Sent: Tue, August 9, 2011 4:51:54 PM Subject: Where did your promise go? We were counting on you Commissioner Gary Black. Dear Commissioner G. Black, On July 26th 2011, I contacted you with anticipation of a response to matters of concern regarding Animal Protection problems in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,202,324,49,70,2,22],"tags":[8750,8763,8728,2796,8701,7,3721],"class_list":["post-1650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-agriculture","category-animals","category-elections","category-ethics","category-government","category-politics","tag-agriculture","tag-animals","tag-ethics","tag-gary-black","tag-georgia","tag-lowndes-county","tag-susan-leavens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}