\n\n<\/a>\n“We were not able to substantiate … accusations other than that … castration of pig.”\n<\/blockquote>\nThat was even though\n\nWCTV already reported there had been several\neuthanasia violations last year.<\/a>\n
\nPritchard also said they (the county in its previous investigation, \npresumably the one of 2010<\/a>)\nexamined the character of those testifying for\nthe complaints and he said they found biases.\n
- 2011-05-24 County Commission Chairman Ashley Paulk\n\ntells the Commission and the public:<\/a>\n
\n\n<\/a>\n“Whatever problems there are, they’re going to be resolved.”\n<\/blockquote>\n
- 2011-05-24 The VDT quotes County Manager Joe Pritchard\n\nas saying<\/a>:\n
\n\n<\/a>\n\u201cIt’s no longer a case of an individual making a claim, as it will be evident by the physical evidence provided by the security cameras.\u201d\n<\/blockquote>\nand:\n
\n“You take that policy, coupled with the updated standard operating\nprocedures, added to the technical verification and I think that\naddresses the issues. My purpose is to eliminate any problem or potential\nproblem.”\n<\/blockquote>\n- 2011-05-31 statement by Director Linda Patelski saying two people fired for euthanasia violation of 20 May 2011\n<\/ul>\n\n\n
\n
- 2011-06-01 statement from Lenora Lynn Miller\n
- 2011-06-03 statement from Michelle Shultz\n
- 2011-06-03 statement from Shawn Chace\n
- 2011-06-03 notice of violation from Ga. Dept. Ag. to Lowndes Co. Animal Services\n
\n\n<\/a>\n
- 2011-06-03 statement on notice of violation by Investigator Pat Smith signed by County Manager Joe Pritchard\n
\n\n
- 2011-06-12 open records request from Susan Leavens\n
- 2011-06-16 open records response from Shirley King\n
- 2011-06-29 Chairman Ashley Paulk\n\nthreatens the Humane Society with legal action:<\/a>\n
\n\n<\/a>\n“…the Humane Society provided two county employees with undercover cameras as a gratuity.\n
\n…\n
\nI want those two undercover cameras returned by my two employees, or there will be some administrative action.\n
\n…\n
\nI’m making this a public record.\n
\n…\n
\nIf I don’t get those cameras back and the gratuity I’m going to pursue it through the Sheriff’s office.\n
\n…\n
\nNeeds to be public record in the VDT.”\n<\/blockquote>\nHe also said:\n\n“If anyone will make a sworn affidavit, I will take it.”\n<\/blockquote>\nAfter the meeting Chairman Paulk\naccosted Humane Society people and animal shelter\nemployees in the parking lot and again threatened them with legal action.\n<\/ul>\nSo while an investigation was in progress for a euthanasia violation,\nwith statements being taken from witnesses, County Manager Joe Pritchard\ntold the Commission and the public he wasn’t able to substantiate\nanything other than a different accusation,\nthat such things were “a case of an individual making a claim”,\nand with some cameras and updated procedures,\n“I think that addresses the issues.”\n\nOne week after that last, Director Linda Patelski signed a statement\nsaying two people were fired for the violation that GA Dept. of Ag.\ninvestigated.\nThree days later County Manager Joe Pritchard signed the statement\nby the Investigator.\n
\nWhy didn’t the county investigate, instead of leaving it to the state?\nHow do these cameras and updated procedures address the previous\nallegations that have not been resolved?\n
\nSusan Leavens \ntried following the chain of command<\/a> right up to the County Manager and the County Commission,\nyet the county couldn’t seem to find a violation that the state could.\nWhose character should we be examining?\n
\nAfter County Manager Joe Pritchard signed the report from\nGA Dept. of Ag. Investigator Pat Smith regarding the euthanasia\nviolation for which Director Linda Patelski fired two people\nat the Animal Shelter,\nChairman Ashley Paulk, far from re-opening a broader investigation,\nthreatened legal action against the Humane Society for conducting\ntheir own investigation.\n
\nPeople could start to get the impression that the county is trying\nto hide something.\n
\n\n
<\/a>\nRemember:\n\nAshley Paulk told us last year he is code enforcement.<\/a>\nHe\n\ntold us this year, about the animal shelter,<\/a>:\n
\n“Whatever problems there are, they’re going to be resolved.”<\/a>\n<\/blockquote>\n\nWhy is the county sitting around waiting for somebody to bring them sworn statements?\nWhen the state did a proper investigation, there was no shortage of statements.\nWhat would the county find if it did the same?\n
\nThere are problems.\nThey have not been resolved.\n
\nWhere does the buck stop, Chairman Paulk?\n
\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I think it’s time to ask: what did they know, and when did they know it? Let’s construct a timeline: 2011-05-20 euthanasia violation 2011-05-20 statement from Heather Terry 2011-05-23 County Manager Joe Pritchard tells the Commission and the public: “We were not able to substantiate … accusations other than that … castration of pig.” That […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,324,48,40,70,2,20,2847,2848,3810,88,133,177],"tags":[1554,3071,8763,679,8720,77,1552,8701,1553,3240,136,8710,91,7,3755,8734,3721],"class_list":["post-1733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-animals","category-code-enforcement","category-community","category-ethics","category-government","category-law","category-lcc-23-may-2011","category-lcc-24-may-2011","category-lcc-28-june-2011","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-vdt","category-wctv","tag-abuse","tag-animal-shelter","tag-animals","tag-ashley-paulk","tag-code-enforcement","tag-drugs","tag-euthanasia","tag-georgia","tag-inhumane","tag-investigation","tag-joe-pritchard","tag-law","tag-lcc","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-animal-shelter","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-susan-leavens"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-rX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733","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=1733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}