Various news bits on the alleged shooting of 22 shelter dogs in Chesterfield Co, SC. I will update the post if anything new comes up today.
First, a website for the shelter lists the ACOs at Chesterfield as Sgt. Brian Burch, Officer Tim Hunt, Officer Frank Laney and Officer Kip Gulledge. At the bottom of each page on the site, it says “Created by Nicole Gulledge” and indicates it was last updated in 2009. The information appears to be out of date as a current TV news piece has the ACOs listed as “Brian Burch, Kip Gulledge, Eric Donahue and Lee Carnes”. That article indicates that “Burch has a criminal past” which may impact his legal right to own a gun. This could be significant if it is determined that he shot shelter dogs. And:
[Sheriff Sam Parker] says Gulledge and Carnes have clean backgrounds and that Donahue’s background check is in process.
How long does it take a sheriff’s office to run a background check?
The piece ends with this bombshell:
The sheriff also told us that preliminary necropsy reports have come back on three dogs from the landfill but he didn’t have time to read the files yet.
Oh hullo, what? How long does it take to read “Dog #1 – Shot. Dog #2 – Shot.”?
Next up, the shelter’s budget. It looks weird to me:
The budget allotted by Chesterfield County for the current year gave the shelter $162,970 in funds. Of that, $108,037 went toward employee salaries, $41,933 went to fringe benefits such as workers’ compensation and only about 9 percent of the total budget, or about $13,000, remained for any other expenses including food for the animals, vehicles, vehicle repairs and expenses, utilities and emergencies incurred during the year.
The same article says that the “shelter houses 60 to 70 animals each month”. I’m assuming these are monthly intake figures – in other words the shelter takes in about 65 new pets each month. 65 pets a month X 12 months = 780 pets a year. Broken down the other direction, 65 pets a month divided by 22 working days each month works out to about 3 pets each working day. These pets may be owner surrenders or stray pickups. Inmates perform the cleaning and feeding. Volunteers also provide hands-on care and network for adoptions, transports and rescues. “A large portion” of the shelter’s pets are killed according to the article – not for space but “because there is not enough money to feed and care for them”.
What I’m trying to work out here (assuming the article’s figures are accurate), is why the county is paying four ACO salaries at a shelter which takes in about 3 pets a day, has free labor for the feeding/care/adoption of the pets but then says they have to kill most of the pets in their care because they can’t afford to feed them. It’s true that the ACOs also work as Litter Control Officers but unless the county is some sort of haven for serial mass litterers, I’m still not getting it.
What say you, budget minded folks?
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Added: New story from WSOC tonight:
Eyewitness News learned Thursday that SLED, the state law enforcement division, now has the case and should finish its review as soon as Friday. If no more investigation is needed, then the attorney general will get the case and determine if criminal charges are necessary.
SLED got the case today and may be finished with it tomorrow? Gee, I hope they have got a 20 man task force assigned to the case and they’re pulling an all nighter. Otherwise, I’m not too hopeful on a thorough investigation. Come on SLED, prove me wrong. Please.
Oh my :(
What is Sheriff Parkers email address? I could do the job with one ACO and save all the animals. That is ridiculous, they could easily be a no kill shelter if they actually tried to save the animals!
60-70 dogs per month…intake/discharge/disposition documents? Signed by…? Produce the paperwork. “Guesstimates” do not an audit make. SC law is specific as to records and documentation. So far, looking like lack of controls at the county level leading to lack of compliance, poor records management, and loose administration/supervision at the department level. The taxpayers should be very unhappy.
Also saw a comment on another site stating the SUVs were funded by a State grant. No mention what percentage of the purchase was funded, upfront or reimburse, or where the purchases were made.
Have any of the local pet rescuers requested and received the shelter records?
I too think that the county tax papers should be mad as hell if the figures you quoted are right. Why would they need more than one truck for that small monthly intake of animals?
Maybe Chesterfield County should be renamed Corruption County?
Corruption to the Max. You got that right. The taxpayers should be mad as hell.
This is am outrage. It’s a massacre of innocent homeless animals. MY God. Only a monster/monsters to do such a horrid thing.
Residents of Chesterfield unite, and throw the bums out. Vote them all out, I hope the perpetrators are prosecuted, and justice brought to these poor animals who had the misfortune to come to Chesterfield County Death Shelter.
Well, we took two of the dogs from Chesterfield yesterday into rescue….there was no paperwork, vetting, or anything done on them from anyone. Someone told us they saw a vet, but when we contacted the vet we were told that she never saw them….these issues go deeper than the shootings. No one is doing their jobs, there are no intake records, no release records, nothing. How is that possible.
Nothing from Paws and Claws, the rescue group that is supposed to handle adoptions for the shelter?
Well, we were told that one had been seen by a vet and given the vets information. When we contacted the vet to get the records switched to our vet they said they never saw or treated the dogs. These were being fostered by Paws and Claws. So I don’t know if it was a misundertanding on the vetting. But we did get any release paperwork for sure.
@Maureen, maybe there was a mixup about the vetting. They adopted a LOT of dogs since last Fri. when this awful news broke. Hope that’s the case. The vet might have overlooked or misplaced the records, too–I’ve had that happen especially if the clinic is really busy. Are you saying you DID get the release paperwork from the rescue for sure? I was a little bit confused by your reply.
This shelter is run by incompetence,neglect, abuse, and murder. How can these people sleep at night? WHY do they have 4 brand new vehicles to ride around in while the dogs starve, and have no heat in the winter? Tight budget??? I think not. Not for the salaried employees who do little to care for these dogs, or to improve the chances of adoption for these beautiful animals. They just get rid of them as fast as they can by brutal murder at the range there with bullets. Then dumped in the landfill. All of these guys deserve to be fired. And as for the Sheriff who was supposed to oversee the direction of the shelter??? His extreme negligence and lackadaisicle attitude toward this whole thing is just bizarre. Don’t you find it a bit curious at his cavalier attitude? That is VERY telling.
Jeanie as far as I know we did not get anything. I can double check. I think they do have a long road a head of them down there. I’m glad we got ruby and nelson, but it was kind of a messy situation.
Hmm. That doesn’t sound right at all. I hope Paws and Claws is a reliable group–especially after all the dogs and cats there have gone through. Maybe you could
e-mail them at wherehopelives@gmail.com and ask them to send you the paperwork transferring Ruby and Nelson to you and also figure out what’s going on with the vet paperwork. They should be willing to do that for you.
@Maureen–I just figured out who Ruby and Nelson are. THANK YOU for helping them!
Not clear to me now who actually handed them over and should have done the paperwork, though. If the shelter did it, then Paws and Claws may not be the ones to ask. I just heard there would be some kind of decision by this weekend on whether Paws and Claws will continue to handle adoptions and rescues for the shelter?
I’m not actually very budget minded AT ALL…and I still say BULLSH*T!
I think you’re calling it correctly that there will be a long or short CYA adventure followed by little or nothing changing.
*The World* can complain until we are blue, but unless the local voters speak up, we’ll not make much of a difference here I fear.
I’m really glad that the publicity is helping to get more of these animals placed. But I’m thinking there will be three a day for many years to come that are at risk for a horrid death unless some legal action is taken.
Former inmate speaks out about his experience at the Chesterfield shelter. It’s not pretty–
http://www.foxcharlotte.com/news/top-stories/Former-Chesterfield-County-Animal-Shelter-Worker-Speaks-Out-117777749.html
Goodness – the plot thickens. According to some of the links in Shirley’s post none of that information was given. So we now having illegal dumping of dead animals at an unauthorized site on top of everything else. The former inmate said he’s worried about retaliation, which I knew was going to be a case with those still in jail…didn’t think about those who weren’t in jail and were doing this as community service for people like the gentleman in the interview. I have to admit that utilizing inmates and those who are doing community service, in addition to working with PAWS N CLAWS that the entire budget issue shouldn’t even be an issue. Thanks for sharing!
Does anyone know if the inmate who was on the news is ok? I’m concerned that someone may retaliate against him for exposing what went on.
I didn’t get the impression from the article that this person is currently an inmate. (Maybe the video made it clear, I could not watch.)
He was an inmate earlier this year and was at the shelter in Jan. He was assigned there to work off $1,000 in back child support. Apparently he completed that obligation and isn’t an inmate now, but he said during the interview that he was concerned about possible retaliation. He said he was afraid they might try to blame inmates for the shootings (even though they don’t have access to weapons).
This entire thing just reeks of cover ups and a whole lotta BS! The budget, in and of itself, is very telling. To have a twice convicted felon running the facility shouldn’t be happening. But – I completely agree with Shirley – the amount going to salaries and other compensation is incredibly high and I just don’t see why they do need that many ACO’s – especially as they have inmates and people doing community service in this facility. Plus considering Paws N Claws handle a good majority of the leg working in locating homes for these animals, as well as helping care for them in the facility…I just don’t see why they have any budget problems given all the volunteer workers they have. Especially with the estimated amount of animals that they are caring for on a yearly basis.
Also while reading through the news stories I also read the comments and one gal summed it up fairly nicely – if this place was in that great of need for help to have food for the animals and such, that they should have gone to the media and asked for help from the public, the same public which they blame for the problem (on their website) of animals being in their facility.
I also have a real hard time digesting that SLED should be done with their investigation today. Not very long to investigate. Plus there are stories all over the place saying it was only 6 dogs, or it was 100 dogs…they just have no idea FOR SURE how many were there. Sheriff Parker said in one article that they’ve used that area to dispose of the bodies for so long that it would take months to uncover every animal there. And it appears that the don’t have very good, organized records (which is another issue as well).
As to what the person who was working there as community service to pay off back child support (see Jeanne’s post above) – whacking cats on the head before shooting them, finding a dog that had been shot multiple times still ALIVE when he went to cover the bodies over. That poor doggie was left to suffer for how long? We don’t know…but I can’t even imagine the pain/confusion that poor dog went through.
Will we be able to get access to the investigation work that SLED does? If they fail to speak with volunteers and inmates who have done work there in the past then it isn’t a complete investigation where they are getting the entire story from everyone involved. Beating cats in the head with pipes, shooting dogs and leaving them for dead without knowing that they are definitely dead is also against the law – as it states in SC law when an animal is euthanized they have to stay with the animal until they know for sure that they animal is dead – and it appears they aren’t doing that either.
So – they have a budget problem and have to kill the animals because they can’t feed them, they are shooting them instead of using Fatal Plus, they are beating cats over the head with pipes prior to shooting them, they are failing to provide vet care (it appears from some of the articles that animals are being adopted out with no vet records), they have a director that has a felony background…need I say more?
The sheriff complains that he’s had more problems with this place, obviously than he’s had with anything else in his career…so maybe instead of threatening to close the place down it would be a good time for them to hand it over to Paws N Claws to manage. I know too many people that could take this place and quite possibly make it no kill overnight…so instead of the threats to shut the place down they need to be looking at alternative ideas.