So you have a job and get a paycheck but when it comes to actually doing your job – that’s optional, apparently. I wish someone would have mentioned this to me sooner!
Parish animal control workers recently refused a deputy’s order to pick up dogs in a cruelty case, according to the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office.
And in case anyone was thinking that maybe the animals weren’t in bad shape, wrong. Nine dogs and an unknown number of cats were living with a woman in a mobile home. One dog had a broken back and was paralyzed, another had large tumors all over the belly, and a third appeared to have had the area from his inside thigh to his hip “cut by a filet knife.” The stench of urine and feces inside the home was overwhelming. The woman received a misdemeanor summons for animal cruelty and failing to provide veterinary care.
“Deputy [Philip] Lint then contacted the Livingston Parish Animal Control via phone and advised (the woman who answered) of the current situation and the condition of two dogs,” according to the deputy’s report. “Deputy Lint was advised by that female that it is the responsibility of the dog owner to ensure the dogs are taken to the veterinarian to get proper treatment. The dogs were left on the scene.”
Take your filleted dog and shove it, I guess. Of course this sort of blatant dereliction of duty does not occur without enablers in high places:
Parish President Layton Ricks said his employees have the authority to ignore a deputy’s order to rescue if there is reason to believe that the person cited had previously tried to give the animals up.
Right. That makes sense. To someone, in some sphere of reality, presumably. I mean not on this earth in these four, puny dimensions obviously but somewhere, out there.
Ricks said animal control assistant Desiree Green had previously received a call from a woman she believed to be the same person cited April 2 for cruelty. According to Ricks, the caller asked for help with dogs that needed to be put down because she did not have the money to pay a veterinarian.
When the call came in from Deputy Lint, Green “knew this lady was trying to get the dogs put down,” Ricks said.
Ricks said he supported Green’s decision to leave the dogs where they were. The parish cannot afford to euthanize all the dogs that are too sick or too badly injured to recover, Ricks said.
I admire Green’s mind reading ability that she used to determine the lady who asked for help with her dogs previously and was turned away is the same lady who was clever enough to get herself charged with crimes by the deputy as a workaround. That should sound excellent on the witness stand.
Just business as usual in Livingston Parish:
Members of the now defunct Animal Control Board, or Committee, said the policy requiring a citation frustrated subdivision residents trying to cope with abandoned dogs.
Residents are “tired of watching dogs in bad shape, emaciated and suffering. People in neighborhoods are watching them die,” committee member Randy Stegall said in 2013. “If we hold dogs in the shelter until they are adopted, then it will be a ‘no kill’ shelter. We can’t do that. Too many animals are out there suffering.”
Heaven forfend we have a no kill shelter. There are too many suffering animals out there, holding out hope that some compassionate person will help them. We wouldn’t want to be one of those people. Less hope, more killing, rah rah rah. I wonder why they dismantled the committee.
“If we’re offering animal control, then people should be able to rescue a dog and take it to the shelter,” Board member Phillip Woods said at a November 2013 meeting.
Uh, please define “rescue”?
So while the taxpayers are paying their public servants to jack each other off, can anyone help these dogs? Because they need help. I’m willing to help in any way I can. If you are local and can offer assistance, tell us what you need.
(Thanks Clarice.)
If there is a local rescue willing to go in there and get those dogs and cats out and treated or euthanized as needed, I would be willing to chip in for expenses. At least get the worst ones out and help them…
ANIMAL CONTROL HAS ONE PRIORITY,….TO CONTROL ANIMALS BY MANAGEMENT BY DEATH-RUN BY HEALTH DEPT. AS NATHAN WINOGRAD SAID WE ARE AT THE MERCY OF THE HONOR SYSTEM…….AT POUNDS AND IT’S NOT SHELTER, IT’S A HELL HOLE THAT POUNDS CAN ALSO ABUSE W/IMPUNITY. IT’S COMPARING POISON TO DEATH OR SHOOTING….THEY ARE BOTH BAD. NO KILL IS BY HONOR SYSTEM. sadly…….push tax payers to reform pound but that pound is as bad as that house. and they don’t do cruelty task force like they should.
________________________________
Exactly. I always laugh at pounds that call themselves “Animal Care.” More like “Don’t Care.” And it breaks my heart that the government, in the guise of “Animal Control,” gets away with cruelty that would have me or you in handcuffs. This system sucks, people suck.
I’m confused. So what exactly is their job? What are they being paid to do? Or are they just one more piece of government who are intent on robbing the taxpayer while inflicting more cruelty & pain? Guess the taxpayers don’t care either. So sad.
This shelter (Livingston Parish Animal Shelter) is not an open-intake facility. The parish law allows the shekter to only take in strays from within the Town of Livingston (parish seat), but can pick up aggression/bite, cruelty, abamdonment, owner incarceration and neglext cases parish wide IF the sheriff’s deputy responding to the complaint reports it to the shelter staff as such.
The deputy’s report described in the original article (and quoted here) posted by th Livingston Parish News is NOT the info that was given to the shelter staff when the deputy called them. In fact, this particular deputy as well as multiple others who are quoted in the article have said that they were all misquoted in the article. Desiree Greens quoted statements were from years ago. Had the actual report to the shelter staff included the information alleged in this article, they would have reported to the property. Instead, the deputy reported to them that this particular owner wanted to the shelter to pick up two of her dogs to euthanize because she could not afford to bring them to the vet. The parish does not allow the shelter to take owner surrenders, so they were unable to respond!
However, the day after this article was published (which was a Sunday when the shelter is typically closed), two shelter staff and the same deputy returned to the property to assess the situation.They found the owner to be very caring and appreciative of their help. The mobile home was very tidy and well kept with no urine or feces on the plywood floors, but noted that because the floors were plywood. They held odors no matter how much cleaning was done. There was a total of 9 dogs on the property and all were in good health except for 3 dogs, which they ended up taking back to the shelter. One of these dogs was an elderly beagle with tumors, another was an older puppy with demodex (which the owner had been treating with donated medications), and a small Maltese mix with partial paralysis of the back legs. There was no dog on the property with a gash or cut of any kind.
Since then, the rescue organization that I run with my rescue partner with the help of the shelter staff has been assisting the owner by placing two additional dogs with other rescues and are working on taking more. In addition, we have pulled the paralyzed Maltese from the shelter and after providing initial vet care including vaccinations and preventative medications as well as diagnostic tests (x-rays, blood work, orthopedic evaluation, etc) while reaching out to our rescue friends in search of resources and services for dogs with medical needs like hers. We were lucky to find a fantastic organization that specializes in rehabilitation for disabled dogs to partner with and give Chloe the best chance possible at living a normal life again.
Dog People of Livibgston pulled Chloe from the shelter and I brought her into my home for several days while bringing her to work with me for her vet care and testing. Yesterday I dropped her off at Belladoggie Resort Spa for Dogs in the capable hands of Kim Dudek where she will receive rehabilitation and learn to walk again with Kim’s team at Dag’s House (housing and fitness needs for special needs dogs). This partnership came to be through the help of a very good rescue friend Terrie Varnado of Don’t Be Cruel Animal Sanctuary and Transport.
We have a youcaring fundraiser for Chloe’s care if anyone would like to follow through on their offers to help! https://www.youcaring.com/chloe-the-special-needs-maltese-568561
You can find Dog People of Livingston, Livingston Parish Animal Shelter, Don’t Be Cruel Animal Sanctuary and Transport, and Dag’s House on Facebook and see these organizations in action and the difference that our work is making in the lives of dogs in South Louisiana.