The Akron Animal Shelter is a House of Horrors

[Kolesar]

Dog fighting behind locked doors...cruel euthanasia techniques...intimidating management: documented this week in Cleveland Scene.
House of Horrors
Former workers say Summit County is running a torture racket, not an animal shelter.
BY AINA HUNTER

When the pound-keeper finally emerged from the Summit County Animal Shelter's "kill room" with a brown, striped pit bull, Sandi Regallis didn't need to see the dog's bloody face to know that it had been fighting. She had already heard the yelps and snarls from behind the metal door.
Still, Regallis, a deputy dog warden, sought confirmation of what her gut said was true: Jim Farrance was at it again. She called for co-workers David Johnson and Deborah Little. All three went to the garage and listened at the kill-room door, she says. Snarls were still audible. Johnson tried the knob, Regallis remembers, but the door was locked from the inside.

They never confronted Farrance or their boss, Glenn James. Regallis says staffers knew that James tolerated the dog-fighting habits of Farrance and another pound-keeper, Steve Fisher, but everyone also knew to keep quiet. "None of us said anything to him," says Regallis. "We were afraid, yes. Well, I know I wanted to keep my job."

Neither Farrance, Johnson, nor Little would comment on the alleged incident, but Regallis, a 12-year employee, says the fighting happened more than once. For reasons she cannot explain, something made Regallis snap a photo of the pit bull's body lying on the kill-room floor. Farrance had apparently euthanized it.

...snip...

Read on at Scene Magazine: http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2003-10-22/feature.html/1/index.html

[Teaser]

1. Here's their web site and contact info

I'm sure they'd appreciate hearing from people.

http://www.doglicense.com/counties/summit/index.html

[dusty64]

2. Absolutely horrible.

Between this story and the one about the massacre of the dolphins I wish I was an ignorant sheeple. Sometimes it is SO painful to do our civic and patriotic duty of keeping informed and being a concerned citizen, I often wished I didn't. The response of the government officials is just as disgusting, but not at all surprising. I hope the people of Akron rise up in outrage over this and do something about this quickly. Makes one wonder how often shit like this goes on in other places. My feelings reading this went from despair to wanting to stick a heartstick in a few of these "humans" (I'm not kidding and I do not consider myself a violent person, but these last few years has tried my patience beyond end.)

[david_vincent]

6. I have the same gut reaction

I'm not violent and haven't thrown a punch since my last boyhood fight, maybe 30 years ago, but I'd like to have a baseball bat in my hand and catch this guy where he couldn't run. Exploiting animals out of sheer cruelty somehow just pushes me to the edge. This guy is damn lucky I don't live in Ohio.

[dusty64]

3. Anyone from the Akron area

have an update on what is or isn't happening with this story?

[Kolesar]

4. they are going to install video cameras and monitor the shelter documents

I heard a bit of this in a newscast last week. I don't know the whole story. At least something has been done.

The shelter was overburdened when Akron began collecting large numbers of stray cats per their new cat ordinance. I guess they will have to rely on city council members to stalk and eat the rats lest the rodents have a population increase.

Thanks for caring.

[theHandpuppet]

5. Spread the Word!

This article needs to be circulated far and wide, with as many DUers as possible forwarding the link. Let's put some pressure on these sadists with some good old-fashioned national exposure, emails and phone calls!! This situation is a DISGRACE.

[Kolesar]

7. LTTE Akron Beacon Journal / Akron, capital of animal cruelty

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/editorial/7611880.htm

Akron, capital of animal cruelty

The recent series on conditions at the Summit County Animal Shelter detailed a list of cruelly inept methods and disgusting practices that would make Attila the Hun wince. Yet we are reassured by County Executive James McCarthy that these conditions are just ``sloppy.'' Killing a kitten with a needle meant for a cow evidently falls under his definition of ``sloppy,'' as does blatantly dishonest record-keeping.

Prodded into awareness by animal activist groups, McCarthy has the opportunity to institute meaningful improvements at this facility. Will he?

Summit County Law Director Karen Doty aids and abets the status quo by thwarting citizens' access to public records. Will anyone with access to the machinery of justice present a legal challenge to her czarist view of the law?

Then there is the Akron City Council, which -- in its usual ham-handed way and with customary lack of wisdom, compassion and foresight -- passed the infamous cat ordinance that went into effect in June 2002. Now, a year and a half later, we see the results. The animal shelter has become a den of horrors that defies description, staffed by minions with no conscience. There has been no movement by council away from its trap-and-kill mode to anything more enlightened, humane or effective in controlling animal population.

Having grown up here, we have always been proud of this area. Sadly, this is no longer true. Akron and Summit County have become fiefdoms of third-rate politicians and small-minded bureaucrats whose overriding motivation lies in retaining power and control.

Will anything change as a result of the newspaper expose? Probably not. Summit County will continue to sink into its self-made cesspool of mediocrity. Akron will continue to be known nationally as the city with no heart.

[Kolesar]

8. Dog warden fired on unrelated charges, appeals

Fired dog warden appeals

Ex-shelter chief Glenn James testifies about alleged misuse of truck, insubordination, abusive language

By Lisa A. Abraham

Beacon Journal staff writer


Summit County's former chief dog warden defended himself Tuesday against the charges that led to his firing.

Glenn James testified at a hearing before the county Human Resources Commission, where he was appealing his Jan. 9 dismissal.

County Executive James B. McCarthy fired James after the shelter chief was found guilty at a predisciplinary hearing of insubordination, use of abusive language toward his supervisor and misuse of his county truck.

In testimony before hearing officer Lisa Miller, Craig Stanley, deputy director of administrative services, outlined the allegations against James.

Stanley was appointed to oversee the shelter in November, after the administration began investigating allegations of mismanagement and inhumane treatment of animals there.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/8092841.htm