As the director of the Franklin County Animal Shelter, Taylor Bartholomew is someone you would imagine to be compassionate, caring, knowledgeable, and reasonable in his treatment
 of animals. Yet in the case of a stray basset hound who was brought to the shelter on July 16th, he demonstrated he was none of the above.
When the basset hound was brought in, it was placed into a kennel with a pit bull, after which a fight ensued, injuring the basset hound. The poor, bleeding, badly hurt dog
was then removed from the kennel and supposedly treated by a shelter employee, but was never examined by a veterinarian!
Later, when Mr. Bartholomew noticed the dog reportedly chewing its paw, he and a shelter employee agreed the dog's injuries
were worse than previously thought and that the dog appeared to be in severe severe pain. But instead of letting a veterinarian examine the dog,
Mr. Bartholomew SHOT it with a .22 rifle, killing it!! Why? His excuse was there was no one around at the time who would be able to properly euthanize it. This is a man who is supposed to be the head of an animal shelter!
Set aside the terrible fact that this dog was killed by a rifle, (only permitted by law in extreme circumstances), this case is disturbing for a number of reasons:
an injured dog should be seen by a vet immediately, Mr. Bartholomew is not a vet who can determine how serious an animal's injuries are,
and he was not authorized in the first place to euthanize any animal.

UPDATE: FCAS has not been shut down; the only disciplinary actions taken in regards to his matter were fines imposed on Mr. Bartholomew, and a requirement for him to train in animal euthanasia. The FCAS's animal shelter registration was only temporarily suspended! Please tell the North Carolina Department of Agriculture
(which regulates the shelter) that every sick and injured animal should be examined by a vet, and that killing an already injured dog with a rifle
is cruel and inhumane. Taylor Bartholomew does not belong in an animal shelter period, and no animal shelter that allows such substandard treatment of animals should not be allowed to run. With proper care and treatment, this dog might be alive today and could have have even been adopted into a loving home.