Our county's animal shelter has been the source of much embarrassment. The shelter's leadership has been ineffective at securing any meaningful change for our animals. Many scandals and terrible incidents have occurred including:

*Cooper the Cat had his jaw broken in an incident with an animal control officer. No details of the exact action that caused the multiple breaks in his jaw.

*Photos of a dog being dragged by an animal control officer.

*Bandit, a dog who was hit by a car, roughly handled in front of witnesses by animal control and then gassed to death breaking many state regulations. The employee responsible is still employed there.

*Scandal involving an employee and an inmate.

*Shelter director who openly supported the gas chamber arguing until the end that it was a humane choice and necessary for employee safety. No employee accidents related to euthanasia have been reported since the gas chamber was removed in July, 2014.

*Too many sick and dying animals left without care and then gassed to death to mention.

*Shelter leadership refuses to implement a volunteer program despite repeated, numerous requests and offers of assistance from the community.

*Dogs are only given 14 days and cats 7 days maximum to find a home or rescue before they are killed. Cats may now receive even less time due to a newly enforced policy regarding "aggressive" cats.

For all of these reasons and more, we request that the shelter director be replaced with someone more capable of running a humane and compassionate shelter.