I am bringing awareness to the fact that the Supervisor, Matthew Fortenberry, of Beaumont Animal Care, in Beaumont TX is not enforcing the laws on the books of the State of Texas that are meant to protect the animals in the city of Beaumont.

Most recently, I adopted a dog named Bentley. A realtor discovered his living conditions. He was being forced to live in his own feces and urine, being hit, kicked and hollered at regularly and being forced to wear a shock collar. When I got him, he had pressure spots and sores all over him, which the vet said was due to his living conditions. His tail and feet were stained yellow with urine. He still suffers the effects of having been abused and cowers down at the sight of brooms, mops, kitchen utensils, etc. After having him for 10 months now, I just found out that his abusers were never brought to justice. Suffered no consequences at all. The reason Matthew Fortenberry gave was they were giving her the opportunity to turn things around and they had no space in the shelter at that time! 

In Septembe of 2024 we discovered a dog we named Red. He was at deaths' door. A senior, emaciated, missing hair all over his body, overgrown nails, infested with fleas, both ears infected, his eyeballs had shrunken and were sunken inside his eye sockets - yet Matthew Fortenberry - after a supposed investigation, came to the conclusion that there was no wrong doing by the owners and allowed Red to go back to said owners!

People who treat animals abusively have no conscience and no moral compass and are often involved in criminal activity of some sort. They NEED to be punished. They NEED to suffer consequences or the behaviour continues because they got away with it before - they believe they'll get away with it again - and even if they get caught - they KNOW nothing will happen to them! 

In May of 2023, Matthew Fortenberry euthanized two dogs, Pami & Yin, when there were TWENTY ONE empty kennels in the shelter. Nearly half of their total kennels. One week later, he euthanized 4 dogs, one being a puppy who had a committed, experienced BAC foster who said they would foster her - and he euthanized them all anyway.

Matthew Fortenberry NEVER attends any of the community events that BAC participates in. He should be the main face at every function and adoption event at BAC. He should be doing everything in his power to think outside the box to help these animals LIVE. He should be helping combat the overpopulation crisis we've been in for years now. He is never in his office, EVER! Why are there only 3 ACOs at BAC instead of the 5 that the city budget has the money to pay?
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Who exactly are the members of the BAC Advisory Committee? What do they do for the animals wellbeing and welfare and to help them LIVE? Why doesn't BAC allow the volunteers to take BAC dogs/cats to community events to give them more exposure? Especially the Code Red animals? Why is BAC releasing TNR cats back to places OTHER than where they were picked up from?

On their published Monthly Statistics numbers on BACs webpage, why do they include in one total "euthanized and died", instead of making those seperate numbers? Those are two complete and seperate things. Why do they have certain animals brought straight to Dowlen Road Veterinary Center to have them euthanized there and then why don't they include those in their numbers?

There is also currently zero screening done on potential adopters by staff at BAC. Anyone and everyone is allowed t adopt an animal from BAC. Many other shelters screen their potential adopters to weed out the bad people, as much as possible. Why won't BAC to this in an effort to protect the animals?

I, and other members of the community would really like answers to these questions. Why? Because they MATTER. The animals in SETX and the animals in BAC matter to us. The fact that Matthew Fortenberry's actions show he could care less about the animals that pass through BAC - matters to us. We, the community, would love to see someone in charge at BAC who actually cares about the animals who cross through those doors and entrust their lives to this man.

Please sign this petition for the animals in Beaumont TX. 
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