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Blog: It’s Time For A Change After Animal Control, Livestock Officer Refuse To Help Starving Animals
July 10, 2009
An animal cruelty incident outside of Century Thursday uncovered a problem in the way Escambia County handles some animal cruelty cases.
When a horse, a donkey, two pigs, four goats and dog were found without food and water, Escambia County deputies responded. There was no problem in getting the donkey and the horse rescued from the property. Panhandle Equine Rescue, a non-profit group based in Cantonment, quickly responded to remove the equines from the property. (Click here for that story.)
But when deputies called Escambia County Animal Control, they refused to respond because they normally deal with cats, dogs and perhaps a snake or two. When deputies called the county’s livestock officer, he too refused to respond because his job description stipulates that he will respond only on public property.
Deputies did not want to leave the animals on the property where they had been living without adequate food and water due to safety concerns for the animals. Additionally, the animals were all technically evidence in a criminal investigation.
“No one wants to be responsible for animals like goats and pigs,” Diane Lowery, president of PER said. “Animal control does not do livestock. County ordinances say that the county must provide a location to impound any animal, but there’s no one to actually pick up live stock. It’s time to change that.”
While on the scene, NorthEscambia.com contact leaders in both the sheriff’s department and the county government. What we found could best be described as a loophole in county services.
“We just don’t do livestock,” Sonya Daniel, Escambia County’s public information manager told us after looking into the situation. “Everything is OK on our side of the fence on this one. This is livestock, and since it looks like this is a criminal complaint, this one falls on the sheriff’s department. That’s why the sheriff’s department has a livestock officer.”
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Department does have a contract livestock officer, Terry Brown, who is called out on an as-needed basis.
Captain Bobby Jackson with the sheriff’s department pulled a copy of Brown’s contract for us. That contract states, according to Jackson, that the livestock officer will respond to “at large animals on public property whether dead or alive”. In our case Thursday, the animals were on private property where the livestock officer has no jurisdiction.
“It looks like there is a loophole in the system,” Jackson acknowledged. “I think this is the first time this has popped up.”
We are by no means faulting animal control, the livestock officer or the sheriff’s department. It really appears that everyone played by the rules. While it appears that Terry Brown, the livestock officer, did his job and followed his contract, there is a problem with that contract. And it is time for it to be changed.
The facts are simple. There is a lot of livestock in North Escambia, and most animal owners are very responsible. But a situation like Thursday’s incident will undoubtedly arise again. Look at PER for instance — they have investigated over 450 cases and seized about five dozen horses.
The problem is simple to resolve — remove the words “private property” from the livestock officer’s contract. The additional cost to the county? Nothing, really. Since the officer is charged with removing animals anyway on public property, he just needs the authority to remove them from private property. It’s for the well being of the animals, plus the animals are criminal evidence. In an animal cruelty case, leaving the animal behind makes about as much sense as leaving a child behind in a child abuse case.
It is time for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department to review the livestock officer’s duties and contract. We don’t know when the contract was last bid or how much the livestock officer is paid; we were not able to determine that late Thursday afternoon. But perhaps it is time to review and rebid the contract as well.
Comments
12 Responses to “Blog: It’s Time For A Change After Animal Control, Livestock Officer Refuse To Help Starving Animals”
Surely there are farms in the area, or other people who keep goats and pigs. Why on earth doesn’t animal control or the livestock officer have a list of people who volunteer to shelter abused livestock until a permanent home can be found? It’s government employees like this who give all of them a bad name; they just want to collect their salary and that’s it. Useless.
In 2010, as well as in past years you can be sure that government workers and politicians will not have to worry about being umemployed like so many of us average people. Politicians maybe, if the useless ones are voted out of office by a righteous citizenry. Otherwise, government workers are generally protected by civil service and are almost never fired or laid off no matter how inept, inefficient and arrogant they are. Those county commissioners who set the rules and standards for county workers must step up to the plate and SERVE THE CITIZENS NEEDS in a manner that is truly beneficial for all.
hoorah for bob on july 10th
good ole boy is the whole problem with escambia county everything
and that encludes the law enforcement in molino
ppl need to do their jobs, instead of saying they have no control of anything.
I actual had an animal control officer hang up on me when I called them
about my neighbor how went out into his yard on a sunday and shot all
his dogs in the head because he was tired of breeding them.
I cried all day
No one cared!
Animal Control Officers are under the same supervision as Code Enforcement. Surprised?
On the surface it appears to be a simple loophole, happens everyday in real world government/business. Now that it has been identified, who is taking responsibility to address/correct the issue? Sonya Daniel, Escambia County’s public information manager can you answer this for the voting community of this county? You pointed out the politically correct answer but did not mention how the county will address this growing problem in a struggling economy. We await your response…….
The last rescue done by Panhandle Equine Rescue included not only equines, but also goats and pigs, which were supposed to be handled by the county.
PER representatives met with the sheriff, the sheriffs dept. attorney, the county attorney and all of the county commissioners, one by one, with their concerns for the welfare of the cows, goats and pigs that are being left behind to starve. It was decided by the sheriffs office that the contract will not be changed. Animals will continue to suffer and die on private property. There are no facilities to house the animals, nor does the county or the sheriffs department want to bear the expense or labor to care for the animals. It’s all about priorities; we were told by many officials. Animals are not even on the list. If the citizens of this county would contact the sheriff and their county commissioner and be a voice for these poor animals, maybe the contract can be amended to include private property. Until that happens, the animals will continue to slip through the cracks. Panhandle Equine Rescue does the best they can in helping equines, but their facilities are currently full. The county ordinances regarding animal cruelty state that the county is responsible in addressing cruelty cases to include ALL living dumb creatures and specifically mention cows, goats horses and pigs. In addtion, Florida Statute 588.21 requires that the county commission provide an impound facility for the animals, which they don’t currently have; except for dogs and cats. The county owns land everywhere. It is sad that there has been such a poor response to this blog.
I have personally had to deal with animal control officers in the last couple of weeks and although I won’t mention any names, nor the specific incidence; my impression of them was extremely poor. There is a definite problem with employees who work for animal control. The ones I have had to deal with are hypocrites, and menaces. They are lazy and don’t want to get up off their butts to actually do there jobs, and in short could care less about the people much less the animals that they have to deal with. They are in the wrong field of work if they don’t give a damn about what happens to animals. I don’t need to know all the politics of it. I know they are really lazy and unfriendly, judgementall, one-sided people.
Trust me this is not the only loophole in our sheriffs department!!! Mr. morgan I pray for my childrens sake you will indeed clean up the system as a whole, if you look hard enough at the northend you too will see.
The livestock officer’s contract is public record. I have seen it and he is on straight salary. He has been the livestock officer for this county since 1998, when Jim Lowman was in office. So, even if he doesn’t respond to a call, he gets paid anyway. The contract should stipulate that he gets paid per response. He is provided a truck and livestock trailer by the county.
As far as responding to animals at large on public property only, that is not always true, he has come to my house and removed a horse from my paddock that was at large, that I had contained for him.
Also, you can ask any deputy that works in the north end of the county and I’m sure that most will agree that calling our livestock officer is a waste of time.
The horse and donkey that was just rescued by PER were at large for several days, the sheriffs dept. was called and the deputies that responded just “shooed them off into the woods”; I’m sure because they felt they had no other option. If the livestock officer were dependable, the deputies probably would have called for his assistance and those poor animals wouldn’t have had to suffer at the hands of their owners.
The sheriffs office is taking bids on the contract, but to date, have not excepted anyone’s offer and there have been qualified people willing to take the job. What is the reason for keeping our current officer in this position when he doesn’t respond most of the time, but continues to collect a check, which is paid by the taxpayers? The contract available for public viewing dated back in 1998, shows a monthly salary of $945.00. I’m sure this has gone up considerably since then (you know how the good ole boy system works?). But even $945.00 is good money for doing nothing. I think I might bid on that job. Easy money.
The sheriff is well aware of this problem, but has done nothing to correct it.
I remember a time when animal control was helpful. We placed a call to them last week because of a racoon that keeps coming around and terrorizing our animals. They informed us that they won’t handle things like that anymore and suggested we pay someone who does that for a living. The individual we called was going to charge us $350 to come and set the trap and another $250 to release it back INTO OUR OWN WOODS! Nobody seems to want to help the folks that need it anymore, they just pass the buck onto the next organization. i think it is time for a change!
Bob has a few GOOD points. Some public , elected & appointed people don’t do their jobs. They should be removed and this will only be done if pressure is put upon them through sites like this one and it becomes known . We, as citizens and tax payers should do what we can to see that these names become public. Every law can have a loophole but until we become aware of it and demand accounting for it, there will be people who use it. This is the “name of the game”.
Would be willing to bet that the officer was appointed years ago and has not been revisited since. Just another example of good ole boy politics that has been passed down for generations in Escambia County. I wonder how many others are sitting the shadows with just such an appointment,hoping no one notices until their benefits become reality.