Last week, in yet another act of direct defiance of the
Pasco County Board of Commissioners directives, PCAS Director John Malley murdered
25 dogs, two of whom were VERY adoptable black lab mix puppies that should have
been placed in adoptions. Two more were
purebred labs. When asked by Commissioner Pat Mulieri if there were any dogs on
the euth list, Malley insisted that there were NO dogs on the ‘euth list”, the
term for the list of animals scheduled of euthanasia. To be clear euthanasia as
defined by Webster’s Dictionary is “painless killing to relieve suffering, OR
the act or practice killing somebody or an animal who has an incurable illness
or injury.” Then he killed all 25, ALL of who he insisted to Tampa Bay Times
Reporter Lee Logan, he had personally evaluated, meaning that ALL 25 would have
had to be aggressive or sick. Those two lab puppies were neither, and neither were
several others that were killed. He's also started the killing again; based on HIS evaluations of the dog's behavior, if he has even looked at them at all...I fear many more dogs who just have a treatable cold will be killed. Could it be that Mr. Malley is trying to justify these acts for other reasons?
On November 7, 2012, the Pasco County Board of
Commissioners, approved the SAVE 90% rule in reference to the Shelter, in which
it was agreed upon that they would save 90% of the animals and ONLY sick or
aggressive dogs and cats would be euthanized. This was voted on and PASSED as LAW by the BOC.
On November 26, 2012, John Malley ordered the killing of 25
animals, which, in addition to the two VERY adoptable puppies, included those two
purebred labs as well as several younger, adoptable dogs. This was 21 days
AFTER the SAVE 90% was adopted by the BOC on November 7, 2012. It was passed as
an addendum to agenda CS 13-009.
How many were “sick”? How many were “aggressive?” How is John Malley making a determination
that a dog is aggressive and not just scared at a shelter that has chaos going
on 24/7, barking dogs and the constant smell of feces, urine and death? John Malley has NO qualifications as an animal
behaviorist; NONE.
According to the
Pasco County government website, the jog requirements for management position as
Animal Shelter Director REQUIRE a minimum of FOURS years experience to be
considered for the position. John Malley, according to his resume posted with
Pasco County government, has literally ONE year and a half stint at the
Executive Directors position at the SPCA of West Pasco. He states that he was “Chief
Executive Officer for All Operations” but there seems to be some discrepancy as
to his actual duties and the reasons for his departure.
Prior to that position, Malley worked as a VP of Sales at
Nutrition Research Center in Largo; before that he worked for Goodwill
Industries as the Center Manager.
How, may I ask ANYONE, are ANY of these jobs, with the exception of the one at SPCA,
where his reasons for leaving have been questionable, does this make John
Malley CAPABLE of determining behavior in an animal, especially one who is
scared confused and often injured or starved for both food and attention?
It does NOT and he is not qualified for the position he
currently holds at PCAS, BY THE ACTUAL STANDARDS SET BY THE COUNTY.
So how is he there? In a conversation with one of the
volunteers, a retired reporter, by the way, “he contends that he formulated it (NO Kill Nation) well before NO
Kill Nation Nathan Winograd but contended it wasn't workable. He also declared
that portions of Wino grad’s plan were items that Malley himself had written.
Malley says that he is an expert at managing a shelter, that he will not make
any changes there under duress or pressure, that the Pasco Animal Advisory
Board and the County Commission listen only to him, that he has the media in
his pocket, that he has the legal right to restrict people (meaning those of us
who dare to criticize him) from coming into the shelter as well as to forbid
the taking of pictures. He also told this person that “he was a lawyer.”
I can find
no John Malley on the Florida Bar website, nor had he stated that he was an
attorney on his resume.
So here
we have a man, who in DIRECT DEFIANCE of the Pasco Board of Commissioners,
deliberately KILLED 25 dogs... he also kills cats by the dozens, but that will
be covered in another post.
The public
should be outraged, the BOC should be outraged and he should be fired for his
direct acts of insubordination. There are several viable, BETTER candidates for
the position of Director at PCAS; one is a former
police lieutenant with 22 years experience with a canine task force, John Crosby,
who was the Division Manager for Bay County Animal Control in Jacksonville. He
is a registered dog trainer, animal behaviorist and behavioral consultant. He reduced
the euthanasia rate at Bay County from 84% to 55% and more than doubled
adoptions rates in two years. He consults regularly with law enforcement,
animal control agencies and veterinarians on dog attacks and dog aggression. Another has run Shelters in New York and has a lot of experience as well.
THIS is
the kind of person that should be running PCAS... THIS is the kind of person that could turn it
around.
PCAS
needs to clean house... Starting at the top. A person who DIRECTLY defies a
directive from their boss should be fired. End of story.
Look
for the next post about all this soon... there is a LOT more to this story that
needs telling.
LC
