THE PASCO 25, OR HOW PCAS SHELTER DIRECTOR JOHN MALLEY KILLED 25 DOGS AND LIED TO THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS AND THE PRESS ABOUT IT.

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