{"id":6133,"date":"2015-04-09T06:38:22","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T12:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=6133"},"modified":"2015-04-12T08:27:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-12T14:27:46","slug":"critics-fed-up-with-countys-very-broken-animal-control-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2015\/04\/critics-fed-up-with-countys-very-broken-animal-control-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics fed up with county’s ‘very broken’ animal control"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nacho\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Jenny Michaelson sits in her living room with Nacho, her golden retriever. Michaelson got Nacho back after he was impounded by Yellowstone County last fall, but she said the reunion happened in spite of the county’s incompetence, not because of anything it did right.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jenny Michaelson was one of the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

She managed to get her dog back after it had been impounded by Yellowstone County. But Michaelson, who lives just west of Billings off Grand Avenue, gives no credit to the county for the return of Nacho, her golden retriever.<\/p>\n

She said the county held her dog\u2014one of the most recognizable breeds there is\u2014for five days, even though clerks at the Yellowstone County Sheriff\u2019s Office, which has authority over the animal control division, told her repeatedly that the county was not holding a dog that fit Nacho\u2019s description. And when she called Big Sky Pet Center, the holding facility where county animal control takes impounded dogs, people there would tell her nothing.<\/p>\n

Michaelson said she got her dog back only because a volunteer with the Rimrock Humane Society, figuring Nacho had to be someone\u2019s pet, picked him up during a visit to Big Sky Pet Center. And then somebody familiar with the humane society saw Michaelson\u2019s lost-dog ad in the Billings Gazette.<\/p>\n

Cassie Dennison wasn\u2019t so lucky. Her family\u2019s beloved black Lab, Mac, was euthanized by county animal control officer John Fleming before her family even knew it had been picked up near Dennison\u2019s home in Shepherd. The 8-year-old purebred Lab went missing on Nov. 26, the day before last Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

As was the case with Michaelson, Dennison said, her family was told that no dog matching Mac\u2019s description had been picked up by the county. And when she first spoke with Fleming on Dec. 9, Dennison said, he told her he had picked up Mac himself, and that the dog \u201cwas either euthanized or adopted out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mac\"<\/a>

Cassie Dennison’s black Lab, Mac, seen here with her husband Travis, was put down by the county before Dennison even knew Mac had been impounded.<\/p><\/div>\n

The next day, Dennison said, Fleming told her an unknown person had brought the dog in and that it had been euthanized, either by a veterinarian or a \u201ccounty official.\u201d He later said that he checked his records and confirmed that he had indeed put the dog down himself.<\/p>\n

(For more details on what happened to Michaelson and Dennison, read this story<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Those two stories, animal rescue volunteers say, highlight continuing problems with the animal control division. They said sloppy, inefficient procedures made it difficult, sometimes impossible, for county residents to determine whether their dogs were being held by the county. They said too many dogs were being killed, and too few were being returned to their owners.<\/p>\n

What makes it worse, they say, is that three years ago they thought something was going to be done about the division.<\/p>\n

Sandy Church, the Rimrock Humane Society director, and one of her volunteers, Ellen Quinn, had met with County Commissioner John Ostlund to talk about Fleming\u2019s seeming unwillingness to work with their agency and other adoption agencies. They also complained that Fleming, who has been in his position for 24 years, was unilaterally deciding what animals were \u201cunadoptable\u201d or too aggressive, and then euthanizing them.<\/p>\n

In addition, they said, Fleming worked from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday, leaving deputies untrained in animal control to deal with incidents involving animals for much of each week. Fleming had an assistant for a time, but she retired in November 2013 and was replaced for only one month during the summer of 2014, after which that person quit.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Church said when they met with Ostlund, the Rimrock Humane Society offered to photograph impounded pets and to post the photos on Facebook, Craigslist and other websites, to make phone calls and do whatever else was needed to take the burden off the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Church and Quinn said, the sheriff\u2019s office pledged to work more closely with adoption agencies, and to do more to educate the public about how best to retrieve dogs that were being held by the county.<\/p>\n

Ostlund and Sheriff Mike Linder even appeared in a public service announcement, letting people know what to do if their dogs went missing. The 30-second TV spot said dogs unclaimed after 72 hours would be turned over to the Rimrock Humane Society, the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter or Billings Animal Rescue Kare.<\/p>\n

People were also advised to call the sheriff\u2019s office with a description of their lost dog, and if the county had it, \u201cthey will tell give you instructions on how to reunite you with your pet.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, if anything, Church and Quinn said, the situation only worsened after the ad was filmed. Rather than trying harder to place animals with the Rimrock Humane Society, Quinn said, Fleming \u201cjust quit calling altogether.\u201d And though Fleming briefly allowed photos of impounded dogs to be taken and given to clerks at the sheriff\u2019s office, he soon stopped that practice, adding another hurdle to the process of reuniting dogs and their owners.<\/p>\n

Church said she and Quinn decided to go to the press with their complaints, rather than back to county officials, because \u201cyou just get to the point where you feel, why bother?\u201d The final straw, she and Quinn said, came when two domestic cats that Rimrock said it would take were euthanized anyway.<\/p>\n

\"Fleming\"<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

After 24 years as Yellowstone County’s animal control officer, John Fleming recently took a new job as a process server for the sheriff’s office. He’ll stay in animal control until a successor is hired.<\/p><\/div>\n

Ostlund said in a recent interview that he was surprised and disappointed to hear the complaints. After those meetings three years ago, he said, he thought Fleming was going to start photographing every impounded dog and doing more to reunite dogs with their owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been under the impression that he (Fleming) is doing a bang-up job,\u201d Ostlund said. He said he hadn\u2019t heard any new complaints about the division, and \u201ccomplaints and compliments are the only way we have of getting a grip on what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linder said on Tuesday that Fleming recently applied for a new job in the sheriff\u2019s office and will soon be working as a process server. Fleming will stay on in animal control until a new person is hired, Linder said, and interviews with some prospects have already been scheduled.<\/p>\n

Linder also said he was planning to meet with Fleming and Fleming\u2019s supervisor, Capt. Bill Michaelis, to talk in more depth about the animal control division. One reason they hadn\u2019t yet had those discussions was that Michaelis was working on a new records-management system, which is being introduced simultaneously in the city\u2019s public safety departments and in city-county dispatch.<\/p>\n

That new system itself might help make the animal control division more efficient, Linder added.<\/p>\n

To get an idea of how the animal control division was operating, Last Best News obtained copies of \u201ceuthanasia logs,\u201d found dog reports, lost dog reports and stray animal drop-off forms from the county and Big Sky Pet Center. Big Sky is located just off the Shiloh Interchange at 7565 Entryway Drive.<\/p>\n

The euthanasia logs, required by state law, contained a listing of every animal euthanized by Fleming, including how much euthanasia solution was used for each killing. Big Sky Pet Center provided Fleming with the solution.<\/p>\n

A review of all those reports, which were shared with Church, Quinn and Laura Moore, who was a vet technician at Big Sky Pet Center from 2006 to 2011, turned up numerous discrepancies, information gaps and crucial omissions, all of which may have contributed to the difficulty of getting dogs back to their owners.<\/p>\n

One of the most surprising revelations for the animal-rescue volunteers was the number of cats put down by Fleming. Fleming said in an interview that most of the felines were \u201cbarnyard cats,\u201d and he probably killed 100 to 150 of them a year. But according to Fleming\u2019s euthanasia logs, the county put down 227 cats just between May 12, 2014, and Jan. 26 of this year.<\/p>\n

Church and Quinn said that in all their conversations with county officials, they were never told that the county doesn\u2019t even attempt to return cats to their owners. They were shocked to hear that Fleming, in an interview with Last Best News, said there was no county ordinance on cats, and that \u201cwe don\u2019t allow impoundment of cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re treated no differently from skunks, raccoons, coyotes\u2014a nuisance animal,\u201d Fleming said. With rare exceptions, he said, when he picked cats up they were taken to a small shed behind the county shops, just west of the jail, where he would euthanize them.<\/p>\n

Late last year, when Last Best News began to question Fleming and other county officials about the animal control division, Fleming said he didn\u2019t know if he was licensed or certified to perform euthanasia, though he did produce a certificate saying he had received training in euthanasia procedures.<\/p>\n

However, records kept by the state Board of Veterinary Medicine showed that Yellowstone County was not a board-certified \u201ceuthanasia agency.\u201d Early in January, Fleming stopped doing euthanasia and turned his remaining euthanasia drugs over to Dr. Rob Bruner, the owner of Big Sky Pet Center.<\/p>\n

Bruner said he performs euthanasia only if an animal is clearly suffering or is extremely aggressive and \u201cunhandleable.\u201d He said he told the county he wouldn\u2019t do any other kind of euthanasia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made it very clear I was not going to be doing any kind of convenience euthanasia or mass euthanasia or anything like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Linder said that for now, the county will not be taking in feral cats. He said Fleming started doing so several years ago, after farmers and ranchers in the county called him for help with \u201clarge populations of feral cats.\u201d If they call now, Linder said, they will be told to take care of the problem themselves.<\/p>\n

After a new animal control officer is hired, the policy in regard to feral cats, and other aspects of the division\u2019s operations, will be re-evaluated, Linder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we\u2019ll come up with another plan (in regard to feral cats), but I don\u2019t want to do anything until we\u2019re following all the rules,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Big<\/a>

Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News<\/p>

Yellowstone County contracts with a private veterinary service, Big Sky Pet Center at 7565 Entryway Drive, to temporarily house impounded dogs and, rarely, cats.<\/p><\/div>\n

State law does allow \u201csupport personnel,\u201d which means someone employed by a veterinarian, to perform euthanasia. Bruner said he was contracted by the county to provide a holding facility and has no authority over Fleming. He said he provided euthanasia solution at the county\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

Cheryl Brandt, executive officer for the state Board of Veterinary Medicine, said violations of state laws regarding euthanasia technicians are investigated if complaints are lodged, and no one ever reported anything about Yellowstone County\u2019s noncompliance.<\/p>\n

Linder said Fleming may have been certified to perform euthanasia at one time, but \u201cwhen we did some checking into it, we found out, hey, this is probably lapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Numerous other problems and discrepancies were noted in the documents provided by the county. For instance, an analysis of reports on 16 dogs that were euthanized by the county between June 1 and Dec. 10 of last year showed that there was no indication where eight of them were found, no indication of gender on six of them, and nothing to indicate whether seven of the dogs were wearing collars\u2014the sort of details that make identifying the dogs much easier.<\/p>\n

And though the reports are supposed to say where adopted dogs went, the reports on 11 of 16 dogs that were adopted out by the county in December failed to state what individual or agency took the animals. Also in December, a 1-year-old yellow Lab, whose collar identified him as \u201cTrigger,\u201d was euthanized. All the final report said in the comment section was \u201cnote left for owner.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another case, an Australian shepherd was reported being impounded on Oct. 21 and euthanized by Fleming on Oct. 27. On the euthanasia logs, however, there is no record of that dog\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Deputy County Attorney Kevin Gillen said there was \u201cno accurate reason for the discrepancy,\u201d and that the shepherd \u201cmay have been given away or may have been euthanized.\u201d Gillen said he would \u201cchalk that one up to being a mistake in recordation concerning final disposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audrey Lindgren worked as Fleming\u2019s assistant for a little more than a month last summer. She had worked for city animal control for a year and a half before that and joined the county because she thought it would be a better job. Fleming\u2019s previous assistant had been gone for more than half a year and the county finally hired Lindgren to replace her.<\/p>\n

Lindgren said she lasted only a month because the county \u201cmade a lot of promises, none of which they could uphold.\u201d She said the failed promises had to do with training, pay and responsibilities.<\/p>\n

She said she was also disappointed by what appeared to be an utter lack of outreach or public education. She suggested posting descriptions of all impounded dogs on the Lost\/Found Pets of Billings MT Facebook page, which Fleming OK\u2019d.<\/p>\n

She posted just two\u2014and the dogs were quickly claimed by their owners\u2014and then Fleming told her to stop the practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me he was told by someone else they didn\u2019t want that done,\u201d Lindgren said.<\/p>\n

Laura Moore, the former vet technician at Big Sky Pet Center, said Fleming or his former assistant used to photograph impounded dogs and give copies of those photos and descriptions to the sheriff\u2019s office clerks. Eventually that practice stopped, she said, though she didn\u2019t understand why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he (Fleming) just got lazy, to be honest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fleming, in an interview, said he stopped allowing photographs to be taken because \u201cit\u2019s difficult to ID a dog from a photograph\u2026 . It just wasn\u2019t working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fleming was asked why, in addition to giving county clerks copies of photos, he didn\u2019t post photos online so people could quickly determine whether the county had their dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t do anything online,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it would be more of a hindrance to put dogs online\u2026 . We don\u2019t run a humane society or an adoption agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for not allowing people in to look at impounded dogs at Big Sky Pet Center, Bruner said that has always been the policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just a temporary holding facility for animals that are found in the county,\u201d he said, but it is also a business with lots of private clients. He said there is no way he could accommodate an influx of people wanting to come in and look for their pets. He also confirmed that people who call the center are told to call the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Quinn said there was one way people could look for their pet at Big Sky. If people thought their pet was being held by the county, Quinn said, they could pay an estimated boarding fee at the sheriff\u2019s office and then take the receipt to the pet center. They could claim their dog if it was there. If not, they could go back to the sheriff\u2019s office for a refund.<\/p>\n

Bruner said that had happened in the past, but to his knowledge only \u201ca couple of times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindgren said another problem with the county animal control division is that Fleming uses a simple Excel spreadsheet to enter information on impounded dogs. Unlike the lengthy, detailed form the city filled out on impounded dogs, she said, Fleming\u2019s descriptions are scanty, often confusing and sometimes erroneous. She also said the clerks answering the phone at the sheriff\u2019s office might not have understood how to use the spreadsheets provided by Fleming.<\/p>\n

And sometimes, Lindgren said, Fleming wouldn\u2019t enter anything on the spreadsheets for days after picking up an animal. \u201cThere\u2019s no sense of urgency,\u201d Lindgren said.<\/p>\n

But Fleming did do one thing the county greatly appreciated, Moore, the former vet tech, said. He saved the county a lot of money.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason there\u2019s been no flak for so long is that John keeps the numbers down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Until about 10 years ago, the county took dogs to the city-run Billings Animal Shelter, which has been operated by a private agency, Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter Inc., since 2008. A news story published in 2007<\/a> \u00a0said county commissioners stopping using the city facility and switched to Big Sky Pet Center because Big Sky charged them $17,000 a year for a service that would have cost $55,000 at the city shelter.<\/p>\n

Michaelis, Fleming\u2019s supervisor, said the county sometimes paid the city shelter well over $55,000 a year, as much as $80,000 some years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might spend $20,000 in a bad year now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the perfect situation, but it\u2019s saving the county a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn said it appears the county is already responding to criticism of the animal control division, and she hopes the hiring of a new animal control officer will pave the way for further changes in operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYellowstone County has lost sight of the fact we are dealing with healthy, living, breathing animals that in most cases are a beloved family member,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Quinn said she would also like to see changes in the law so that cats are no longer considered a nuisance animal, and she would like to have a professional trainer evaluate dogs before they are deemed unadoptable and euthanized. If more people knew of the problems in animal control, she said, there might be public pressure for an improved system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that the majority of Yellowstone County residents would be willing to pay a few more tax dollars to change this very broken system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jenny Michaelson was one of the lucky ones. She managed to get her dog back after it had been impounded by Yellowstone County. But Michaelson, who lives just west of Billings off Grand Avenue, gives no credit to the county for the return of Nacho, her golden retriever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,14],"tags":[2328,2334,2332,2329,808,2333,1258,2330,2331,2327],"class_list":["post-6133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-billings","category-news","tag-animal-control-division","tag-audrey-lindgren","tag-ellen-quinn","tag-john-fleming","tag-john-ostlund","tag-laura-moore","tag-mike-linder","tag-rimrock-humane-society","tag-sandy-church","tag-yellowstone-county-sheriffs-office","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}