The J.B. Ogle Animal Shelter, which is managed by the City of Jeffersonville, has been front and center in recent news.
Last week, a volunteer visited the shelter’s kennels with the intention of taking photos of animals in order to help find them homes. Instead, the volunteer took photos of what appeared to be unsanitary conditions at the shelter.
The initial reaction from shelter management and the mayor was a very poor one. When confronted with photos of poor conditions, they seemingly were more concerned with the photos than the conditions they depicted. Their inane response was to deny volunteers and the broader public, including those visiting to adopt, access to the kennel areas.
The mayor and others directly responsible for the shelter are now chalking up the recent outcry about conditions to politics, as if thinking animals should be treated humanely, that government should be transparent and that taxpayers and volunteers should be respected are all part of someone’s shady “agenda.”
“Politics” and “agendas” are Jeffersonville Mayor Tom Galligan’s go-to responses anytime someone questions the actions of the city, and it doesn’t have to be an election year for him to use them. The problem is, this allows him to just blow off legitimate concerns and gives us no reason to be optimistic that practices and policies will change, even when change is desperately needed.
This is not the first time there have been complaints about the shelter or the first time volunteers have tried to get problems addressed. Volunteers, who have long been treated as nuisances by shelter staff, have tried to discuss these issues with the politically appointed director, the mayor and the city council for some time, always cautiously respectful in fear the reaction would be that which it was in this case: restricting their access and, therefore, their ability to care for the animals, monitor conditions and promote adoption.
Documents that have been sent to me this week detail a long and disturbing history at the shelter. The most outrageous to me are instances in which assistance was being offered at no cost or extra effort to the shelter in order to better care for the animals and, very importantly, to try to diagnose, treat and halt the spread of disease only to have those offers rebuffed with no rational explanation.
I can understand any agency or individual who struggles to care for an animal because of a lack of resources. However, there is absolutely no excuse for turning down better care for the animals and greater value to the taxpayers when it would not diminish those resources. This is, to my mind, an indefensible and unforgivable position.
The volunteers and rescue groups that have been heading up the past week’s campaign for change are not politically motivated. The individual that took the pictures that stirred up the latest outrage doesn’t even live in the city (I’ll resist saying she doesn’t have a dog in this fight). Yet it isn’t an entirely apolitical situation.
The shelter director is a political appointee appointed by the elected mayor. There is an appointed board that oversees the shelter. It is funded by tax dollars. It’s employees are city government employees. The Jeffersonville City Council is responsible for city ordinances including how government itself operates and salaries for employees.
It is also the case that the particular volunteer coincidentally observed the conditions and felt moved to capture the images two months before a municipal election.
It is in the best interest of the animals, the animal activists involved and the taxpayers to use all tools necessary to force change, and that includes reminding the mayor of that upcoming election and the people’s love of animals.
If politics, and the threat of animal lovers supporting the mayor’s and council’s opponents, is what it takes to force change, so be it.
If being confronted with this political reality, images of poor conditions and other evidence of the long-standing problems at the shelter are not enough to force change, politics should be used to replace those making the decisions.
That’s precisely what elections are for.
Learn more:
http://www.wdrb.com/story/15398291/accusations-of-abuse-at-jb-ogle-animal-shelter
http://www.wdrb.com/story/15420520/animal-activists-protest-jeffersonville-animal-shelter
Southern Indiana Agitator 