ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / April 14, 2000

LAPLACE – The St. John Humane Society will no longer operate the St. JohnAnimal Shelter as of May 1.

In a surprise move Tuesday, the St. John the Baptist Parish Council votedunanimously to terminate the parish contract with the St. John HumaneSociety.

Councilwoman Melissa Faucheux brought up the motion to terminate the contract. She added the shelter should be run with parish employees.The Humane Society has been running the shelter since 1991, but lately there have been complaints from residents and council members on how the shelter is being operated. Reports of bad living conditions at the shelter,stray dogs not being picked up and shoddy paperwork have been leveled at the St. John Humane Society.”I found a lot of inconsistencies in the records,” Faucheux reported to the council. “There are over 157 animals at the shelter that have beenunaccounted for. The cost of euthanasia is vague. This concerns me becausethis is public money.”Faucheux said she has met with resistance every time she has tried to get records from the animal shelter.

“I was questioned by the Humane Society about my request for records,” Faucheux said. “Then I was told the records were destroyed.”Heidi Hogan, St. John Humane Society member and director of the St. JohnAnimal Shelter, said she is puzzled by Faucheux’s allegations.

“She never brought this to my attention,” said Hogan. “I hadn’t heard any ofthis until it was brought up at the council meeting.”Hogan continued, ” How can I get records that I’ve been told not to keep? And besides, where would I keep them?” Hogan claims that parish officials have told her they didn’t want certain records kept after some time and as a result they were thrown away.

Hogan said that once a month she turns in a report of payroll, the number of animals that have been in the shelter, the number of animals that have been put to sleep and the fees that have been collected to the Public Works department.

Greg Bush, former director of Public Works, confirmed this. Before he leftthe department in January he was in charge of animal control and oversaw the operation of the shelter.

“She (Hogan) was an excellent bookkeeper in my opinion,” said Bush. “She wasalways responsive to me.”Bush said his department tracked the public expenditures and provided two quarterly reports to the Animal Control Board at its request.

The attorney for the St. John Humane Society, Theresa M. DeJarnette, toldthe council all of Hogan’s records are at the department of Public Works.

Besides records, Faucheux said she is also concerned about the amount of dog food being used in the shelter. She cited records that say the shelteruses 36,000 pounds of dog food every year.

However, Hogan said Faucheux is using records from 1996 that don’t pertain to the present situation at the shelter.

According to Hogan, the parish hasn’t paid for dog food since 1992. Hogan,who has worked at the shelter since 1991, said most of the dog food is donated by private citizens and companies.

“Thank God for Wal-Mart and K-Mart,” said shelter employee Melissa Vial, one of three paid employees. “They have been very generous to us and donated alot of food.” Faucheux’s investigation into the animal shelter reached a climax two weeks ago when she and Councilman Dale Wolfe tried to enter the animal shelter on a fact-finding inspection. Both council members were refused entrance, andFaucheux had to call the Sheriff’s Office and Parish President Nickie Monica in order to be allowed access to the shelter.

“Denying access to the shelter to parish officials is subject for dismissal,” Faucheux said.

Hogan said Faucheux and Wolfe were not allowed on the premises because the shelter was being cleaned at the time.

“To best serve the public,” said Hogan, “we don’t allow anyone in during cleaning time. It was a policy made to protect the public and the animals theshelter houses.”Hogan explained later that the deadly parvo virus can be transmitted very easily while cleaning cages and can attach itself to people’s clothes and shoes. The Humane Society was worried outsiders would take the parvo virusout into the parish and spread it to other dogs and cats.

Hogan said Faucheux and Wolfe were told they could come back at 2:45 p.m.the same day when the cleaning of the cages was completed.

Faucheux and Wolfe did not accept this explanation.

“The disrespect Ms. Faucheux and I received two Saturdays ago was in badtaste,” said an angry Wolfe. “I have no respect for the Humane Society. Theyrun the shelter in a poor, poor manner.”Wolfe then recommended the parish find the funds to hire parish employees and vehicles to run the shelter.

While Wolfe and Faucheux had their complaints, the biggest complaint from the Animal Control Advisory Board is that stray dogs are not being taken off the streets. Board member Barbara Falgoust addressed the council, saying:”Nobody is picking up stray dogs. I see them all the time. Our main concernshould be picking up stray dogs.”DeJarnette told the council, “The shelter only has two employees. They don’thave enough time to pick up strays. This has been going on for years.”Linda Allen and Melissa Vial are the paid employees who are trained to pick up strays.

“This is a 24 hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job,” said Allen, “There just isn’t enough time in the day for the both of us.”Like Faucheux, Falgoust is also concerned about the records of the animal shelter.

“We have looked at the budget, and money that is supposed to be there is gone, ” claimed Falgoust. “There is nobody overseeing the shelter employees.I see no accountability for this shelter.”Councilman Lester Rainey Jr. agreed. “Our objective is that we have people in place that are accountable to us,” he said. “This has gone on too long with outside parties handling parishresponsibilities.”Hogan said the Humane Society is not trying to run the shelter, “just help out the parish.”As for accountability, Hogan argued, “We reported to the department of Public Works, and I reported to Greg Bush. We have given them nothing butsupport.”Hogan said she feels the switch in administrations is to blame for the present fracas.

“The present administration didn’t put anyone in charge,” said Hogan. “If wehad all sat down at the start of the new administration and talked about this, we wouldn’t have all this mis-communication.”Council Chairman Duaine Duffy warned the council not to be too hasty in terminating the contract.

“We may be going backwards here,” said Duffy. “I caution the administrationto go slow and let us have a plan.”Steve Lee voiced similar concerns.

“How do we handle the shelter during the interim? What happens tomorrow if we don’t have a plan?” asked Lee.

Monica, who favored Faucheux’s motion, assured the council a plan was in place.

“We will have people in place to manage the shelter until we get a permanent staff,” the parish president told the council. “We do have volunteers andmembers of the Animal Control Advisory Board that will be at the shelter.”Later, Faucheux elaborated on the rest of the plan.

“We are getting the Riverlands SPCA to help us out,” she said.

They also plan to renovate the shelter by adding new plumbing and a new concrete slab.

“We hope to hire three to four employees to run the shelter,” said Faucheux.

She said money was already allocated in the budget for the repairs and will be taken from the Public Works department. That is money from the MosquitoControl Tax that was levied in 1998.

Bush said the money was set aside to hire a new Animal Control Officer.

“There is probably about $80,000 in that fund,” said Bush, adding no officer was ever hired.

“We tried to get Sheriff (Wayne) Jones to hire the officer, but there was a liability issue and that stopped us,” said Bush. “The sheriff was concernedabout the liability insurance, and we couldn’t agree on a price.”Even so, the money from the Mosquito Control tax kept getting collected.

“We were also concerned about the start-up cost for a new officer,” said Bush. “I did some research, and with the vehicles, insurance and all, it wouldcost us about $60,000 to start it up, and that isn’t including the officer’s salary. We were going to bring it up before the council, but we never got thechance.” Bush said Hogan, who never received a salary for her work at the shelter, did a lot to keep the place going.

“The parish provided funds for upkeep on the facility, like plumbing, a new floor and limestone for the parking lot,” said Bush. “But Heidi got donationsand special grants for food and the facilities. The flowers, the chain-linkfence, air-conditioning for the dog shelter were all the result of grants that Heidi got.”But Faucheux said the Humane Society has not really answered to the parish.

“There is too much intermingling between St. John Animal Shelter and the St.John Humane Society,” she said. “For the past three years there has beenreally bad record-keeping.”After council attorney Barry Landry assured the council it could terminate the contract with no fear of litigation, the council unanimously voted to cancel the contract beginning May 1.

Allen thinks that the parish is going to lose money on the deal.

“They pay us six dollars an hour to work here,” says Allen. “They don’t give usany benefits, any insurance, and we have to pay our own income taxes out of that six dollars.”Hogan’s response to the termination was tired resignation.

“We’re going to abide by them, ” she said. “Let them have it. I hope they cando better than I did. It has turned into a real headache.”

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