Fulton County Animal Services

Knee-Deep in it

Last night Channel 5's Randy Travis of Fox news reported that Fulton County Animal Services (the same shelter where I got Carmella) was dumping feral cats in White County (near Cleveland, GA.)

Former Shelter Director, Jeri Alexander apparently was the one who authorized the abandonment of the animals. Fox 5 received an affidavit from a priest Ms. Alexander had consulted with her plans containing the details. The reason she gave him was that they would stand a better chance left out in the country, possibly picked up by farmers and used as "mousers" than they would if they had to be euthanized.

As far as I know none other than these two options were even considered. One would ask "Why did they not call other shelters if they were filled to capacity, or even ask local TV stations to feature the cats the way shelters like PAWS Atlanta often does?"

The answer to that question is particularly disturbing. Randy Travis reported that when questioned the shelter could not produce any evidence that these cats had been vaccinated (especially not for Rabies).

Those of you who've been reading this blog diligently might remember that there were irregularities in Carmella's adoption records such as no weight ever recorded throughout her entire 2 month stay, and lack of evidence that she had any more than one Distemper combo vaccine and a rabies shot. Also, the employee conducting the adoption never gave me a rabies tag or certificate to send in to the county showing she'd been vaccinated for rabies and when asked claimed to have no idea what I was talking about.

Carmella soon after brought home from shelter
(notice her ribs were showing)


In addition several vet checks had been signed off on as "normal" although Carmella was showing symptoms including being extremely underweight.

Carmella when very ill one week home from shelter
(notice how cloudy her eyes were, almost as if she had cataracts)

I remember sensing a cover-up at that time and the thought crossed my mind that what I was witnessing may be just the tip of the iceburgh.

The news story yesterday reported that there were 10-15 cats released that they could prove, but that 100 cats were still unaccounted for. The shelter had no explanation for what happened to those.

So far there has not been any talk of charges filed against the animal shelter or regulatory action taken. I hope there will be some follow-up on this. Now might be the right time for me to contact the news station about my experience. I didn't receive a response initially, but now with these recent developments the news media may be more interested in what happened to Carmella.

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