Date: Mon, 7 May 2007 21:37:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: Julia Sharp <juliatat@yahoo.com>
Subject: Read!!! re: dogs are not a priority according to Judge Jim Nickell!

The letter has me very upset as well since Judge Jim Nickell has proven himself to be a liar. In the debates, he stated PUBLICALLY that the dog pound WAS a priority. His statements were in the local paper for all to read. I am sure we have a copy of that paper somewhere Oh yes, I am SURE we have a copy. He lied and gave lip service to get elected and then went with his own agenda. Maybe you forgot about that article in the paper, Jimmy Boy Nickell!

The county  needs to pay the vet bills on these dogs. The county was charged a vet bill recently DUE TO NEGLECT SINCE A COLLAR HAD GROWN INTO A DOGS NECK WHILE AT THE POUND! THE COUNTY HAD TO PAY THAT BILL, THEY NEED TO PAY THESE BILLS...NOT JUST OLD MAX BUT OREO AND THE BEAGLE, AS WELL. How could we, the rescuers, know the collar had grown in since the pens are padlocked?

The many rescues I have personally worked with can verify I always send dogs with complete paperwork! They are altered unless it is to be done by the recieving rescue due to time constraints, UTD on vaccinations, hw tested and dewormed...and they have health certificates. I am "anal" about the paperwork being in order to send dogs out of state! Please, rescues that I have worked with, email the judge or better yet call his office 606-784-5151, and tell him your experience working with me. Here's the fax number for his office:  606-784-3535 Burn it up, my friends!!

We had a caring assistant when Jenny Lyons was working at the pound. They fired her and hired a moron. Seems morons are in season year round in the "good ol boy buddy you scratch my back I'll scrach yours" machine. I thought it was bad with Clyde Thomas...nothing changes, a good ol boy is a good ol boy is a good ol boy. Seems Jim Nickell is of the same ilk. He was just a better liar

I'm fed up with the crony-ism and garbage out of the county and the citizens of this county that continually dump dogs and take NO responsibility for their actions.

WHERE IS THE TRANSPORT VAN WE WERE PROMISED? WHERE IS THE NEW FACILITY OUT OF THE FLOOD ZONE? WHERE IS THE HELP FOR CATS IN THIS AREA? WHERE IS THE CHANGE WE WERE PUBLICALLY PROMISED??? Hmmmmmmm????? WHERE???

Again, I am a VOTING citizen and I DEMAND the courtesy of a reply from the person I VOTED for on his hollow bold faced lying promises!!! Email me Judge...email me. I deserve that much since I did vote for you. Or are you too much of a coward? Are you too ashamed of your actions? At a loss for words? One of the thusands of homeless cats around here got your tongue?

I have busted my butt cleaning up the messes around here and it took a serious toll on my health. I won't go away. Ask Thomas. I will NOT go away! I am the child of 2 United States Marines. The spouse of a Vietnam veteran. I exercise my right as an AMERICAN to free speech and I demand answers from MY elected officals.

Regards,

Julia Sharp

Deb Hinkle <kentuckydeb@foothills.net> wrote:

Hi all

I have read over a letter (several times ) from Jennifer Brown, the Senior Program Specialist from The Humane Society of the United States Central States Regional Offices. She states she had contacted Rowan County Judge Exec Jim Nickell in February .  At that time, she explained the concern about the allegations of overcrowding, poor conditions, lack of veterinary care, improper separation to prevent breeding and fighting, releasing dogs without health certificates for out-of-state transport (contrary to most states' laws that are receiving these animals), and not knowing specifically the dogs' final destinations or ultimate dispositions.   As we discussed, the solution to this myriad of problems is not to disregard the county's responsibility to provide humane care for the dogs in their charge.  It was my intention to offer help to the county in reviewing the current program and to make suggestions for improvement where needed. 

It was expressed by Rowan County Judge Exec Jim Nickell "that dogs are not considered a priority"

I have to say the more I read that the madder I get especially when I look at the pictures of Max. I was there and helped to get him out of there but yet those pictures tell a big story about Mr.Jim Nickell. I've been there and helped with hurt animals before. I wonder if he has ever been there.         I want to know

when he is going to be held responsible for breaking the laws of Kentucky regarding the treatment of "dogs"

Others would be arrested, charged, sent to jail and charged a fine for these types of abuses. Why not him?????

The cost to treat Max medically will be enormous. Maybe he should be required to pay that vet bill!!! Here is the information Jim Nickell you will need to pay this bill !!!!!

VET INFO:

EAST KY ANIMAL CLINIC

PIKEVILLE, KY

606-437-4014

make checks payable to East Ky Animal Clinic

Mail checks to:

Mary Daniels

44 Apache Drive

Hager Hill, KY  41222

Paypal donation link located on our petfinder site at http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/KY176.html

I called him and left a message with my phone number but never received a return phone call. It's time to do something about this man and his lack of concern for ethical treatment for these dogs.

We all need to stay on this until he is arrested and charged according to the Kentucky law. He will lay low thinking it will pass but let me tell you Jim Nickell.....it will never pass until you do something to change it or go to jail for breaking the Kentucky laws as well as the moral law that most people live by.

Just for your records Mr. Nickell....My name is Debbie Hinkle and my phone number is 606-673-3931. I await your call to get this taken care of.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Julia Sharp's reply to the letter from Jenny Brown:

Julia Sharp <juliatat@yahoo.com> wrote:

HI Jennifer, you have been mislead. The pound was NOT handed over to a local group. I know, I am part of that local group. We do have keys to the pound. We do not have any authority over what goes on over there. What we DO have is a LOT of responsibility without ANY authority. The county judge has given in to cronyism and good old boy-ism by hiring incompetents (I'm sure they are friends of friends or some such deal) to work the pound. The assistants at the pound are the typical redneck types that do not know anything about dogs.

I know decent people have applied for the assistant job and they are passed over for the idiots that know nothing about animal care.

The judge copied here won't like this email but it is the truth. I understand that he, like his predecessor, does not handle criticism well. It's a KY male ego thing.

The recent workers have included an "real winner" named Roy, who scared off more adoptors than you can imagine. He followed people around making crass jokes and yapping. He actually waved his bee-hind at me one day telling me to take his picture while I was there taking pictures of dogs. The one they have working there now is even worse since he is totally clueless.

The dog Max that started this outrage was fine on Tuesday because I had my hands on him. He is a senior dog who is very depressed. He was in a run with large aggressive dogs. I did not see this dog the rest of the weeks since I have to work. On Saturday, Mary called me in tears about Max. His head had a wound that goes from ear to ear and wwas full of maggots. It takes 72 hours for maggots to set in a wound. Remember, he was not injured on Tuesday, I know, I touched his head. is leg is chewed so badly that tendon and ligament damage may cause him to lose that leg. Max could not walk so he laid there without food or water for at least 3 days while these friends of Judge Nickells walked by that poor animal and ignored his pain. A prick of a needle would have been kinder.

The rescuers that took him out had to use a crate tray as a makeshift stretcher while fighting aggressive dogs off themsleves to get Max out fo the pen. The worker stood there with his typical slack jawed expression and watched 2 women fight dogs. He commented that the dog was going to die anyway. He refused to ehlp these 2 women get Max out.

I have at least 10 bottles of frontline spray over there. It is not being used and each dog we have taken out of the pound lately has been COVERED in fleas and ticks. Kennel cough is rampant and I got bordatella vacine donated. It is not used unless we happen to be ther ewhen a dog comes in and we give it to the dog. The paperwork and files are in total disarray. Most times we have to make a NEW intake sheet on a dog since we cannot find the paperwork that goes with that dog. Often we find no vaccine sticker on the sheets when we do fine the right one.

We had a security camera installed. It only serves to let the assitants sit on their butts until someone drives in so they can jump up and look busy. The runs are NOT disinfected. They are hosed down with water and some bleach tossed in to knock down the smell. The Kuranda beds are hosed down and that is it. Mary also reported to me that the puppies in there were soaking wet and shivering. Why? The worker hosed down puppies. The dog warden separates the dogs outside before hosing inside runs down so he does not soak the dogs. Then he moves the dogs inside and hoses the outside. The workers never do this. They spray the runs and the dogs and do not care.

The dogs we pull out of the pound are vetted and sent to reputable rescue groups and we do reference checks. We do not send dogs to places up north or anywhere for that matter without knowing where they are going.

The judge had told one of our members that the county could provide a van for transport. We do not have one. We were told we would get a new facility outside the flood area. to my knowledge no work is being done to insure this and the rains will come soon and the pound will flood again.

We are intaking dogs from surroundiing counties. I know we are. They dump dogs in the drop pen, that has never been sanitized to my knowledge, in the dead of night. the security camera was to help with this problem but it is not being used properly nor is it set up to get plate numbers.

There were several aggressive dogs dropped at the pound around Easter. The dogs were a liablity to any living creature they encountered and should have been euthanized that day. The 2 dogs killed another dog in under 3 minutes. It took 4 days to get those deadly animals put down. There are several aggressive dogs there now that should be put down. Yet they allow those dogs to rip others apart. We do NOT need aggressive animals in this situation. We have too many wonderful sweet dogs in that pound and they are being terrorized by the aggressive dogs. I took a phoot of a sweet husky mix today with wounds to his face. I witnessed 2 fights today.

2 weeks ago I took a male dog out of the pound. He was on the female side. His name was Raven because we thought he was a she. He was laying down for his pictures and so we did not see his package. When I went in to pay the fee he was standing up and there it was. No wonder he was so happy in that run! He had 2 females to breed!

The warden works too hard and has too many other issues besides the pound to deal with. Locals here call and complain every few minutes and Jimmy Hale is on the road constantly on dog calls. he cannot be dog warden, pound cleaner, pound worker and all of it by himself. He needs COMPETENT help. The problem is in the assistants the county hires. They need 2, yes, 2 assistants working everyday and the assistants need to have a clue about dogs and their care. We need people working there who are not so lazy they won't give an intra nasal vaccine for kennel cough. We need workers who will keep up paperwork and if a dog is moved to another run, they need to have sense enough to move the paperwork with the dog. Dogs need to be intaken one at a time, given the vaccines, the paperwork filled out, the run they are to be put in decided and the paperwork put in the proper file folder. It really does not take a rocket scientist to do that but the people they hire are so dumb and ignorant they cannot do this simple task. We need people with smarts who can use Frontline Spray. We need someone who can "read" dogs and put dogs that will get along together in runs. We are overloaded with beagles. Beagles are great about getting along yet they are scattered now through the pound in runs with 60 pound dogs. Why are the bealges not in runs together? We need someone we can speak to and understand. I'm sorry, I do not speak "hillbilly".

I'm sure I have more to say but I will close now. I am totally disgusted over poor Old Max. Thankfully he is alive today.

Regards,

Julia Sharp