State Senator defends dumping pregnant dog at kill shelter
By Christie Keith
April 6, 2008
I get tired of the endless blaming of pet owners who bring their animals to shelters when they can’t keep them anymore, given how few resources most communities have to help them find ways to do that, and the increasing housing crisis that’s devastating this country right now.
But here’s one guy who gets absolutely zero sympathy from me. He’s South Carolina’s State Senator Kent Williams, also the deputy administrator of Marion County, and the dog lists and blogs have been buzzing for a week with reports that he had dumped his pregnant German Shepherd at the local kill shelter.
However, not everything you read on the Internet is true (shock!), and I couldn’t find any corroboration of this story. None of the people reporting it responded to emails asking for more details, and since I lost my voice three days ago to some hideous respiratory virus, I wasn’t able to follow up with phone calls as I had planned.
Friday the story was published in a South Carolina news outlet, and picked up by Yahoo News. And far from being not as bad as reported, it’s worse.
Marion County’s deputy administrator, said he was only trying to help when he adopted three animals from the Marion County Animal Shelter late last year.
Williams said his brother has one of the dogs, his mother has another and he kept a female German shepherd. His dog was kept in an enclosed fenced area of his yard, he said, with an automatic feeder and watering device for the dog’s comfort.
But things did not go well for the dog and Williams.
The dog soon became a nuisance and jumped the fence frequently. Williams decided around March 19 to have the county animal control officer pick up the dog and return it to the Marion County Animal Shelter, from which he adopted it.
Once Williams returned the dog to the shelter, it was evident it had become pregnant. Just a few days after its arrival, it delivered eight puppies.
It turns out that state law requires all pets adopted from shelters be spayed or neutered after adoption (hint to South Carolina: that needs to be before adoption, ya think?). Why didn’t the good Senator comply with the law?
Williams said he did not have the dog spayed because he hoped to breed her.
Williams said he didn’t just dump the dog out, he was trying to find someone to care for her. He also said he fully intended to retrieve the dog if she was not adopted.
“I stand by my decision (to return the dog). I don’t know of a better alternative. I love dogs, but believe I was doing the right thing to return it to the shelter so it could be readopted. The action I took was in the best interest of the dog …,” Williams said by telephone earlier this week. “It could have gotten killed along the highway. And if I truly didn’t care about the dog, I probably could have just let it roam. As a citizen, I exercised my right to surrender the animal to the shelter.”
This man is an elected official, making decisions for the state of South Carolina. He adopted three dogs, gave two of them away, threw his unspayed female GSD out in an insecure pen in the yard with an automated watering and feeding system, wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to keep her from escaping her pen, and oh yeah, apparently is deputy administrator of a county that has an animal control system that sounds like the poster child for the shelter reform movement:
(Shelter director Jerry) Coleman said he would like for everyone to understand that no one wants to ever put a dog to sleep, but that the population of animals gets out of control and it is the only viable control option.
Others disagree and say finding the dogs home, educating the public about the state’s laws and having responsible pet owners spay or neuter animals are the only viable control options.
[...]
The Marion County Animal Shelter is off U.S. 76 behind the Marion County Prison Camp. It has one part-time employee, and inmates work at the site to help keep it open. Built in March 1997, it is under the direction of Coleman, who also serves as the Marion County public buildings and grounds director.
There are 27 pens for dogs and several cages for cats upstairs in the old potato barn redesigned for use. This past year, the county spent about $16,000 in improvements to the shelter.
The dog, now named Gretchen, gave birth to her puppies in the shelter, and fortunately they all got into the hands of rescue and are doing fine. [UPDATE: Gretchen may not be doing fine. There is a report that she was severely undernourished (does not appear to be from her photos, but I wouldn't want to judge by that), and that there were no rabies vaccination records for her. She bit the rescuer who took her and her puppies, and according to one story, she's had to be treated as unvaccinated. I don't know what that means in this case, specifically, nor even if it's accurate, but it was reported here. This story is time dated later than the other one, but the other one seems to have been updated more recently, so it's not clear which has the more current information.]
As the political blog FITSnews.com pointed out:
Assuming these accusations are true, this could develop into a really serious problem for Williams. How come? Well, for starters, the last time we checked people really, really like animals. As in a lot.
Yeah. We do.
Let me get this straight. A highly-placed elected state official took three dogs which were supposed to be sterilized after adoption and failed to do so (breach of state law), planned to breed one (possibly a breach of any adoption contract), gave away two (again, possibly a breach of any adoption contract), isolated a sexually intact female in an inadequate enclosure (cruel and just plain stupid), and then to remedy HIS abject failure to be a responsible dog owner, ditches the pregnant bitch at a high-kill shelter. He then double-talks about getting the dog back.
Spare the dog the agony. This man should not be allowed to have any animals.
This man should be removed from office. IMMEDIATELY.
The state should charge him if he breached state law by failing to sterilize the dogs after adoption, and sue him for any breaches of any adoption contract.
Hammer it home. This behaviour is unacceptable and the person will suffer the consequences.
Comment by Social Mange — April 6, 2008 @ 12:50 pm
“Williams said he did not have the dog spayed because he hoped to breed her.” - SUCCESS! Uh, congratulations?
Maybe she was emaciated because that automatic feeder he provided “for the dog’s comfort” didn’t have an automatic setting for ‘Feed significantly more if it appears the bitch is in whelp’.
Comment by slt — April 6, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
When I saw the story the other day - it had his email address on it - I made sure to let him know what I thought about him and also said that what goes around comes around and prayed that someday he would be out of work and homeless - begging on the street for the kindness of strangers.
Comment by cheryl — April 6, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
Working backwards, If SC is anything like my state, should a dog with no rabies record bites a person, it’s an automatic quarantine in a state approved facility, the expense to be borne by the owner. At any time, the dog can be destroyed so it’s brain can be analyzed for the virus.
He planned to breed the bitch (Why? Had he been given her AKC papers, including her CHIC records?) yet kept her in an insecure facility outside with automatic feeder and waterer? How much human contact did she have? No wonder she sought her pleasures elsewhere!
Although he was allowed to adopt this bitch and 2 other dogs without a spay/neuter contract from a shelter, and freely gave 2 of the dogs away without contacting the shelter, what rescue org in 2008 lets someone get away with this?????
People of SC elected this idjit to state office? Out-bloody-rageous all the way around! The amount of human made mistakes for which this poor bitch will have to suffer through no fault of her own just absolutely appalls me!
Comment by Deb — April 6, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
I note he didn’t even drop the dog off to the shelter, but made the control officer come and get it from his yard. Way to make an effort.
Comment by emily — April 7, 2008 @ 6:02 am
I live in an area where sh** like this happens and it makes me really, really angry.
Unfortunately, this type of issue is not rare. There usually are no consequences.
When I worked as an adoption counselor for one of the “no-kill” agencies in So. Cal. The kennel manager brought in a bitch who whelped in the shelter.
Puppies usually do get adopted but what a mess. The bitch attempted to attack me when I went in to assist with a pup in distress (I used my garbage can lid much like a gladiator)…so I image this animal was doing the same thing.
Anyway, in many cases most shelters will not make an issue or pursue actions because they want people to feel safe enough to bring animals in without fearing any consequences.
I’ve head employees state that they would rather have them in the shelter than face more dire consequences.
Never mind the mental deterioration and depression that I have seen in dogs relinquished again—look at her phono—does she look happy?
No, big trauma.
How about follow up on the part of the shelter?
Yep, make him the poster boy. After 30 years I am tired of seeing the SOS. (same old sh**)
Comment by Diana L Guerrero — April 7, 2008 @ 7:22 am
I get tired of it, too. Compassion fatigue…sigh…
Comment by Dr. Patty Khuly — April 7, 2008 @ 9:55 am
And something like this, I will not call it human, is getting paid in tax dollars?
If people in that state do not remove that vermin from office, within the week, then they deserve every nasty thing he does while in office.
Comment by Duaneisadork — April 7, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
And something like this, I will not call it human, is getting paid in tax dollars?
If people in that state do not remove that vermin from office, within the week, then they deserve every nasty thing he does while in office.
I don’t believe it is in fact possible to legally remove someone from office that quickly.
Comment by Lis — April 7, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
Just to let you the mother and the puppies are fine… the mother is a little underweight but that is due to the pregnancy. she and her puppies are in a very nice foster home right now before being adopted.
Comment by Sara — May 17, 2008 @ 11:07 am
How thoughtful of you to let us know. Thank you!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — May 17, 2008 @ 1:24 pm