There is more bad news about the city’s long-problematic animal shelter, BARC, although as usual, it doesn’t seem to be a priority for anyone in city government.
At the end of January, the Houston Press‘ Craig Malisow posted the latest news of BARC’s (alleged) mismanagement, animal suffering, and indifference from city leaders.
About the same time, the Chronicle‘s Bill Murphy reported further instances of (alleged) animal suffering at the hands of a seemingly incompetent veterinarian (David Rundell, since suspended).
Last week, BARC made news again when it terminated part-time veterinarian Gil Costas, whom animal-rights activists have praised as a whistleblower who has called attention to BARC’s dismal practices and management. Craig Malisow took apart the city’s official reason for the firing of Costas in this blog post. A related blog post from Malisow suggests that there may have been other motivation for the firing:
Costas in 2008 accused Rundell of animal cruelty by neglecting to euthanize a dying puppy in a timely manner, allowing it to sit on a cold cement floor for hours while Rundell performed other duties, such as taking a cigar break. In a subsequent Houston Police Department Inspector General’s investigation, Rundell accused Costas of fabricating the complaint as a retaliation for accusations Rundell previously made against Costas. (Those accusations including the falsifaction of medical records.)
Sources for the Houston Press’s recent story on problems at BARC described Costas as a compassionate, competent veterinarian.
In his complaint to then-BARC Director Kent Robertson about Rundell’s alleged animal cruelty, Costas seemingly foretold his future: “More often than not, employees at BARC tend to not want to be involved. There have been examples in the past where the messenger ends up suffering the consequences.”
Unfortunately, attempting to squelch the messenger by firing him probably won’t improve the dismal, even inhumane, conditions at BARC. Indeed, from the sounds of things, the facility apparently has now chased a desperately needed caring and capable vet at a time when it is shorthanded.
For reasons we cannot fathom, Mayor White apparently has no interest in fixing the ongoing problems at BARC, even though it seems fairly clear that his 2005 task force that supposedly dealt with the issue hasn’t accomplished much. Perhaps he’s too busy furthering the interests of Houston’s powerful (via The Houston Way) to bother with trivial matters like humane care for animals. Perhaps he’s too busy running for Senate. Who knows?
However, we are pretty sure that as Mayor White’s Senate campaign cranks up, some opposition researcher/strategist is going to ask the following question: Why in the world does Bill White hate puppies?
If he continues to look the other way as BARC’s ongoing problems are documented by local media, maybe it’s not such an outrageous question to ask.
