[…]Itchmo: News For Dogs & Cats » Blog Archive » Board Temporarily Suspends Tennessee Vet’s License Due To Illegal Euthanasia Method[…]

God bless you for all you do for the animals.

Dawn Bechtold
U.S. Animal Protection
www.usanimalprotection.org
www.animalshelterreform@yahoogroups.com

If anybody is reading this please help in case I’m wrong or did not state it right. Everybody does not understand the forms especially me. I have only posted on the forms a couple of times & then that got wiped out this week.

Stefani my e-mail in case i’m wrong. jennyart@verizon.net

HOW do I PM you to write you about the project to create a “bad vets” database? (filing FOIA requests)

I am sorry I can’t figure out how to PM members of this board —

stefani

Well, the page for the program is:

http://www.sumnersheriff.com/Homeward%20Bound.aspx

So I’m guessing we would either write the inmates c/o the Sheriff OR the Jail administrator?

Sheriff
Bob Barker
Postal Mail: 117 W. Smith Street Gallatin, TN 37066
Telephone: (615) 452-2616
Fax: (615) 230-5637
E-mail: bobbarker@sumnersheriff.com

Jail Administrator
Sonya Troutt
Postal Mail: 117 W. Smith Street Gallatin, TN 37066
Telephone: (615) 442-1843
E-mail: stroutt@sumnersheriff.com

Connie don’t you dare be quiet, please. I bet there is a lot of us reading the post & want to know. Please keep posting anything you know. Thanks for everything you have posted. Thanks to everybody else too, some like me wouldn’t know without you all. I keep seeing those poor babies & the way they died & don’t want it to just stop for awhile then start again.

I know that could not have been easy for them. It is shameful, positively shameful, that these inmates were part of a program that was supposed to help rehabilitate them, and this is what they were exposed to.

It really burned me up when I read about Homeward Bound this morning. I found it when I was searching for more info about Hank Thompson. Sumner County received an award for “Excellence in Government” for this program.

Shameful.

Baber didn’t deny what is going on but said he’s doing nothing wrong.

“There’s a difference between shelter medicine and veterinary medicine. It ain’t pretty,” he said. He referred all questions to Sumner County Executive Hank Thompson, who hired him.

“You know you’ll have people saying, ‘I can’t believe this is happening in our shelter,’” Finley told Thompson.

“Oh I’m sure, but like I say, we’ve hired a licensed veterinarian to do that. What else are we supposed to do?” Thompson said.

The county said it has gotten complaints before and told Baber to stop.

“I know several months ago, we talked to him about the heart shots shouldn’t be used and need to do it another way,” Thompson said.

“So you were very clear that the heart shot shouldn’t be used?” Finley said.

“Well, we talked about it months ago, and that was the complaint that they had,” said Thompson.

Baber wouldn’t talk about that but said that he did sedate some animals at the shelter.

“I do a difficult job to the best of my ability,” Baber said.

Shouldn’t we write to them care of Homeward Bound and thank them? Seems like they are more compassionate and ethical in this circumstance than many of those individuals and organizations they were sent to work for. We should give them some positive reinforcement for the good deed, and tell them how much we hope they don’t fall under hte influence of evil criminals like the vet at the shelter is.

Certainly, that program is not doing a good job of providing “positive role models” as they say they are supposed to if they are putting them places where they participate in this kind of carnage. Thankfully, there is more humanity left in these inmates apparently than in those they were working with, and it is the INMATES who are providing the positive role model here!

Stefani

“Just learned something about Hank Thompson. He announced in early October that he is battling lung cancer. He is receiving chemotherapy treatments at Vanderbilt University.”

You know, when I was young and naiive, I believed that trials and tribulations (such as, oh, fighting almost always-incurable-and-almost-always-fatal forms of cancer) made people more compassionate. This just goes to show how naiive that belief was.

Stefani

Homeward Bound
Sumner County Sheriff’s Office “Homeward Bound” Program

“Building Futures One Step At A Time”

· Sheriff Bob Barker and the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office are committed to improving the community for the citizens of our county. With this goal in mind, the Sheriff’s Office has partnered with volunteers who share in this commitment.

· There are people in our jail for a variety of reasons. Some never finished high school. Others never had the opportunity to learn any job skills. We have people in jail that have no idea how to open a checking account or to create a household budget. Together, we can help some of these people turn their lives around and they can become taxpayers instead of a tax burden.

· Homeward Bound is a program which helps provide inmates the opportunities and contacts needed to function when they are eventually released back to their communities. A great number of those inmates in county jails have substance abuse problems, emotional and cognitive problems and educational deficiencies that hinder their ability to find employment and cope with everyday life. Both research and history tell us there is a significant link between a lack of life skills, education, employment and incarceration.

· The purpose of the Homeward Bound program is to give prisoners the opportunity to engage in counseling, education and strategy to develop positive change in their lives and involve them in appropriate programming in order to make that change.

[b]· While incarcerated, eligible inmates have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of programs. Because we have partnered with a variety of community agencies, continued opportunities are available for inmates who are released.[/b]

· Staff and volunteers will be a support base for these inmates as they address the issues that keep bringing them back to jail. The staff and [b]sponsors will be there to provide a positive role model for the inmates, [/b]as well as insuring accountability as the inmate is prepared and ready for job placement while still incarcerated and working the program.

· By supporting inmate programs that promote positive change, family values, education, life skills, job readiness and placement, we can reduce recidivism and break the cycle of failure for many offenders. What is invested in these individuals today may be gained in productive citizens tomorrow.

One Step at a Time ….. To a Brighter Future

I also see that he is an elected official and his term is not up until 2010.

He was quoted in October as saying he expects to complete the remaining three years of his term.