Readers may be growing tired of hearing about the festering imbroglio out at Metro Louisville’s Animal Services Department. We are certainly waxing weary of writing about this scandal. Wednesday, Metro Animal Services director, Dr. Giles Meloche, appeared before the Metro Council budget hearings, ostensibly to defend his agency’s budget request. The hearing soon turned inquisitional, with several councilmen asking pointed questions about the operations of Louisville’s dog pound. The agency is already under investigation by the city and the state for allegations of mismanagement.
Dr. Giles Meloche defended his agency, saying there had been no misappropriations, even while Animal Services had increased the number of adoptions. As for a state inspection that called his facility overcrowded, Meloche said he hadn't seen any overcrowding, and that the state does not inspect his facility. When shown a copy of the highly-critical state inspection report, after the meeting, by WDRB-FOX-41 reporter Bennet Haberle, Meloche professed ignorance of the report or of any state inspection.
Councilman Downard, chairman of the Metro's Government Oversight and Accountability Committee, has asked Metro’s Office of Internal Auditor to investigate allegations that Metro Animal Service's satellite adoption center in Middletown has been selling animals for cash, with apparently no financial records of the transactions. Last April, Downard said: "I can tell you on the first glance … there is an allegation being made of significant financial mismanagement. There are apparently not a lot of records for thousands of dollars of activity. From their answers, I can tell it's … financial mismanagement and it reminds me of what happened in the housing investigation."
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Dr. Giles Meloche
Dr. Meloche, who was nominated in 2003 by the
Tallahassee Rotary Club for their Ethics In Business Award, has been under almost constant criticism since his arrival in Louisville, in the summer of 2005. Appointed as Director of Metro Animal Services by Mayor Jerry Abramson, after a “national search,” he replaced Eric Blow, who retired after leading the agency for more than 27 years. At the time, Mayor Abramson praised Dr. Meloche as “…the person to lead Metro Animal Services to a new day.” Abramson claimed Meloche “…has a history of improving the agencies he’s worked with and making them more efficient and responsive to the community.”
But a check into the Canadian Veterinarian’s public past reveals a series of conflicts and concerns. The Louisville Kennel Club has compiled a significant file detailing Meloche’s work history, which includes a guilty administrative plea in Canada for improper record keeping of a controlled substance, termination from a job in Durham, N.C., for failing to follow the chain of command, and a controversy in Tallahassee, Fla., that centered around his philosophy of animal control.
According to a complaint filed with the Disciplinary Committee of the Order of Veterinary Physicians of Quebec, a professional organization, between May 1993 and April 1995, Meloche acquired 69 bottles of Winstrol, an anabolic steroid regulated by Canadian government, which also requires strict record-keeping of all sales of the drug. Eventually Meloche was unable to account for sales of 27 bottles, and in December 1995 he pleaded guilty to an administrative charge of failing to keep adequate records for a controlled substance and failure “to write a suitable veterinary prescription.” He was ordered to pay $2,800 in fines, plus the costs of handling the complaint. His veterinary license was not revoked, and he did not apply for renewal when it expired in 2001.
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In March 2001, Meloche was hired as animal control administrator for the city of Durham, N.C., a job he kept for 10 months before being terminated. In February of 2002, he became director of the Tallahassee-Leon Community Animal Services Center, and controversy seemed to follow him.
Steven George, writing in
LEO magazine, tells about the time Animal Services employee Sheree Connolly and two co-workers wrote an anonymous letter to Tallahassee officials in October 2002, citing four instances where animals were improperly treated under Meloche’s care. One case mentioned in the letter dealt with a husky-mix puppy with a bad leg, which Meloche decided to treat himself. He took the animal home that night, but it died of aspirin toxicity. It received too many painkillers. Connolly said the three were informed that, unless someone was willing to claim authorship of the letter, nothing would be done. Connolly said she admitted writing the letter and was fired shortly thereafter. She sued the city as a whistleblower, she said, and ultimately settled out of court. Meloche resigned the Tallahassee job in October 2004. He said the reason was politics: too many people getting in the way of his “vision.”
WAVE-TV reporter
Connie Leonard tried several times to interview Dr. Meloche to discuss problems with Metro Animal Services, but was repeatedly rebuffed. When she finally got Mayor Abramson to order an interview, Meloche hired an attorney, and then refused to discuss the matter, based upon legal advice.
The Louisville Kennel Club has published a considerable amount of background material on Dr. Meloche, and local reporters Steven George, Connie Leonard, and Bennet Haberle have performed an admirable public service in vetting Meloche, albeit after the fact. Too bad Mayor Abramson didn’t do his homework before hiring the controversial Canadian.
WDRB-FOX-41’s Bennet Haberle reports:
Comments
Glad someone has finally investigated this guy's past. Despite his award from the Rotary Club in Tallahassee, his reputation quickly fell apart-especially in regard to animal care. It should also be noted that the animal communtiy in Tally protested his consideration at shelters we knew he had applied to. Louisvile should have seen this coming.
The controversy will not end until he leaves. Just as in Tally.
Then again, when is somebody going to investigate hizzoner?
Why did he make such a selection for animal services, and why doesn't that pesky metro council have some sort of confirmation process for these appointments?
Please allow me to share an experience I've kept to myself for many years. I was on a flight to Seattle seated behind JA during his first life term. It surprised me that he was in first class, since a few years earlier I sat next to Tennessee's governor, Lamar Alexander, who occupied a middle seat in coach on the same flight.
Somewhere over Montana, a woman on our flight was stricken with a heart attack. The craft dove to the ground and taxied at probably 70 mph to a waiting ambulance in Billings.
Since the airplane's medical oxygen was used up treating the passenger, it had to be replenished. Alas, Delta had no presence in Billings and had to shop other airlines for the required O2. It took a while and JA was having none of it.
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His Dishonor started raising a fuss with the crew that was not only hopeless but also embarrassing. I was bobbing and weaving...hoping nobody would consult a manifest and find out I was from Louisville. If it were post 9/11, he probably would have been removed from the flight. As it was, the captain finally had to tell him to chill.
I'm not sure people in this community know enough about this guy. The C-J covers puddles in his path with their rags, and I don't believe LEO knows his name (at least not beyond "savior").
Lamar went on to become Secretary of Education and U.S. Senator. Second-life-term-first-class Jerry is still, well, mayor. Hmmmmm.
In answer to your leading question, yes, the MAS scandal will end when Meloche goes and his lot of sorry todies with him. And the Mayor is welcome to leave too.
At least the Rotary Club just nominated Meloche for an award. Our Mayor hired him.
On the contrary, I'm unhappy that more of the horror stories I'm hearing aren't being reported on TV or being written about. Apparently enough people aren't upset enough to let their council representatives know they want Meloche fired.
It appears the Courageless Jounal doesn't find any of this newsworthy. But then that's why I don't find them subscription worthy.
And now we're going to get an new adoption center instead of a real animal shelter? What a joke-on the tax payers. Don't ask Meloche how that's going to work unless you like hearing nonsense.
Thanks for this excellent and factual story. Now I know where to come for real journalism in Louisville Metro. Keep on keepin on.
Excellent article! Wish we had more sites like yours that tells the TRUTH about Dr. Meloche and Mayor Jer. Why, oh why, can't we get these two out of town - Meloche back to Canada and Mayor Jer back to - I don't know - just pick a place (preferably thousands of miles from Louisville). Not enough people KNOW what is happening in the dog/cat community - this harassment needs to STOP!
The award from the Rotary Club was requested to try to raise the importance of Animal Services per a member of the Tallahassee Leon County Advisory Board. This reign of terror must end. Jumping through windows seizing people's precious pets, violating the civil rights of citizens, trampling on the Constitution and making up laws and then enforcing is the Meloche protocol. This is all supported by Meloche's distain for poor people. Under oath, in a legal proceeding, when asked"so you don't think that the fact that they have to pay a fee- a higher fee discourages people?" Meloche answered, " No, not poor people. First, we know one thing, they barely go to veterinary clinics. Should the fee of the veterinary clinic be lower to accommodate them,maybe, maybe not. But it's everything, the kind of food that they're going to buy, if they buy some. Most of the cruelty that I've seen-that we see are from, of course, poor neighborhoods, and it's a dynamic." This must end!!!!!
One additional comment. In Canada, unlike the United States veterinarians and physicians are regulated by their licensing boards. An injured party cannot sue in court but must have an action brought by the licensing board. Those Boards regulate malpractice, drug related crimes, and the professions in general. That is why the guilty plea in Canada and the malpractice finding of veterinary negligence are so significant
It seems the mayor's office did not exercise due diligence in hiring Dr. Meloche and is now paying for it. The answer to the question, will the scandal ever end is NO!!!!! Stay tuned as Dr. Meloche's cozy deals with animal shelters continue to come to light. Stay tuned as Dr. Meloche continues to stomp all over our rights to own pets with his gestapo tactics. Stay tuned as Dr. Meloche will avoid being interviewed by the press no matter what! It is clear to me that the mayor wants this dark cloud of LMAS mismanagement, draconian legislation, and scandal to be part of his legacy for Louisville metro.
This scandal ain't done yet! Meloche's disdain for "po' folk" is, I believe, the underlying reason that weeks and weeks of pleas from the West End about dangerous dogs loose on the streets went unanswered by Metro Animal Services in 2005, and Hulon Barbour paid the price for Meloche's negligence with his life. That opened the door for the unholy messenger of HSUS to rewrite our dog ordinance and give this man illegal superpowers with no oversight--basically propping open the door to the henhouse for the fox to enter.
Now, we are watching a story unfold insofar as Meloche's cavalier attitude over dog bites/rabies in this town at a time when rabies outbreaks are skyrocketing here & in surrounding states. Who's going to be the next victim of Meloche's ineptitude?
And another thing: How did a man who, by Metro's own job requirement, is NOT QUALIFIED to hold his position get hired? And why, when it has been repeatedly pointed out to the JerrMeister for YEARS that Meloche can't legally hold his job, does Jerry continue to smile and say "Meloche is my man!"?
What part of "illegal" does our good mayor not comprehend? Why are we paying someone not qualified to hold his job $100K a year?
Why was the only background check ever done on Meloche a check for outstanding parking tickets with no investigation of his previous two jobs?
Why was his nefarious past in re: employment and legal issues kept from the search committee that recommended he be hired?
Perhaps there's a good reason every precint & firehouse in Jefferson County has a picture of Jerry with a target painted on it...
Yep, the job description lists under special requirements: must be eligible to be a peace officer in Kentucky. Filed the request in 2006.
He allowed himself to be sworn in and then resigned that office.
Of course he has to be a peace officer. He's enforcing our ordinance. He set up many of the ordinance provisions so that he was the sole enforcer on certain points.
Either he meets the job requirements or he doesn't. Why is the county attorney having such a difficult time answering this question?
When we're paying Meloche 100 K a year, I expect him to have all the belles and whistles he's suppose to come with.
And don't forget, one of the belles and whistles that the Mayor was so excited about was the MBA. I am so not seeing any credible evidence that it's being used at LMAS. Is there a language problem? Did the man learn his degree in French and can't interpret it into English? There has to be a reason for the poor audit in 2007 and the investigative audit taking place now.
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