(McAdam/ImageChef)
This has been a difficult fortnight for Dr. Gilles Meloche, the outgoing (employment-wise, if not personality-wise) director of Louisville’s Metro Animal Services Department (LMAS). Even though he has resigned—effective December 31—he is apparently still hanging around; and the black cloud of allegations of misfeasance, malfeasance, sexual harassment, and animal cruelty generated during his four-year reign is also still hanging around. And growing:
- A lawsuit filed last week in federal court alleges that Meloche and other animal control officers misused the city's animal ordinance to seize citizens' dogs as part of an effort to make revenue for the city.
- In Jefferson Circuit Court last week, former animal care manager Dawn M. Simpson filed a lawsuit accusing Meloche of "unwanted sexual touching," claiming Meloche "hugged her from behind and kissed her" at restaurant with other co-workers present. Simpson resigned in August, claiming others had retaliated against her.
Dr. Meloche (FOX-41)
- Bennett Haeberle, the FOX-41 investigative reporter who has been dogging (irresistible metaphor) Meloche for the past several months, has discovered that the Metro Animal Services' facility on Manslick Road has been without heat since the August 4th flood. During that nearly three-month period, temperatures have dropped into the mid-30s five times, and, after volunteers complained about the lack of heat for the animals, three new furnaces were installed last week.
- Earlier this year, Haeberle uncovered instances where receipts appeared to have been altered and animals could not be accounted for. A recent city auditor's report found "inadequate controls" between LMAS and a satellite adoption center, the Animal Adoption Agency in Middletown. Metro Animal Services is still conducting an internal review over records that might have been intentionally lost, concealed, or destroyed.
- A dog at the LMAS impoundment had to be put down recently after it ate through its stitches and its intestines fell out.
(McAdam/ImageChef)
- Andy Alcock, reporter for WLKY-32, discovered that thousands of euthanized dogs and cats from LMAS have been dumped at the Outer Loop landfill over the past three years. LMAS averages about 650 animals put down each month, and after three years, it's likely that more than 20,000 animal corpses have been dumped at the landfill. LMAS has no working incinerator at the facility; despite the fact that Metro government approved bids for a new incinerator more than three years ago, and the Metro Council appropriated funds for the installation.
The demise of Dr. Meloche was occasioned by a firestorm of criticism from Louisville’s electronic and alternative media. The Canadian veterinarian has been the target of almost constant disparagement 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.” Meloche has faced mounting criticism in recent months including allegations of mismanagement, sexual harassment, killing kittens without anesthesia, and citizens who complained of adopting sick animals.
Cat's revenge?
As we previously reported, local reporters Steven George, Connie Leonard, Rick Redding, Andy Alcock, and Bennet Haberle performed admirably over the past few months in bringing Dr. Meloche’s misfeasance and malfeasance to light. The Courier-Journal, on the other hand, mostly ignored the story; or ran truncated articles palpably biased in favor of Meloche and his mayoral mentor.
Dan Klepal, the C-J’s City Hall and local government reporter, is an excellent journalist. Meticulously accurate, he not only gets his facts straight, but he usually adds enough background to his reports to allow his readers to understand the broader context of his stories. Which makes it all the more curious when his recent article about the Meloche lawsuits was sanitized almost beyond recognition.
Missing from Klepal’s piece was the gross language Meloche was accused of using in front of male and female staff alike. When then-Sen. Hillary Clinton defeated Sen. Barack Obama in Kentucky's Democratic primary in May 2008, Meloche allegedly remarked "These rednecks would rather have a (crude word referring to a woman’s anatomy) than a (crude word referring to African-Americans)."
Where Meloche was accused of repeatedly telling animal services workers about his tight relationship with the mayor in an effort to prevent any complaints, referring to that relationship being like "gay love," Klepel euphemistically reported: “The suit also claims that Meloche bragged to employees about having a close relationship with Abramson.”
Readers are left to conclude that Klepel’s article was bowdlerized by the C-J editors, in an effort to tone down the poor reflection such language casts upon Dr. Meloche, and, by association, upon Mayor Abramson.
The reasons for expurgating Meloche’s salacious language become more obvious when one reads the C-J editorial on l’affaire Meloche in Saturday’s paper:
After four years, the controversial and sometimes stormy tenure of Dr. Gilles Meloche as director of the Louisville Metro Department of Animal Services is coming to an end. He will step down Dec. 31. He says he's had enough of the sniping, and that personal attacks create too much pressure and too many distractions.
Some of the criticism — such as that he carelessly or incompetently permitted impounded animals to drown during the August flooding — is baseless… Some of it stems from the crossfire of sometimes irreconcilable and strident demands of various animal-protection and dog-owner groups. Other comes from relentless political backbiting from critics such as Metro Councilman Kelly Downard.
Dr. Meloche deserves much of the praise he received from Mayor Abramson. He was indeed a “change agent” who “professionalized” the department, as the Mayor said. The Mayor's Office insists that many more dogs and cats are adopted now than four years ago, and fewer are euthanized. That is a good thing by any reckoning.
One is left to wonder what sort of depredation, high-crime, or misdemeanor Dr. Meloche would have to commit before earning the censure of the C-J editorial board. Wife-beating? Smoking on the job? Feeding trans-fats to the doggies?
Watch the video: FOX-41’s Bennett Haeberle reports
Read More: Kennel Club report on Dr. Meloche
Read previous Louisville City Hall Examiner reports:
Louisville dogcatcher describes relationship with mayor as being like “gay love”
Louisville dog catcher put down by Mayor
Will Louisville’s mayor fire a kitten killer?
Latest Metro Animal Services scandals brewing
Louisville Metro Animal Services scandal continues
Will Metro Animal Services scandal ever end?
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