As improvements continue at Indianapolis Animal Care & Control (IACC), a small group, including the Humane Society of Indianapolis and councilors move to oust new IACC administrator in secret session

Apparently the rumor mill felt that it was necessary to churn out the most idiotic idea possible and they came up with a doozy. It seems a couple of local animal welfare groups are insisting that I (Greg Brush) have accepted a job at IACC.

With news coverage from all the local TV stations, Indianapolis Animal Care & Control's $4 adoption event on July 4th was a smashing success. People could come to the shelter, or to any of the Petsmart stores where IACC animals are available for adoption and adopt a dog or cat for $4. That price includes spay/neuter, vaccinations and even an identification microchip! At noon it was reported that the IACC parking lots were full and cars were backed up all the way out to Harding Street!

As most of you may have heard by now, Doug Rae has been hired as the new administrator of Indianapolis Animal Care & Control. As Mr. Rae said during the public portion of the interview process, Indianapolis is poised to undergo a revolution in animal welfare. With a new director at Humane Society of Indianapolis, and a new administrator at IACC, there is great reason to hope! Mr. Rae has an impressive resume' of reform in animal shelters, most recently bringing the 'save rate' in Philadelphia up to 72% in only 12 months. Bear in

Three weeks after two independent investigators substantiated claims of mistreatment of animals and violation of laws at Indianapolis Animal Care & Control, and the subsequent resignation of IACC Administrator Steve Talley, more disturbing reports of suffering and death within the facility are surfacing.

Late last night I received the investigators' reports. There is a bit of confusion since the reports are substantially similar and both seemed to be signed by Joan Isaacs, but only one was signed by Karen Jensen. I presume the confusion will be addressed at the hearing this afternoon.

Report submitted solely by Joan Isaacs

Report submitted under Karen Jensen and Joan Isaacs' names

The full text of the grievance filed August 10th, 2008 with the IACC advisory board, complete with all attachments, as well as a complete archive of full-resolution photos depicting various conditions within IACC is now available as a .zip archive file. The file can be downloaded by clicking here. Please note that the file is 16MB due to the large number of high-resolution photographs. People using Windows XP or later should have no trouble opening the archive.

We received a notice from the Erin Pratt in Public Safety that the hearing and IACC board meeting would be in the Public Assembly room on the 2nd floor of the City-County building, NOT in room 260, as had been stated previously.

This update is long overdue, and I apologize for that. My last update e-mail asked many critical questions about the upcoming grievance. Fortunately, someone passed that e-mail along to Mr. Newman who was kind enough to spend time responding to the questions, as well as assuring me that his aggressive, prosecutorial demeanor at the August 13th board meeting was not at all an expression of bias. So apparently the considerable number of us who interpreted it that way were all mistaken, as Mr. Newman was actually supporting our right

Indianapolis, Ind., August 10, 2008– In a letter of grievance filed today with the Indianapolis Animal Care & Control (IACC) advisory board, a group of over 50 citizens cited multiple violations of Indianapolis law and examples of animal mistreatment within the IACC shelter.

Most disturbing was the account of a cat supposedly euthanized and left for dead, but found alive and in pain hours later, and evidence that there may be deliberate alteration of official kennel records to conceal failure to provide timely treatment for a seriously ill animal.