‘We can work this out’ State inspector says St Louis Co. animal shelter could shut down if they fail more inspections
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - The state of Missouri plans to begin inspections of the St. Louis County Animal Shelter at the end of June. If the county does not the final inspection, it could be forced to shut down.
“We hope to patch everything up, we hope that St. Louis County gets into compliance,” said Matt Rold. “I see no reason why the facility shouldn’t be able to .”
Operations manager at the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Rold, who manages animal inspections, said if St. Louis County does not get its animal shelter in compliance by late September — especially due to the attention the shelter has garnered — the state may have no choice but to shut down the shelter.
“We can work this out amicably,” said Rold.
Right now, the shelter is unlicensed, after three failed inspections earlier this year, ranging from kennels too small and expired medications to bugs in the facility.
It’s been the focus of the St. Louis County Council, hearing testimony Thursday from five of the 11 people they subpoenaed.
“That we had too many animals in the shelter and didn’t have enough staff,” said Lee Jackson.
Jackson, former operations manager at the county’s Animal Care and Control, gave his reasoning for the failed inspections.
But a lack of a license isn’t the only focus of the council.
The shelter closed for weeks due to an outbreak of parvovirus, leading to the euthanasia of 19 dogs. Jackson was on PTO at the time but believes staff didn’t do daily checks of the dogs.
“You catch a lot of things and you won’t get out as bad as it got on this round,” said Jackson.
While Jackson is now retired, we learned he was put on istrative leave right before St. Louis County’s third failed inspection.
“I did ask them why and basically they didn’t have answers for me,” said Jackson.
And Jackson was not the only one pushed out. Former office manager at the shelter, Rebecca Rainwater, gave testimony and said she was demoted after the failed May inspection.
“They said I was nonresponsive to the state,” said Rainwater.
Rainwater says she was not told much more, other than there was a letter sent from Rold, the state inspector.
“Did you see the letter from Matt Rold?” said Councilman Mike Archer. “No, I did not,” said Rainwater.
“Did they ever present it to you?” said Archer. “No, they did not,” said Rainwater.
Rainwater now works at a different job at the health department with less pay and gave her answers right in front of her bosses, including Health Director Dr. Kanika Cunningham.
We still need to hear from six other people involved, including Dr. Doug Pernikoff, who Cunningham says made the sole decision to euthanize 19 dogs. We’ll hear from him in two weeks.
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