Henley Pete Brock, a Director of Martin County Animal Control lost his job on February 19th after his licence was suspended by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
What he had done was to become, at least, very careless, probably callous and uncaring. It certainly looks like that. The Notice of Violation served on him stated that he “failed to adequately and humanely euthanize and verify the death of a cat” on February 9, 2015. What Mr Brock had done much to attempt to euthanise a cat. He thought the cat was euthanized and he placed the cat in the freezer where it was found alive the following morning.
Regrettably, this was not the only incident of this kind in which Mr Brock was involved. The second occurred on February 12th where it is said that he once again attempted to euthanize a cat and thinking he had succeeded he left his place of work without checking the cat was dead. The cat was alive. Another animal control officer took the cat to a veterinarian to complete the euthanasia.
The cat that was left in a freezer overnight, unsuccessfully euthanized, has survived and is doing okay.
In addition, Mr Brock failed to store substances used for euthanasia under lock and key and failed to properly document the use of these substances.
This is quite an enlightening story. It hints at callousness, as I have stated. It hints at a blasé approach to something as important and as serious as the deliberate killing of what was quite possibly someone’s domestic cat. There is so much of it; euthanasia which is really often better described as killing.
I have discovered that the licensed animal control organisation referred to in the first paragraph might be the same organisation who treat feral cats as pests and advertise that fact on their website (but see Dee’s comment below). I wrote a page about that some time ago. If it is the same organistation, Mr Brock has a callous and uncaring approach towards animals. The revocation of his license was the right thing to do.
I’m glad Brock lost his job and his licence, he should have been prosecuted for animal abuse too, imagine those poor cats waking up with poison in their bodies, it’s a miracle that one survived.
His behavior is a symptom of what is wrong with many shelters. A casual acceptance and approach to euthanasia.
I meant “Euthanasia Technician Certification” not “Anesthesia…whatever misspelled thing…”
I don’t believe that there is any association between Mr. Brock and The Animal Rangers.
It seems that Mr. Brock was employed by the Martin County Animal Shelter for 3 years before being promoted to Director of Animal Control for them. He didn’t hold any sort of state licensure; he, merely held an Anesthesia Technition Certification (those are usually issued by the county after completing a certain number of hours of training).
I believe that The Animal Rangers are a Florida based commercial business and not county employees anywhere.
Thanks Dee. It is bit confusing. Perhaps the source story is misleading. At least one thing is clear Mr Brock botched euthanasia on 2 occasions.