ATL, GA: Fulton Co. Shelter Director's Jere Alexander's Dog Fighting Connections

November 18, 2008

Keep reading...news link is provided, as well as details below in the long e-mail, but for the short version, go here:

http://www.dogsbite .org/blog/ 2008/10/i- team-fox- 5-news-breaks- story-on. html

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READ/CROSSPOST - THIS IS ALL THE MORE REASON THAT EVERYONE THAT IS ABLE TO ATTEND THE FULTON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING ON WED., NOV 19, AT 10:00AM ---> BE THERE!!

“The fact that Fulton County was "duped" into playing patsy to this effort is amazing. There is no solution that would be acceptable except voiding the contract with Barking Hounds and prosecuting those who attempted to take advantage of the laws and ultimately cause unheard of suffering to animals they were trusted to protect.”

Fox 5 News reports that Jere Alexander "released" the feral cats and that her rescue group, Nine Lives, offered no proof that the cats had been sterilized. (Feral cat programs, also called Trap-Neuter- Return, only "release" the cats after they have been sterilized). When confronted by Randy Travis, Alexander, said she needed to "investigate" the allegations. Former employee, Myles Swain, surmises that the disappearance of the cats helped the shelter reduce its "kill rate."

The Fox story also reports that Sherri Self, who was hired as a "shelter vet tech" is now the third former employee on record complaining of Alexander's questionable policies. Self admitted in the Fox 5 investigation that Alexander did indeed remove feral cats from the shelter that were not altered. What wasn't clear from the interview was the prior connection with Alexander and Self with a group called the Georgia APBT Association.

David York, the owner of Barking Hounds Village Foundation, fired Self in October saying that she "falsified her time sheet." The real question to be asked was whether Self's firing was an attempt to cover up the role that both woman played in connection to a highly lucrative dog fighting business.

Self was one of the first hires of Alexander, served as the president of the Georgia APBT Association in 2007 when Alexander was the Vice President and whose husband last week pleaded guilty to a felony charge of transporting dogs for fighting.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitutio n (AJC) newspaper reports that Jere Alexander signed out 83 feral cats at the Fulton County animal shelter. She gave the cats to an unlicensed "rescue" organization that she herself operates. Authorities could not determine what happened to the innocent cats.

Perhaps the cats became bait animals for pit bulls. ????

The AJC reports that one evening -- after Jere and Rocky signed out 19 cats -- longtime kennel manager Myles Swain, who was later fired by Jere, confronted the director the next day. Alexander told Swain that she took the cats to a rescue organization called Nine Lives, a "trap, neuter and release" group. Over a four month period, Nine Lives took 83 cats from the shelter, more than twice the number taken by all other groups. A subsequent investigation showed that Jere ran the cat organization.

Was Swain firing a deliberate attempt to silence and discredit him for questioning why the feral cats were suddenly disappearing from the shelter? While Swain surmised that the cats were simply released into the community "unaltered" a more accurate allegation is that Alexander disposed of the cats as bait animals for pit bulls. With Alexander's close ties to criminals involved in the dog fighting culture there is a huge market for bait animals with her having an unlimited access to supply that need. Further, while waste resources on vetting and altering animals that are simply doomed to be killed anyway?

"Rescue groups that take animals from shelters must be licensed by the state Department of Agriculture, but officials found no such records. An investigation by the department last week found Alexander ran the rescue group. But it could not determine what happened to the cats, including whether they were neutered or released. Charles Woody, who was listed on the form as a vet who neutered the cats for Nine Lives, said Friday he never heard of the group."

If I took 83 animals out of my county shelter and failed to provide documentation that they were indeed altered I would probably be needing a VERY GOOD attorney to explain myself. Alexander IS an attorney but apparently not a very good one or she would have known this.

The AJC also reported that Alexander and her husband, Rocky, took home one especially aggressive pit bull named "Beast" from the Fulton County shelter. They never returned the dog. Beast was being held at the shelter as evidence in a criminal dogfighting case.

How was Alexander allowed to take a dog being held in a criminal dog fighting case out of the shelter and what became of that unaltered dog - who probably could be sold for a large sum of money?

It is imperative that charges be brought for Alexander's involvement in violating the law that requires spay/neutering of ALL pets pulled from shelters - even those destined to be killed as bait.

Jere Alexander resigned earlier this month after Fox 5 news investigators exposed multiple dangerous, if not criminal, actions taken by Alexander while serving as the director. (Please see: I-Team, Fox 5 News, Breaks Story on Fulton Animal Shelter). Among other things, Jere made a vicious dog ticket "disappear" after a pit bull attacked 5 children waiting for a school bus; she allowed pit bulls in the Fulton County animal shelter to terrorize and kill other dogs; and she broke county laws by chaining her own pit bulls.American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) Group Linked to Dogfighters

Early on once Alexander was hired by Barking Hounds to take over as Fulton County 's shelter director one of her first hires was a pit bull breeder, Sherri Self, whose husband, Tony Self, was under indictment for transporting fighting dogs. According to the AJC, Sherri's husband, Tony Self, pleaded guilty last week to a felony charge of transporting dogs for fighting and was sentenced to a year in prison.

The AJC also noted that Jere's husband, Rocky Alexander, wrote on a website that he is "a professional canine behaviorist, trainer, handler, historian and conditioner" who grew up in Washington State in an area where "a professional dogfight was as normal as a baseball game."

Alexander also ran a website (pitarchive.org) with advisers who had dogfighting- related charges in their pasts: Tom Garner and T.L. Williams. Sherri Self is also the former president of the Georgia American

Pit Bull Terrier Association. Alexander served as the Vice President of this group as recently as 2007.

With ALL that is known about Jere Alexander how did she ever qualify to be hired to run the Fulton County animal shelter? These are the questions that demand answers from David York and the Fulton County Commissioners who awarded this contract.

There is a "direct" link between an APBT group and dogfighters. It has long been suggested that those heavily involved in the multi million dollar dog fighting industry that has taken down such high profile and wealthy participants like Michael Vick would be well advised to infiltrate our legal system, the shelters and governmental entities to protect their interests. The fact that Alexander's supporters point to her being an "attorney" only means that if called on she is qualified to defend criminals caught violating the new laws enacted to take down this industry.

The fact that Fulton County was "duped" into playing patsy to this effort is amazing. There is no solution that would be acceptable except voiding the contract with Barking Hounds and prosecuting those who attempted to take advantage of the laws and ultimately cause unheard of suffering to animals they were trusted to protect.

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