Bay County Florida officials are investigating an animal control employee who apparently did not follow proper shelter procedures. He reportedly took home a pig that had been surrendered to the facility, butchered it, then ate it. Animal lovers are outraged, while county officials are embarrassed and looking for answers.
Bay County officials are trying to find out how a pig, nicknamed "Fluffy" by animal shelter workers, wound up as dinner for one of their co-workers. The pig's owners turned it over to the shelter about 2 months ago. The official paperwork says the pig had some behavioral problems. Over the next 8 days, 2 people expressed interest in adopting "Fluffy." But they never got the chance.
On June 17th, shelter officials say an employee named Ivan Rogers took the pig home himself. "He slaughtered it, I hope humanely, I can't even think about that. But he slaughtered it and cut it up and ate it. It trusted everybody, it would oink at everybody and smile, kinda like Charlotte's Web, little pig. This shouldn't have happened," said Terry Watts, who rescues dogs and has volunteered at the shelter in the past.
"When people take their animals to Bay County Animal Control they expect that they will be treated humanely and re-homed if they can be. And if they can't be, they expect them to be humanely euthanized at the facility. That certainly is our expectation and we don't find any thing other than that acceptable," said Valerie Lovett, the Bay County Public Information Officer.
Although the pig was killed in June, the incident report wasn't issued until August 6th. "Part of the reason we are investigating the situation is to determine exactly what the timeline was and should people in management have been made aware of this situation sooner than they were made aware," said Lovett.
"The animal control facility does so much good in this community. They take in thousands and thousands of animals that aren't wanted and they make every effort that they can to re-home them. It's a very difficult job, a very difficult situation, and we are going to fully investigate this.
But the investigation won't bring "Fluffy" back. "I don't understand how people can do that. Look it in the face and kill it and then eat it. It broke my heart that someone could be that hideous."
County officials say Rogers has been reprimanded, but is still working at the animal shelter.
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