Houston BARC

My new home is in Liberty County, TX; NE of Houston.  But I maintain an interest in the City of Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation & Control (BARC) because they impact how animals are treated throughout the area.

BARC has been a mess for years; probably from it's beginnings.  There have been scandalous reports of their actions of late.  Here's a few: 1, 2, 3.  Lovely Mayor White has brought in a business consultant, a "turnaround specialist", Gerry Fusco, to head the agency.  Nope, he's not a veterinarian.  He was hired in mid July.  It's been about 6 weeks.  We know the chief veterinarian was fired because Fusco has his job.  We know another vet was fired because that happened before Fusco was hired.  Today's news says they're looking for a chief vet, staff vet, and 2 techs.  Have they been operating BARC without vets or techs for 6 weeks???

Maybe it is a good idea to bring in a non-vet to run BARC but, HEY, Mr. Specialist, duh, you need to find and hire some vets!  Oh, yes, I know finding competent ones around here is tough but you're getting a nice salary ($200,000+/year isn't it?)  Surely you can find a competent vet in Houston for about half that!  And hire a secretary to take your calls instead of referring them to the health department!

Mr. Fusco, the fact that you haven't hired appropriate staff and won't take calls make me suspect you're just on the City gravy train, no kind of turnaround specialist at all, just City of Houston business as usual - take the money and run and leave a wake of destruction in your path!

Liberty County, you're even more pathetic.  No animal shelter at all?  No formal organization for pet shelter or rescue?  On second thought, maybe that's better than BARC abusing animals.  Oh my, what a world we live in!

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