Monroe Animal control policy dates back to 1991 - KNOE 8 News; KNOE-TV; KNOE.com |

By Victoria Shirley

MONROE, La. (KNOE 8 News) - An internal investigation into Monroe's only animal control officer has wrapped up. But, the police department remains tight lipped about the subject Friday.

Witnesses say Monroe's only animal control officer abused and killed dogs with an air rifle at The Humane Society. President of the shelter, Ellen Hicks, attributes the violence to a lack of professional training. "This is not appropriate for Monroe. We don't want to have garnered national attention for anything as negative as this." said Hicks in an interview filmed earlier this month. After obtaining city documents, KNOE discovered the officer in question followed outdated loosely written policies, that lack official training guidelines, dating back to 1991.

Chief Holmes confirmed animal control training consists of "on the job training", meaning the officers predecessor provides the informal training, something Louisiana Animal Control Association President, Henry Wimbley, says isn't always good enough. "When one person trains another and another person trains another, it's like when you played that game in school, when one person is told in the first row something, and they relay it to the next and next and by the time it gets to the last person, everything is totally different." said Wimbley.

The association provides a yearly training conference, teaching workshops in everything from using humane animal treatments, to professionalism on the job, to animal control laws.
"The laws the rules, the procedures change yearly, people need to know this, so people can come in and know this stuff so they know they are doing things in accordance with the law."
Wimbley says it isn't too late for Monroe to attend and encourages their participation.

The National Humane Society has offered to provide a scholarship to the conference, if the animal control officer in question is removed from his post. Chief Holmes tells us he will release the findings of the internal investigation on Monday.