Monroe animal control officer cleared of wrong doing - KNOE 8 News; KNOE-TV; KNOE.com |

MONROE, La. (KNOE 8 News) - The slate is clean for a Monroe animal control officer accused of abusing animals on the job. "The action did take place but it was justified." said Chief of Police Quentin Holmes. After a lengthy internal investigation, involving lie detector tests, interviews, and reenactments; animal control officer Demond Cotton, is cleared from any wrong doing. "The process for this investigation was very thorough and we used every tool possible" said Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo. 

The findings concluded officer Cotton did shoot a mother dog and wounded another dog so badly, he chose to kill it on the spot. But according to the police department, his actions were justifiable because the dogs were acting "aggressively."

"Now that the investigation has concluded he won't be reassigned to animal welfare until he gets the proper training, the most updated training, the most updated equipment that can help him and us do our job better." said Holmes.

Both Chief Quentin Holmes and Mayor Jamie Mayo admit the incident, uncovered that current animal control policies and procedures (written in 1991) need to be updated. Moving forward, a committee will be created to help shape new guidelines. But as for when new training policies will be enacted, Holmes isn't sure. "I can't give a timeline but it will be as expediently and as thoroughly as possible, we don't want to half train him, so to speak."
Holmes says Cotton has been an animal control officer for nearly 10 years, but will not work with animals again until his new training is completed.

Animal care professionals attended an "invitation only" meeting with Chief Holmes earlier this afternoon to hear input on how to better improve their department.