Dr. Sam Hyde: Rotary Club September 25th

More on the referenced bushwhacking here.

FBI crime data for Tangipahoa Parish.

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Battle of Lake Ponchartrain

On Oct. 16, 1779 after raids by so-called patriot, John Willing, into the British West Florida settlements of Natchez, Baton Rouge and Manchac, Edward Forman and 18 others signed oaths of allegiance to the “United Independent States of North America” in the presence of Capt. Pickles who had captured the British armed vessel on Lake Ponchartrain.

“We whose names or marks are here unto set and subscribed, being settlers and inhabitants on Lake Ponchartrain between the Bayou La Combe and the River Tanchipaho, do herby acknowlege ourselves to be natives as well as true and faithful subjects to the United Independent States of North America.

An whereas on the tenth day of last month, William Pickles, captain of the navy of the said States, did arrive in this lake and made prize of the English armed sloop, West Florida, wh had kept possession of the lake for near two years before, and the said William Pickles, Esquire, did on the twenty first of the same month, land some of his people, and take possession of this settlement and gave us all the protection against indians and others that his force would admit of, and suffered us to remain on our possessions till further orders; we, therefore, consider ourselves belonging to the said States, and are willing to remain here and enjoy our property and priviledges under them, the said United States.October 16, 1779.”

“Gerard Brandon, Alex McCollough, James Mosely, Mary Smith, Samuel Smith, James Farro, Abel Goffegon, Edward Foreman, Wm. Dakimore, Jacob Ambrose, Frederic Spell, Benj. Curtis, Wm. Fisher, Paul Pigg, Daniel Tuttle, Matt McCollough, Francis Fisher, John Spell, Wm. Steel” –Source, Mississippi as a Providence, Territory, and State, Claiborne, 1880.

local history posts

I’ve been scraping scraps of local history for years. I fret over the shifting sands of the internet. Certain things will disappear before I figure out why they’re useful or interesting.

Daily Star needs to attend seminar on journalism

The story of Danny Ridgel resigning and then being reappointed to the Tangipahoa Parish School Board bewildered the hell out of me. The Daily Star did a lousy job covering it awhile back, but now they want to use this as an object lesson for how confusing the new ethics laws of Louisiana are? Are they insane?

That commenter Curious sees the problem:

And he’s going to run for the same office again….. In the annals of politics, you would have to look far and wide to come up with a stranger story. Other newspapers would have a field day. You see it as only “the best local example of a sticky situation involving the new ethics laws”. Don’t you find it interesting that of all the School Boards in all the parishes in all the state, only two members – both from OUR School Board – resigned because of this “sticky situation involving the new ethics laws.”

Do you really think this fact tells us more about “this sticky situation involving the new ethics laws” than it does about the quality of candidates we elect to our School Board?

And you know, Mr. Ridgel is going to get re-elected. There is no doubt about it. (Given the candidate the Bailey-Simmons faction will put up against him, I may vote for him myself.) When he does get re-elected, what will you tell us this fact tells us? The forgiving nature of the electorate of our fair city?

The editorials ought to be written by this person.

I don’t even propose that Ridgel did anything wrong. It’s just simply not investigated. Besides, this is the same newspaper that slobberingly fellates Jindal every time he puffs up his chest to bloviate some bullshit about ethics. Stop pussyfooting and cheerleading. Get on the front lines and investigate.

priggish assholes legislating morality kill culture

It doesn’t surprise me that the Daily Star now supports banning anyone under the age of 21 from bars. It’s warming to see a couple of commenters made it through to call them to task, one on government control and another asking the Daily Star to hold businesses responsible, not just the citizens under the age of 21.

Putting the drinking age at 21 was shortsighted in the first place. Please consider when the rise in casual drug use happened… when the drinking age was raised from 18 to 21. My real problem with the legal drinking age of 21 doesn’t even have to do with a love for alcohol. When the age went from 18 to 21, the live music scene for original music essentially died down and never really bounced back. Dropping the age now isn’t going to fix anything, but priggish assholes legislating morality kill culture.

Independence missing crucial documents to maintain fire district rating

This got lost in the shuffle in the flurry of St. Tammany’s Mandeville audit, but it seems that in Tangipahoa Parish’s Independence has their own issues going on, with the Louisiana Legislative Auditor office. I have no idea what’s going on here, but how is it that all of documents needed to maintain the town’s fire disctrict rating just gone? Why?

Just asking.

little hope for reform of the Tangipahoa Parish Animal Shelter

Again, this blog’s main purpose is tracking what the local newspaper does not report, not specifically this animal shelter story. Some of the coverage is wearing on my patience. I wasn’t able to attend the parish council meeting on Monday.

The Daily Star manages to avoid naming the veterinarians involved (although they did finally name the Animal Control Director Donald Doty,) even though WDSU has now named at least one of them. A commenter on the story actually requests the information. Quite a few people know the name at this point, but no one answers, possibly because it is suppressed by moderators.

The investigation by the U.S. Humane Society is a step in the right direction. It’s unclear what steps Burgess is going to take if it is found that the shelter violated parish ordinances.

The Advocate using equivocating language as, “a practice considered inhumane by some,” when “some” includes actual veterinarian licensing boards, and not merely private citizens, is silly.

On the other hand, silly is also showing up at the meeting to read aloud a list of the names of the animals euthanized. If the issue of cruelty to animals is to be addressed rationally in a public forum, few actions could undermine credibility more quickly. (Perhaps someone dousing himself in a bucket of blood?) I cringed when i saw the video on television, as the antics of bleeding-heart animal lovers eclipsed TPAC’s incompetent, inhumane, and possibly corrupt management. Pulling stunts like that marginalizes the story of a public institution being mismanaged. Appealing to raw emotion in bureacracy-entangled legal matters is a horrible mistake.

standard use of heartstick and following paper trail of TPAC

The NOLA.com message boards usually creep me out to no end, but in poking about looking for something to post, I ran across some interesting stuff… and yeah, this is also on the Tangipahoa Parish Animal Shelter.  (Animal Chat is not even remotely the cesspool of ignorance in some of the other corners of those boards.) I’d prefer to leave this subject alone for a few days at least, as this blog is not intended to be solely on that subject but eh… it’s still new relevant information.

Using a heartstick without sedation might actually be illegal, not just merely against TPAC’s standard procedures. According to Mary Ann Newcomb, it seems that Dr. Hulsey was doing exactly that. In Tennessee, a veterinarian plead guilty to twelve misdemeanor counts related to animal cruelty because of using a heartstick without sedation. (He plead guilty and was fined $5,000 and sentenced to serve 200 hours of community service. Even worse for a practicing veterinarian, “The board suspended Baber’s license because his actions were by law considered fraudulent, deceptive, dishonest and illegal in connection with the practice of veterinary medicine.” Ouch.) Louisiana possibly has different laws, but it’s worth investigating.

It seems that one commenter named fqdave has already found a way to pursue this path logically:

I cannot stress how important the following information is regarding the Tangipahoa Shelter disaster:

The Municipal Code of Tangipahoa Parish states, in Article IV, Section 7-87, Subsection (k) …

“(k) The animal control department shall keep complete and accurate records of the care, feeding, veterinary treatment and disposition of all animals impounded.”

Thus, there must exist written records as to the condition, medical treatment, and disposition of EACH animal killed.

If there are no records the Parish is in violation of its own Municipal Code and the “Shelter Director” can and must be immediately terminated and the Parish President will be in no position to argue any case, whatsoever.

If the records show a cat was infected with a virus that only affects dogs there is evidence of gross mismanagement and negligence which sets forth a case for cruelty to animals which may be criminally prosecuted.

Demand a thid-party independent investigation, demand the written records the “shelter” was required to maintain be released to the Public (threaten a Public Records Request) and you’ll find a goldmine. If no records exist you have found the “motherlode.”

This battle can be won, conditions at the shelter can be vastly improved, those who acted improperly can be released from employment, and the animals will not have died in vain IF the Parish Municipal Code is used against the “shelter.”

A calm, non-emotional, professional presentation of the facts of the Municipal Code is the prudent course of action on Monday evening.

Parish officials can insist TPAC is, “a population control and abuse investigation agency, not a rescue organization,” all that they like. Demand the paperwork. Regardless of the parish officials’ evasion of specifics of what constitutes animal cruelty in Louisiana, if they skimped on the paperwork, the people responsible must be removed.

comments on WDSU story on TPAC

WDSU names one of the vetrinarians called in as Dr. Thomas “Tiger” Hulsey of Amite. He apparently didn’t follow the shelter’s policy by not sedating the animals before euthanasia. As ugly as i find that, it seems that he didn’t normally work with the facility, so the fault would fall on whoever called him and the other vetrinarian in. Besides:

Newcomb said parish leaders made it clear that day that they simply wanted to clear the shelter out and start over.

That is the allegation that should be pursued. It reeks of heavy-handed cost-cutting and hardheaded redneck machismo. Placing the blame on the veterinarians makes this seem like an external problem, a freakish one-time incident. It’s extremely unlikely that when they diagnosed the problem, that the mass euthanasia was recommended. The problem truly lies with officials in the parish who repeatedly obstruct the shelter coordinating its work with eager humane and rescue organizations.

Note that once again, the director of the shelter was not named, let alone interviewed.

Mass euthanasia in Tangipahoa shelter possibly driven by ego, not concern for epidemic

The more that i read the story, the more than i try to puzzle out the timeline of what happened.

1. None of the regular full-time staff showed up on Monday.
2. The parish animal control officers were pulled in from the field to work the kennels.
3. Animals are diagnosed with a disease, which seems to be coronavirus.
4. Animals euthanized.

It feels like i’m missing something here. Why did all of the regular full-time staff not show up? Was this a sick-out or did everyone just not show up? Two of them have already quit and one is on administrative leave. Why?

I’m getting the suspicion that the animals were euthanized out of spite, to teach the staff who didn’t show up a lesson, in addition to saving work. This is not really about the single issue of this one particular mass euthansia, but something strange about the way that this center is run. This is probably why there is a long chain of command in ass-covering, as this was not about concern for a viral epidemic. Someone was making a powerplay at the shelter to demonstrate who was in power.