By: Laura Shay
WENTZVILLE, Mo. (KMOV.com) -- Concerned Wentzville residents, Mayor Nick Guccione and the owner of Animal Talk shelter, met at city hall to discuss accusations of inhumane treatment at the shelter.
Area residents do not believe the shelter is doing a good enough job at caring for the city's strays.
Wentzville resident Julie Bauman said concerns about the shelter include alleged "inhumane and unethical practices, animals not being properly quarantined, animals not receiving proper medical care and treatment and owners not being contacted when [pets] are picked up, even with a microchip."
Worried comments caught Mayor Guccione's attention with a Facebook page called The St. Charles County Watch, especially since the city pays $48,000 a year for the shelter's services.
Dr. Mark Lucas, who owns the shelter, showed News 4's Matt Sczesny around Animal Talk and Sczesny thought the shelter looked fine. Sczesny did ask Dr. Lucas whether the shelter euthanized animals before the owners were able to pick them up.
"Absolutely not, not one," said Dr. Lucas. "We would lose our contract with the city; I'm required by a state statute to keep them for 5 business days."
While the city has the ability to cut their contract with Dr. Lucas with 30 days notice, the contract will remain in place for the time being.
Guccione said after his meeting, the city and Dr. Lucas will be more upfront and transparent about the fees and policies of the shelter and make more of an effort to adopt out any strays in the shelter.
Here some concerns that are on the site of St. Charles Watch : I thought he was going to kill my cat, Midnight!!!.I still have the receipt for the visit , so,I know that it happened on June 26, 2006. I have thought of Lucas as a monster and cat hater ever since. When I heard that Wentzville had hired him to be the vet lost pets were taken to, it nearly broke my heart for the poor helpless animals. At the time, the office was called Dardenne Animal Medical Center and was located on Callahan Rd. My appointment was supposed to be with Dr. Shaw, whom I really liked because he was so gentle with my pets, and they felt very . comfortable with him. He was an excellent vet!! The appointment was made for an examination, rabies shot, and microchipping. I wasn't told that we would not see Dr. Shaw, and was disappointed when a big,rough, and unfriendly Lucas stomped into the examining room. I asked him about Dr. Shaw, and he gruffly replied that Dr. Shaw was no longer with them, and wouldn't tell me where he had gone. Maybe that was what made him angry. The rest of the visit was unbelievable. He grabbed Midnight abruptly, no words of kindness or any attempt to calm him down. No petting, etc. at all. Had a row of filled syringes with all the other vaccines he said that Midnight needed on the table. I told him that all I wanted was rabies and a microchip, because he was an indoor cat. He ignored my request not to give him all of those shots, and proceeded to hold Midnight down. Midnight freaked out!! Lucas yelled at me "Why didn't you tell me this was a mean cat??" I said that he wasn't a mean cat, just very scared of him. I begged him to let me calm Midnight down. Instead, he put on huge leather gloves and held him down so hard and pressed on his body so hard that I thought he would injure Midnignt. Then he gave him all the shots, including the ones I asked him not to. There was never a kind word during all of this. In the meantime. the door was open, and another cat came walking in, staring at Midnight being held down. About that time Lucas's cell phone rang, and the ring tone sounded like fighting and screaming cats!!! He stopped in the middle of all this and took a phone call!!! When this nightmare of a vet visit was finally over, I went to the reception desk and paid for all of it, including the unwanted and unnecessary vaccines. I told the receptionist that I would never bring another animal there and hurried out the front door, feeling that I was escaping a torture house for animals. Once home, I was so afraid that Midnight had been injured by Lucas' rough handling and holding him down so hard and cruelly, that I examined all of his legs to make sure that they hadn't been broken. I watched him for days to see if he showed any sign of internal injury. I have told this story to several people during the years, but, hadn't realized until now, that other people have horror stories about Lucas' behavior toward both animals and people. I will be willing to share this in any way, if it means putting Lucas where he cannot hurt any more animals. All I could think of that day, was, if he treated my cat so badly right in front of me, what would he do if I wasn't there. Here's a problem that I see. When people have gone to the PD to address their issues, the PD fails to help and filter those complaints properly. When my husband was arrested on July 24th for the incident with Lucas, there were two other women in the lobby trying to get help from a police officer to have her cat transferred to another shelter but Lucas was refusing. Sooo...in just one day, at the same time you have two separate incidents involving two people who don't know each other involving the same vet clinic...but that didn't raise a flag? That didn't sound any alarms? And let me also add. The captain of the Wentzville PD is FAMILY with the Lucas'. Any complaints that have been taken to him about AT may be "disappearing". You want me to say it? Fine, I'll say it. There's shady stuff going on there. Too many fingers pointing in different directions on who's responsible for what is going on and whose job it is to fix it. But when you have a captain on the police force is "in bed", if you will, with the very people who are committing these atrocities, it begs me to ask.. What is HE gaining by allowing this to continue? Is the captain being paid hush money or "look away" money? It begs for an investigation! It's going to sound really odd...but how deep does this go? Who's to say that the PD hasn't known about it? The money they make from "pet at large" fines are probably astronomical. Not to mention the fines and fees occurred against people who don't have the money to pick up their dogs after 5 days and get slapped with court fines and fees for "animal abandonment". People having problems with Lucas have always trusted the PD for help. But the PD has other problems to deal with and doesn't treat the problems and issues with Lucas as a criminal issue...its a civil issue. And THAT is why these issues are just now coming to light. Lucas has managed to stay off the criminal radar, possible due to some help at the PD? Again, this all may be the ramblings of an upset pet animal/ lover and wife. But please don't take my silence as a weakness. I have my BS in criminal justice with a minor in terrorism and national security management. I know my rights and I know whats legal and what not. I also know corrupt when I see it.
1 comment:
I have a certified service dog chihuahua and my daughter was pulled over and they impounded the car and our dog and sent him there,,, he is a evil man yelled at me over the phone for 45 min and would not release my dog,, this was on a friday night,,, he has seisers and breathing attacks,,, and he is on medication for them,, he wanted to argue with me and said he doesn't need the meds it does more harm to be on the meds then to have a seizer that could kill him... he was kept there because of the holidays and he refused to release him,,, when we finally got to the O'fallon police department to get him released he wanted to give him shots that we have never gave to our chichi's we have two,,, their small bodys can not handle some of them shot like kennel cough $30,, argued with me threatened me and all that is required is a rabies shots and he said he is over due on all his shot and i told him that is none of his business and told him you give him the rabies shot only and tag and release my service dog,,, we had to pay ofallon police $20 and then bring a release form from them and then cash only #168.00 to get him out,,, they did not feed him he was starving when he came home and had to potty really bad,,, he threatened to call the cops on me cause i refused to have all these shots for my dog he and came out at me with a very bad attitude "as i told you on the phone for 45 min" he doesn't need meds,,,he as never seen my dog before'' that pissed me off,,,, my dog was just to his vet last month and had his blood work done and he is fine,,, but he want to tell me his way,,,,,,,, and now i find out he kills animals after 24 hours of you do not contacting him even if you don't know where your pet was taken,,,and will not call you if he has a chip,,, when he was dardeen animal clinic he did surgery on my cat years ago to get him nuder and he cam home with his stomach cut open and after that i could see the inside of my cat and it smelled bad,, he said that was normal but my cat was never the same he ripped the hair off where he cut him open for yeas after that and died young,,,,, i just found out this is the same person i dealt with years ago<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< WHY IS HE STILL WORKING AT A VET CLINIC??????????? CAUSE OF THE MONEY AND A KICK BACK FROM THE POLICE,, AND THE CITY MAKE MONEY ALSO,,, 45 THOUSAND A YEAR PER POLICE DEPARTMENT I TALKED TO A REPORTER YESTERDAY AND I WILL BE CALLING HIM BACK AND HAVE HIM INVESTIGATED AGAIN,,,, WOW HE ALREADY HAS BEEN INVESTIGATED ,,,, WELL YOU SOB HERE COMES ANOTHER ONE AND LETS SEE IF YOU WILL REMAIN A VET,,, I SHOULD HAVE RECORDED IT WHEN I WENT TO PICK UP MY DOG<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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