Clermont County animal shelter volunteer charged with disorderly conduct

BATAVIA, Ohio — A Clermont County animal shelter volunteer is facing a misdemeanor charge stemming from an alleged altercation that occurred Sunday.

Roger Vogel, 74, was charged with disturbing the peace in connection with an incident inside the animal shelter.

According to one citation, Vogel was acting “…unreasonably (loudly)…by berating an animal shelter employee before throwing a safety vest in his face.”

WCPO 9 News requested a copy of the incident report from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office, but most of the story describing what happened has been redacted as law enforcement continues to investigate.

“I think it’s basically the culmination of all of this coming to a head and silencing the volunteers and basically shutting off the animals’ voices,” said Kathleen Faulkner, a shelter volunteer. “It really has become a dire situation for the dogs.”

In a statement, Angie Livesay, deputy assistant county administrator and acting kennel administrator, said in part: “We are in transition as we search for a permanent administrator and fill other vacancies, but we continue to improve our process while lovingly and responsibly caring for our dogs.”

A county spokesperson would not comment on the charge against Vogel or the incident from which it stems.

At a meeting of Clermont County commissioners Wednesday, a handful of residents and volunteers once again brought their long-standing concerns to the board.

“What happened to Roger is just awful and our community supports Roger 100 percent,” said resident Stephanie Freeborn.

WCPO reached out to all three commissioners for comment but did not receive a response as of publication of this story.

Read Livesay’s full statement here:

“We are in transition as we search for a permanent administrator and fill other vacancies, but we continue to improve our processes while lovingly and responsibly caring for our dogs and finding them permanent homes. For example, eight dogs were adopted last Saturday (October 19) alone.

Please check out our social media accounts Facebook and our volunteers reach the public.

We value our volunteers. They play an important role in the care of the dogs in our shelter. As part of our efforts to improve operations, we are implementing updated guidelines that clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of our volunteers and shelter staff. Providing volunteers with red reflective vests so they are easily identifiable, just as our employees are immediately identifiable with their orange shirts, is one example. This new practice helps us better manage who comes and goes and who performs given tasks in the shelter, which improves the safety of our staff, dogs, volunteers and the public.