Saginaw County Animal Shelter Investigates Complaints of Euthanasia at Facility

Kochville Township, Michigan (WNEM) – Saginaw County Animal Care and Control (SCACC) has retained outside counsel to conduct an investigation into a formal complaint alleging unlicensed and untrained individuals were euthanizing animals at the shelter.

The complaint was filed by the agency’s former veterinarian, Dr. Joseph Klein.

The SCACC held an advisory board meeting Wednesday evening and this issue was briefly discussed.

Mary Catherine Hannah, the county administrator, said the shelter took swift action once complaints were reported.

“As soon as we heard the concerns raised, we decided to look into it,” Hannah said. “So we did an internal review just to make sure that we’re actually doing everything that we’re supposed to be doing. »

Hannah said the shelter would not share details until the investigation is complete.

“It’s very difficult,” she said. “You know, we always want to make sure we’re responsive when concerns are raised. But there must be something there, right? We need people who have first-hand knowledge of something that happened. We can’t be out there, you know, doing in-depth investigations based on hearsay.

Those present at Wednesday’s meeting expressed concern about the allegations.

A woman present at the advisory council meeting took advantage of her public comment time to respond to the rumors.

“He said so many things, she said something was going to boil over and it was going to be bad,” she said. “And I don’t want anything to happen to this shelter.”

Dr. Klein alleges that when he expressed his concerns, he was told his services were no longer needed and his contract would not be renewed.

But Hannah said that wasn’t the case and her contract was already up. Operationally, she said she has no concerns about how the shelter is currently run.

She said the statistics on euthanasia appear to be in order and noted that they are public.

“Once we have something that we think is very, you know, a serious concern, then we’re going to look at it 100 percent,” she added.

Figures previously shared with TV5 reveal that shelter-initiated euthanasia is on track to be higher in 2024 than in 2021 and 2022, but still lower than in 2023.

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