Update: BCAC director resigns following pig slaughter

PANAMA CITY — Two months ago, Bay County Animal Control officer Ivan Rogers took home a pig he thought no one wanted and butchered it. On Wednesday, amid a county investigation, the officer’s boss resigned.

“An officer took Animal Control property home and ate it, and that’s not appropriate,” county spokeswoman Valerie Lovett said. “When people surrender animals to Animal Control, they have an expectation that those animals will either be re-homed or that they’ll be euthanized humanely at the shelter.”

It turns out at least two people were interested in adopting the animal, a 1-year-old female named Fluffy, whose owners surrendered the pig because they were “unable to keep (it) friendly,” according to BCAC documents.

Rogers acknowledged, in a written statement, he “failed to practice proper procedure”; he didn’t check the adoption log before he took the pig home, he wrote, and “deeply regret(s)” his misstep.

But Mark Bowen, who oversees BCAC, said the fault lies with Rogers’ boss, Jim Crosby.

“Adoption log or not, an officer never, ever does this,” Bowen said. “The supervisor and manager didn’t hammer that home. (Crosby) created a culture that was completely unacceptable.”

Rather than face the fallout from Bowen’s recommendation to fire him, Crosby asked the chief to accept his resignation, effective Friday.

Bowen learned about the incident in early August from a letter sent to county commissioners and began the investigation into the matter.

On Wednesday, Bowen told Crosby, the Animal Control director, he thought Crosby’s response to the situation had been “completely inadequate and unacceptable.”

“There was a lack of sensitivity on the part of (Crosby),” Bowen said.

Bowen further questioned Crosby’s judgment in dealing with Rogers and said the director should have relayed the incident up the chain of command sooner.

“While he spoke with the employee, that was all he did,” Bowen said. “And it was six weeks ago.”

Rogers now has received a “very, very strong” written warning, Bowen added, but has not been placed on administrative leave and doesn’t face termination.

“Obviously, a big mistake was made at our shelter,” Bowen said. “That’s something that we’ve corrected. I’m confident that nothing like that is ever going to happen again.”

But Rebecca Laster, the wife of the man who surrendered the pig, said she doesn’t think Crosby should be out of a job. Laster was caring for Fluffy at the time of the surrender while the animal’s owner, her sister, was on vacation.

“Peoples’ lives are being ruined over this pig and that shouldn’t be the case,” Laster said. “This is ridiculous. It was a pig that had behavior issues that nobody could do anything with.”

“We don’t want any more lives ruined over this stupid pig.”

Crosby, a former police lieutenant, received positive job performance reviews for the 2 1/2 years he spent with Animal Control. However, his most recent review in March noted he could show improvement by “regularly updating his supervisors,” “addressing issues early to prevent escalation” and “improving communications between him and supervisory employees.”

Crosby wrote in a letter to county officials that he didn’t learn about Fluffy until Rogers “had already killed the pig for consumption,” about a week after its owners surrendered the animal. Crosby said he intended to properly document the policy violation but hadn’t yet gotten around to it, Bowen said.

Earlier version of this story:

PANAMA CITY — Bay County Animal Control Director Jim Crosby announced his resignation Wednesday after learning his boss planned to recommend his termination.

The county began an investigation into Crosby’s behavior in early August, when it discovered a BCAC officer took home and slaughtered a livestock pig in June.

The pig had been surrendered a week earlier and was county property, but two people had expressed an interest in the animal, county spokeswoman Valerie Lovett said.

Crosby, a former police lieutenant, received positive job reviews for the 2.5 years he spent at BCAC. He has been on paid administrative leave since Monday; his resignation is effective Friday, Lovett said.