City Commissioner Thinks Improved Communication Will Prevent Cases Like Puppy Mill From Slipping Through The Cracks

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

On Nov. 26, News Channel 9 ran an update on the Trenton Puppy Mill case from July. The station’s online headline read, “Trenton leaders say lack of transparency let massive dog hoarding case get out of control,” so the Sentinel followed up with Monda Wooten (City of Trenton street commissioner) to better understand her comments that led to this headline.

Wooten was the only elected official featured in Channel 9’s video. Emily Richards (Trenton-Dade Animal Center director) also spoke, but she focused on the welfare of the rescued dogs.

In the video, Wooten said, “If we had been more transparent, if all of us had been more transparent with each other, we might could have prevented this situation from getting that bad.” This led to the headline about transparency, but in speaking with Wooten, the Sentinel found that what she should have said was communication, specifically interdepartmental communication.

She explained to the Sentinel that as a city commissioner who also cares about animal welfare, she wanted to take some of the blame for this situation going unaddressed for so long. She said, “Maybe transparent wasn’t the word. If we could have all gotten together, maybe it would have been a little different. There were triggers there. We just didn’t pick up on them.”

Wooten explained that different entities had pieces of the puzzle, but a lack of communication prevented the full picture from coming to light until the Georgia Department of Agriculture got involved.

She said the city’s code enforcement officer had been to the puppy mill house due to complaints about feces piled by the fence (see the July 16 Sentinel for more details), the Trenton Police Department had been called to the house for noise complaints and suspicious persons/activity, the city’s contracted garbage services had refused to pick up bags of animal feces, and Dade County Schools had concerns about a child/children from the home coming to school with an odor.

In Wooten’s words, “If I had known that our garbage fella refused to pick up their garbage because there were bags and bags of feces that were falling apart…that probably would’ve triggered something in my mind. Why would you have that many feces? Maybe if the code enforcement officer had said something about feces being lined up around the fence. I knew there were two dogs in the backyard, but I’d have known that there’s no way two dogs could’ve piled all that up…If we had talked more, maybe we could’ve picked up on it.”

Wooten added that the Department of Agriculture came to the residence several times before the July 1 bust, but the department didn’t alert the city. “They don’t have to let us know stuff. They’re called out all the time for stuff in the city and the county.”

Audray Luck of Luck’s Rescue was the one who contacted the Department of Agriculture. As Wooten said, “Audray’s the one who busted this thing wide open because she kept pushing. I feel bad that it was right under our nose. We had neighbors complaining about stuff, but nobody knew everything.”

However, she’s confident that the city commissioners and employees have learned their lesson. “Now that it has happened, we’re more aware. We’ve all been talking a lot now about things that come up. I think it’ll be harder for one to get by us again.”

The Sentinel has been following up regularly with the district attorney’s office for updates on this case as well as the death of K-9 Georgia when she was left in a patrol car (see the July 23 Sentinel). The Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit’s office manager was unavailable leading up to press time, so we don’t have the latest update, but as of mid-November, no court date had been set for either case.