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Cat shooting may lead to firing
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer LECANTO -- A supervisor is recommending Citrus County fire Animal Control director Hank Baggett -- not because he shot and killed a stray cat in a tree Feb. 13, but because he falsified a report and failed to tell superiors about the incident. Baggett's attorney, Aubrey Earl Cox of Palmetto, called the recommendation "excessive" and said he planned to fight it Thursday during a disciplinary hearing before County Administrator Richard Wesch. "You've seen his personnel file," Cox said. "You've got somebody who's worked there for 15 years and never had anything but excellent reports, and you're going to terminate somebody like this over killing a feral cat?" But the five-page report by Public Safety director Charles Poliseno did not focus on Baggett's decision to shoot the gray cat that had been stranded up a 50- or 60-foot-tall pine tree in Citronelle for at least a week. "He said he felt there was no other choice but to shoot the cat since at some point it began urinating a long, continuous stream that he felt indicated the cat was in distress," Poliseno wrote, adding that Baggett's attempts to shoot the tree limb first were unsuccessful. Poliseno's criticism centered on Baggett's failure to report the shooting in the case file or to his superiors. Baggett wrote in the case file that he "removed" the cat from the tree. Although he brought the cat to the shelter to be buried, Baggett did not enter the cat on the Animal Control intake logs, as required for all animals brought in, alive or dead. "When I asked Mr. Baggett why he didn't annotate such a significant incident, he said he did not want to write down that he had shot the cat because if certain people in the office saw it they would cause problems for him," Poliseno wrote. Baggett also failed to immediately report the incident to Poliseno. When asked April 6 by Humanitarians of Florida president Donna Schmid about a rumor that an Animal Control officer shot a cat, Baggett replied, "I can assure you, I have no knowledge that any of my officers did this," according to Poliseno's report. Baggett came clean in an April 9 meeting with Poliseno, Schmid and another Humanitarians member, Jean Butler. He was placed on paid leave April 11 while Poliseno investigated the incident. "I believe Mr. Baggett's actions rise to the level of "Conduct unbecoming a county employee,' " Poliseno concluded in his report. "His actions will impact his ability to counsel his staff about falsifying documents and our ability to rely on information presented by Mr. Baggett on future assignments and various issues." Baggett, 54, has been director for 11 of his 15 years with Animal Control. His personnel file is filled with strong performance reviews, although he received a written reprimand in May 2000 for failing to launch an exhaustive search for a quarantined dog that escaped from the shelter. County officials first learned about the incident from newspaper accounts. "Notification of County Administration and myself must be automatic in such serious cases or any other situation where media coverage is anticipated," Poliseno cautioned in that reprimand. "If a similar situation occurs again, more serious disciplinary action may be taken, up to and including dismissal." The stranded cat was reported to Animal Control on Feb. 11 by Kymi Hum, who lives on W Disney Lane about 3 miles east of County Road 495. Animal Control officer Sharon Richardson set a cat trap at the base of the tree Feb. 12. Richardson later told Poliseno the cat appeared scared, but not in distress. When Baggett visited the site the next day, however, he believed the cat was in distress. After failing to shoot down the limb, Baggett aimed his .22-caliber, county-issued rifle at the cat and hit it with his first shot. Citrus County Animal Control operating procedures allow the use of a firearm "as a last resort to euthanize injured or diseased animals." Cox, Baggett's attorney, said the feral feline had been "howling" for days. The cat was too far up the tree for a tranquilizer dart gun to be effective, he said. Dart guns work better at close range and can be "wobbly" for longer shots, Cox said. Even if Baggett could hit the cat with the dart, Cox added, the impact from a 50-foot shot would seriously injure the cat and cause it to be euthanized anyway. Butler and Schmid, the Humanitarians who first asked Baggett about the incident, later told Poliseno they understood Baggett's last-resort decision to shoot the cat and said they felt bad about getting him in trouble. The group had been working with Baggett to promote pet adoptions, encourage people to spay or neuter their animals and decrease the need for euthanasia at the Animal Control shelter. However, Hum told Poliseno she was mad about the shooting. "I just wanted the cat safely out of the tree," Hum said. "If I wanted the cat shot out of the tree, I would have done it myself." -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com. Previous coverageOfficial faces discipline in death of cat
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