Jim Crosby, the director of Bay County Animal Control in Florida, has resigned following an investigation that determined he had "condoned" the actions of employee Ivan Rogers, who, on June 17 took home a pig in the facility's care nicknamed "Fluffy," butchered, cooked, and ate it.
Surprisingly, Ivan Rogers remains employed by the animal shelter, indicating that the overseeing agency was more concerned with the organizational issues that allowed the incident to happen than the actual slaughter and consumption of an animal in their care. Local news station WJHG reports:
County officials released new information Thursday that was uncovered by an investigation launched by Mark Bowen, the Director of Bay County Emergency Services.
"I found that management [Jim Rogers] condoned what occurred at a certain level in the organization. When that happens it does not take the responsibility from the employee that engaged in the act, but obviously it changes the dynamic of what the corrective action needs to be," said Bowen.
County Commissioner George Gainer went so far as to say that "the pig didn't cause Mr. Crosby's untimely resignation," but was just the last straw in a series of institutional disagreements with Mark Bowen, the director of Bay County's Emergency Services
Rogers, who wrote in a written statement that he "failed to practice proper procedure" and "deeply regret(s)" the slaughter, received only a "very, very strong" reprimand.
The pig was turned over to the shelter on June 10 because its owners were "unable to keep (it) friendly." It was nicknamed "Fluffy" by employees, and at least two people expressed interest in adopting her. But for reasons still unclear, Rogers took "Fluffy" home on June 17 and ate it, and Crosby found out about it later.
The wife of the man who surrendered the pig to the shelter lamented Crosby's loss of his job:
"Peoples' lives are being ruined over this pig and that shouldn't be the case. 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."
Here is local television station WJHG's report on the incident: