Beastly conditions
Nashville one of worst at controlling animals
by Liz Murray Garrigan and Bruce Dobie
Nashville ranks among the “worst” cities in the nation when it comes to controlling and housing stray animals, according to the National Animal Control Association (NACA), a not-for-profit professional organization based in Kansas City, Mo.
NACA executive director John Mays recently toured the Nashville Animal Control facility, located in the Bordeaux area and better known as “the pound,” at Metro’s request. Within the next week, NACA is expected to issue a stinging critique of Metro’s animal-control operations.
Pending the study’s release to Metro Council, Mays would not discuss the specifics of his group’s findings and recommendations. But he says it’s fair to say Metro has ongoing, and significant, problems in the area of animal control.
Mays says the NACA report will “suggest some innovative approaches, to say the least.”
Nashville has “a reputation across the country for being one of the worst cities” in terms of animal control. “That’s not something I’ve conjured up,” Mays says. “The reputation is out there.”
Back in 1995, Mays sent a letter to Mayor Phil Bredesen detailing his concerns about the Nashville Animal Control facility. That letter was written after Mays made an informal tour of the facility, one of approximately 200 animal-control facilities he has visited nationwide.
“Your animal shelter is still operating in the 1960s,” Mays wrote to the mayor at that time. “The facility is in poor shape, poorly designed, understaffed, and the lack of employee training was very obvious.” Mays added that he was “amazed that a city of this size and stature places such a small, token emphasis on animal control. I wondered if this situation is based on your lack of knowledge of the program, or lack of caring for the animals in your community.”
Mays describes NACA as “middle of the road” when it comes to activism, with an interest in improving the “level of care” for animals. “We’re not humane fanatics, and we’re not politically motivated either,” he says.
NACA’s most recent visit to Nashville was timed to coincide with an audit of the Nashville Humane Association by the Humane Society of the United States. Representatives from both national organizations were in town to gather information in connection with Bredesen’s proposal that the local Humane Association take over operations of the Metro pound.
Mary Lee Bartlett, board president of the Nashville Humane Association, says her not-for-profit organization is still considering the mayor’s proposal that Metro government contract with the Humane Association’s shelter for animal-control services. Before that can happen, however, Bartlett says the Humane Association needs to make some “housekeeping” improvements, such as formalizing its employee handbook.
“At best, we could maybe talk with the mayor [about consolidating] a year out,” Bartlett says. “We don’t want to slam the door on that. We feel like, if the Humane Association was involved in animal control with the city, we would all benefit. But right now, we don’t even have our own ducks in a row.”—L.M.G.
Long time coming
In all the years since the Tennessee Municipal League began naming its Mayor of the Year in 1954, no Nashville mayor has ever received the honor. Until this year, that is, when Metro Mayor Phil Bredesen has been selected for the award.
Bredesen was scheduled to receive the award Tuesday at the TML’s annual banquet in Memphis. TML closely guards the identity of the honored mayor, so the announcement was intended as a surprise for Bredesen.
In presenting the award, TML officials planned to note, among other accomplishments, Bredesen’s commitment to education, his drive for a new downtown library, and his deft handling of the recent tornado crisis in Nashville.
Vice Mayor Jay West and Bredesen’s close friend, attorney Byron Trauger, were both scheduled to toast and roast the mayor. Never one to pass up the chance for a joke, West planned to recall Bredesen’s first, unsuccessful mayoral campaign in 1987, characterizing Bredesen as a newcomer “who had the credentials that every citizen of Nashville could readily identify with—born in New York state, a physics degree from Harvard, and $100 million net worth.”
But West wasn’t planning to stop there. He also intended to recall how Bredesen helped restore downtown to vibrancy and “then proposed a first-class arena that would cost $90 million...no, $125 million...no, $145 million.”
—L.M.G.
Mixed Michaels
Dan Quayle’s got nothing on Al Gore. The Washington Post aptly described the vice president’s stunning gaffe this week as “a pop culture air ball.”
At a Washington, D.C., event earlier this week, Gore made a pathetic attempt to seem like a regular guy by trying to talk about Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan’s sixth NBA championship. “I tell you, that Michael Jackson is unbelievable, isn’t he?” the vice president said. “He’s just unbelievable. Three plays in 20 seconds....”
Gore will be in Nashville later this week for a political reception honoring Democratic Sixth District U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, who is seeking reelection this year. Next week, the vice president and wife Tipper, along with the Clintons, will be attending the Family Re-Union conference sponsored by the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University.
The invitation to the Gordon reception, issued under the names of the vice president and a host committee, begins with, “Your invited...,” which doesn’t seem so bad after the “Michael Jackson” snafu. —L.M.G.
Aloha, Ashford
Phil Ashford, the mayor’s top policy advisor, has accepted a job as a consultant for a Princeton, N.J.-based management consulting company. He expects to leave Nashville in two weeks.
Ashford, one of the most brilliant souls to grace our city, may best be remembered for the virtual lexicon of terms he created while covering politics for the Nashville Scene in the early ’90s.
Ashford wrote about “goo-goos,” “biz-pigs,” and once referred to Bass, Berry & Sims, the city’s white-shoe law firm where he had several close friends, as “the defenders of the overdogs.”
He will be missed.—B.D.
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