I’m thinking Mayor James Valley of Helena-West Helena, AR may have a California wine club membership that he’s partaking in way too much. In my opinion this guy is insane! I’m completely shocked and appalled at how he sees fit to treat stray and rescued animals.

Apparently the local animal shelter in this town is in such a horrible state that it’s not fit to use to care for rescued animals. The Mayor doesn’t seem very fit to make decisions either. He’s so unwilling to put forth the effort or $50-60k to turn the shelter around, he had the shelter shut down. The locks were cut, and all dogs were released from the shelter.

In the beginning the shelter was moved to 4 temporary pens at the local sanitation department, but these pens were uncovered, and there were complaints that the animals weren’t being cared for. So, on Wednesday, June 11, after feeding and watering 10 dogs, the city street director released them into the National Forest.

Yes folks, he took these dogs out to the middle of no where and turned them out on their own to become strays again! If that isn’t bad enough, he turned them out in a National Forest! According to a spokeswoman for the National Forest,

“In the code, it is illegal to release animals, livestock or abandoned personal property on national forest land”

What kind of Mayor is this? Not only is he sending these animals off to most likely die, but he’s breaking federal laws to do so.

Now that the shelter isn’t open any longer, what happens to any new animals picked up? According to USA Today’s story,

If animal-control officers get a call now, “they’re going to pick the dog up and probably just take them to the other side of town,” Valley said. “And it’s going to be someone else’s problem. … or maybe they will take them to the forest.”