Photo by Daniel KramerGil Costas, a part-time veterinarian at Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care, was fired today for lack of state-mandated certification, Houston Health and Human Services Spokeswoman Kathy Barton told Hair Balls.
The news was originally broken by Nicole Sica, editor of the animal-welfare blog Poocini and a writer for the Houston Animal News Examiner.
"The official reason is that his services were no longer needed," Barton told Hair Balls, "but...we also determi
Photo by Daniel KramerAs Hair Balls has previously noted, the City of Houston apparently doesn't want its citizens knowing what's going on at the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care. For the past few months, advocates concerned for the health and safety of the more than 20,000 animals BARC processes each year have submitted numerous public information requests. The Health and Human Services Department's immediate reaction is to forward the requests to the Attorney General with a sort of kitchen
Photo by Daniel KramerWe're pretty sure the dude who coined that phrase about a hard task being akin to "nailing jelly to a wall" wasn't referring to getting news out of BARC, but he could've been.For one thing, Health and Human Services did not tell the media when BARC hired its new chief, Ray Sim. Of course, this information had been known by local animal activists for weeks. And of course, Sim's hiring actually doesn't matter yet, as BARC has had problems with or without a chief. For example,
