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Tuesday, November 18, 2008


Part IV: I-Team, Fox 5 News Asks What Happened to the Dog Named Beast?

Fighting Dog "Beast" Disappears
Atlanta, GA - The Fulton County Animal Services scandal widens. Randy Travis reports that the Fulton County District Attorney's office confirms it's investigating what happened to a prized pit bull -- seized in a dogfighting raid last year -- after it was sent to the county animal shelter for evidence holding. The director, Jere Alexander, swears via affidavit that the dog was euthanized in June. An amateur video and shelter employee dispute this claim.


From left: Jere Alexander, Rocky Alexander, Ossia Phillips and Tony Self.

14 pit bulls were seized as evidence last December by the Atlanta police in a suspected dogfighting operation. The dogs were moved to the Fulton County animal shelter. One of the dogs, a 4-year old male pit bull, was immediately dubbed "Beast" by shelter workers. The dog was so aggressive it could not be photographed for its kennel card. The same dog was later identified as "Spike," a prized stud dog that belonged to Ossia Phillips, who was arrested after the dogfighting raid.

Sherri Self, a former shelter employee, disputes the claim that Beast was euthanized. Her husband, Tony Self, recently pleaded guilty to transporting fighting dogs -- Sherri was not charged in the incident. Shortly before his plea, Sherri was fired by David York, the founder of Barking Hound Village Foundation (BHVF). Both Sherri and Jere Alexander served as President and Vice President accordingly on the Georgia American Pit Bull Terrier Association (GAPBT).

Reporter Randy Travis asked Alexander if she had ever taken Beast off the shelter's premises. She said she took the dog for "car rides" and "walks." Her husband, Rocky Alexander, who calls himself a dog behaviorist, also took Beast off the premises. When asked, "Where's Beast now?" Alexander said the dog was in doggie heaven. BHVF provided affidavits by Alexander and employee Antonio Bryant to support the fact that Beast was euthanized June 11th.

The amateur video, however, that the Fulton County District Attorney is currently examining, shows Beast chained on the Alexander property in August. Sherri Self says she saw the animal on the Alexander property in a visit in late July or early August as well. Criminal charges may be pending in multiple areas including: the theft of "seized" property for a criminal trial and the altering of county animal shelter euthanization records.

The questions that continue to go unanswered:
  • What happened to Beast?
  • What happened to the undocumented 83 feral cats?
  • Why did David York "really" fire Sherri Self?
  • Was BHVF laundering pit bulls for dogfighters?
  • Why does each aspect of the investigation continue to lead back to BHVF management?
Special request: DogsBite.org asks that you leave comments at Randy Travis's blog. His team has done an excellent job in reporting this story. Your comments will add to these efforts.

Related articles:
10/31/08: Coverage of the Fulton County Animal Shelter - DogsBite.org

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11 comments:

Blogger bitbypit  |  11/19/2008 12:46 AM  |  Flag  
Comments have not been lost on this post! We needed to break up the posts into multiple posts. Please click the following link to see past stories. Past comments will lie within:
Coverage of the Fulton County Animal Shelter - DogsBite.org

Anonymous Anonymous  |  11/19/2008 4:36 AM  |  Flag  
Beast was an excellent specimen and his genes needed to be preserved...Laws and public safety responsibilities be damned!

Anonymous Anonymous  |  11/19/2008 7:14 AM  |  Flag  
Another question:

When Jere Vick and Sherri Mengele were placing the best of the best back out in the community, who is liable for future maulings?

Does the contract with BHVF indemnify Fulton County from liability, or is the tax payer on the hook?

I still want to know who owned Chico Number 5 and where the dog was obtained from!

Anonymous suki  |  11/19/2008 10:48 AM  |  Flag  
Yeah, right! Can you see our little southern belle taking Beast for a walk?

Anonymous Anonymous  |  11/19/2008 7:23 PM  |  Flag  
Some aliases for Jere Alexander are

Jere Recob
Jere Recob Tesser
Jere Tesser

Anonymous Anonymous  |  11/19/2008 7:24 PM  |  Flag  
Check out how much money she received from Emory University to promote dogfighting

Blogger bitbypit  |  11/19/2008 11:05 PM  |  Flag  
Board of Commissions Meeting
Today (11/19/08), animal advocacy activists descended upon the Fulton County's Board of Commissioners. The activists demanded the resignation of the animal services head and for county commissioners to call in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Anonymous Anonymous  |  11/20/2008 1:44 AM  |  Flag  
Here's what bugs me. They sit there and see these pit bulls continuously pouring into the shelter.

Well there's obviously dog fighting and breeding going on.

Why the heck don't these county officials start passing some laws and cracking on this?

How long are taxpayers going to foot the bill for cleaning up after a bunch of criminals?

Anonymous Trigger  |  11/20/2008 2:27 AM  |  Flag  
I second that!

Anonymous suki  |  11/21/2008 11:48 AM  |  Flag  
Randy when is the fifth sequel to this scandal coming out?

Anonymous 3-legged-pit  |  11/23/2008 8:31 PM  |  Flag  
Randy's blog is growing more hysterical by the day. There is a user now who is pretending to be David York, username "DevilDorkYork." When asked about a recent honorary dinner:

Why it went just fine thanks for asking! There were all kinds of rich people who believe my BS there. They had to hire extra security because of a protest threat. They did play a lovely video about my dedication to animals and about how I am a legend in my own mind...ur I mean time. Usually legends have to do something really good for a long time, but when you are a devil it is the opposite. It only took me 8 months of really screwing up the Fulton shelter and I got honored for it! Pays to be a liar and a dork. Anyway other than the whispering and the conversations that stopped as soon as I walked up, it was lovely.

Goes on in other posts:

There are NO plans to fix any problems at the shelter as there are no problems. I appointed a wonderful director (Jere) and she was attacked by the media - not my fault. In fact nothing is my fault, it never is. It is Jere's fault (for the missing cats, Beast and not covering her tracks good enough), the fired staff's fault (for talking to the media), Southern Hope's fault (for everything else), the current staff's fault (for looking stupid on camera), Oliver's fault (for not helping hide my screw ups enough). So, you see none of this has anything to do with me. I am just the guy who controls all the money, spreads the lies and fires the staff if they piss me off. I make sure I am only at the shelter about 10 minutes a day, so even if the there is a problem, I wouldn't know about it, so therefore there are none. Not bad work if you can get it!

Why that's easy! I saw so many qualities in Jere that I have myself. The lying, deceitfulness, the ability to appear to like animals. Also I knew that her love of Pit Bulls would come in handy down at the shelter. Her and Tony hit it off quickly and started their own "little business". I like people with an entrepreneurial spirit. Who knew you could get good money out on the street for unfixed Pits? That plus having no experience at all (other then breeding) in sheltering or rescue would enable Ms. Alexander to take fresh approach to running the shelter. No rules, no forms, no reasoning. You have to admit I was right.

http://community.myfoxatlanta.com/blogs/RandyTravis/2008/10/29/Fulton_County_Animal_Services?page_no=8

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