The Roland Town Council unanimously accepted the resignation of a longtime town employee during their regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening.

Before a group of less than 10 people, the resignation of Ken Cole, Roland Animal Control officer, submitted to town officials Friday, was accepted by the five-member board of trustees, officially putting an end to his 12-year tenure as the town’s streets and animal control facility supervisor.

Cole, vice-president of the Oklahoma Animal Control Association, became the center of a controversy when allegations of acts of abuse and cruelty to animals at the facility surfaced.

“I think this was a fair resolution to all problems between Mr. Cole and the trustees,” Cole’s attorney Monte Johnson, of Sallisaw said.  “I think it serves in the best interest of Roland.”

Teresa Morton, founder of Ahimsa Rescue Foundation in Muldrow, said written statements from people concerning Cole’s mistreatment of animals have been collected for seven years at the foundation. Recently she reported she was prepared to turn all information and findings over to the district attorney.

When contacted, Assistant District Attorney Ryan Wyrick was able to verify information concerning Cole’s alleged actions had been received but declined to comment on the information since it was still under investigation.

“We have received information and allegations but we don’t have anyone investigating Ken Cole for animal cruelty.” Wyrick said. He was unable to verify if criminal charges are expected to be filed in the case.

According to Morton, over the past seven years the foundation has received complaints from people asking for help to put a stop to Cole’s alleged extreme acts of animal cruelty.

“As far as an investigation by the DA.  If they look into this they’ll find no bases for criminal charges against Mr. Cole,” Johnson said. 

Most recently Roland resident, Jimmy Henley went to the foundation asking for help after two of his dogs never came home after being picked up from a neighbors house and taken to the animal control facility.

One reportedly was found dead in a kennel the next morning while the other one was said to be missing and no one seems to know what happened.

Joetta Hyde, town clerk, verified two dogs were picked up but no record of what happened to the animals could be found. During Tuesday’s meeting she told board members she’d checked with several organizations and the main thing for a facility is in record keeping. “It’s all in the record keeping. We’re going to have to keep better records out there.”

Another complaint filed at the foundation in 2007 was from Gary Grumbles who wrote of how he assisted Cole in the euthinization of animals. Horror stories of how “dogs and cats were shot in the head, drowned and used for target practice,” were written by Grumbles.

Morton said Cole once told her that the facility uses intracardiaic injections on un-sedated animals to put them to sleep. “This is not an approved way for animals to be euthanized. These injections are extremely painful and cause extreme suffering unless the animal is heavily sedated,” Morton said.

Hyde reported Dr. Terry Sparkman, of Sparkman Animal Clinic in Roland, has agreed to euthanize animals for the town but only under certain conditions. “He said there would be no charge to the town but the animals would have to be brought to the clinic, a consent form stating the animal had been held in the facility the required amount of time was signed and the town would have to take responsibility of disposing of the animal.”

“There been lots of discussion over the animal control facility recently,” Wilson said. “The council is in agreement that we need to update policy and procedures to match state codes and regulations and to make sure our facility is following those procedures.”

Wilson said over the past years the facility has accepted animals from all over the county but that will more than likely change to only accepting animals that are running at large in the community.

“There’s a dog with 12 puppies out there that didn’t even come from our town, they came from someone out in the county,” he said. “But no matter what we will not stand for any animals to be mistreated while they’re in our control. We’ll take whatever steps necessary to make sure that animals are cared for in a humane manner.”

Wilson asked that each council member visit the facility and to look into state statues and be prepared to bring ideas and input to the table during next months meeting. “No matter what when we get things lined out and when we do we’ll start from day one. Any animal out there will be treated as if it’s their first day that way we know how long they’ve been there and what the next steps will be.”