"Shut the fuck up, you creepy asshole"

This verbatim quote was made by Mayor Donna Stebbins yesterday in response to a citizen who called her.

The Great Falls Animal Shelter staff arrived at work to find a cat in a crate upon the front doorstep. How long it had been there is anyone's guess. Attached to the crate was a note which read, "Please take care of Mishka, I can not do it any longer" (paraphrase).

A local individual involved in a private cat rescue group intent on keeping cats out of the shelter due to the high number of kills was given the cat by shelter personnel. The cat was sitting in a crate filled with feces, covered by it and no one at the shelter had taken it out of the crate to aid it, despite the fact no one was certain how long it had been IN the crate to begin with. The Shelter personnel had no idea how long it had been without water or food, either.

The individual called the mayor to complain about the Shelter's inhumane treatment of the cat. A witness heard the complaint voiced, then heard Mayor Donna Stebbins say, "Shut the fuck up, you creepy asshole"and hang up on the individual.

The mayor's caring and concerned reply as regards the cat and its treatment at the Great Falls Animal Shelter is indicative of the quality of response by our city administrators. The fact that Stebbins is an official of Spay of the Falls, which is now a subgroup of the Animal Foundation of Great Falls, and ALL claim to care for the welfare of the animals leaves me very worried indeed and many, who now know of this incident, extremely angry.

Donna Stebbins and the City pushed hard and fast to get control of that animal shelter. The Foundation seemed to be all for the city running the shelter as evidenced by witnesses of private meetings and "quotes" given to the Tribune. This is what these two entities consider to be better animal care than the HSCC?

Let me get this straight...

This is what animal welfare in Great Falls has come to under the umbrella of the Foundation, the official of the city AND Spay of the Falls, and the Great Falls Animal Shelter?

"At least now we're down to two" animal welfare groups in the city, she (Cerny) said. "...the foundation's goal is for the shelter to try to find homes for all adoptable animals."

The mayor's behavior and response then, must be the "high standards" Cerny spoke about in the Trib article.