Katy settles lawsuit with ex-animal control employee who alleged retaliation for animal abuse claims

Gerber spent months documenting violations by staff at the shelter as well as conduct she considered inhumane and unethical. She began working at the Katy shelter part time in May 2019. She saw staffers leave animals that had been euthanized overnight in close proximity to live animals. They placed cats in birdcages outside the facility, with crisscross bars that made it hard for them to walk. They left cats outside in sweltering heat and rain. The dead bodies of animals that shelter employees had discarded in city dumpsters (which were not retrieved by sanitation workers) were returned and stored at the facility in a nearly full freezer. The shelter director, David Brown, would later tell police he was rushing to empty that freezer before he retired.

Now Playing:

Gerber hoped the wealth of video and audio recordings, emails, text messages and documents she had amassed would show that the shelter had egregiously mistreated cats and dogs. She brought the documentation to the Katy police department, city officials and outside agencies, begging for someone with authority to step in for the sake of the animals. Instead, she was fired from her job and her colleagues were cleared, despite evidence that indicates they did violate state law and local ordinances. 

The animal control employees themselves, in their own statements to officials during the city’s investigation, admitted to violating the law. 

Gerber sued the city for wrongful termination in November 2021, saying she’d been fired in retaliation for her advocacy. The suit said her dismissal violated the Texas Whistleblower Act. Nearly a year later, the city settled with Gerber.

KATY SHELTER: After national outcry over abuse claims, Katy Animal Control made changes. Some say it’s not enough.

The confidential settlement marks the end of a three-year saga that began when she shared videos and photographs on social media that enraged thousands of animal advocates across the country, placing a glaring spotlight on the fast-growing west Houston suburb.

“At the end of the day it’s the right thing to do…be the voice for the animals,” Gerber said. “Because they don’t have one.”

Katy Animal Control department, the City of Katy, the Katy Police Department, Brown, animal control officers involved in the suit and Angela “Angie” Wells, an accused animal hoarder Gerber believed had been in cahoots with shelter officials, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. 

Violating its own rules 

In addition to posting on social media, Gerber brought her concerns to police who initiated a monthslong investigation that ended in Katy Police clearing Brown, and animal control officer Spencer Antinoro, the department’s only full-time employee. Katy Police also investigated six of Gerber’s allegations. Among other charges, police would assess whether the shelter had been disposing of animal corpses in city dumpsters, euthanizing animals improperly and mishandling records. 

Gerber also told police she believed Brown had used city resources to fabricate evidence that would shield Wells, an accused animal hoarder, after more than 200 animals were found in deplorable conditions on Wells’ Katy property. 

Some employees admitted in police interviews to some of the conduct Gerber had alleged. But none of the acts they admitted to were violations of state or local law, police found. Police only faulted the shelter for improperly handling records.  

Video of a Katy Police detective’s interview of  Brown and Antinoro in 2021 offers a vivid glimpse into what animal rights advocates like Gerber viewed as an underregulated department run by a director who knowingly violated his organization’s procedures to the detriment of the animals the facility took in. Both men admitted it was commonplace to euthanize stray cats deemed “feral” upon arrival, despite the department’s own rule that all pets be kept on a mandatory 72-hour stray hold. This requirement is aimed at allowing owners sufficient time to find lost animals. 

That didn’t matter, the shelter officials said under questioning by police.

“Our facility cannot hold a feral cat, a wild cat, for 72 hours,” Brown told Katy Police detective Lee Hernandez in a small, dimly-lit room in a video filmed in 2021. During the interrogation, Brown grew flustered behind his face mask while Hernandez showed him some of Gerber’s secret recordings.

“I don’t want to watch this anymore. This is a bunch of crap,” Brown said after viewing a few minutes of the first video. “You can turn this off – it’s just aggravating me.” 

He added it was commonplace for a feral cat to be euthanized and “pass away in the night” and then be “taken care of” the next morning. Some of Gerber’s videos show euthanized cats struggling to die, left conscious for extended periods of time. Protocols for humane euthanasia are focused on ending an animal’s life quickly and painlessly. 

In addition, the Texas Administrative Code requires that euthanasia of animals in shelter custody be conducted in an area out of view of other living animals. It also mandates euthanized animals be monitored until their time of death. Leaving an animal to “pass away in the night” is a violation of state law, according to Jamey Cantrell, president of the Texas Animal Control Association, the oldest and largest state animal control organization in the country.

Cantrell was not involved in the investigation of the Katy shelter, but he reviewed the details of the allegations with the Houston Chronicle and said the practices described at the Katy shelter sounded unorthodox.

“If they were starting the process and leaving it before they were able to verify death, that would be a violation,” Cantrell said. “It sounds to me like there is a failure not just by the officers but by the city (which) is supposed to be providing oversight for this shelter.” 

GERBER’S LAWSUIT: Ex-Katy animal control employee sues city, alleging retaliation for abuse claims

Cantrell said leaving a euthanized animal overnight in an area with other live animals is “definitely not a best practice,” but it is not a physical danger to other animals as long as they are confined to their own cages. The notion that the employees and facility cannot “handle” a feral cat is not valid, Cantrell said, adding that there are tools available for animal control officers to safely handle wild animals. 

Cantrell said it’s up to a city to police itself and hold its employees accountable for following protocol: “Ultimately, it’s the citizens of Katy (who) …have the power there. If they don’t like how it’s being done, they have to make their voice heard.” 

As of Sept. 2021, a new Texas law requires any animal in the custody of a shelter to be scanned for a microchip. Gerber maintains that scanning for microchips was not a routine practice for the department, especially for stray cats. Instead of being scanned to see if they had owners they were euthanized as soon as animal control officers brought them in. 

The shelter did not respond to inquiries about whether it is actively scanning for microchips.  

NEW MICROCHIP RULE: Have a dog or a cat? Houstonians can now be fined if it does not have a microchip.

Another issue that raised concerns for Cantrell was the department’s lack of understanding of proper animal disposal. Brown explains in the interrogation video that the department previously disposed of dead animals by burying them on the shelter property. He explained that staff began storing the animals in a freezer after a flood caused the carcasses to surface at the property. 

Once the freezer started filling up, Brown decided staff would start disposing of carcasses in random city dumpsters, a protocol that a CEO at a local landfill had approved.

“We would go back and keep checking it to make sure it could be disposed of,” Antinoro tells Katy police in the video. “If it didn’t get disposed of, we would pull it out and throw it back in the freezer.” 

Cantrell said it is common for shelters to dispose of dead animals by hiring companies to transport them to a landfill. But he said it is unusual for a city to remove dead animals not retrieved by garbage trucks back to its facility. 

Animal remains containing euthanasia drugs such as pentobarbital are potentially poisonous for scavenging wildlife, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals, which the Texas Administrative Code requires animal shelters to follow. Leaving dead animal remains in dumpsters for extended periods of time could ultimately kill other wildlife that find the carcasses. 

Officials from Texas Pride, the landfill Brown said agreed to dispose of dead animals for the city, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In addition to skirting protocol, both Brown and Antinoro’s required euthanasia training documents had expired between 2019 and 2020, according to certificates included in the city’s investigation. 

The Texas Health and Safety code requires anyone who performs euthanasia to have the required up-to-date training. 

“If you don’t have a current certified euthanasia technician, that is a violation of state law” to euthanize animals, Cantrell said. “You don’t get a grace period. That is something you always have to have and keep it current.” 

Performing euthanasia without current certified training is a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 120 days in jail, a $2,000 fine or both. 

Colluding with animal hoarder 

Antinoro and Gerber have acknowledged in statements that the department had a working relationship with Wells, who faces 24 counts of cruelty to animals.

Cantrell said Brown’s alleged involvement with Wells – which includes housing animals she didn’t want to be seized, allowing her to routinely take animals out of the shelter, helping coordinate her legal assistance and clean-up crews – does not violate any Texas laws. It’s common for some shelters to “chase numbers” in order to achieve a high save rate. Some animals can end up in homes that are unsafe, just to get them out of a shelter. 

He added that if a shelter knowingly gave animals to someone known to be hoarding and harming animals, he would condemn that conduct. 

NO. 1 FOR SHELTER DEATHS: Texas is leading the pack in America’s growing animal shelter crisis, report finds

Brown has disputed accounts he had improper involvement with Wells. He previously told the Houston Chronicle that he did not witness hundreds of animals being stashed at Wells’ residences. He also said he never visited the property where an animal seizure occurred. 

Gerber’s lawsuit is not the first to be brought against the city accusing Brown of misconduct. Brown was accused of sexual harassment in 2007 while he was working as a dispatch supervisor with the Katy Police Department. A former employee in that unit sued the city for wrongful termination saying he was fired after complaining about sexual harassment by Brown. The employee said Brown made sexual comments and made implicit requests for sexual favors, according to court documents. 

That case ended in a settlement in 2009.

Starting over

After years of battling over the shelter’s actions, Gerber is starting over in a new town. She’s helping out more at her daughter’s kindergarten class. And construction has started on her new business, a dog boarding kennel. 

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

She does not regret the time she put in to help the animals. Her efforts did create change: the shelter moved to an electronic records system, it installed security cameras, it’s finally working with volunteers and rescues, it has a social media presence and appears to be networking animals online. 

“Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is watching,” she said.

In October, Katy Mayor Dusty Thiele gave Brown a “certificate of achievement,” thanking him for 30 years of his service with the city. 

rebecca.hennes@chron.com