Former Midland Animal Service Manager speaks about being fired by city

CBS7 News at 6 broadcast.

CBS7
By Tyler Poglitsch
Published: May. 1, 2023 at 4:24 PM CST

MIDLAND, Texas (KOSA) -Last Thursday, April 27th, the City of Midland announced that it was letting go of its animal service manager saying " Ty was a probationary employee and did not make his probation”.

Ty Coleman has been running the Midland Animal Service Shelter since last summer.

But after the City of Midland reviewed Coleman’s probationary period, the City of Midland has decided to part ways with its animal services manager.

Coleman has been with the city since June of 2022 but he says he was unaware of a year-long probation period, he’s only seen 30 or 90-day probation periods.

Coleman handled day-to-day operations and says he was never told he was doing something negative.

“I wasn’t counseled or disciplined or coached in a way where they could evaluate me to grow and help me go in the vision of what the city wanted,” said Ty Coleman, Animal Welfare Expert

Two weeks ago the shelter was closed because of a virus outbreak, days later the city decided to re-open the shelter against Coleman’s advice.

Since that decision, other shelter employees decided to leave because they say the city didn’t care about the well-being of the dogs or the people that work there.

“The city’s just not ready for change and animal control has always been kind of the red-headed stepchild of the city,” said Beth Meeks, Director of Adoption for Fix West Texas

Because the city decided to force the shelter back open, workers had to euthanize 30 dogs.

“But then we have to go home to our family and sit at the dinner table like nothing happened. So you start to compartmentalize that and it gets and creates a toll on the shelter workers” said Meeks

According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, animal rescue workers have the same suicide rate as police officers and firefighters.

Both Coleman and Meeks have publicly said they do not agree with the deputy city manager’s decision to re-open the shelter.

“And I mean, it’s hard to educate somebody when they’ve made comments over and over again that they do not like animals. They don’t care for the animals, they don’t care for the dogs and cats. He’ll say he’s a people person, he likes people who like animals but he’ll also say that he doesn’t like animals. So it’s hard to educate someone in that sense when they already have that preconceived thought that they don’t like animals” said Coleman

Ty would say after his departure he received support from Midlander’s saying they were happy he was willing to advocate for change.

The City of Midland declined to interview or comment on the personnel changes made at the shelter or about recent euthanizations.