The case of Piper the cat’s free X-rays and her owner, the county’s shelter director
Bronwyn Stanford was a month into her $198,000a-year job as director of the Animal Services Department when she allegedly brought her out-ofsorts cat, Piper, to a Miami-Dade County veterinarian for an exam that included X-rays.
That free pet service in December 2021 violated county rules according to a report issued this week by the Inspector General’s Office that found scattered instances of Stanford receiving special treatment at the county’s tax-funded pet shelter in Doral.
The investigation was sparked by an anonymous complaint about Stanford and her stormy 20-month tenure that’s now mired in a slander suit. She was placed on paid leave last month by her boss, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, for undisclosed reasons.
In her response to investigators, Stanford noted she either paid for services cited in the report, was rebuffed when trying to pay, or in the case of the X-ray early in her tenure, wrongly thought the service was available to any pet owner at the Doral shelter.
She blamed the whistleblower investigation on disgruntled administrators — including the vet who treated Piper — upset with her reform efforts.
“The complainant and each of the witnesses has repeatedly, on multiple occasions, challenged my requests and even my directives,” Stanford wrote in an undated memo to the Inspector General’s Office.
It included an attachment titled “Witness Collusion” that included her claiming to hear laughter from an Animal Services administrator’s office where she saw multiple subordinates seemingly celebrating what was then