Fired animal director on hot seat in Michigan
Montgomery County fired Kumpf last year amid criticism.
Mark Kumpf, dismissed here in Ohio, started his new job in Detroit on Monday. See why some already want him gone.
Former Montgomery County Animal Resource Center Director Mark Kumpf just started a new job as animal control director in Detroit on Monday, and some already are calling for his ouster from that position.
Montgomery County commissioners fired Kumpf last December. That termination came after a year in which the local shelter faced criticism from animal rights advocates over euthanasia rates and independent consultants Team Shelter USA issued a report critical of shelter operations.
The county settled an employment dispute with Kumpf five months after the firing, agreeing to pay him 17 weeks of salary and provide him a neutral reference letter.
In return, Kumpf agreed to
withdraw an appeal he filed with the state’s Personnel Board of Review and not file further claims nor seek damages from the county related to his employment, according to the settlement agreement.
With Montgomery County government, Kumpf is a defendant in a lawsuit filed in 2015 by the estate of Klonda Richey, a Dayton woman who was mauled to death by a neighbor’s dogs in 2014. Richey had complained to authorities about the dogs for months, to no avail.
Detroit recently experienced a horrific mauling, when a trio of pit bulls leaped over a fence to attack a 9-year-old girl who was riding her bike, as news reports in Detroit described the attack.
Emma Hernandez died less than an hour after the attack, according to reports.
A petition page calling for Kumpf ’s firing from his new position in Detroit has been set up and is asking for signatures. As of early Tuesday, more than 6,200 visitors had signed the page.
“This says that a lot of people feel like this is not the right decision to make,” Theresa Sumpter, director of the Detroit Pit Crew Dog Rescue, told the Dayton Daily News.
Sumpter said she learned of Kumpf ’s hiring by Detroit late last week. She searched references to his name on Google and said she was “astonished” at what she found.
“We don’t want Mark here in Detroit,” she said.
A message seeking comment was left for the communications director for the city of Detroit’s health department.
Speaking to the Detroit News in a story published Monday, the city’s Chief Operating Officer Hakim Berry had words of praise for Kumpf, saying he is confident in Kumpf, who has had a 30-year career in animal care.
“He’s taken the opportunity to drive around Detroit and get to know the area,” Berry told the Detroit News. “He was just head-and-shoulders different than anyone we’ve ever seen before. I think he’s really dedicated.”
The executive director of the nonprofit Detroit Dog Rescue, Kristina Millman-Rinaldi, told the Detroit News that she met with Kumpf and liked what Kumpf had to say about animal welfare, public policy and safety.
“I want to set him up for success,” Millman-Rinaldi told that newspaper. “I want to be an ally for anybody that wants to help Detroit and wants to help the animals ... I do know that sometimes people in the position of leadership are blamed for things, or take the heat for things that are maybe a policy or aren’t their fault.”
Millman-Rinaldi did not respond to attempts to contact her before deadline Tuesday.
Kumpf will earn $100,000 annually, the Detroit News said.
In Montgomery County, his annual salary in 2018 was $86,611.20.
Today, the Ohio House Criminal Justice Committee’s Subcommittee on Criminal Sentencing will hear testimony from Tierney Dumont, mother of Savannah Coleman, who was mauled by a dog in Miami Twp. last year. Dr. Robert Lober, the doctor who treated Coleman after the attack, is also scheduled to testify before the subcommittee.
State Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, is shepherding the bill, House Bill 37, after former State Sen. Bill Beagle, R-Tipp City, left the General Assembly.
Essentially, the bill would boost penalties against owners of dogs who attack others as a result of the owners’ negligence. The bill would boost penalties from misdemeanors to felonies.
The hope is that with stiffer penalties, owners will take their responsibilities more seriously, Antani said Tuesday.
“I think it’s also about justice,” Antani said. “We also frankly have to think about what justice would look like.”
Last year, Coleman, then eight years old, was attacked by a pit bull in a Miami Twp. mobile home park, causing her to be hospitalized with head wounds.