Friday, August 23, 2013

Cronin's Cat War to Jeopardize APPA Excellence Award?

Texas Tech Facilities Administrator Hugh Cronin escalated his war on Texas Tech's community cats by removing mesh grates and installing sheet metal coverings.  This move prevents the public from seeing cats imprisoned with no food or water.  Cronin's version of solitary confinement came after a NBC News Report on TTU's animal cruelty.

Hugh Cronin misrepresented the cat roundup from his very first memo on June 6.  His behavior should jeopardize TTU's just received Award for Excellence from the APPA (Association of Physical Plant Administrators).

APPA award criteria include:

How leadership of the facilities department promotes and ensures ethical behavior in all interactions.
Facilities leadership lied, broke Texas animal cruelty law, then ramped up their heavy handed approach when challenged by the very community organizations TTU was supposedly "collaborating with."  Writing nonfactual sentences and speaking untrue words are not ethical behaviors.

Hugh Cronin said the following in an article about the APPA Award of Excellence:

"We are stewards of the environment."
How many stewards lock up creatures and deprive them of food, water and now sunlight?  Cronin's Cat War should jeopardize TTU's three week old award.  That is, if the APPA has any internal quality control measures.

But it's much more than Facilities Management, who repeatedly removed water bottles for trapped cats.  TTU's Public Relations staff reiterated bald-faced lies or offered new nonsense statements when the public could clearly see imprisoned cats.

How does a Facilities Manager with one week left in his tenure get to escalate the situation to this degree?  Cronin did so with the explicit or implicit approval of TTU's top leaders.

Trapped cats may not live beyond Cronin's barbaric final week.  President Nellis is accountable for TTU's escalating war on community cats.  How hard is it to order the unlocking and removal of metal grates?  I offer a possible script in case anyone is at a loss for words:

"Use this key.  Turn it.  Free the cats and live up to our university's two month old promise to collaborate with local animal service organizations and TTU's longstanding cat colony." 

That would behoove an emerging national research university.  Anything less is cruel. 

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