IACS Worker Fired For Checking Criminal Histories Of Adopters

Source: Photo Courtesy of Indianapolis Animal Care Services / IACS

INDIANAPOLIS — Two women who worked for Indianapolis Animal Care Services were fired recently for checking the criminal histories of potential adopters of animals being kept at the animal shelter.

Kylee Fox said she would use MyCase to look up the criminal histories, if any, of people looking to adopt pets, which was in line with a previous policy put in place by IACS. They’d search for things like past domestic battery or animal cruelty charges.

The policy was put in place after a dog was adopted out to a person with a criminal history in 2022 who ended up hanging and stabbing the dog to death. But, she said about a week after being hired as an adoption counselor that changed.

“Within the first week of me being there they took away the MyCase policy,” Fox told WISH-TV. “They argued that going to any home, no matter who it’s with, is better than being at the shelter.”

Fox said she was never formally told about the policy change, but was told about it verbally by one of her colleagues. Regardless she followed the policy change for a while. But, she decided to start checking MyCase again after she learned a dog was adopted out to a couple she knew had several past animal cruelty violations.

“That is what kind of sparked the fire in me to keep checking MyCase, because this animal went home with somebody who has a history of abusing animals, neglecting animals,” Fox said. “They were literally confiscated from them.”

Fox said she denied two adoptions in the months that followed based on what she found on MyCase. Her bosses apparently learned that she was still using MyCase and called her in for a formal reprimand. Last Wednesday, July 31st, she was fired.

“She just said, ‘you continued to check MyCase, you continued to check MyCase’ every time I would ask her to elaborate,” Fox said. “That is very much what the termination is based around. I asked her for a copy of my paper and she had the guy from HR follow me out.”

Makenna Chiddister was also fired for continuing to check MyCase records although she denied doing so. Still, she said she “100-percent supports what Kylee did.”

In a statement, IACS said that “checking MyCase was discouraged, as its use was problematic and could lead to biased, inequitable vetting of potential adoptees.” They also claim ASPCA “encourages the ‘open adoption’ approach” and that their efforts “have the shelter currently at an 84.5% live release rate.”