toledoblade.com --

IF TOM Skeldon were a dog in his own pound, he would have been euthanized a long time ago. No longer a pup, he is obsessive, stubborn, and incapable of learning to modify his behavior, and it is time for the Lucas County commission to end the dog warden's reign of terror so the county can take a new direction in animal control that focuses on saving dogs as well as protecting county residents.

Where is Toledo's heart?

Each day it is more obvious that 22 years as dog warden has closed Mr. Skeldon's mind and narrowed his vision. He pays lip service to new ideas but is incapable of seeing any way other than his way, which is to kill as many dogs as the law allows.

Do Toledo and Lucas County want to be seen by the nation as a mean town and a mean county? Does anyone think that businesses will invest in a mean town or families will want to relocate here? Is this what we want to be, a place where the letter of the law is used to make life for dogs a hell on Earth?

And where is the the county Democratic Party, fresh off its loss of the Toledo mayor's office? If party leaders think the dog warden is not yet part of the local political equation, they are sadly mistaken.

State law says pit-bull breeds are vicious - a dubious, politics-driven classification - so Mr. Skeldon, captive to his own, inflexibile ideology, deals death to every pit bull, even the smallest puppy, that comes to him.

Every time a suggestion is made to reduce the appalling number of dogs killed each year, Mr. Skeldon says out of one side of his mouth that he's open to the idea, while out of the other side he insists that no ideas but his own will work. He declares he'll be dog warden until he retires in 2011, likely angling to meet some lucrative Public Employees Retirement System benchmark, but forgets at whose pleasure he serves. And when Commissioner Ben Konop and John Dinon, executive director of the Toledo Area Humane Society, suggested recently that more could be done to find homes for dogs, Mr. Skeldon's response was the arrogant declaration that "neither of those people know what they're talking about."

It is clear that nothing will change as long as this warden remains.

Even adored pets are not safe. People forced to give their dog to Mr. Skeldon's dog pound - perhaps they've gotten too old to care for a pet or are moving somewhere that doesn't allow dogs - must make clear that they are surrendering their pet. Otherwise, it could end up dead simply because it doesn't fit Mr. Skeldon's narrow definition of what makes a dog adoptable.

Mr. Konop reportedly will ask today that Mr. Skeldon be fired. But as long as Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak, the dog warden's first cousin, is involved, the commissioners aren't likely to bring Mr. Skeldon to heel.

It is inappropriate - and ought to be illegal - for Ms. Wozniak to vote on the employment of a family member, so she must recuse herself. Then Commissioner Pete Gerken will be forced to choose. Will he vote to replace Mr. Skeldon with a more progressive dog warden, or will he do nothing, tacitly supporting the killing of innocent animals?

Tell us, Mr. Gerken, where is your heart?