WINNSBORO – In an email sent to several Fairfield County animal shelter volunteers and some council members on Tuesday, March 31, Fairfield County Administrator Vic Carpenter, wrote:
“In order to ensure that all operations of the Fairfield County animal shelter are above board, I have requested that the Sheriff’s Office review allegations and statements made online and verbally. They asked SLED [State Law Enforcement Division] to take it over.”
A SLED public information officer told The Voice on Tuesday afternoon that SLED has not yet launched an investigation involving that matter at this time.
Carpenter’s email comes two months after Fairfield County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the shelter on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, regarding trustees (inmates) fighting while on duty at the shelter. According to the deputy’s incident report, one trustee, Thomas Johnson, alleged that he tried to stop two other trustees from fighting dogs inside the shelter. Johnson stated that Trustee ‘A’ told him, “Wait till we get back to the dorm.” That prompted Johnson to retrieve a shovel because he believed a confrontation would occur, the report stated. Johnson admitted to striking Trustee ‘A’ on the head with the shovel, according to the report. Johnson was charged with assault and battery.
An article titled “County shuts down shelter volunteers after volunteer exposes safety concerns,” appeared in the March 26 edition of The Voice.
There was no indication in the deputy’s Jan. 31 incident report that either the deputies or county officials investigated the alleged dog fight before they left the property.
A shelter volunteer said she arrived for an appointment at the shelter shortly after the Jan. 31 trustee fight and witnessed the aftermath.
The volunteer later told The Voice that after sheriff’s deputies and county officials left the shelter, she and Animal Shelter Manager Neely Thomasson checked inside the shelter and discovered blood in a kennel and a Rottweiler named Princess inside the kennel with puncture wounds around her face and neck and bleeding from a puncture wound in the armpit.
The volunteer said she and Thomasson called the county’s veterinary assistant who gave instructions on how to stop the bleeding and instructed that the injured dog should be seen by a veterinarian.
When the bleeding was stopped, the volunteer said Thomasson returned the dog to her kennel with planed to check on her Sunday morning. The dog was found dead in her kennel on Monday morning. The volunteer said another dog in the shelter was also reported to have puncture wounds on the face and neck.
In a March 2, 2026, email to Carpenter and Joey Price, who oversees the animal shelter operations, shelter volunteer Aimee Griffith said she heard the Jan. 31 shelter incident over her husband’s EMS radio. She said she had become increasingly concerned about the safety of both the shelter animals and staff. Griffith said she received no response to her email from the county officials.
Griffith expressed concerns about: lack of supervision of detention center trustees allegedly fighting dogs inside the shelter; county’s failure to install surveillance cameras in the shelter; reduction of dog’s food to one cup per day for a period of time; and shelter vehicles routinely left unlocked with gas cards in the glove boxes.
About three weeks later, on March 20, the volunteer who witnessed the aftermath of the Jan. 31 incident was banned from the shelter via an email from Thomasson. According to Thomasson’s email the ban was temporary, to give the shelter management time to create job descriptions, policies and guidelines “that are clear and easily understandable by our volunteers.”
On March 28, the Fairfield County government’s public information officer Gene Stephens issued the county’s first public statement regarding the Jan. 31, 2026 incident.
The statement included a “Police Report of the Jan. 31 Incident.”
That “Police Report,” however, is not the Jan. 31, 2026, incident report that was issued by the Fairfield County Sheriff’s office. A number of details in the county’s “Police Report” do not match details in the incident report that was submitted by a deputy on scene.
The deputy’s incident report stated: “Deputies then spoke with [Trustee] Thomas Johnson, who stated that he observed Trustee [A] and Trustee [B] spraying dogs with water in an attempt to make them fight, and that he made them stop.”
The county’s “Police Report” described an opposite scenario: “Trustee 1 saw Trustee 2 spraying 2 dogs with a water hose in an attempt to separate 2 dogs that became entangled.” None of this appears in the deputy’s incident report.
The county also included the following in its “Police Report:” “Fairfield County Community and Safety Services Director [Price], who oversees animal control and the animal shelter, immediately went on the scene as soon as he was notified, which was very shortly afterwards. An investigation did occur which determined there was no intentional effort by inmates to fight dogs.”
None of that information is included in the deputy’s incident report.
The deputy’s incident report does not indicate whether the Sheriff’s Office or Price investigated Johnson’s allegations of dog fighting.
No photos, videos, or reports have been made available to The Voice or the public by the Sheriff’s Office or the county administration that would indicate either had investigated the dog fighting allegation at the time they were on scene following the incident.
According to Price’s emailed interview answers, trustees from the detention center continue to work at the shelter, but he said he is not allowed to discuss them.
The deputy’s complete incident report and the county’s press release about the Jan. 31 shelter incident are posted below.
Questions Not Answered
The Voice emailed questions regarding the Jan. 31 shelter incident and other shelter issues to Carpenter, Price, and Thomasson. Carpenter’s answers were included in the March 26 issue of The Voice. Price’s answers were received Monday, March 29, and Thomasson responded Tuesday morning, March 31, but did not answer any of The Voice’s questions.
“Some of those questions I cannot answer, others are best answered by Mr. Carpenter,” Thomasson replied via email.
Carpenter said in his answers that the Rottweiler who was allegedly fought against another dog and died two days later, had only a superficial scratch and minimal bleeding and that she died as a result of heartworm disease. He said she was actually scheduled for euthanasia the next morning, but he did not provide any documentation of the scheduled euthanasia or a necropsy report on the dog.
Prior Work Experience
Neither Carpenter nor Price would answer whether Price had any prior work experience with any animal shelter before being given oversight of the Fairfield County animal shelter, animal control, detention center, and E9-11 center.
“I knew that Neely did not have any previous shelter management experience,” Carpenter said in his answers. “It is normal for people to grow into jobs in county government.”
According to Stevens (the county’s PIO), Thomasson had been working less than two years at the Fairfield animal shelter – first as a kennel attendant and then as an animal control officer – when she was named manager of the animal shelter.
Separating Himself
In his March 31 email call for a review of allegations and Facebook comments, Carpenter said he will be separating himself from the volunteers and council members he had planned to meet with about the shelter issues.
“I have been asked to not have any meetings with anyone involved in the allegations or operations of the shelter and its programs,“ Carpenter said. “So, I will not be able to meet with you at this time.”