When the mayor of Chattanooga wrote an "open letter" this week that was actually a plea for our animal-control officials to be paid by The Pet Company for its obvious misconduct and filthy environment, it served as further evidence the Apocalypse may be near. This is slowly becoming one of the most preposterous episodes of public idiocy I can ever remember.

What should have been an open-and-shut case where some scurrilous people would be put in jail, the debacle surrounding the pet store in Hamilton Place Mall has now evolved into a legal tug-of-war where the louts are actually trying to avoid paying for the havoc their inept and inhumane actions have caused. The time has come for Chattanooga to "clean up the cage," too, and stop this ridiculous fiasco.

On June 15 the store was raided by officers at the behest of the McKamey Animal Care and Adoption Center, which handles animal control issues for the city. The conditions that were found were nauseating. There were sick animals, some with diseases that can be transferred to humans. Some animals were without water in 85-degree heat, and there were other examples of gross negligence that a civilized society will never tolerate.

Officials documented blatant animal abuse among the 90 violations that were found. As court testimony would later reveal, one employee put a live hamster in a trash compacter and then turned the machine on. There was another incident where a dead dog was put in a refrigerator beside food for human consumption. Believe me, the list of allegations is lengthy, but it is hardly a wonder.

The Pet Company, which is owned by United Pet Supply in New Windsor, N.Y., has a tawdry reputation among Chattanooga veterinarians. They'll tell you not to dare buy an animal at the place and give you solid reasons why. Further, the "pedigree" of its owner, United Pet Supply of New Windsor, N.Y., is equally in question.

But instead of acting swiftly and justly, charging the miscreants and hauling the "hamster compacters" to the workhouse, the case has curiously come down to whether the Pet Company should pay the McKamey Center for housing and treating the animals. Our mayor just wrote an "open letter," for heaven's sake. The whole thing is so insane it makes one wonder if there isn't "mad cow disease" in Chattanooga's drinking water.

The state of Tennessee, with its tail tucked between its legs, added to the carnival earlier this week with a ruling the store could stay open "if" it adhered to its employee manual. Are you kidding me? In my opinion public-health officials in the city and county should also go to jail "if" they do the same thing. My goodness, are the monkeys running the circus?

There is a man in nearby Trenton, Ga., named Jackie Burns. He is now sitting in the Dade County Jail for killing a puppy with a hammer. There is also a guy in Toledo, Ohio, who is in jail for shooting his dog six times in a case that will get him one-to-five years in prison. My point is obvious: people who abuse animals elsewhere go to jail, but in Chattanooga we let them argue whether they should pay the bill for their misdeeds. Puh-lease! This whole thing is nuts.

Should County Mayor Claude Ramsey write an "open letter," too, demanding that our sheriff and district attorney dutifully arrest the "hamster compacter?" Should the Department of Public Health padlock a store where Guardia, a serious and contagious infection, has been found?

Worse, I cannot find mention of where any fines have been levied, any punishment has been decreed, or any remuneration has been sought for what is a sore and throbbing black eye suffered by the citizens of this town. Animal abuse is a crime. It demands that good people deal with it. If they do not, it reflects we citizens are unwilling accomplices.

Further, somebody ought to pay for the spectacle itself - police cars, the man-hours, and the whoopla this fiasco has wrought, as well as any and all costs incurred by our animal-control officials. This whole thing should have never taken four days of courtroom proceedings in a case - what? - where the judge is still pondering whether The Pet Company should pay for it.

Mother of pearl, stop this madness!

royexum@aol.com