Bush resident Melisa Sullivan-Piwetz was recently appointed director of the St. Tammany Department of Animal Services, a position vacnt since January when longtime director Brent Robbins took a job with the Agriculture and Forestry Commission.

Parish Council members unanimously approved the slot for Sullivan-Piwetz, a six-year veteran of the department who served as assistant director and most recently interim director.

She’ll earn between $59,650 to $76,264 a year, according to parish pay rates. Sullivan-Piwetz, a veterinary technician for nine years before joining the parish animal shelter staff, holds the highest level of certification from both the National Animal Control Association and the Association of Certified Cruelty Investigators. She’s also served on the Board of Directors for the National Animal Control Association.

Alongside her former boss Robbins, Sullivan was instrumental in the seizure and later caretaking of 119 malnourished and disease-ridden dogs discovered in a Lacombe home in the spring 2004.

The discovery shocked the parish after it was revealed the dogs wallowed in urine and feces, some lying dead while others ate them.

Sullivan gave passionate pleas to media and interested adoption parties touring the parish animal shelter as the dogs cowered in cages when a human approached.

Sullivan-Piwetz has been temporarily replacing Robbins, a veterinarian from Folsom who served as the parish’s animal shelter director since February 2002 and spearheaded construction of a new animal shelter scheduled to open in the next year.

Robbins was tapped by Agricultural and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain to serve as one of Strain’s five statewide assistant commissioners.