The latest volley in the ongoing battle between animal advocates and county executive Ron Sims over the fate of two county-run animal shelters has been fired by a new group called King County Animal Care and Control Exposed, which wrote a letter to the council last month demanding that they censure Sims for “libel[ing] private King County citizens” and “engag[ing] in shocking attacks against people who disagree with Mr. Sims or his policies.” The letter, signed by attorney and no-kill activist Claire Loebs Davis, asks the county council to “publicly denounce Mr. Sims’s conduct, and declare it will not participate in creating this atmosphere of fear and repression.”

The accusations came in response to a post on Sims’s Twitter site that indirectly questioned the credibility of a veterinarian who said he had stopped volunteering at the animal shelters because of poor conditions for animals at the shelters. Sims’ site directed readers to a blog run by a King County animal shelter volunteer called KCAS Creatures (since removed) which accused the vet, Brad Crauer, of prescribing himself drugs in the name of his dead dog. (The blog also included numerous unrelated attacks on individual county council members). In a Seattle Times story about problems at the shelter, Crauer alleged that the county did nothing to improve problems at the shelters; isolated animals; and did nothing to help sick animals in shelter custody.

For nearly two years, county council members and consultants have decried the conditions at the two county-run animal shelters, and recently called for the shelters to be taken over by a private group such as the Humane Society.

Last week, all nine members of the county council sent Sims a sternly worded letter expressing their “concern and disappointment with your Twitter post… You used the influence of your office to endorse a personal blog that lacks the editorial standards and accountability of the professional news media. We urge you to disavow this apparent endorsement of divisive attacks on private citizens and public employees, and make a personal apology to those who were named.”

Sims spokeswoman Natasha Jones says Sims has not responded to the letter and has no plans to do so. “We don’t take responsibility for the other things” that were printed on the blog Sims linked, Jones says. “It’s no different than if we send anyone to the Seattle Times or the Stranger’s blog—we’re not endorsing everything that appears on that blog.”