Heated e-mails burn up cyberspace

Summit County Administra tor James McCarthy, tak ing flak for hiring Christine Congrove, the 23-year-old daughter of a Summit County councilman, to run the county's troubled animal control facility where she once worked as a secretary, is unleashing his anger via the Internet.

When a former Akron resident, an animal rescuer now living in Burbank, Calif., criticized the hire and claimed ongoing inhumane practices at the facility, McCarthy returned e-fire, copying all of the county and city officials to whom the woman, Tiffanie Hauger, had initially complained.

"You have been sucking too much smog," he wrote. "I'm just a Midwest hick trying to understand how a former Akronite got to be sooooo smart by living in a smog haze."

Replied Hauger: "How did I get "sooooo" smart? I graduated from a highly respected college, unlike your buddy Chrissy Congrove."

The e-mail exchange continued privately through the week she called him a "pitiful, little man"; he said, "I believe you are a liar."

His tone struck some as unprofessional, even embarrassing. But McCarthy, who said he has been deluged with e-mail from animal rights activists, has no apologies.

"Look, after a while, you just get tired of it," McCarthy said. "Some snobby, obnoxious female from Burbank decided to beat up on me and my city and my employees. It just ticked me off. Enough is enough."