Thursday, 2 days after the beating death of 10-year-old Seth Ireland, the director of Fresno County's Child Protective Services is defending her department.

But, many say Seth was not only the victim of horrific abuse; he was also a victim of a failed system.

At the time of Seth's death, his Child Protective Services case investigation was still open.

C.P.S. Director Catherine Huerta said the social worker assigned to investigate the numerous calls of concern for Seth's well being was also in charge of around 30 other cases.

"If this was the only case she had or she only had 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 10 kids, would there be other things that she could think to do? Oh, yeah, I think so. I do. But, do I believe for a second that she had that kind of time based upon the other referrals of other kids that were at risk? She prioritizes. ", Huerta said.

Fresno County Supervisor Henry Perea said the system failed 3 month old Roman Quiroz when he died from blunt force trauma wounds 2 years ago and the system failed again for Seth Ireland.

"We have a staff that's doing the best they can with the resources they have, but we don't have enough.", Perea said.

But, Perea acknowledges the Board of Supervisors cut funding to C.P.S. to give a bigger piece of the pie to law enforcement; a decision he says he did not support.

Perea said, "All we did was we made the hole in the safety net bigger and that hole is going to get even more... it's going to get bigger as time goes on with the economy the way it is."

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