Animal control & rescue
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:
The North Shore Animal League’s second annual May adoptathon
involved more than 700 U.S. shelters, which among them placed
20,000 animals––and all of the National Canine Defense League and Blue
Cross Animal Care shelters in England, which placed up to 60-75% of the
dogs in their care plus 40% of the cats.
The Calcasieu Parish Animal Control and Protection
Department uses local high school career days “to spread the word that
work in animal control makes a major contribution to the community,”
reports director Laura Lanza, who is willing to share a three-page set of
handouts on career opportunities in animal control with other agencies.
Her office address is 210 West Railroad Ave., Lake Charles, LA 70601;
telephone 318-439-8879; fax 318-437-3343.
Knox County Humane Society consulting veterinarian
Stephen Smith, 34, has filed as the only Democrat to oppose
Republican incumbent John J. Duncan Jr. in the race for the Second
District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Colorado state veterinarian Keith Roehr on May 22 personally
handed Mary Port, 71, notice to close the grandiosly named but persistently
substandard Colorado Animal Refuge within 24 hours. Port relocated
to her present 44-acre site near Ellicot after defying several fix-or-close
ultimatims at her former site near Simla, where a 1995 fire killed several
dozen cats, dogs, and monkeys––and raised questions from rescuers
about the squalor they found around the rest of the premises.
Working with the city pound in Stamford, Connecticut,
Marsha Biggar of Adopt-A-Dog has reportedly placed about 40 pit bull
terriers in homes during the past year, without incident. In California,
however, pit bull owners are often unable to find homeowners or renters
insurance, reported Jim Herron Zamora of the San Francisco Examiner
on May 26, due to high payouts in attack-related settlements. From 1991
through the first half of 1996, the percentage of biting incidents attributed
to pit bulls rose from 15% to 43% in San Francisco, while the ANIMAL
P E O P L E log of attacks by pet dogs that result in deaths or maimings,
kept since 1982, shows pit bulls have accounted for 141 of the 269 (52%)
in which the dog is reliably identified by breed.
Dealing with dealers
Dave Knight, one of the last two Class B animal dealers in
Washington state known to sell random-source dogs and cats to research,
was scheduled for a June 12 administrative hearing on alleged violations
of the Animal Welfare Act noted by inspectors between April 1992 and
August 1994, including failure to keep accurate records, failure to identify
dogs, and failure to meet health and safety standards. The verdict is
not expected before fall.
The scheduled June 10 trial of Cindy Miller, owner of
Cindy’s Prrfect Pets in Tucson, Arizona, was postponed until June 25
by defense request. The Pima Animal Control Center seized more than
200 birds, reptiles, and small mammals from the store on April 24, four
days after receiving a detailed complaint about conditions in the store
from Supporting and Promoting Ethics for the Animal Kingdom, a local
animal rights group. SPEAK bought 50 animals from Miller for $1,500
and took them to the Animal Control Center as living evidence of veterinary
neglect. Miller had been offered a fine of $300 and a 90-day suspended
jail term in a plea bargain of a case brought April 5 over failure to
water birds. The city had received more than 90 complaints about the
store since it opened in June 1995, bringing more than 50 visits by animal
control officers, who in turn complained to city officials that they lacked
the authority to close Miller down. A city ordinance providing such
authority is reportedly now being drafted.
Former reptile store owner Steve Broden, of San Rafael,
California, on June 1 sued the Marin Humane Society for up to $50,000 in
damages for seizing 40 reptiles and 80 rodents on December 31, 1995.
Broden filed after Marin County deputy district attorny Kevin O’Hara
ruled there was insufficient evidence “to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
he willfully neglected the animals or was cruel to them.” Broden claimed
two boa constrictors and several other animals died at the shop while he
was away for two days because a space heater malfunctioned.
Police in Marysville, Washington, on May 29 reportedly
informed the Progressive Animal Welfare Society that they would bring a
felony animal cruelty complaint against the manager of All Pets Supply in
Marysville for allegedly freezing a “hard-to-sell” kitten to death in the
store refrigerator. A few days later PAWS issued an Internet appeal for
veterinary statements affirming that freezing is a cruel form of death.
The Oregon Humane Society on May 24 and 25 seized 80
allegedly emaciated, dehydrated Rottweilers, including 30 puppies, from
two buildings owned by breeder Ingrid Pearson, 64, subject of more than
30 complaints from neighbors over the past decade, who had reportedly
recently moved to Clackamas County to escape the scrutiny of Multnomah
County Animal Control. Humane officials said Pearson might also have
dogs at a farm in Skamania County, Washington.
The USDA on May 24 announced charges against animal
dealer Rose Groll, of Iberia, Missouri, for violations of record-keeping,
health, sanitation, and public safety provisions of the Animal Welfare
Act observed in April and May 1995. No details were stated.
