COURT CALENDAR

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1996:

Precedents

Texas state district judge Patricia
Hancock on October 14 jailed photographer
Beverly Brock, 45, of Houston, for violating the
state’s first lifelong injunction limiting possession of
animals by a convicted animal collector. Brock
accepted the injunction, recommended by the
Houston SPCA, in May 1995, after her third animal
collecting bust since 1992, but was found in
possession of 19 cats on February 5, 1996, with the
remains of 13 dogs and cats stashed in freezers in
her feces-strewn home.
The South Carolina Supreme Court
ruled September 23 that the city of Mount Pleasant
did not violate Jim and Nancy Saviano’s rights by
passing an ordinance against keeping any “vicious
or dangerous domesticated animal or any other animal
of wild, vicious or dangerous propensities.”

Incorporated nonprofit as the Peoples Program for
Endangered Species, the Savianos keep three pet
wolves. Wrote the court, “The exercise of police
power under a municipal ordinance is subject to
judicial correction only if the action is arbitrary and
has no reasonable relation to a lawful purpose.”
Leilani Monahan, a magistrate i n
Warren County, Virginia, was acquitted on August
8 of allegedly stealing her neighbor’s cat Goober,
whom she took to be neutered. Judge William G.
Hammer ruled that in allowing the cat to roam and
be fed elsewhere, Brian and Audrey Brehm in
effect forfeited possession. “Our belief is that spaying
or neutering should be our choice and we don’t
believe in it,” Brian Brehm said. Responded
Monahan, “What worried me the most was that if I
had been found guilty, it would have made others
leery of rescuing animals.”
The New York Law Journal edition of
August 29 published civil court judge Karen S.
Smith ‘s ruling, in Herbert Erwin vs. The Animal
Medical Center, that damages can be assessed “in
certain cases involving the loss of a pet” to “recognize
a measurement of value which goes beyond the
fair market value.” Erwin’s dog died under a form
of anesthesia he had expressly asked not be given.
The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission on August 23 recognized
ethical vegetarianism as a principled belief on
the same level as religion, ruling that the Orange
County Transit Authority violated vegetarian bus
driver Bruce Anderson’s civil rights by firing him
on June 7, after he refused to pass out promotional
coupons for hamburgers. A lawsuit Anderson filed
against OCTA is pending.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals on August 6 upheld a federal magistrate’s
ruling that officials of the state and local Farm
Bureau and local Cattlemen’s Association infringed
the rights of the environmental group Idaho’s High
Desert Inc. by taking its name when it failed to file
an annual report for 1985 and thereby forfeited its
charter. The verdict strengthens the ability of
activist groups to prevent foes from using their
names, or similar names, to confuse the public.
Colorado Court of Appeals Judge John
Criswell, in Hanson Properties vs. Judy VanEssen,
ruled August 8 that, “we cannot conclude that
allowing pets in the office place violates the general
terms of an office lease,” unless a landlord has specific
‘no pets’ language in the lease. Hanson
Properties attorney Jo Stone predicted the verdict
“will have a lot of impact on landlord/tenant law.”

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANS

Mark Christie, 22, of
Pittsford, New York, facing trial
for the May 23, 1994 kidnap/murder
of Kali Ann Poulton, age 4, as
a teenager “killed dogs and cats for
sport,” a high school friend told
The New York Times. Poulton was
the same age as Christie’s daughter.
Jillian Robbins, 19, of
State College, Pennsyvlania,
identified by police and friends as
an enthusiastic hunter, on
September 17 killed Melanie
Spalla, 19, of Altoona, and
wounded Nicholas Mensah, 27, of
Philadelphia, during a brief shooting
spree in front of the University
of Pennsylvania student union.
Aerospace engineering student
Brendan Malovrh tackled Robbins
as she reloaded her rifle, then may
have saved her life by applying a
tourniquet after she hit a big blood
vessel in her own leg while trying
to stab him with a hunting knife.
Velma Ann Radford,
37, of Oklahoma City, was
charged on October 6 with neglecting
her children and animal cruelty,
after police found a three-year-old
and a seven-year-old living kneedeep
in filth with three dogs.
Curtis Lee Scales Jr.,
alias Donnie Ray Burns, was
indicted September 19 in New
Orleans on 12 counts of wire fraud
for soliciting funds from people in
eight states between December
1994 and September 1995 by pretending
to be a longhaul trucker
who had picked up their lost pets.