Shelter bashing

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1997:

FAIRFIELD, Iowa––Chad Lamansky
and Dan Myers, each 18, are to be tried
November 4 on felony charges for allegedly
clubbing 16 cats to death in a March 7 raid on
the Noah’s Ark Animal Foundation. Seven
other cats were severely injured, among 75 on
the premises.
Lamansky and Myers could get 10-
year prison terms, in one of the first prosecutions
under an anti-animal facility break-in
law passed by the Iowa legislature to discourage
activist raids on factory farms and labs.
Noah’s Ark cofounder Laura Sikes
lives in a trailer on the property, but was
away on the night in question.

Wrote Los Angeles Times reporter
Judy Pasternak, “That was the night friends
saw Lamansky at the Hy-Vee, a popular
Fairfield High hangout, bragging that he had
skinned a cat at his family’s farm. The conversation
escalated,” until Lamansky, Myers,
and Justin Tobin, also 18, apparently dared
each other into the shelter attack. A hidden
security camera recorded the whole break-in.
According to Pasternak, Toben kicked one
cat but then ran outside. He agreed in July to
testify against Lamansky and Myers, and was
sentenced to do 200 hours of community service
while serving a three-year probation.
The Iowa massacre was the bloodiest
of several recent shelter break-ins. Three
Rottweiler-mix puppies froze to death last
February after burglars broke a window to
enter the Ayres Memorial Animal Shelter in
Sprakers, New York. Of the five persons
charged, two have been convicted and drew
six months each in jail plus five years on probation;
Joseph K. Sweet, of Fort Plain, New
York, was convicted on September 12, and
was expected to get the same sentence; a
fourth defendant drew a stiffer sentence for his
alleged role in two other burglaries; and the
fifth has yet to be tried.
No animals were killed because
none were present, but the Humane Society of
Northwest Indiana shelter was extensively
vandalized the night of October 2.
“Board president Betty Clayton discovered
the steel back door had been pried
open and the inside trashed,” Ruth Ann
Krause of the Gary P o s t – T r i b u n e w r o t e .
“Ceiling tiles, insulation, and the sink and
plumbing were pulled out, the furnaces damaged,
and two windows were broken. Two
stainless steel cages and a copier were stolen,
and the aluminum front door was removed.”
The shelter has been closed since
1992, except briefly in 1993, while the
humane society sought $50,000 to pay for renovation––a
goal which was reportedly close.
The humane society has continued to do cruelty
investigations, humane education, and fostering
during the years of shelter closure.