The costs versus benefits of making a big bust

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

Four almost simultaneous June cases spotlighted the costs and
often unpredictable risks to humane societies of confiscating large
numbers of animals in cruelty and neglect cases:

On June 6, the city of Edgewater, Florida, severed an
animal control impoundment contract with the Southeast Volusia Humane
Society because the shelter killed 14 dogs and cats who were taken in
April from the home of Valerie White, 38. The animals were killed
within hours after Volusia County Judge Mary Jane Henderson issued a
handwritten order that, “The City of Edgewater may advise the Humane
Society that those animals are available for adoption.” Edgewater
officials disputed the contention of shelter director Suzy Soule that
the animals were in poor health. White was charged nearly two weeks
later with three counts of unlawful abandonment or confinement of
animals, and one county of cruelty.

Another mega-bucks pit bull attack award

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

BINGHAMPTON, N.Y.–A New York State Supreme Court jury on
June 3 awarded $208,750 in damages to Maressa Ann Zawisky, 9, for
severe injuries to her nose, cheek, and jaw suffered when in March
2000 a chained pit bull terrier belonging to neighbor Willie Harris
jumped a fence and mauled her in the yard of her mother and
stepfather, Cookie and Robert Rieger.
The apparently unattended pit bull, who had attacked a
nine-year-old boy in 1999, gave birth to seven puppies earlier
during the morning of the attack.

Did alleged nonresponse to pit bull calls lead to addiction and murder?

July 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August, 2002:

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla.– Involved in a landmark case more
than a decade ago pertaining to the legal liability of a humane
society for dog attacks, the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society was
sued again in June 2002 in another case which, if successful, could
extend the liability of animal care and control agencies to indirect
effects of traumatic incidents.
Arthur Cheney, husband of murder victim Rhonda Kimmons
Cheney, 42, contends that PAWS and county officials improperly
ignored complaints about aggressive and vicious behavior by a pit
bull terrier who lived near Florosa in Santa Rosa County.

The dog on the burning deck inspires the world

June 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2002:

HONOLULU, SEOUL, TAIPEI, BANGKOK– Rescuing just one
little two-year-old Taiwanese female mixed-breed terrier named Hokget
from the burned-out drifting hulk of the Indonesian fuel tanker
Insiko 1907 cost the Hawaii Humane Society, Humane Society of the
U.S., private donors, and the U.S. Coast Guard as much as $185,000,
spokespersons acknowledged after the seagoing tugboat American Quest
brought her into Honolulu.

Cat show breeder Rexelle convicted

June 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2002:

Prominent show cat breeder Debra Rexelle, 50, was on May 17
convicted of four felonies and four misdemeanors pertaining to the
alleged gross neglect of 212 cats found at her rented home near
Modesto, California, in August 2000. She was acquitted of nine
other charges, including a felony count relating to the discovery of
about 50 dead cats at the same site.
Rexelle was fined for keeping more than 50 cats on the
property without the correct license in 1993, but claimed to have
passed an inspection by local animal control officers in February
2000.

Alternatives to sterilization surgery still delayed

June 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2002:

ATLANTA– “A commercialized alternative to surgical
castration or ovario-hysterectomy for either dogs or cats” may still
be 10 years away, AlcheraBio senior partner Linda Rhodes, DVM,
told the 2002 International Symposium on Nonsurgical Methods for Pet
Population Control, held April 19-21 in Atlanta.
Rhodes’ prediction came as a letdown after the optimism of
many of the same speakers two years earlier.
At the Spay/USA symposium on immunocontraceptives and
chemosterilants, held in July 2000 at Bentley College in Waltham,
Massachusetts, at least two researchers hoped that their products
could clear the regulatory hurdles and be on the market by now. In
Atlanta, however, neither those researchers nor any others ventured
even a hypothetical timetable for bringing any contraceptive or
sterilant drug or antigen for animals into commercial production.

Friends of Animals board chair resigns over anti-chaining bill veto

June 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2002:

HARTFORD–Connecticut state representative Kenneth Bernhard
(R-Westport) has resigned his longtime position as Friends of Animals
board chair, in protest against the role of FoA president Priscilla
Feral in persuading Governor John G. Rowland, a fellow Republican,
to veto what would have been the first state law to explicitly limit
the number of hours per day that dogs could be chained, caged, or
kenneled.
Drafted by Animal Advocacy Connecticut founder Julie Lewin,
the anti-chaining bill was approved 124-17 in the state house and
30-6 in the state senate. Lawmakers backed the bill partly out of
sympathy for dogs chained outdoors alone in all kinds of weather,
and partly due to increasing recognition that prolonged chaining,
caging, or kenneling tends to make dogs more territorial and
reactive, resulting in more frequent bites and more serious bites
than if the dogs have the option of moving away from a threat or
challenge.

Puppy mills

June 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2002:

Sixty surviving dogs, among 75 seized in January from
breeder Inocente Dominguez Morales of Harlingen, Texas, were to be
auctioned on May 25, “as ordered by Cameron County Justice of the
Peace David A. Wise, much to the dismay of the Harlingen Humane
Society,” said South Texas Animal Sanctuary president Bob Sobel.
“The ruling to sell the abused animals and award half the proceeds to
the abuser is a blemish on the enforcement of anti-cruelty laws,”
Sobel continued. “There was no penalty, no fine, no admonition to
compel future observance.” Wise invoked an old law which pertained
originally to the sale of strayed cattle. The Wise verdict did not
apply to about 25 dogs held by the South Texas Animal Sanctuary in a
related case, seized a day after the Harlingen raid from the Puppies
“R” Us franchise owned by Patrick Scott Kingsbury in Weslaco,
Hidalgo County.

Good dogs, bad dogs, and a dog who was framed for murder

June 1, 2002 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2002:

SAN FRANCISCO– California public agencies in early May 2002
continued a recent trend of favoring good dogs’ right to live in
public housing and emphasizing the culpability of owners for bad dog
behavior–especially owners who could be expected to know better than
to allow it.
The California Fair Employment and Housing Commis-sion
assessed penalties of $18,000 against the Auburn Woods I Home-owners’
Association for allegedly discriminating against former tenants Ed
and Jayne Elebiari by barring their dog Pookie, who was adopted from
a shelter in 1999 and helped them cope with severe depression.

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