"I believe Mr. Vonda started out with good intentions," said Judge Hale. "But at this point he is in over his head and cannot care for these animals properly." Properly? WTF?? What the hell kind of standard is that? It damned sure doesn’t look like any standard set forth in Texas statutes, that’s for damned sure!
Given the initial publicity and media given this case, it is amazing how LITTLE media attention has been given to the ruling made by Judge Hale. The articles I’ve read, like the one cited above, virtually quote the SPCAT’s press release, giving only the above quotes as actually coming from the court. It would seem that mainstream media isn’t interested when a crappy judge gives a crappy ruling and it’s clearly crappy on it’s face.
“In the professional opinion of the SPCA of Texas' Veterinarian who examined all of the animals, they were not receiving the basic care expected to be given in a shelter environment.” Well, Mr. or Ms. DUMBASS veterinarian who clearly isn’t a lawyer, the remedy for that lies in Chapter 823 of the Texas Health and Safety Code and the remedies provided in that chapter do NOT include seizure and forfeiture of animals! (And, wonder of wonders, although the media "outs" every person accused of animal cruelty [names, photos of them and inside their homes], the name of the SPCAT veterinarian is protected!)
Seizure and forfeiture of cruelly treated animals is covered by Subchapter B of Chapter 821 of the Texas Health and Safety Code. By the way, Unlawful Restraint of Dogs (tethering) is covered in Subchapter D of Chapter 821 of the Texas Health and Safety Code and has its very own requirements and nominal penalties which do NOT include instant seizure and forfeiture of dogs. As far as I'm concerned, if the Unlawful Restraint provisions aren't violated, then tethering is NOT cruel confinement. It is absurd to find otherwise!
WTF is wrong with these pissy ass little JPs who think they can simply pick and choose bits of different statutes and create their own freaking law by reassembling them in their own way? Violate Chapter 823, use the penalty from Chapter 821; no matter that the majority of BOTH chapters has to be completely ignored to accomplish your goals of legalizing theft of animals and the violation of fundamental rights! How about just snatching the penalty from the Penal Code for murder and assessing the death penalty? Jeez, I probably shouldn’t say that since some dumbass JP will probably give it a try and order an immediate hanging from the nearest tree!
Hey you freaking dumbass JPs out there, this isn’t how the law works! The legislature gets to write the statutes, NOT YOU. I can’t even call this activism from theses piss-ant JPs. It’s just plain simple incompetence and gross MISCONDUCT. Sooner or later, there’s going to be a massive suit against the state over these civil rights violations and takings of property and all of US are going to end up paying for the misconduct of all these people (prosecutors, judges, SPCAT, etc.) and that’s really pissing me off.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the background, it’s really pretty simple. Misty Clark was employed in Ferris, TX, as the animal shelter manager and she got her butt fired. Mr. Vonda’s NPO was then hired to manage the shelter in Ferris, TX, and then pissy Ms. Clark began a campaign to tank the efforts of Mr. Vonda’s NPO; a campaign she pursued indirectly through others and based upon flaming the NPO for the personal beliefs and private lifestyle choices of those involved in the NPO – matters utterly irrelevant to the care of the animals except in the warped mind of Ms. Clark and her ravings as posted to multiple sections of craigslist. Ms. Clark wasn’t happy with simply chasing Vonda’s NPO out of Ferris, she continued her pursuit and was clearly able to recruit SPCAT. That’s not too surprising since SPCAT has been committing Cruelty to Owners for years now!
One of the things that’s TRULY incredible about this case is the BIG deal the media made of the fact that Vonda’s NPO “disappeared” the animals upon removing them from Ferris, TX. The animals belonged to the NPO so they had no obligation to tell ANYONE where the animals were located because it wasn’t anyone’s damned business. Here’s my question: Where were those freaking media questions when SPCAT disappeared 27,000 animals to an undisclosed location in the USGE seizure? In fact, it is SOP for SPCAT (and other NPOs) to disappear animals to “undisclosed locations” when they are seized. Those seizures are done in the name of the State of Texas and we all have a vested interest in those cases so why the F’ing hell aren’t you media types demanding to know where those animals go, what is done with/to them, what their final disposition is?
27,000 animals in the USGE case and it appears half of them didn’t survive SPCAT’s “care” but not a single follow up article about that. And that’s SOP too. The media makes a big deal about the seizures and touts the forfeitures and then the animals simply disappear into the black hole that is SPCAT which appears to have a kill rate of at least 30%. I’m guessing that kill rate is much, much higher but THAT doesn’t seem to be of interest to the media!
No doubt some of Vonda’s animals and/or other animals to make space for Vonda’s animals will DIE as a result of this seizure because that’s how it works; perhaps have already been KILLED. Space is ALWAYS an issue. Misty, that blood is on your hands as well as the hands of SPCAT. Neither Misty nor the SPCAT get the title of “rescuer” in my book so long as they actively seek to do that which inevitably leads to the deaths of animals. This childish, petty “rescuer on rescuer” crap needs to stop. Get on with the business of helping the animals out there truly in need and, in this economy, there are plenty to go around without snatching up those that belong to other rescuers or individuals as it only leads to more death.
Today is the deadline for Mr. Vonda to appeal and I hope he does. It would be truly refreshing if Judge Hale vacated his CRAPPY ruling sua sponte and returned these animals as he should but I’m not holding my breath!