A dime bag of oregano. In “A Few Good Men”, the attorney for the guy who bought and smoked a dime bag of oregano plea bargains it down to a “C Misdeamonor” and 15 days restricted duty as the punishment. That scene makes me angry every time I see it. The attorney refers to his client being an “idiot” but points out that is not illegal and, while there is certainly some fraud in selling a dime bag of oregano as marijuana, there is absolutely nothing illegal about buying and smoking it. Plea bargaining where there is NO crime at all is NOT zealous representation which is what every lawyer is ethically bound to provide to clients. However, this type of plea bargaining has become so commonplace that it has lead to prosecutors charging where there is no crime at all. knowing they will get a "win" and some money out of the defendant for the government coffers. These are lazy easy cases for lawyers and we should all detest them as they take away from truly needed law enforcement activities.
Even more disturbing is that this attitude extends to civil seizure and forfeiture of assets and animal assets where no crime need be alleged at all. With every passing week, the allegations when animals are seized become more negligible.
In this case of animals seized and owners arrested in Polk County, Florida, I simply have to start with the WARPED thinking of the officer who was apparently in charge. You have got to LOVE this: “Sheriff Grady Judd said, ‘These animals have been neglected, mistreated, and were living in deplorable conditions not even fit for humans....’ ” “Not even fit for humans” which implicitly indicates that animals are to be maintained at a HIGHER than human standard. In my opinion, Sheriff Grady Judd needs to get rid of “head up ass” syndrome! With that attitude, it’s no wonder the allegations in this case are nearly non-existent and yet again it is a case reported as “one of the worst ever seen”.
The headline read “Two hundred plus dogs in poor health in Pold County” and “Neglected dogs found with fleas and parasites”. “Polk County Detectives arrested a husband and wife on 261 counts of animal cruelty after finding neglected dogs infested with fleas and parasites, malnourished and in very poor health.”
HUH? WTF? No doubt that Florida has different laws than Texas but still… PLEASE, I beg you to look at the language used in this case: “poor health”, “fleas”, “parasites”, “neglected”, “malnourished”, and “infested”. NONE of this words indicates any form of intentional abuse and I’ll address them in more detail but also note that this is another small rescue operation that is being attacked. I don't care if it's rescue on rescue or government on rescue, it's CRAP to go after a rescue and seize animals on first contact when those animals will be sent to die or other animals must die to make room for them. CRAP, CRAP, CRAP. STOP killing animals in the name of "rescue"!!!
“The investigation into the animal neglect claims began on Wednesday afternoon after Animal Control received an anonymous tip that Mid-Florida Retriever Rescue, Inc., had approximately 100 dogs that were being neglected.” Anonymous tips are becoming the norm in these cases and clearly this person didn’t have much actual knowledge if they said 100 dogs when there were actually 261 dogs at the facility.
“The Sheriff's Office says that at first the O’Malleys were cooperative and brought out 117 dogs, one-by-one, to be seen by Animal Control Officers and Agricultural Crimes deputies.” ARGH. You trusting people, you! How many times do I need to say it: “Got a warrant?” “No? Go get one. No, not talking to you. Get off my property!” Exercise your rights people! Officials don’t show up asking questions and snooping around to “HELP” you! It’s sad but it’s also true.
“But as the evening continued, the O’Malleys stopped cooperating with Animal Control, and deputies had to serve a search warrant to remove the rest of the neglected dogs from their home. By 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning, all 261 dogs were seized and brought to Animal Control to be treated and cataloged as evidence in the case.” Had to serve a warrant? Hell, no you didn't "have" to serve a warrant. You CHOSE to serve a warrant instead of trying to help these animals! Let me guess, around 10 PM when the dogs were hungry, they told you to come back the next day and you’re calling that uncooperative? You’ve had them blocked in and catering to your wishes and they haven’t been able to tend or feed the animals. You know the place will be in the worst condition possible so NOW you’ll go get a warrant based on what you can exaggerate from what you’ve seen so far? Yeah, guys, this is how law enforcement thinks and YOU need to understand that!
“The Sheriff's Office says there were dogs in every room of the house, including closets, bathrooms, bedrooms, the kitchen and porches.” Yeah, AND? So the F what? Are there rooms that are somehow “off limits” under Florida law? “Bare concrete floors of the home were visible” Yeah, AND? So the F what? Are concrete floors impermissible under Florida law? What are your shelter dog runs made of if it isn’t concrete? “and the odor of urine and feces was so strong, deputies had to wear gas masks while removing the dogs.” OMG, you deputies are such WIMPS!!! I have to interject a little story here.
We had a woman die in our condo complex from complications of diabetes. Those of you familiar with death know that diabetics tend to “break down” more quickly after death and this woman wasn’t found for 3 days (and the heat had been on for a cool snap but then the temperatures went back up but she was dead so the A/C didn't kick on, having been set for heat), until the scent was troublesome to neighbors even though the doors and windows were closed. The Houston PD officer who went in had to put on a “gas mask” although NO ONE else did so. When she had been removed, the officer announced he was going to lock the place up and leave. I asked about her cat and he said the cat was there and he was not going to do anything about it but lock it in! Knowing that this would likely happen, while the coroner had been there, I’d contacted her family and had gotten consent to take possession of the condo and contents until they could get there which would be a week, at least! Even so, I had to practically bed this jackass of an officer to be permitted to get the cat as the condo keys hadn’t been located and that meant locking it and getting a locksmith the next day for me to do the things the family had requested. I begged, for the life of a cat who's already been traumatized and risks being locked in that condo with quite a bit of her owners' remains still present, no problem! I would have begged more but I should not have had to even ask. I grabbed a cat carrier, cat food, and headed in. Yeah, it stank to high heaven and I was in there longer than that officer by a factor of 10 coaxing that terrified cat out. However, it did NOT stink so bad that a gas mask was necessary. I didn’t need one, the coroner and his staff and the ambulance crew who scrapped most of her up and moved her (sorry, it's the reality) didn’t need them. Did I mention she died in a chair 5 feet from the only entry door? That the cat had hunkered down in the back of the condo? Oh, yeah, I was much further into this closed condo than anyone else went. Only the wimpy HPD officer “needed” a gas mask and he never went past where her body was! After crating the cat and setting her on the porch, the wimpy HPD no where in sight, I even went back in and found her keys so we wouldn’t have to call a locksmith.
The use of gas masks and hazard suits in these animal seizures is totally for SHOW; not the least bit necessary as long as you keep your hands and fingers out of your orifices while you’re working. If they can’t follow that basic rule, they have MUCH bigger problems than “needing” gas masks. Seriously people, virtually none of these issues around dead bodies or animal waste are big health issues if one knows how to wash their hands properly! A whole industry has grown up around "crime scene clean up" that has people terrified and freaked out to sell their services and it's a bigger load of crap than the concept that all mold in a house is "toxic mold". Oh, and it's the same people behind both those "eradication" industries for mold and dead bodies. Good grief, what a bunch of wimps, frauds, and LIARS to be perpetuating this crap while seizing animals to be hauled off and killed.
“Several of the dogs showed signs of aggressive behavior which resulted in two deputies were bitten by dogs during this investigation.” Uh, duh, it’s a rescue operation where animals are in transition and you blow in with attitude, disrupt their routine, make their evening meal up to 12 or more hours late. I’m surprised only 2 of you got bit!
“Of the 261 dogs seized, which are of various breeds, 35 of them are puppies... Several of the dogs have not been neutered or spayed, which is against rescue organization policy.” What/whose “rescue organization policy”? Does Florida law mandate spaying and, if so, what time constraints? Before adopting out? Well, they had not be adopted out so who the heck cares? Jeez, are you guys such big IDIOTS that you don’t know that dogs come into rescue that aren’t spayed/neutered and that it takes time to get them healthy and get the procedure done? And what the hell business is it of the government if PRIVATE organization just plain decide not to spay/neuter at all???
“Polk County Animal Control veterinarian, is still examining all of the dogs but say nearly 100% of them are flea-infested, have parasites, such as hookworm, are malnourished, and have tartar build-up on their teeth.” Now, in the video, the veterinarian says: “the majority of the animals are infested with an intestinal parasite called a hookworm… large number… whipworm… large number… tartar completely covering their teeth.
BIG POINT that everyone needs to understand is that “infested” merely means “has some”. In other words, these dogs had at least 1 intestinal worm that showed up in a stool sample and damned near every dog in the southern states WILL have one or more worms in their stool. That does NOT give any indication whatsoever of how many worms any of the dogs had. This veterinarian did NOT use the term “infected” which is the term generally used to indicate the parasites are causing a problem of some kind. DOGS HAVE WORMS. Hookworms and whipworms and roundworms are amongst the COMMON worms. Many of us treat for them monthly, often with a combo pesticide that also treats heartworms. And mind you that those are pesticides that kill existing worms. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A WORM PREVENTATIVE!!!
As a little sidebar; have you heard of hydatid tapeworms? If you live in the southern states, these may show up in your dog and we do NOT generally treat for them even though they can cause problems for humans. Some sources say that are "rare". Personally, I suspect they are only rarely diagnosed and may well account for some of the "infestations" we are seeing in these seizure cases. Most assuredly, other species of worms could well be in stool samples and be misidentified by veterinarians in these cases if the authorities do not require them to be sent to labs for testing and identification as the "worm test" is a visual exam under a microscope.
While what this veterinarian said may be technically correct, in my opinion, the Florida Veterinary Board should open an investigation on him about his ethics because I think how and where he said these things brings his ethics clearly into question.
And now that snotty comment about all the dogs having “tartar completely covering their teeth”. I do NOT believe that because there were over 30 puppies in this group and again I think this veterinarian needs to be investigated. Don’t know who the “Polk County Animal Control veterinarian is or for sure that he’s the one in the video but I may make an effort to find out and call him out by name!
Did you know that 4 out of 5 dogs over the age of 3 have gum disease?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFPDaQrPjus
If you ask me, that veterinarian’s comments are every bit as STUPID as that commercial!
It just infuriates me that some activists like the ones here are now trying to dictate and mandate dental care as a part of minimum care standards for animals when it STILL isn’t considered necessary care for HUMANS. I will top that off with pointing out that dental care is NOT always a good thing. It is counter productive in some humans and animals and they still haven’t sorted out for whom or why so it is the animal owner, in conjunction with a veterinarian, who is in the best position to make this medical decision if it is to be made at all. Failure to do routine cleaning of a dog’s teeth damned sure does rise to the level of even neglect as it appears to be defined under Florida law. I took a break and looked it up.
Oh, yes, and once again we are treated to pictures INSIDE someone’s home. What is the purpose of showing a kitchen cabinet scene of dishes in the sink if not to simply inflame people’s emotions? Did they have the owner’s permission to publish those? Were they taken by media photographers allowed to tag along with police without the homeowner’s permission? I am so sick of the outrageous invasions of people's privacy in these cases!
And while the report focuses on these 261 dogs being IN the house, at time marker 1:44 on the news video, we can clearly see an outdoor kennel area with dogs IN the kennel. How many dogs were in outdoor runs? How many run areas were there? How big is the yard and were there dogs in the yard? We don’t know because the reporters didn’t do their freaking job! One thing we do know is that some of the dogs are outside and that implying that all 261 were in the house is a LIE.
We only get to see a dozen dogs and NO wounds are visible despite the reporter saying they are ALL covered in sores/wounds. We do see a handful that are clearly underweight in a single room. Is this the intake room? Did they come in underweight and are being segregated for their own protection until they are up to weight and able to hold their own with other dogs? Half the dogs shown are NOT underweight.
In the video, the reporter says they “found no dog food” but… “An Animal Control supervisor found that there was not enough food or water present for the number of dogs she located on-scene and requested to see each of the dogs to ensure they were healthy.” Well, which is it? None or “not enough”? Were they unable to go to the store because you had them blocked in? Just how much food has to be “present” when we have 24/7 markets? Not enough water present? Again, after you’ve had them outside for hours on end so they couldn’t refill bowls? Are they having to cart water from the crick 3 miles away? JEEZ, water is feet away and readily available would be my bet and they’d have had plenty but for the INTERFERENCE from “officials”!
The couple who ran this rescue were arrested at the time of the animal seizure and, as far as I can tell, they are still being held hostage by Polk County, FL authorities. I haven't really talked about it yet but you all need to know that they can arrest you, hold you, and NOT formally file charges. That is what is commonly done in these cases and I'm beginning to see a pattern of the prosecutors really playing with those "charges" depending on how nasty they decide to get. If you ask me, that's just plain wrong. I didn't practice criminal law but, if that is indeed permissible (and I'm not sure it is), it certainly needs to be challenged and changed!
In Florida, "Cruelty" means any act of neglect, torture, or torment that causes unjustifiable pain or suffering of an animal. I don’t think these dogs were in pain OR suffering which is a necessary component even for neglect to be considered cruel in Florida. How many will the shelter they are now in kill? If you ask me, I can justify even justify some pain and suffering for LIFE and the CHANCE for a forever home a damned sight more easily than I can killing animals for space constraints.
But, since we're up to using veterinarian reports in so many of these cases, make sure to demand that those veterinarians butts have to get on the stand to testify. If they send off to labs and want to use those lab reports, make them get the lab people's butts in those chairs too. Do your research so you know what goes into those tests because they may not be what they appear to be. And check out the Melendez-Diaz case too. The seizing activist is NOT supposed to present the doctors reports alone to the court without the doctor being present! That's a 2009 case so it isn't likely to be changed any time soon and it needs to be shoved down the throats of prosecutors who violate it by submitting evidence without the scientist/doctor's foundation testimony.