“The stench was so strong, you could hardly breathe.” Was it really? Or did you convince yourself it would be before you ever got there? Sense of smell is a powerful thing, as is the mind’s ability to invent them, more so to simply exaggerate them. When objective measurements are used, that “oh, my, it stinks” is usually more imagination than fact. In each of these animal seizure cases it seems someone is going to great lengths to describe the odors in colorful language. Like this…
"If you haven't got a strong stomach you'll probably lose it," said Larry Nance. "I mean, the ammonia is so strong it just burns your nose when you walk in. The filth and the smell and then you look at these cats in these cages. They're not let out to use the restroom at any time." Yes, surely we are simply to take the word of someone (probably a lawyer) who thinks animals should use restrooms. Um, and the pictures of poop in the cages? Did y'all miss taking photos of that or did it not exist? No, I don’t think so. I especially don’t think so when there is a simple and inexpensive method to measure smells these days.
Any government that is going to seize property and threaten to keep it or have it removed when it is related to a “stink” complaint or such is a component of the case as it often is in animal seizure cases should surely be able to provide objective measurement of the level of the stench. From my research, it certainly appears that governments know that too so now I’m more than angry that those measurements and standards aren’t being used in these residential seizures. You see they’ve been using them for decades to deal with large livestock operations. There’s a whole field of agricultural science dedicated to this that animal control officials and humane groups would have tripped over had they spent a few minutes on the internet.
Let’s see. There’s now a portable, hand held measuring device (scentometer) called the Nasal Ranger that costs about $1,500 and the materials even give examples wording for community standards (ordinances). Texas already has ambient level caps (residential and commercial) for a number of offending items. Scroll on down to page 3 and you’ll see that a number of states and communities have already set D/T standards and guidelines. A person seated measures 1 olf and an athlete measures 30 olf. The scentometer similarly measures the odor in the air and computes the in D/T ratio.
Would you take a police officer’s testimony of how fast someone was speeding these days or would you demand the radar readings? There’s NO excuse for testimony to be acceptable in lieu of D/T ratios these days. If it’s simple and inexpensive, why aren’t they using scentometers? Ah, because the objective measurements may not support their allegations, of course!
And there’s another little problem. We all want “natural” these days and compost, mulch, bat guano that we use in our gardens STINKS (as natural fertilizer [you know, it's animal poop, right?] has always stunk). You see it isn’t the level of stench, nor even the health issues (which can’t actually be determined by scent alone), it is the PERCEPTION of stink and the delusions of those who instantly jump to health hazard allegations. I truly dislike the smell of “athlete come home from gym” while I know others who adore that scent. To each his own.
All the more reason to set D/T levels in communities. You can have your bat guano and I can have my dog poop (and there’s actually little difference between them). That’s life. We all stink and have to put up with each other’s stench.
Interestingly, the standards I ran across always seemed to require measurements at the property line. They inherently acknowledge the privacy of PRIVATE property and that is exactly as it should be.
The Stink Meter Overload in these cases is from the stench of overstepping government officials and their bff animal rights activists. From the Boado seizure in Harris County, to the Kearney seizure to the USGE seizure to the seizure of Barbara Hoffman’s big cats; we hear of the stench. Time for the government to put up or shut up on that topic!
And shortly we will know if JP Lex Jones has an appropriate grasp of and respect for the US and Texas Constitutions and fundamentally protected property rights or not.