The New Animal Rights Army: They'll Decide Whether You're Treating Your Animal "Correctly" -- And Maybe Kidnap It If They Think You're Not
An excerpt from a piece at BedlamFarm, "The New Animal Rights Army: Enabling Lawlessness, Cruelty, Injustice, And The Death Of Privacy":
On a farm in Northern California, a woman on thousand acre cattle farm trained her Australian Shepherds to patrol the perimeter of her ranch, she trained them to push the cows back when they got too close to the road. She credited them with saving more than a score of animals in less than a year.Last October, she became concerned when the three dogs failed to come home at the usual time, they were gone all night. In the morning, she received a call from the police. Someone driving by saw the dogs out in the field, stopped their car, leashed them, got them into their car, and took them to a private home. They called the police, and under new laws regulating the car of animals, the police must investigate all accusations of animal abuse.
The police came to the woman's farm, issued a ticket for animal cruelty and abandonment. She was stunned that her working dogs had been taken away. She called the people who seized the dog and they told her she was guilty of abuse for letting her dogs run free in an open field on a warm day and would not return the dogs.
The people who took the dogs, said the police, patrol farms and private homes looking for animal abuse and cruelty to report.
A court hearing was scheduled for six weeks later. A veterinarian testified to the dog's excellent care and health, the rancher pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of neglect in order to end the ordeal and get her dogs back, she paid a $700 fine and $1,000 in boarding fees and other fees to the "rescue" group. Because she pleaded guilty to the one misdemeanor, she has been entered into a state and national animal abuse registry for life, and can never adopt a dog from an animal shelter. She has adopted many homeless dogs in her life and treated them well. Her name on the registry can be found online by anyone - I found it in seconds. It can never be removed.
In her state, there is a statute of limitations on rape accusations, there is none on charges of animal cruelty.
The police would not reveal the name of the people who informed on her in secret, she was only told the name of the rescue group and the address where she could send a check.
There are other stories like this at the link about people who seem to have cared fine for their animals but fell astray of what animal rights fundamentalists deem "correct" treatment of animals.
BedlamFarm continues:
Their can be no rights for animals if there are none for humans, no movement on behalf of animals is moral or just if it enables people to jeer at law and decency and human dignity. A just society would seek out the people who stole the rancher's dogs, who killed the homeless man's dog, who took the pony operator's life and livelihood from her without cause. They ought to experience the horror of being charged with numerous counts of human cruelty and abuse, their photos paraded on television, they ought to be shamed and humiliated, fined and hauled into court before their friends and families, their resources drained, their work taken from them.
What the hell do they think working class dogs where created for? If anything it is abusive to put them in homes. Really in order to do that you have to take the "working" temperament out of a dog.
How can you take someone's property like this and then have THEM be charged with a crime?
Ppen at June 1, 2015 5:06 AM
She needs to write her representatives and enlist the help of others like herself. She needs to write her local paper. She also needs to cultivate contacts w/1%'ers bikers that love dogs.
The situation will eventually kill itself out.
Bob in Texas at June 1, 2015 5:07 AM
Exactly, Ppen, on the working dogs.
And this is the new America, where other people do something bad or criminal to you, and you get charged, not them.
Some dipshit officer from the LAPD called me -- on Saturday night, when I was in Missouri at the ev psych conference -- wanting to have a meeting with me and the officers I made an Internal Affairs complaint about. I said to him that they came on like the SWAT team when I was the victim, and he said, "No they didn't." Moron. I wrote everything out in detail in my complaint.
Some girl hit my parked car at around 10 at night. By 11pm, the cops were at my gate, pounding on it for me to come out, using a loudspeaker, "Amy Alkon, come out of the house," pounding on my window, shining a searchlight in, pounding on my back door, and intimating to my neighbors that I was in danger and getting my phone numbers from them. Because SHE hit MY car, which I wasn't even in at the time (meaning it's property damage, not a traffic accident). It turned out she HAD damaged my car -- to the tune of $661. Her insurance company determined that and sent me a check.
Amy Alkon at June 1, 2015 5:19 AM
Wow.
If someone had dognapped my Aussie I would have . . . well, I don't know specifically, but I probably would have had to do some time over it.
Never mind the dog, beware of owner.
Steve Daniels at June 1, 2015 7:11 AM
I'm still trying to figure out why she didn't file charges of theft against the people who stole her dogs. They don't get a pass just because they "thought the animals were being abused." Under that guise virtually anyone could steal virtually any animal. And where is the proof of abuse?
Matt at June 1, 2015 8:57 AM
Within bounds, I support animal cruelty laws, like for those who leave their animals tied outside day and night in all weather. But this? The rescuers committed trespass and theft to take dogs off their ranch. I wasn't there, of course, but I think pleading guilty to anything was a mistake. She should have filed a suit of her own.
Patrick at June 1, 2015 9:03 AM
She should have sued.
Trespassing, theft, animal endangerment, to name a few.
Bankrupt those assholes.
Robert at June 1, 2015 9:15 AM
Just to be clear, allowing dogs to run in a large open field on a nice day is abuse. But kidnapping them and confining them in a small area is better?
Ben at June 1, 2015 9:43 AM
She made a big mistake by paying the fine to get the dogs back. She should have sued immediately.
She eseentailly pled guilty, and I wish more people would go to the mat on stuff like this, instead of folding.
It is the only way to stop the abuse.
Just another facet of the government as revenue collection agency.
And people wonder why Wyoming recently passed a law against data collection on public and private lands without prior permission.
A lot of people seem too stupid to understand how the erosion of both property rights, and the line between public and private interests, hurts all of us.
Isab at June 1, 2015 10:12 AM
It was a dark and stormy night Officer and I just did not see them before I hit them with my car.
Bob in Texasr at June 1, 2015 10:46 AM
This was less a "rescue" and more a dognap. She had to pay money to the shadowy group that took her dogs without her permission. Sounds like dognapping and ransom to me.
Conan the Grammarian at June 1, 2015 11:06 AM
Sounds like she needs to start training them to snarl and bite. And I agree, she should have fought, not rolled over.
Allison at June 1, 2015 11:11 AM
I can't think of a more idyllic life for Australian Shepherds: a beautiful day, a thousand acres in Northern California, cows to herd; loved, well fed and cared for. Sounds like Aussie Heaven.
I'm not into animals myself, and don't know much about them, but it seems common for people and animals to work together to create a better life and more happiness for both. Humans tend to control these relationships for obvious reasons - greater intelligence, capacity for speech, opposing thumbs, greater access to resources, etc. - and the animals seem to prefer it that way.
No matter where you go there are always some people who just can't stand the thought of other people living the way they want.
If I'm ever a dog I hope I have a life like those three Australian Shepherds.
Ken R at June 1, 2015 11:28 AM
I think it's cruel to not let working breeds work. I roll my eyes at city folk who own herders and don't do agility or something else to let the dog do what they're bred for.
And yeah, I'd be lawyering up and going after this shadowy rescue group.
The lady might want to haunt some message boards, virtual and physical, to get the word out about this group. She might find others who have been on the receiving end of their justice, and perhaps can join up to stop their shenanigans.
Janet C at June 1, 2015 3:41 PM
These "rescues" are certainly actionable as theft. And if the police won't identify the perp, I'd be tempted to hide where I can catch them in the act sometime, and arrest THEM.
The worst part of it, of course, is that the police are now on the side of the bad guys, and the victim has no choice but to shun them as enemies.
jdgalt at June 1, 2015 8:43 PM
The owner knows exactly who they are. That's who she has to pay the fees to (court order). To my mind, that's not a fee, it's ransom and I'd have pressed charges.
These so-called rescuers don't know dogs. A working dog does not dream of a day off spent sitting on the couch or under the porch. A working dog works. That's what he does. IF he sits around, he is not challenged and he gets bored and behavioral problems result.
Having them work is not being cruel to them, it's being kind.
Conan the Grammarian at June 2, 2015 2:19 PM
They don't patrol farms and private homes looking for animal abuse, they patrol farms and private homes looking for opportunities to raise funds by stealing animals and charging their owners boarding fees.
Conan the Grammarian at June 2, 2015 2:24 PM
There are animal rescue groups which do excellent necessary work. Unfortunately they are often funded through fundraisers and work via unpaid volunteers. This groups isn't one of them. I don't understand how the distinction wasn't made between working farm animals and pets. For that matter, even pets loose on their own property who aren't obviously mistreated or malnourished couldn't possibly be illegal. Pleading guilty was the wrong thing to do. I'm wondering if the farm owner retained a lawyer? Maybe if she does now, there's a chance this could be overturned.
Samm at June 2, 2015 10:51 PM
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