[ SHOWGSD-L ] More on David Garcia - Texas SPCA
- From: "Anja Heibloem-Stroud" <Anja_Heibloem-Stroud@xxxxxxx>
- To: "showgsdlistnew" <Showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 Aug 2005 11:46:53 -0700
Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 15:33:32 -0700
From: "Cherie Graves" <paragon@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Comfort (TX) Cat Raid / More on David Garcia - Texas SPCA
CROSSPOSTED WITH PERMISSION
>From Responsible Pet Owners Alliance,
the reasonable voice regarding animal issues.
Responsible Pet Owners Alliance is an animal welfare organization,
not "animal rights" and, yes, there is a difference.
Permission granted to crosspost.
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TX-RPOA E-News
August 6, 2005
***************************
>From the San Antonio Express-News
August 6, 2005
Subject: Comfort couple agree to give up 202 of their cats / David Garcia -
Texas SPCA
http://www.mysanantonio.com/salife/pets/stories/MYSA080605.1B.cat_case.220693d2.html
Comfort couple agree to give up 202 of their cats
Web Posted: 08/06/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Zeke MacCormack
Express-News Staff Writer
BOERNE - A Comfort area couple agreed Friday to close their pet retirement home
and forfeit 202 seized cats to avoid possible prosecution on animal cruelty
charges.
More coverage
200 cats seized near Comfort
The case, closed unless problems resurface at the defunct Wild Cat Ranch Pet
Retirement Center, drew attention from across the country from critics of the
role played by animal welfare groups in investigating animal abuse complaints.
Under the deal, Jim and Paula Blankenhorn may retain up to 20 of the 222 seized
cats as personal pets and submit to monthly inspections to ensure suitable
conditions are maintained.
"My main objective was to shut down the operation and get the cats out of an
environment where they were treated cruelly," Kendall County Attorney Don Allee
said.
The Blankenhorns had charged up to $250 a month for pet care at the 58-acre
facility, which catered largely to cats belonging to the elderly, ill and
deceased.
Dr. Carolyn Ferrari and other former clients cheered the raid on the facility
where officials say as many as 300 cats once lived in cramped conditions amid
feces and flies.
She said she paid $400 for perpetual care of two strays, which couldn't be
found when she tried to reclaim them five months later.
"Paula gave me two cats that looked similar, not mine," said Ferrari, a
physician in Boerne.
A lawyer for the Blankenhorns said they did their best to care for the elderly
and sickly cats.
What generated widespread scrutiny of the case was the on-the-scene involvement
of Dave Garcia, the controversial vice president of operations of the Texas
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Garcia, whose career as an animal cruelty inspector is celebrated by co-workers
and decried by adversaries, announced Thursday he's retiring "from the animal
welfare field" Aug. 31, said James Bias, president of the Texas SPCA.
The departure won't silence critics of animal protection groups who see raids
like the one in Comfort as more about fund-raising than helping sick pets.
"I believe Dave Garcia's position with the SPCA has been to basically stage
events and get the public upset about a situation that has been blown out of
proportion, so the SPCA seems like the savior and can solicit more donations
from the public," said Joel Baker, a Tyler lawyer.
A criminal case against a client of Baker's was dropped this week in Tyler when
the district attorney decided Garcia wasn't a credible witness.
Garcia could not be reached for comment. SPCA officials deny the accusations,
saying they come from backers of puppy mills and cockfighting.
"We're not motivated by dollars," said Bias, a former head of the Bexar County
Humane Society. "The media is going to contact us whether we want them to or
not. Our hope is to get the facts straight and to hopefully get anyone else out
there abusing an animal to clean up their acts."
Garcia's past took center stage Wednesday in the Tyler case of Julia McMurrey,
from whom 200 dogs were seized in a 2003 raid.
McMurrey, convicted earlier on one count of cruelty, was headed to trial Aug.
17 on three other counts until the presiding judge got anonymous faxes about
Garcia's background.
Garcia was convicted of a 1973 rape and kidnapping in Arizona, as well as a
string of subsequent drunk driving offenses in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Matt Bingham, the district attorney for Smith County, dropped the remaining
charges against McMurrey.
Bingham said Garcia claimed not to recall denying he had a criminal past when
asked about it before McMurrey's first trial.
"It's my opinion that Mr. Garcia was not truthful with us," Bingham said. "I
don't believe he would forget us asking that question."
Bias accepted Bingham's opinion, but said his agency "has the full faith and
confidence in Mr. Garcia's ability to perform his job, which often includes
testifying."
He said Garcia has demonstrated expertise in animal control over decades,
holding animal welfare posts in Missouri, Florida and Arizona that required
peace officer licenses.
Bias declined to say what he knew of Garcia's past but said no "major issues"
were revealed in a background check.
Concerns about Garcia figure prominently in the on-line journal GameFowl News,
published in San Diego by Fred Crane.
"He's a convicted rapist kidnapper working under the guise of director of law
enforcement at the SPCA in Texas," said Crane, using Garcia's former title. "I
think it's preposterous that they even hired him."
He calls SPCA and other animal rights groups "domestic terrorists" who abridge
rights of private property owners and abuse the privileges afforded nonprofit
groups under the law.
What happens to seized animals is another area of controversy. In the Comfort
case, SPCA officials say they'll make every effort to contact the cat owners,
who have 10 days to retrieve their pets before they become SPCA property.
They couldn't say Friday how many of the cats are terminally ill with feline
AIDS or leukemia and would have to be euthanized.
About 80 of the 200 dogs seized from McMurrey in Tyler were put down because
they were ill or not adoptable, Bias said.
Targets of SPCA raids also complain of being demonized as abusers merely for
taking in sickly animals and trying to nurse them back to health.
"I had animals at my place that looked exactly like the Jews at Auschwitz,"
said McMurrey, 59, on Friday. "But I didn't get them into that shape any more
than the American soldiers who went to Auschwitz made the Jews there that way."
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