[ SHOWGSD-L ] Animal Rights Activists Get Official Roles in City & County Dog Law Enforcement

  • From: "Ginger Cleary" <cleary1414@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "Showgsd-L@Freelists. Org" <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:50:24 -0400

-----Original Message-----

Animal Rights Activists Get Official Roles

In City and County Dog Law Enforcement

Undercover Surveillance, Vigilantes, Uniforms and Badges


by JOHN YATES

American Sporting Dog Alliance

http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org

asda@xxxxxxxxxxxx


PALM BEACH, FL – Animal rights activists in many parts of the country 
are proving the adage that paranoia doesn’t necessarily mean dog owners 
are crazy.


Cities and counties that have enacted repressive ordinances targeting 
dog owners are increasingly using volunteers as a major tool to enforce 
the law. Not surprisingly, only animal rights activists are likely to 
be accepted as volunteers. Many of these activists are opposed to the 
private ownership of animals in any form, and most of them are willing 
to accept what they term animal “guardianship” only under strict 
government regulation.


The vigilantes are coming!


That is true in Los Angeles, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston. It also 
is true in several states where volunteer animal rights activists are 
routinely sent undercover to investigate allegations of animal cruelty 
and even to check out people who advertise a litter of puppies in local 
newspapers.


But Palm Beach County, Florida, has made vigilantism into an art form, 
and Los Angeles may be preparing to carry it to the nth degree.


Volunteer activists in Palm Beach County have been sworn in, given badges and 
uniforms, and granted the 
authority to enter private homes to check for violations of a new 
mandatory spay/neuter ordinance, animal cruelty and other possible dog 
law violations.


These members of the “Palm Beach County Citizen Animal Patrol” are 
empowered to issue formal written warnings for noncompliance and turn 
in the information to regular animal control officers for official 
investigation and prosecution.


According to a county announcement of the program, search warrants are 
not needed for these volunteers to inspect private homes or privately 
owned pets. The county’s official position is that “The hobby breeders 
who have a permit from the county have already given implied consent to 
these people to enter their homes by signing the permit.”

That is the little known fine print of dog and kennel licenses in 
almost every state: If you buy a license, you sign away your right to 
privacy. If you don’t buy a license, of course, you are breaking the 
law and can get busted.


Catch 22!


In many other areas of civil law, such as with zoning and building 
permits, obtaining a license has been viewed in court as prima facie 
permission for government officials to inspect private property. This 
precedent is now being extended to dog laws, and citizen patrols to 
“rat out” noncompliant neighbors are being seen as important enforcement tools.


Spying on their neighbors and intimidating dog owners is only one part 
of the job description of the Palm Beach County Citizen Animal Patrol. 
Other duties include answering newspaper ads placed by people who 
advertise puppies for sale, contacting dog clubs for breeder referrals, 
and even setting up surveillance at dog shows.


If they see anything they consider suspicious or a possible violation 
of the law, they are told to report the information to animal control 
to start a full investigation.


In the world of crime, they would be called snitches. In the world of 
animal law, they see themselves as on a mission to save helpless 
animals from exploitation.


According to an article in the Palm Beach Post newspaper, citizen 
patrols will help increase enforcement without adding to municipal 
costs.


Local officials stress the “public education” aspect of the citizen 
patrols, but are noticeably quiet about the surveillance and 
enforcement aspects of the volunteer positions.


This pattern is apparent in Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, which 
passed draconian pet sterilization ordinances within the past year. 
Volunteers are being actively recruited in those Texas cities to help 
“educate” people about the new laws. As in most places, these citizens 
groups are comprised almost entirely of animal rights activists, and each 
application must be approved by a quasi-official 
advisory board that consists of animal rights activists. People who advocate 
the right to own dogs need not apply.


Dog owners are convinced that these volunteers also will be used to 
find and turn in people who do not follow the laws.


Los Angeles appears to be adding its own twist.


The Los Angeles Department of Animal Services, directed by animal 
rights extremist Ed Boks, has set up a program of Directors of Animal 
Welfare, nicknamed DAWs. The city has been divided into 86 different 
“neighborhoods,” and thus far a reported 44 of the positions have been 
filled. According to an announcement from Boks, some of these 
appointees do not live within the City of Los Angeles.


The DAWs website profiles the backgrounds of many of the appointees, 
and they read like a who’s who of the animal rights movement in Los 
Angeles. Many of the profiles tout the appointees’ close ties to the 
radical Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the 
ultra-radical People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Many 
of the profiles also tout radical vegetarian activism, opposition to 
the use of animals in circuses and other darling causes of the animal 
rights elite. Overall, it is clear that the vast majority of these 
people oppose the private ownership of animals, and are totally opposed 
to20the right to breed dogs.


Please read some of the profiles for yourself: http://www.dawprogram.org/.

The DAWS Board also has several committees, including an “Animals Are 
Not Property Committee,” whose members are listed as Andrea Boyington, 
Adele Langdon, Tina Reynolds and Patti Sugarman. Each of these people 
has published ties to radical animal rights groups.

None of the profiles indicate that the appointees breed dogs, show 
dogs, compete with dogs, or belong to any organization that works to 
protect the rights of dog owners. Not one.

A very ominous sign is that DAWs has gone underground since Los Angeles 
passed an exceedingly restrictive spay and neuter mandate this year. 
The DAWs meetings used to be advertised on their website, agendas used 
to be published, and minutes were displayed online.

Since August, all public accountability and openness have been removed 
from the DAWs website.

In addition, the DAWs volunteer manual has been withdrawn for complete 
revision, and is no longer available to the public.


An announcement from Boks called the DAWs appointees “the eyes and ears 
for the animals in their areas.”


In other words, being snitches is one of their duties.

The DAWs mission statement says: “DAWs provide a voice and a form of 
political representation for nonhuman animals.” That line is straight out of 
the PETA textbook.

Perhaps the most common use of animal rights activists as volunteers 
has been for undercover work and surveillance in animal cruelty 
investigations. Because these volunteers have no official designation, 
the use of them is not subject to constitutional protections against 
searches without warrants. They go under cover as private citizens, and 
then file complaints with animal cruelty police officers. They work 
with the officers, and their identities are not revealed. The officers 
use these “complaints” as legal grounds to obtain a search warrant.

The most famous use of undercover volunteers occurred at a California 
slaughterhouse that was highly publicized this year and led to a 
complete overhaul of federal and state inspections.

A large percentage of animal cruelty cases in several states rely on 
animal rights activists to go undercover into private kennels and dog 
events, and their observations and opinions are relayed as 
“semi-anonymous complaints” to humane police officers in order to 
obtain search warrants. “Semi-anonymous” means that these people’s 
identities are known to the officers and judge, but are not revealed to 
the public or the person who is accused.

A common tactic is for these activists to pose as puppy buyers when 
responding to advertisements in newspapers or online, or to appear at 
dog events as a spectator. This tactic is so common that virtually anyone who 
advertises puppies for sale in many areas of 
the country can expect to be visited by undercover activists pretending 
to be looking for a puppy. Usually they are easy to spot. They are 
mostly college-aged people who know little about the breed of the 
puppies that are for sale.

Sometimes it gets much more organized. For example, the toll of animals 
 from Hurricane Katrina has led to the formation of many “disaster 
rescue groups.” They raise money locally to rescue animals from 
disasters, and sometimes get contributions of tax dollars.

Fortunately, disasters are rare in most places. But these programs 
allow a well-funded team of animal rights activist/volunteers to 
perform organized surveillance work. For example, a Venango County, PA, 
disaster rescue group received newspaper coverage this year for playing 
the key undercover role that led to the animal cruelty prosecution of a 
“puppy mill” in West Virginia.

Another Pennsylvania situation that we reported this year was how 
animal rights activists have begun to take over local zoning boards, in 
order to require people who seek a permit to build a kennel to meet 
impossible demands. In one case that would be amusing if it hadn’t 
harmed a person who wanted to build a kennel, these activists required 
an applicant for a kennel permit to promise that none of his dogs would 
be mated naturally.

What can we do about it?

The first thing that dog owners must do is to understand that there is 
a planned takeover of local boards and commissions by animal rights 
groups, and that this has been happening behind the scenes for many 
years.

Thus, vigilance is the first step. Find out what official or 
quasi-official groups have been created in your town and county that 
work on animal issues. Animal shelter or animal control advisory boards 
are common examples.

Then, learn the names of the members of these boards and committees. 
These names should be public records, and also may be found by looking 
up the group’s website. Chances are an Internet search will yield many 
connections to animal rights groups.

The next step is educating public officials about the real agenda of 
animal rights groups such as HSUS and PETA, and, if possible, showing 
verified connections to members of local boards. Letters to the editor 
of local newspapers are another good approach, if you have 
documentation.

However, the most important thing you can do is to volunteer to serve 
on any board, commission or committee in your town or county that deals 
with animal issues. Let your elected officials know that you want to 
serve on these boards, and volunteer to fill any current or future 
openings.

Our goal should be to have as many dog owners and people who support 
the rights of dog owners as possible on any board, committee or 
commission. It is vital for us to be able to begin to reverse the 
animal rights strategy of taking over local boards.

The American Sporting Dog Alliance will assist local dog owners in any 
way possible to accomplish this important goal.

The American Sporting Dog Alliance represents owners, breeders and 
professionals who work with breeds of dogs that are used for hunting. 
We welcome people who work with other breeds, too, as legislative 
issues affect all of us. We are a grassroots movement working to 
protect the rights of dog owners, and to assure that the traditional 
relationships between dogs and humans maintains its rightful place in 
American society and life.


The American Sporting Dog Alliance also needs your help so that we can 
continue to work to protect the rights of dog owners. Your membership, 
participation and support are truly essential to the success of our 
mission. We are funded solely by the donations of our members, and 
maintain strict independence.


Please visit us on the web at 
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org. Our email is 
asda@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Complete directions to join by mail or online are 
found at the bottom left of each page.

PLEASE CROSS-POST AND FORWARD THIS REPORT TO YOUR FRIENDS

Have You Joined Yet?
The American Sporting Dog Alliance
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org 

------------------------------------



Ginger Cleary
"... The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, 
not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do 
not.."-- Fredrich v Hayek
My Ebay site <http://stores.ebay.com/The-Crafty-K9_W0QQssPageNameZl2QQtZkm>  
Rome, GA http://www.rihadin.com/ 

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