"Pit bull" hater and Sioux City councilman Aaron Rochester continues to appeal the designation of his neighbor-biting dog as "vicious and dangerous" -- while vowing to continue the city government's
And finally ... drumroll please ... Linda Kapsa of Ballantine Montana has pleaded no contest to the felony animal cruelty charges against her.
Trust me, there will be plenty of updates in the coming weeks on this. But right at the moment, just read the Billings Gazette.
The fireman here in Cbus got only misdemeanor counts for shooting his two dogs 11 times with a shotgun (one dog was shot 6 times in the head) because he didn't want to pay for boarding. The crazy-ES miller got a felony count of felony count of animal cruelty for what she did.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying one was more heinous than the other, but I see something wrong here...when someone who works for a highly respectable profession that is supposed to save lives of people and pets gets a charge of a lesser magnitude than someone who just plain doesn't deserve to have dogs because she can't/won't otherwise care for them properly, among other things. Our animal cruelty laws really need revamped, and I don't mean to where ANYONE gets a felony (I mean, there are people out there who'd want me in jail on A/C charges because I use a pinch collar on my dog), but to where people who commit crimes like these actually get what they deserve.
When it comes to acts against children and animals, I'm all for the eye-for-an-eye thing, I guess.
Well, it appears there is a *little* justice in the world today - which frankly is a *lot* more than I thought there was.
ReplyDeleteVery happy to hear about the Kapsa case - the rescuers must be relieved.
A little disappointed about the conditions though. This woman should be owning NO dogs, in my opinion. Let alone "a maximum of 40 chickens, 20 goats, eight horses, three neutered cats and two cockatiels", plus six neutered dogs. I don't even want to think about the possibility she may ask to keep 20 unaltered ones!
EIGHT horses? For a woman who has shown a complete inability to give a flying shit about the animals in her care, allowing her to continue to keep 73 animals (regardless of species, although out of the list I would say that dogs top the list of those who respond the worst to a lack of consistent interaction) is completely insane.
I'm clinging to the thought that perhaps they knew they wouldn't get an outright ban on ownership so they've allowed her to keep just enough animals that she'll eventually fall behind again and they can press additional charges - and then go for a total ban.
Great work you guys are doing with those dogs, by the way. I've always found fear one of the most difficult issues to rehabilitate. Building a dog's self confidence requires such an immense amount of time and patience. Setbacks are so frequent, it can be frustrating to the caretakers.
I should also mention how much I LOVE the handbook you put together for the rescuers. Very clear, very thorough.
Looking forward to happy updates.