caveat

THE LAST POST: BANNED AID BEAT OVERWHELMING ODDS

Selma — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:56:38 -0400

(Listening to the two songs as you encounter them will add depth and help to enrich your villain-bashing experience.)

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Beverly McLachlan (or Chief Jester Beaverless McBootlickin of the Hangin' Kangaroo Court of Canida, as one wag was calling her) did the absolute best thing possible she could have done for the case to lance McGuinty's piece of diseased malevolence known as the 'pit bull' ban.

I knew Bev was our last stop because we couldn't take Dolton 'Cucumber Head' McGuilty to the Hague. She didn't let us down.

She dismissed the case with no findng of fact or weighing of evidence. It was, whatever, we're ready to close for the summer, I'm kind of tired, let's just end this one now and cut these crazy old dog ladies a break. There will be other cases to come up with lower stakes in the fall - ie, if you lose they aren't going to kidnap and kill your family members.

In so doing, she:

1. Saved us possibly at least another year and a half hanging around at the mandatory level 1 - the court system - and having to raise another quarter million dollars.

2. Didn't comment on or uphold anything. Our case, which was that the law was vague so people weren't sure if they were affected and that way more people would be affected than should be because they couldn't tighten up the definition of what they were trying to ban wasn't mentioned at all.

It was nah, not now, maybe later. Dismissed, somebody pay the bill on the way out.

The case wasn't about boo hoo poor doggies, or my 'pit bull' is friendly or anything like that at all. It was about those two points mentioned above and some interesting related stuff. It was a constitutional case, see.

So all you whackadoodle overly emotonal rescue skanks can cry and whine but you do not understand this issue and you are not the people we're going to call on to join the resistance, OK? Do your thing it's valuable work, you're helping dogs. If you want to understand our thing get yourselves a thesaurus, a dictionary and stop paying attention to the braying carrion-eaters in the media and animal lib camps. When you ask us a question, listen to the answer and don't filter it through your own bullshit. If you don't understand, ask again we'll explain it again.

We WANT people to get this.

OK.

It didn't make a fig of a difference which way the SCC ruled. Had they said, this thing is a toxic biohazard and McGutless and Brytler are going into the stocks, it still wouldn't have meant diddley in the real world.

The law could have stood for a decade. They could have just rewritten the sticky bits. They could have ignored the whole thing. They could have made it universal for ALL dogs (not that they would have had the guts, which is how this crap got started in the first place) and how's that for an endgame? Consider yourselves very lucky.

Are you hearts and flowers ill-equipped dunces getting this?

Bev saved us a year-and a half more of playing the waiting game in the courts and having to raise more huge amounts of money to get to level two - the fun time when we can do demonstrations and other civil rights actions. We had to get here anyway, even if the law had been struck down. The judge who had guts and totally understood the issues, Madame Justice Thea Herman of the Superior Court of Justice, could have tossed out a little bit more, speeded up her ruling and maybe even clipped us another year but otherwise she totally came through for the constitution. I think Court of Appeal just decided to help us get to the SCC as quickly as possible and handed out that bizarre ruling and dput it back together to save time up there.

Thank you Madam Chief Justice McLachlan and Madame Justice Thea Herman. You were the key players who didn't let us down.

Now the fun starts - cheap, entertaining and what I've been waiting five years for as of Aug 9. [I'm enjoying all the cloak and dagger stuff my readers are associating with August 9 but I'm not a cruel person. It's mentioned elsewhere at Caveat as my personal anniversary, August 9, 2004, when I realized these maniacs were serious and jumped in and started fighting. We all have one. My friend's is August 28, 2004, the day the guy we never heard from again was being, and I quote Bryant directly, "eaten from the ground up" by a couple of 'pit bulls' he'd actually bred himself and had out for a walk. When's yours? Mark it on your calendar and celebrate with a fun, inexpensive civil action. That's what I'll be doing)

"BURN, BABY, BURN" said Sumbuddy.

Looks like I'm going to be hanging on to McGrotty's ear for a bit longer and I wouldn't mind changing position.

I'll talk to the ref once I figure out who the ref is.

Stay tuned, folks, The laffs are going to come on now.

Oh and McGutly and BrownNoser: Any time you guys want to back down let us know and we can all shake hands and go home, no hard feelings, winner takes all. You know how this pit bullshit works. We won't back down because we CAN'T back down - we're the good guys, the champs. The only way we can is if you guys can make us do it and it doesn't look like that's going to happen. So, basically this is a stalemate under the rules until you make a move or the ref makes a call - but we don't have a ref.

Now that we're at level two (finished with the courts), we're just going to hold the line for awhile and take some well deserved R & R. Then we're going to come at you hot and hard and we're gonna keep coming until we move you. Either way, it's game over, we just couldn't protest or move you until we were finally advanced out of level 1, out of deference to the court.

And by the way, a handful of us fought our way uphill with rubber swords and one hand tied behind our backs agqinst an infernal juggernaut that controls the media, police, courts, transportation, health, food and drugs, information and everything else and we won.

You must have had a good reason to be so afraid of us, because even with everything stacked in your favour you thought you had to play a dirty game to beat us. Maybe you were right or maybe that's the only kind of game you know how to play. We won every pointless motion you brought to try to run us out of time and money at 50 grand a pop, including the one where you were trying to turn a collie into a 'pit bull'.

We proved that the legislation, vetted by a [supposed] professor of constitutional law was unconstitutional right out of the gate at the first court round.

As always, the yapping curs in the news outlets didn't think that was newsworthy enough to fact-check because it was something that was good for our side. Bryant told media that the law was upheld except for a bit of redundant language, ie, that it didn't happen. We had to tell people ourselves that Section 19 (the gitmo-style witness clause) had been struck in its entirety and 'pit bull terrier' was gone along with some other wording and show them the backup decision. I sent it to the Sun, who had quoted Bryant, and they didn't even give me a call to get the scoop, never mind correct the record. Funny, people believe campfire tales in the newspapers at the drop of a hat without bothering to think them through.

And, we did this without cheating, running Who's on First routines in the courtroom or lying straight into the TV cameras and we paid for it by building enough public support so we could beg a million dollars off the streets to cover the costs. We're paid in full right now. I didn't see you mofos selling t-shirts at Woofstock, let's put it that way. You thought you were being clever hanging around our booth pretending to be supporters, trying to fish out our super-secret strategy. Our super-secret strategy was that we didn't have one - we played it straight all the way. The hardest part of dealing with you junior espionage types was keeping a straight face when we were talking to you.

Remember, by now we'd hung with you guys more than we had with our own friends and family - we rode down in the elevator with some you after Remedy just to see if we could make you sweat. The fact that you thought we didn't recognize you and funnier still, that you didn't recognize us was too sweet to resist.

So there'd be a lull, which doesn't happen often at Woofstock - these days people down there are throwing money at me and Lori so fast you'd think we were a couple of gay lookalike Japanese stripper-girls at a politician's stag - it's the only reason we go at all. We hate Woofstock.

We'd swing into 'educational mode' and start our little game of cat-and-mouse and maybe that would be it. We'd be insulting the crap out of you right to your faces and trying not to crack up. One time one of the three-man lawyer team defending the ban in court (and it happened with others but this was the best) was skulking at our booth. Lori called him by name right away because we were tired and didn't want to deal with him. His eyes bugged out of his head and he totally blew cover and went scuttling off into the crowd. It was the best of them all because this guy had seen us at least 25 times by now, at close range and we even sat right beside him a couple of days in court. We were laughing our asses off - you guys entertained us and kept us sane through the heat and the smog and the filth and boiler-room atmosphere and the dog abuse that is Woofstock all bloody weekend.

That's the kind of stuff that was going on in the background so we could blow off steam and have some fun while were fighting you guys to the finish to save dogs and democracy in Ontario.

The only money we owe is to ourselves, when three of us took out loans and lines of credit back in '06 when the fundraising was a lot harder and some people weren't holding up their end and we needed $100 grand or we were dead in the water. We made interest-free loans to keep this boat afloat and we're gently fundraising now to pay ourselves last. And that's only because we thought we might get costs for winning the motions or sending the law out of the first court knocked down with unconstitutional bits but for some reason we didn't. We couldn't afford to give any more which is why that one was a loan. This will be the only money we get back. We designed and paid for the t-shirts we then stood and sold on the street and we didn't get a dime. We traveled and boarded our dogs and bought research materials and made donations and sponsored events - in my case the Bully Ball - and on and on it went. We'd all given much more than we could afford. So that's why if we put out a letter asking for help to get that one small amount of money back on principle, I hope that all our wonderful supporters will think about helping us out one last time.

Our role was to fund this case and provide as much research material and resources as possible for free because Catherine was a stand-up kid who was suing in the public interest and there was no way she could pay for it herself and she couldn't get it pro bono. We became the interested public in other words and that public started expanding - I wish you could see it now McGuinty, because it would keep you up at night the way you've kept us up at night.

We've built an unbelievable collection of scientific information, data sources, legal documents and more. We've learned more about our two favourite subjects - dogs and democracy - in five years than most people learn in a lifetime about one AND we're completely up to date with current research. We could bang out PhDs from dissertation to defence off the top of our heads as a party game while reading the paper.

We didn't even know each other when this thing started, we were just all galvanized the same way and kind of drifted into a group but we became instant Sisters-in-Arms & Three Steves because like knows like. We have allies all over the world in many different fields who are working as hard as we are to change public opinion and preserve dog ownership and hard-won civil rights for future generations. We've built friendships that can never be torn apart no matter what happens - even between people who don't like each other - because our lives here at Banned Aid became full on focus, 90% work and 10% sleep for the past five years straight.

We did our job from the opening bell to the endgame toll and we're totally proud and happy that we did our absolute best all down the line and we did it with honour and decency.

We went around the world, and as hard as it got we kept the faith and never stopped believing in democracy and the rule of law as the one thing that could save us. And the right angels put us back in the same place we'd be if we did nothing at all - the date of enactment - August 29, 2005 - the day Hurricane Katrina pushed the McGuinty Massacre of the Innocents off the front page. And it was the safest damned place for us to be.

Does anybody, anywhere, think that we lost something here?

Best of all, the game pieces, play money and maps were scattered all over the place. The whole game is back together in the box with nothing missing, nothing broken and only a scratch or two on a couple of pieces.

The record of how the first game played out is there and there are more tools to improve the odds and will be each time somebody plays the game. We blazed a clear path from beginning to end all the way through. We ran a clean game and we played by the rules.

So it's all set for when the next people want to see if they can beat the odds when playing against the House.

Oh, and the reason I did all this, don't know about the others was because this is my absolute bottom line and you were violating both with this legislation:

Every citizen is entitled to equal treatment under the law.

The burden of proof lies with the prosecution.

*

THE LAST WORD

I put this here because I wanted people to know what happened in Ontario from my point of view since I was one of the few who was in long and deep and they're still lying about us and cutting us out of the media.

Lori called me the day it all came down and said CTV was saying that the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the fact that 'pit bulls' were vicious and should be banned. I wondered if somebody else was running a case and we didn't know about it but that was impossible.

The exact words that day from Chief Justice McLachlan were these:

Dismissed with Charges.

That was it - it's on their website.

Our case wasn't about whether 'pit bulls' were vicious and should be banned or if it was OK to kill 'pit bulls'. It was obviously a theme but as I told you, the core of our case was that they couldn't define what they were trying to ban, so too many people were vulnerable because of confusion and too many people were getting caught in the net who shouldn't have been.

So how did CTV, which is as close to being a member of the Liberal party as you can get (fact not theory), come up with that bizarre interpretation? And apparently they were the only ones who said it.

This is exactly why I don't really watch old media because they never even try to get anything right anymore and it just makes me unnecessarily mad. If I want info I go to the source - like straight to the SCC website in this case. These guys are tanking fast and they deserve it.

So for some strange reason I wanted to make sure there was some truth out there this time and it felt great to just open up not worry who was reading it too - because anything strategic will never be used again anyway.

I hope the others do the same.

Dalton McGuinty and Michael Bryant appeared so arrogant, desperate and unfit to serve the public that they casually tried to regulate something about which they obviously hadn't even the most basic understanding.

They remained wilfully ignorant despite being inundated with a king's ransom of information from experts that was given to them free of charge. They chose to ignore it.

They were bombarded with protests which should have made them realize that while they thought the issue was trivial, it may have been more important than they suspected and maybe they should do their jobs and work for the benefit of all citizens. They decided to ignore that correspondence, stonewall about what was happening and pretend most people wanted them to ban dogs execept for a noisy fringe of criminals and people who made money from owning and selling illegal fighting dogs. Trust me, I've got the emails and written submissions to committee.

They whipped the vote on the law, which meant everybody on the government side had to vote for it or leave the room, because they knew it wouldn't even pass in their own caucus on a free vote.

And then they started killing dogs and they had their trained parrots in the news outlets run the propaganda campaign and people still weren't buying it except for the extreme low-information set who were as ignorant and sociopathic as the perpetrators were but they pretended they were saving people from a dangerous threat.

In my mind, the dangerous threat was them.

So a handful of middle-aged dog lovers decided to see if they could shame or sue the bastards in order to save the longest association in history - a 50,000 year partnership that was growing stronger and getting better with each passing day. It is the most beautiful and the oldest love story in the history of humanity and although evil forces continue to try to separate them they will fight to protect each other as two against the world until the end of time.

The rest is up above and I just wanted people to know what happened in our country's and our generation's fight against tyranny. This is our Inquisition, our ethnic cleansing, our Civil rights March, our fight to preserve our way of life from terrorists and tyrants.

It's always the same game, you know. The evil ones just keep changing the game pieces and using different slogans and reasons.

This time, some stand up people took up the banner of one of the most unpopular causes of our time - we stood up to save the 'pit bulls' in Ontario because we knew that they were just dogs too - and we rallied support to our cause as all the others throughout history have rallied support to theirs.

And the dead dogs piled up and every one of those dogs was grieved and every one of those dogs was innocent and every one of those dogs was just a garden-variety mutt and every one of those dogs had an owner who was innocent too - again just like all the other times.

And we called it collateral damage to toughen ourselves up because there was nothing we could do about it - we weren't going to start fighting on multiple fronts.

We were outnumbered, it was all stacked against us, the bad guys had it handed to them on a platter and if they needed more they just reached out and took it. We bled, sweated and cried for everything we got.

And you can't always win and we risked losing everything but we went ahead anyway, seat of our pants, travelling light, making do and keeping our eye on the prize.

We knew all along that the final decision wasn't up to us - that was the hard part -and we had no way of knowing what it was going to be so we just had to hope they read our evidence and it was the right stuff and we were persuasive enough to get them seeing things our way.

And now the people who are angry because we didn't get for them what they thought they deserved and because they think we made mistakes because they are still killing 'pit bulls' in Ontario are out bad-mouthing our battle and staining our honest, clean contest that was fought with honour against an enemy who was prepared to descend into any kind of evil just so it wouldn't have to admit it had made a mistake.

Dogs will be kindly put to death until the end of time, my friends, because even in the No Kill Nation that other valiant forces are working to create, there will always be some dogs, as there will always be some people, that just don't have what it takes to survive - even with the artificial means that have vastly multiplied that number of beings within my own lifetime.

Those people are the most monstrous players of them all in this saga - and it is a saga.

We were out there begging for help, for supplies, for silver and gold. We needed backup, strategy, manpower and armament.

We went ahead anyway and they kept pushing us back and we kept fighting forward, side-by-side. We were quick, light, agile and focused. Best of all we were doing it for a bottomless love that made us smart and protected us from harm. It was all going so fast and furiously we didn't have time to send dispatches back from the field.

You can't always win and you can't always get what you want but you can always try.

Where the hell were you, you unimaginative wastes of time who are now telling us we zigged when we should have zagged? You still haven't understood that while we didn't win it all we won a lot of it and we didn't lose. You have to have a certain kind of mind to see it and I don't know if I can explain it to you. And, this first match isn't even over yet.

Later, more will come and build on what we've done and that's how you change the world - one campaign at a time. You go from A to B, not A to Z.

And you're willing to start collaborating with the enemy - which is violence and hatred - because you wanted us to win it all for you the first time out without your having to lift a finger to help carry the day yourself.

And that, my friends, is the bitter end.

Throughout this blog is the evidence. This final delightfully purple summary is my way of having fun while howling from the mountaintop that we somehow became the ones, for one brief moment in time, who would take on all comers and fight to defend our two-species nation and our democratic way of life to the finish. It's been long and tough and it damned near killed me but despite all that, I hope we get lucky and have a chance to do it again.

WE GOT GAME

Selma — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:40:01 -0400

The lights have been out, the store is still in business.

One week ago my own light had burnt down to the point that I was straight-arming the Reaper as the machine sputtered and the bastard almost had me. In one drop-dead hour it turned around and today I'm here and burning so hot that I have to slow down cause I'm still where when people ask me how I am it's "I'm alive!!!"

I'm not sharing deets I do that with my close friends and fam.

Just wanted to explain the deal. No editing, don't care about typos, I'm not even supposed to be doing this yet.

I got one more shortie about the situation and I'm gone for awhile again. We'll be changing direction slightly anyway.

Pax.

And don't fuck with we 'pit bull people' as you morons like to call us. We're the ones that got game and we don't back down. We also don't start it but we'll fucking finish it - or literally die trying.

NEWS FROM ANIMAL LIBERATION-LAND

Selma — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:58:43 -0400

The FBI has added Daniel San Diego to its list of most wanted terrorists. He shares the honour with Osama bin Laden and others but has the dubious distinction of being the first domestic terrorist added to the list.

Oh, and thanks a lot, ABC. I was using the same title but had to change it after I visited your story.

The FBI put out a press release on April 22 listing various rewards for information in attacks targeting scientific researchers.

A couple of ALF members were indicted in Los Angeles on April 22, charged with conspiracy, stalking, and other crimes against researchers at UCLA.

A pro-research rally in Los Angeles attracted hundreds of supporters, vastly outnumbering the animal liberaton extremists protesting at the same time. I guess the animal liberation schtick is finally wearing thin with mainstream groups, which is a good thing indeed.

And then there's Mr Vick (rhymes with...). A buddy out west gave me the heads-up on this one:

Michael Vick in Talks to Become PETA Spokesman

Jailed NFL Superstar Looks to Rehab Image After Dog-fighting Rap

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Michael Vick is in talks to become the new spokesman for PETA.

Yes, you read that correctly. The disgraced one-time NFL superstar serving prison time for funding an illegal dog-fighting ring is primed to do public-service ads for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals upon his release later this month. According to three people with knowledge of the matter, the proposed endorsement is part of a comprehensive PR scheme aimed at rehabilitating the quarterback's image and gaining him readmission to the league that banned him from playing.

Well, at least Vick and Peta have something in common - both have used 'pit bulls' to further their own ends, both have shown no respect for animal life and both appear to be greedy and manipulative enough to deserve each other.

What's the difference between bumping off animals you promised to place in new homes then throwing the corpses into a dumpster and bumping off animals you were supposed to care for and burying the bodies in the backyard? Thirty million bucks a year, I guess.

This guy Vick isn't too bright, is he? Doesn't he have teh Google? Somebody should let him know that the worst thing he could do to rehab his image (such as it is) is to join forces with the most hypocritical, self-serving, histrionic group of animal-killing phonies around.

If Vick thinks people who love dogs are mad at him now, just wait until his goofy mug appears in a Peta commercial. I hope he goes for it just because I'm nice that way.

Roll 'em!

AWOL

Selma — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:35:13 -0400

I've been AWOL for over two weeks, for reasons beyond my control.

I didn't post about our booth at the All About Pets show on Easter weekend (Friday to Sunday) but it was a good event for us. Lots of people stopped by our booth to show support. It's amazing how many people own or have owned dogs that could be 'pit bulls' - from young students to middle-aged to elderly people.

Also, Fred from One Bark at a Time stopped by. It was great to meet him in person - always fun to see cyber-buddies in 3D.

We had mascots at our booth all weekend and they did a great job of meeting people and showing them what nice, friendly dogs they are. For contrast, I brought my three pups on Sunday.

Anyway, I have a few things I want to talk about once I get sorted out here.

Thanks to everybody who reads this blog and comments here. It makes blogging seem worthwhile.

HALDIMAND RELEASES NAMES OF 'PIT BULL' OWNERS TO OPP

Selma — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:30:49 -0400

The target is different, the outcome may be different, but I'm definitely spotting a pattern here, and have been for some time.

MISFITS AND OUTCASTS AND THREATS - OH MY!

Selma — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 23:15:39 -0400

Are 'pit bull' owners perceived as members of the outcast class in the human social order?

HSUS: NEVER GIVE A 'PIT BULL' AN EVEN BREAK

Selma — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:43:25 -0400

Nathan Winograd has a couple of good posts up about the meeting of the 'pit bull' profiteers in Las Vegas.

I know that nobody is surprised that the HSUS continues to exhibit what amounts to a corporate sociopathy or by the fact that no progress was made.

The burning question isn't whether 'pit bulls' are just dogs (they are), whether fighting dogs are a product of their environment (they are), whether any thinking human would agree that dogs shouldn't die for our sins (they would) or whether the HSUS will veer away from its set course of animal liberation (it won't - at least not until the current BOD is booted out and some truly humane leaders are voted in).

No, to me, the most important question is this:

What makes these people think that they have the right to speak for 'pit bulls', dogs in general, 'bust dogs' (as they call them) or for all of us who are out here in the frontlines - in rescue, in the courts, and on the streets?

I deeply resent the intrusive, self-serving, double-dealing campaign by the HSUS to legislate pet breeding and ownership into oblivion while crying crocodile tears for dogs, cats, horses and chickens.

I'm insulted by the unending stream of contradictory, duplicitous and illogical statements that wouldn't fool a first-grader.

I am galled by their hubris in implying to the rubes ithat they are a government-sanctioned agency - worse, a law enforcement group - rather than a private special interest lobbying outfit which does not represent mainstream views.

Their arrogance in presuming to 'negotiate' repulsive ideas such as breed (ha ha) bans 'down' to breed-specific mandatory neutering (Louisville) and then say it's somehow better than a ban - would be hilarious were it not so deadly to dogs.

Most of all, I get really, really, really pissed off by all these people who make money and promote themselves on the backs of 'pit bulls' - be they incompetent politicians like Old Nanny McGuinty in Ontario, cheese-ass journalists who need a hook because they're too lazy or hung over to write an actual story, rescue groups who post all kinds of nonsense about how weird 'pit bulls' are on their websites, hysterics who get information from personal injury lawyers and white-hooders so they can get a hate on and all the rest of them - fooling themselves into believing that people like me give a damn about what they think or say.

If I want an opinion about 'pit bulls', I'll ask a 'pit bull'. At least they aren't in it for the money. Sometimes I think they're the only ones who aren't.

THE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

Selma — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:52:27 -0400

It sure looks that way. Dog owners in Missouri stood up and voted out several candidates who think banning and killing dogs is where it's at.

Brent has the details.

I wonder if we'll have more luck here in 2011 than we did in 2007 trying to get people to oust McGuinty? Surely by then even the lowest of the low-information voters will have realized that the Ontario Liberals are anything but - and not only because of their draconian, antiquated approach to dog ownership. They treat everybody as if they need Old Nanny McGuinty looking over their shoulders, telling them what to buy, what to eat, how to garden...you name it, Old McGuinty will ban it or tax the hell out of it. The rest he just mismanages.

Today, I wish I were from Missouri, too.

EASTER WEEKEND - ALL ABOUT PETS SHOW

Selma — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 20:39:12 -0400

This weekend we will be manning the DLCC booth at the All About Pets show.

The show is huge, and apparently very busy, so if you're in Toronto area and attending, please drop by our booth, number 536. I attach the floor plan. We are almost in the centre near the big rectangular area with the red dot on its left side. If you view the plan at 150%, you'll see where we are. Unfortunately, I can't save it as a rotated version because I'm too cheap frugal to buy Adobe software, so you'll have to turn your monitor 90 degrees, or your head, whichever is easier.

Information about what's happening and directions are on the All About Pets website. We'll be beside our friends from Southern Ontario Animal Rescue so if you're visiting them, you'll see us.

Now, back to working on my display for our booth. I never do things ahead of time since half the fun is staying up late with clenched teeth working to a harsh deadline. Isn't it?

LUIS LIVE IN ASHLAND!

Selma — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:15:21 -0400

I'm really knocking 'em dead here....

OW! LUIS THE 'PIT BULL', LIVE AT THE CAVEAT COMEDY CLUB

Selma — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 22:38:28 -0400

That went well....

HSUS: MAKING UP NUMBERS TO CARRY THE DAY?

Selma — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:49:06 -0400

Update at the end.

Well, well, well. Who'da thunk it.

Someone using the immensely credible handle, 'Anonymous', has been posting a comment...

"HSUS got the $190,000 from the amicus brief filed in the Michael Vick case. The brief was signed by ADOA, the Animal Adoption Center, Best Friends, The Cape Fear APBT Club,CHAKO, The Maryland Dog Federation, The National American Pit Bull Terrier Association, The Real Pit Bull Foundation for Advocacy and Rescue, Spindletop Refuge,Villalobos Rescue Center, &Worthy Companions Domestic Animal Rescue"

...here and there, notably at Yesbiscuit! and Blue Dog State, both of whom (along with yours truly) have exposed the Wilkes County involvement of the HSUS using the transcript in the case.

Trouble is, it's a lie. BDS has been wondering where the $190,000 per dog rehabilitation cost mentioned by Amanda Harrington in court came from - and so have I.

Well, it certainly didn't come from the referenced Amicus curiae brief filed in the Vick case, as the intrepid BDS has discovered:

The amicus brief reads (emphasis aded) . . .

"Amici estimate an average cost of $2,500 per dog for assessment and rehabilitation. To the extent that the Government has calculated an amount in excess of that figure, Amici adopt the amount estimated by the Government."

So, for the 53 Vick dogs, the estimate was $132,500 -- for all 53 dogs.

Not exactly $190,000 per dog, is it?

So, again: where did that $190,000 come from ?

Are we looking at perjury? Extortion? What?

Yeah, are we looking at perjury? Extortion? What? How about libel? Do Anonymous's comments constitute libel, or just a desperate attempt to lie about verifiable facts?

Over to you, Wayne-O.

Update:

It seems we aren't looking at either perjury, extortion or libel but we are still looking at something very fishy -

There's more information in another comment at BDS -

Page 29, Section A
....

Rehabilitation of fighting dogs is a time consuming, labor intensive effort which requires 4 to 6 hours each day per dog. Qualified trainers earn between $50.00-$75.00 per hour. At 5 hours a day, 30 days a month, this $9,70 dollars per month of training. To this, add food and veterinary care, and the price to rehabilitate a fighting dog is a little more than $10,000 per month. If training and rehabilitating a dog takes 18 months, the cost rises to $180,000 plus the run cost of $10,000 or $190,000 per dog.

That's where HSUS got the figure, page 29 of tha amicus in the VICK case that had nothing to do with this case.

Incidentally, this snip is not available in the online version of the brief.

Since none of the signatories to the Amicus curiae brief in the Vick case had ever attempted a rehab op like this one, they had no way of knowing how time-consuming or labor intensive it might be, which is fair enough.

However, to state flatly that it takes 4 - 6 hours of professional training daily for a month and for up to 18 months is not realistic.

First of all, if that's the case, they aren't dealing with pro trainers.

We're talking about an average of 150+ hours per month of individual professional training time. Taken for the maximum mentioned, 18 months, that amounts to 2,700 hours of training to socialize just one dog from a fighting bust.

You know, if something doesn't sound true, it usually isn't. Comparing this absurd estimate with the amount of time children spend in primary classes, which is around 100 hours per month for 9 months per year (one month deducted for holidays and PE days), we see that a child spends 900 hours in school each year.

So we are expected to believe that a child can attend school for three years in the amount of time it takes to socialize one dog?.

Was somebody trying to pad the bill a bit to take advantage of Vick's high profile? Maybe everybody is fighting over money, who knows? There's sure gold in them thar 'pit bull' hills these days if you're on the right side. Which means you're not on our side because that costs money and time in a big way.

However, to be fair, Harrington's testimony regarding rehab costs was reportedly sourced from court documents in the Vick case.

I guess we can't blame the HSUS for everything but we can still call them out for insisting that harmless dogs and puppies were better off dead.

They are the Humane Society of the United States, aren't they?

What these silly people are saying about 'fighting dogs' is based on a belief in cultural memory. The premise is that if a dog's ancestors were trained to perform an activity, then all their descendants can inherit that training, rather than the qualities that made them suitable in the first place. Of course, the animal liberation scribe Clifton believes this, so I imagine others do as well. Ah hell, I don't imagine it, I know it - they say it over and over and over again, not realizing how foolish it makes them appear.

So, HSUS, you're off the hook on the supposed source for the $190 K per dog rehab nonsense, but not the rest of it, such as the fact that it had nothing to do with the Faron case, wasn't an estimate in the Faron case and wasn't even awarded in the Vick case.

Why would anybody use a figure like that? The only reason that I can see is that they want to be sure all rescue efforts around alleged dogfighting busts are scuttled. That way, they can still kill all the 'pit bulls' and move on to the next 'case'.

TIME FOR THE HSUS TO HIT THE SHOWERS

Selma — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:21:53 -0400

YOU KNOW YOU'RE WAY OUT IN LEFT FIELD IF

Selma — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:35:42 -0400

You believe that there really are 4.7 million dog bites in the US every year.

You believe that somebody is actually counting dog bites.

You think that bites by dogs are always a big deal.

You think that if a dog of a particular breed (or shape) bites someone, then all dogs of that breed (or shape) will bite someone.

You believe there are dangerous breeds, rather than dangerous dogs created by dangerous owners.

You believe there are safe or friendly breeds.

You believe that mutts that look vaguely like a purebred are the same thing as a purebred.

You believe that shelter staff, veterinarians and animal control personnel can accurately identify the breeds in a mutt's ancestry.

You believe that there is a breed named 'pit bull'.

You believe that Golden retrievers and other popular breeds don't bite, attack or kill.

You believe that banning a breed is logical, fair and an effective way to stop dog bites.

You believe that the breeds hyped in news reports bite, attack and kill more often than other breeds do.

You believe that the breed names appearing in news reports are determined by experts who verify purebred identification and registration information before media report (and report, and report, and report) the story.

You think there is a pet overpopulation problem.

You think that legislating the neutering of dogs will stop shelter killing.

You think dogs can be 'bred to fight'.

You think 'fighting dogs' are dangerous as housepets.

You believe that dogfighting (and other cruelty to dogs) is widespread.

You believe that only marginal people own media darlings such as 'pit bulls', 'rottweilers' and 'mastiffs'.

You believe that alleged 'pit bulls' are easily identified by neighbours, bystanders, media reporters and animal control personnel, even though the term applies to 3 - 5 core breeds, over two dozen lookalike breeds and an unknown number of mongrels.

You believe that breed differences are hard-wired and more significant than individual personality differences among dogs.

You believe that so-called 'pit bulls' do more damage when they attack, have superior strength, more powerful jaws than other dogs and are not only unpredictable but also impossible to control if they are intent on doing something.

You believe that 'pit bulls' are in shelters because of overbreeding and overpopulation rather than legislation designed to put them there.

You think the HSUS is a humane society and that Peta cares about animal welfare.

If you believe any or all of these points you have a couple of options.

1. Get your information from reliable sources - not mass media reports or groups with an agenda geared towards eliminating pet ownership or filling their coffers.
2. Zip it and let the people who know what's what discuss issues around the problems caused by incompetent dog owners because seriously, you're not f$#%@ing helping.

PETA: KEEPING IT REAL

Selma — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:59:15 -0400

Peta is keeping it really creepy. The 2008 numbers are out and as usual they are grim.

In 2008, Peta killed 95% of adoptable pets that were unfortunate enough to end up (literally) at the cult's headquarters.

I can't wait to hear how Ingrid's lobotomized flying monkeys rationalize this year's numbers.

CCF has the details here.

Tip of the hat to KC Dog Blog; commentary here.

Terrierman rips Peta to shreds here.

Nathan Winograd takes no prisoners in his post, The Butcher of Norfolk.

Gee, I don't turn on my computer for a couple of days and miss the whole thing.