QueenScoopalot
04-15-2004, 04:55 PM
Subject: a creative way to fight puppy mills
crossposting a great story on creative way to fight puppy mills
Mary Dube'
Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue (SCMR) http://www.scmradoption.com
Application: http://scmradoption.com/html/onlineapp.htm
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is
to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Wednesday, April 7, 2004 10:38 p.m.
Activists work to prosecute Dallas residents selling puppies
By GARY REAVES / WFAA-TV
Dallas residents who end up with a litter of kittens or puppies and try to
sell them from home may be in for a surprise.
Animal activists admit using false pretenses to build real criminal cases
against such individuals, so the person calling about buying pets for sale
may not be who they seem.
Marty Hardisty came to court Wednesday trying to prove she is not a
criminal.
But if she is, her dogs are her co-conspirators: Hardisty is accused of
running a business out of her home by selling puppies. It's a case made not
by city animal control officers, but by a pair of private citizens, Lady
Higgins and her daughter Lisa. They said they're trying to shut down puppy
mills, so they scour the newspaper ads and get the city attorney to
prosecute anyone caught selling dogs from a Dallas home.
"It is basically an issue of transforming a residence into a place of
business," chief prosecutor Robert Miklos said. "You cannot do that in the
city of Dallas."
Dallas Animal Control manager Kent Robertson backs the Higgins. He thinks
the dog breeders are part of the pet overpopulation problem. "They need to
come down and spend a day in the euthanasia lab, where we are forced to
euthanize 26,000 dogs a year," Robertson
said.
The six people Higgins got prosecuted this day, however, claim they are
innocent dog lovers. Robert Spangler got his case dismissed because he sold
his dogs outside the city limits. "I lost a good day's pay," Spangler said.
"My family needs the money, and it is just
a waste of time."
Kathy Hargrave won her case; her lawyer convinced the judge that selling six
puppies does not make a home into a business. "I felt harrassed," Hargrave
said. "I felt like I was intruded upon."
As for Marty Hardisty and her Corgis, their case was delayed, but it won't
go away. The city attorney promises to continue prosecuting anyone caught
selling dogs from their home in Dallas.
Animal control officials again encourage pet owners to have their animals
spayed or neutered. They end up dealing with 35,000 unwanted pets every
year.
crossposting a great story on creative way to fight puppy mills
Mary Dube'
Southern Comfort Maltese Rescue (SCMR) http://www.scmradoption.com
Application: http://scmradoption.com/html/onlineapp.htm
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is
to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Wednesday, April 7, 2004 10:38 p.m.
Activists work to prosecute Dallas residents selling puppies
By GARY REAVES / WFAA-TV
Dallas residents who end up with a litter of kittens or puppies and try to
sell them from home may be in for a surprise.
Animal activists admit using false pretenses to build real criminal cases
against such individuals, so the person calling about buying pets for sale
may not be who they seem.
Marty Hardisty came to court Wednesday trying to prove she is not a
criminal.
But if she is, her dogs are her co-conspirators: Hardisty is accused of
running a business out of her home by selling puppies. It's a case made not
by city animal control officers, but by a pair of private citizens, Lady
Higgins and her daughter Lisa. They said they're trying to shut down puppy
mills, so they scour the newspaper ads and get the city attorney to
prosecute anyone caught selling dogs from a Dallas home.
"It is basically an issue of transforming a residence into a place of
business," chief prosecutor Robert Miklos said. "You cannot do that in the
city of Dallas."
Dallas Animal Control manager Kent Robertson backs the Higgins. He thinks
the dog breeders are part of the pet overpopulation problem. "They need to
come down and spend a day in the euthanasia lab, where we are forced to
euthanize 26,000 dogs a year," Robertson
said.
The six people Higgins got prosecuted this day, however, claim they are
innocent dog lovers. Robert Spangler got his case dismissed because he sold
his dogs outside the city limits. "I lost a good day's pay," Spangler said.
"My family needs the money, and it is just
a waste of time."
Kathy Hargrave won her case; her lawyer convinced the judge that selling six
puppies does not make a home into a business. "I felt harrassed," Hargrave
said. "I felt like I was intruded upon."
As for Marty Hardisty and her Corgis, their case was delayed, but it won't
go away. The city attorney promises to continue prosecuting anyone caught
selling dogs from their home in Dallas.
Animal control officials again encourage pet owners to have their animals
spayed or neutered. They end up dealing with 35,000 unwanted pets every
year.