CHIHUAHUA RESCUE'S LEGAL BATTLE COULD AFFECT THOUSANDS OF SHELTER
PETS ACROSS THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Burbank, CA, July 16, 2003 -- Chihuahua Rescue, Inc. continues
to fight for the rights of the Baldwin Park Chihuahuas and believes
that SB 1785, the Hayden law is being violated. If the County
of Los Angeles continues to oppose Chihuahua Rescue and authorizes
the dogs killed because the County's behaviorists consider the
dogs "unadoptable" the County could be violating Food
and Agriculture Sections 31108(b), 31752(b), and 31754(a). Chihuahua
Rescue, Inc. contends that legally the dogs must be released to
a nonprofit adoption agency as the Hayden Law requires, except
for irremediable suffering. The Judge's decision tomorrow afternoon
in Lancaster, California could affect thousands of shelter pets
across California by being the first known case to be tried in
the state of California making this a "case of first impression."
The Hayden Law was enacted to protect California's
citizens from career bureaucrats running our animal shelters.
The situation with the chihuahuas in Baldwin Park demonstrates
very clearly why this law is necessary. It provides some checks
and balances to a system where, without it, life and death decisions
are made by bureaucrats using arbitrary guidelines or rules.
The temperament tester that Los Angeles County
hired from the Silicon Valley Humane Society to evaluate the confiscated
Baldwin Park dogs failed to remove them to a normal environment
and leave them there long enough (three to five days) for a proper
evaluation. So what this tester saw was rat pack behavior typical
of the circumstances. Los Angeles County read into these evaluation
results that they had already predetermined they would get. These
dogs are crowded into small spaces, several in one run. They are
fed together, males and females none spayed or neutered. There
is fighting and behavior typical of overcrowding whether the species
occupying the habitat are canine, feline, or human.
A scary growing trend in animal shelters all
over the country is that the dogs and cats are temperament tested,
and set up to fail. Failing the temperament test allows some of
the shelters to justify automatically euthanize animals and not
placing them for adoption. Some factors include older animals,
animals that could be put up for adoption after some behavior
modification or training, and animals with health problems, often
minor. Shelters then subtract these animals from their statistics
and use only the "adoptable" animals as a base for their
euthanasia statistics. The public doesn't hear the word "adoptable"
when the shelters proudly announce "90% of the "adoptable"
animals were placed into new homes."
"Animal shelters all over the state of California
are operating outside the law. They do whatever they please and
they answer to nobody. Nobody can complain because there is nobody
to complain to. The creatures who need to complain are dead, so
they can't speak for themselves" says Kimi Peck, President
of www.chihuahuarescue.com in Burbank. Kimi Peck is the first
person who has legally objected to the Hayden law not being followed,
but it is well-known that this law is often ignored and animals
are euthanized despite rescue groups requesting to save animals
slated for euthanasia.
Unlike in many other areas of the country, small
dogs, nursing mothers with puppies, exotic cats and litters of
kittens are killed everyday in southern California shelters; pets
that may have been able to be rehabilitated by a rescue group.
That is why the Hayden Bill, SB 1785, was written and made a law.
There are ways to make this law work for the betterment of animals
and the shelters,
however, it needs to be enforced.
