It
is time they be held accountable. So many animal welfare organizations
won't help or keep silent because of the misplaced bonds of
collegiality. The crimes the dogs commit are so minor and have
solutions short of imprisonment with solitary confinement; death or
banishment. Charlie did bite his owner on the arm as he pulled him back
from oncoming police in the early morning raid on Terry Shrunk plaza:
several puncture wounds to the arm.
It was a dangerous situation but it
was secondary to and caused by the raid. Charlie is not a dangerous
dog. MCAS would not tell the caller who called MCAS asking on behalf of
Charlie if Charlie had been killed. The caller believed he was going to
be killed in 5 days. MCAS refused to say or disclose his status. So I
will try to find the owners and also a space. Perhaps they don't know
he is alive or maybe they don't want him back or maybe they are afraid
of MCAS or maybe they are in jail. I don't know.
Osiriz,
who belonged to another homeless young man( bipolar controlled
with meds, now in jail) was in solitary confinement at MCAS for 6 months
as are all of them on Security and often on Intake as well,deprived of
social interaction: visits almost impossible to have the process is so
forbidding, and the obstacles so huge; for 15 minutes only,if more than
one person often the 15 minutes must be divided up and not allowed out
to exercise ever in the play yard even with the owner who visits. It is
written into the records as conditions. When Osiriz went kennel
crazy and lunged at someone bringing his kong ( he was on Intake for a
short while before being moved to Security) he was punished by never
being allowed a kong again, the only distraction he had.
MCAS
imprisonment policies are all documented in records. They are not even
surmises. There is Officer Wammack stipulating 15 minute visit only for
Ozzie from his homeless owner and the homeless owner's mother; no
treats allowed; may not leave kennel to go play in the yard with his
family.Ozzie who also belongs to a homeless person has been in solitary
confinement at MCAS since April 05.
His crime was a repeat event when
he went after a small dog as he was leaving his homeless owner's
mother's car. She had called out to the dog owner would you wait while
we go by. He didn't .No significant injuries if any: penalty:
impoundment and ownership suspension which is still going through the
courts. Reb challenged the findings and suspension and paid the $200
plus fee to get it into a real court. It is still dragging on..
Why
not correct and mediate? Why not solve problems instead of punish? Why
take advantage of the powerlessness of vulnerable populations? Why take
and kill dogs that often have owners who have no homes? Why order staff
not to engage animals in any way and this includes eye contact or
speech ( Eyes straight ahead...
When we picked up Osiriz with Ronnie
Lucero for Toni Reita a few weeks ago. a staff person reported we are
not allowed to look at them even) Another staff person told me at the
adoptions desk that no staff are allowed on Intake or Security. They may
not engage the animals that have not been "tested" or have "failed" the
"test" ( all on Security or Intake). I assume that means no exercise
ether as that is engagement. No wonder Harley, the dog who once belonged
to a homeless man (but now Harley lives with us) " never bonded to the
food giver" as John Rowton said. Because the food provider was a post.
I
believe that anyway on Security the dogs are fed through a chute.
Security is the most barren place in the world: cemented up 4 feet all
around so no way to see out. It terrified and traumatized Joe, the
Aussie who lives with us now who was there for three weeks. It took a
trainer several hours to coax him out of the back of the kennel where
he was crouched down. He would not come forward. Social isolation and
deprivation is a form of torture for animals who are bonded by
nature. Mr. Oswald lacks empathy for either people or animals.
He justifies and rationalizes cruel policies because he is comfortable with the rules and singular control he has created
Mr.
Oswald states the rules forbidding staff from attending to animals on
Intake and Security are for public safety reasons. In fact I think it is
to prevent messy attachments between staff and animals that might make
killing less amenable/more problematic and conflicted. There was a
report once, I have the victim's name, about a staff person who is still
there, who loved a big lunk of a pit bull that if not adopted she
planned to adopt. She brought him treats every day.
She came to love
that dog. Everyone knew of her plan to adopt if his time ran out. One
day she came to work and he was gone: his kennel empty. He had been
killed early that morning. She took 2 weeks off then came back. I
suspect without any way to confirm that Oswald's rules touted as
benefiting public safety in fact are intended to prevent staff from
bonding with animals. He has rules for killing: no exceptions.One staff
very early on told me she had almost called me as they were killing all
the dogs she cared about. Now she can't go back there anymore. No one
can.
There are very few dangerous dogs, only
potentially dangerous situations, like the raid on the homeless camp
that Charlie was caught up in. That is correctable. But once an MCAS
officer told me (when I said these are just dogs not bad dogs), that the
dogs have to be dangerous because if MCAS plays the public safety card,
that is how they get money from the county. I heard Jeff Cogen parrot
the statement on NPR that MCAS was about public safety, and it seemed
only about that: not stray homeless scared animals. We go back to a
statement John Rowton made on TV a more than a decade ago: "We can't
kill the owners, so we kill their dogs."
I am
so sad. This cannot go on. If Charlie's owners step forward, in addition
to tickets they must build a secure enclosure to redeem him. But how do
you build a concrete based kennel which is what almost always what is
required if you have no home? Once they insisted a homeless man find
someone with a home he could build the kennel on to comply.On
another recent ticket a man was cited that his dog must wear a muzzle
all of the time except in extreme heat and to drink and eat. What is
extreme heat? Is there a weather muzzle advisory? Why not teach him
crowd control, use a gentle leader, basic obedience and how to avoid
incidents? No owner diversion education classes: just escalating fines,
punishment, threats, and ownership suspension, banishment or killing.
I
am taking my flyers to Burnside and leaving some at JOIN and Sisters of
the Road and will look for Saint Francis which I think is in the area.
Then I will write the summary paper about MCAS I need to do .If I don't
go, and try I won't be able to think about anything else. I won't be
able to do anything else anyway I am so preoccupied and upset.
There are so many corrective actions short of harm that a county could engage in. Thank you for the list.
Gail
503.625.4563
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