24 September 2012

The Terrifying Truth About ASPCA/HSUS "RESCUES" Such as on Caboodles

You read the magazine adds or watch the three-minute infomercials by the ASPCA and HSUS about the terrible plight of abused animals across our country, and then the request for money.

Then you see the newspaper article and news reports on Channels 6, 7, 9 etc., about a local non-profit rescuer who had 90 or 150 or even 400 cats who were all rescued from deplorable conditions by the City Animal Services along with the local or national ASPCA or HSUS.  The reporter is told that the number of animals just got out of hand and the owner just wasn’t able to take care of the animals anymore.

He or she is shown in handcuffs on the grass in front of the house while cameras show 20 people with cat carriers, cages and dog catch poles trying to capture 150 cats or dogs, running to hide from these invading strangers.  You here how the person will be charged with animal cruelty or felony animal neglect, and maybe will receive mental health treatment for “hoarder” behaviors.



















Daily News Photo of Muffin Being Rescued by Animal Services

What you don’t see is what happens next, nor do you know of the organized corruption involved by the ASPCA, HSUS, the local city/county Animal Services, and the prosecutors.

There is a scam involved, and it is all about making money for the raiders called rescuers, for the ASPCA, HSUS who make publicity by the raid, make the rescuer out to be a horrible person, the animals are all sick, etc., and many needed to be killed because they are not adoptable.

They also make money when the advertise the raid and say they need donations to house, rehabilitate and place these animals in homes.

They also make money from the rescuer who has had their animals seized, because they are charged $20-$25/day for each animal seized for their care, feeding and medical care until the owner releases ownership to the agency, who then can legally put them up for adoption.

But if an owner waits 60 days before he or she turns ownership over to them, they are running up a bill at a rate of $3000-$4000 a day, to care for the animals ASPCA seized, which is probably five to eight times as much as the rescuer was spending a day for the same care.

I have seen this over and over, where the rescuer loses his or her house to pay off a $400,000 bill from HSUS or ASPCA for care of the seized animals.
I understand that the amount charged to Craig, the owner of Caboodles by the ASPCA was $700,000.  That was the deal worked out between the judge and the prosecutor.

Now listen to this, in Los Angeles, the City Prosecutor, Steve Cooley, was once on the Board of Director of the Los Angeles ASPCA, and who determined the amount of money to be paid to the ASPCA by the rescuer for restitution while he was still on their board.  That person usually had to sell the house and property the cats had been housed in to pay the penalty and restitution, including court fees, penalty and restitution, or else it is simplely seized by the courts and then sold.

This kind of thing happens all over the country to real rescuers, who are usually extremely vulnerable due to lack of funds for a legal defense as well as having courts and prosecutors working together to get money for the raiders, because persons or properties that have a lot of animals, even well-cared for, and kept inside, are targets for other animal rescuers who may not like the persecuted rescuer, and report them for animal neglect or abuse, and who are also fighting for donations from the same local base of donors.

The terrible thing is that usually 1/3 of the animals are killed either during the hunt-down and trapping, or in the medical evaluation done later that day or the next, where having a cold means not 10 days of an antibiotic treatment, but instant death as diseased, or as being “irremediably suffering,” which is nonsense, as upper respiratory infection are extremely common in all City shelters.

For those who want to know more, just look at my other blog, http://laanimalwatch.blogspot.com, and read the story of Ron Mason and his cats. http://laanimalwatch.blogspot.com/2007/10/overview-of-mason-case.html#uds-search-results

Finally, the ASPCA/HSUS/City get  a final dip in the cash drawer when they “sell” the cat or dog to the public to be placed in a private home.  Usual adoption fees run anywhere from $75 to $150.  Let us say of the 150 animals that the raiders impounded, they kill the 50 least adoptable, the old, the skinny, the ones missing an eye, a leg or a tail, or who have terrible dental problems.  That leaves 100 very adoptable animals, who, at $100 each, brings in an additional $10,000.

If a larger rescue such as Caboodles is raided, say of their 700 cats, they kill 200 and adopt out 500 at $100/each for a total of $50,000 for an inventory of animals they paid nothing for.  It is like a manufacturer selling a toy where the raw material costs nothing, they just steal it legally.

So, it goes like this: Someone complains about a rescuer. City, County, ASPCA or someone else comes out to inspect the property.  They find animal neglect and that the owner has exceeded the number of cats allowed on the premise without a kennel license (Which is impossible to get in a residential area.).

They give orders to reduce the number.

Then they raid unexpectedly, usually just before a deadline to reduce the number of animals is due so as to catch the rescuer with the maximum number on the property.

They heavily advertise and publicize the raid and talk about the deplorable conditions they found whether deplorable or not.

They then catch as many cats as they can, and they never get all, lock up the property tightly and get rid of all the cat food and water, cut holes in the fences to let the remaining animals fend for themselves.

Lock up and charge the owner with felony neglect of felony abuse, leaving him in jail for days or weeks without the remaining animals being fed, and as in the case of Caboodles, four are found dead from starvation when Craig got back four weeks later.

Get TV, radio and newspaper spots about the raid and need for public donations to car for these free-to-them animal inventory.

Kill 1/3 of the least adoptable animals for a more sellable inventory so that they do not have to take care of the old and sick themselves that would not be adopted.

Charge the owner a hefty fees for “care” for the animals, and court fees plus any penalty amounts, and then put the owner on probation for three years, during which time he or she is not allowed to have any animals.  In the meantime, they seize the owner’s property to pay for the care fees, court fees, and penalty amount.

Finally, the animals are adopted out to the public at $100+ each.  Many they can’t or don’t adopt themselves are transferred to other private or municipal shelters where the stock may be culled again before any are adopted.

The photo of Muffin on this post is from the Los Angeles Daily News, which accompanied a raid on my friend Ron Mason in September, 2007.  Of the 52 cats impound, 25 were killed as “irredeemably suffering.”

Ron’s story ended very differently because I interceded and then others came forward to reveal the sordid details of how the system works in Los Angeles. 
However, ending this practice nationwide would be very difficult because it involves a rigged legal system working with HSUS/ASPCA and others, purely on a profit basis.

I don’t disagree that there may have been neglect in a majority of the cases, but the amount of neglect is nothing compared to the killing those animals suffer within days after the raid, and then to pine away in City or ASPCA shelters over the next six months in small cages until and if they are adopted or killed.  Public shelters only need keep an animal for four days in California before killing them.  In LA City, about 22,000 are killed each year, and LA County kills another 42,000+.

12 comments:

  1. The greed, the corruption, the disdain for life...

    Check out this George Carlin clip a friend sent to me.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_7ilxZnrwc&feature=related

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    1. I AGREE, GREED, THERE IS NOTHING HUMANE ABOUT THAT. I DESPISE IT.I DESPISE THE GREEDY.

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  2. How about this if a person is trying to save her mother and trying to her daughter's dog from dying then turns around gets charge because the animal is sick and won't eat because of fleas. They don't want to here the another side of the story then thats wrong. This person had flea shampoo for fleas for the cat and flea drops for the dog. They took pictures of the dog in water and dog food an made out that he was laying in urine and manure. This person went to drug store to get her mother medicane so she can live. When they came home she told her mother that she is was going to check on the dog and clean him again do because he was not eating. and even told her mother that was going to call her vet for the last time. See she kept calling vet and each she called them they said if you don't have money we can't help. As she was going to check on the dog she saw flashing light and here it was the police. Her mother was rush to hospital because of this. It was not because she abuse the animal this person never abuse her animal she tried to save both family members.

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  3. http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?cat=8

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  4. Speaking only for our own animal control, they work hand in hand with not only the rescues in the area, but also out of the area/state in order to give all reasonably healthy animals a chance. That includes the tripod we fostered after a local rescue took her in and mended her back to health (the rescue paying all of the medical costs through fundraisers - common here as we our community is just trying to keep Animal Control open for regular hours). They do tend to look the other way if you have four well taken care of animals on your property instead of three. Receiving over a hundred fighting roosters was a bit much because was extremely hard to house them, and, sadly many had to be put down due to terminal or highly contagious illnesses or beyond the average aggressive rooster nature.

    I understand Mr. Muzicka's point of view. We too have those certain rescues and personality conflicts on proper care and maintenance of animals. I know many of these groups and never have I seen their animals poorly cared for; small town gossip and longtime feuds. What I did see it come down to with one rescue was a severely injured large purebred puppy was offered up multiple times to the purebred rescue and they turned the animal away. Another rescue came in and paid for all the medical bills. Once the puppy was happy, healthy, and well trained, the purebred rescue started demanded him brought back into their rescue; they wanted to sell him for thousands of dollars. They felt he should be under their rescue since he was a purebred. The other rescue rightly refused, Animal Control wouldn't back up the purebred rescue since they were given three chances to rescue the pup, and the puppy was eventually adopted out for the fee of $150 to cover normal shots and licensing. She is still living happily with her new owner.

    I do not doubt the validity of what Mr. Muzika says is true as LA County is huge and hoarders need to be dealt with in a compassionate way. Making them lose their home,etc., is supposed to be a way to strong arm them into giving up their animals. I understand that to a point, but actually losing your home, not taking care of any animals left behind, and jailing that person is way beyond what should happen. Having the person have to come in and take care of all of the additional animals being held in the pound and helping the SPCA place the animals would be way more beneficial. Also, as someone that knows how expensive it is to feed, house, and pay/find volunteers to clean up over a sudden 100 animals, getting them healthy and into new homes makes $150 a drop in the bucket.

    If you want to help your local SPCA, bring in an new bag or two of dog or cat food every month. Arrange with the local Target to tack on a bag for you when they make their donations as food starts to expire. Bring old blankets, towels, or sheets and detergent to the SPCA. You don't have to donate to the groups on the television. And I have yet to meet any SPCA worker that has had to put down animals feel good about it. Personally donate.

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    1. I tried to donate 4 large new condition crates, 10 bags of food, leashes, bowls..and much more to my local ASPCA here in FL. Their response was, and I quote "we'll take money but you can keep your supplies". I found a local private shelter that was very appreciative of the donation. That was my wake up call to the scam that is the ASPCA. If your not buying supplies for the animals with the money where is it going? The more I researched the more I was disgusted. Wake up people!

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  5. I feel sad for you that you have such a warped thought process about what the ASPCA does. I have volunteered with them and can tell you that everything you said cannot be further from the truth. The animals that are taken into custody are treated medically with whatever they need. They are given dentals to take care of their dental disease, they are given any medication they need including insulin for diabetics. Full bloodwork is run on every animals. Money is not made off of them. Any money taken in goes to paying for their veterinary care. The animals are then distributed to different rescue groups so they can be adopted out. You are a very cynical human being. I have no doubt that the people that run these rescues that end up being raided have good intentions but they truly get in over their heads with too many animals and the animals suffer because of it.

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    1. I am so glad to hear this i was starting to doubt the ASPCA after what i heard about HSUS.

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  6. You also should have mentioned that they slice off their genitals to put a stop to all animal breeding until all domestic pets die out and there are only humans left, when in reality, their shelters are overpopulated to the point of suffocation because they are hoarding them all. It's their fault. Plus, they, like you mentioned, are a kill shelter as most of the animal in their commercial are probably dead by now. They don't care about any animals, not even their own species, being as they're stealing money from them.

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  7. ALL I KNOW IS EVERYONE NEEDS TO GIVE A LITTLE, EVEN A FEW BUCKS, THERE WOULD BE MANY MORE HAPPY ANIMALS AND PEOPLE. Give Today, even a dollar helps... YES?

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  8. Please put these people in jail..
    Hang them.. Please ..How can this be legal.. How can people be so ignorant..

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  9. ASPCA seems like a cruel joke to me.

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