This was sent into GFN by one of our members. We
think you should read it.
On Animal Planet, 11/15/06, they showed the Houston,
Texas SPCA execute two raids. In theory, it was
identical to what 20/20 showed in June of last year.
The only difference is that no one interjected
commentary or challenged the actions the SPCA took
against the two households.The first raid was of
an older couple - perhaps in their late 50's early
60's (I'm bad at guessing ages) - that had about 110
small crossbreed dogs. Many were loose on the
fenced-in property and many were in the house. The
house was cluttered, but I don't remember there
being a law regarding good housekeeping. They called
the people "hoarders".
They handcuffed the wife and put her in a car. The
husband ran in the house and got his shotgun. He
just stood outside motionless and held the rifle
against his side pointed straight up. He made no
threats about using it. I'm not even sure if it was
loaded.
The cops, all lined up along the fence, drew their
guns quite dramatically and took a threatening
shooting stance. You know the one - legs spread,
knees bent, both hands on the pistol held with arms
outstretched in front of them with elbows locked.
Another cop ran to his car, pulled out what looked
to me like a portable canon (heavy duty rifle),
jumped up on another car's trunk, then roof, and
took a stance pointing it down at the man.
I understand that there was the potential of a
problem, so I am not minimizing their
defensive/offensive actions --- just that it was
sooooooooo dramatic, exaggerated and phony looking
for the cameras.The cops told him to give up the
rifle and he said "no" - that if he did, he knows
they're going to shoot him. But he did give it up -
threw it over (rifle still pointed upwards) to the
man. They then grabbed him and slammed him down
against the car's hood and handcuffed him.
The final result was that the SPCA took all the dogs
- the dogs all had great weight on them BTW - and
said they would put them up for adoption. The man
was charged with a weapons violation but they were
not charged with animal cruelty.
Ummm - is this
the America our forefathers wrote about in that
thing called the Bill of Rights and Constitution?
Hmmm?
The second raid was at the home of an elderly woman.
She was sitting in her living room in a rocking
chair - scared to death - holding on to two or three
small dogs on her lap for dear life. Her house
looked clean and uncluttered. She had a lot of
cats. They all seemed to be in good shape. They
said they found one cat in a room with the door
closed - that the woman probably didn't know it was
in there and probably hadn't fed it because it was
allegedly skinny and dying. They put that one in a
crate but it didn't look to me like it was anywhere
near death at all. Drama - drama.
You saw how they grabbed the cats and put them in
crates. One guy grabbed a cat near another guy's
leg. The cat grabbed the guy's leg and
scratched/bit the hell out of him. He sustained a
baaaaad gash. That really had to hurt.After all
the cats were taken and loaded on the trailer, a
woman from the SPCA approached the victim, bent
down, and told her she could keep the dogs.
After the show was over, the cruelty investigator
from the NYC ASPCA (blonde female - I forget her
name - came on asking for donations. She's the one
that participated illegally in a raid upstate NY a
few years ago. It was early in the morning and she
woke up the family by banging on their window with
her gun drawn. She made the victim and her husband
come outside in their underwear (late November) and
did a body search on them, feeling inside their
underwear ... while the male cops watched. The
female victim, in her bra and panties, asked to go
inside to put some clothes on. They said no.
The eight year old daughter came outside to see what
was going on. This ASPCA person pointed her gun at
the child and told her to get inside.
The only good thing about airing these shows is that
we and the general public get to view what goes on
at a raid - and some day, we will be able to use it
against them. Voila! Happy day!wjf
This Animal Planet show "Animal Cops Houston" will
be on the air again in case anyone wants to see it
or tape it.
It will air on Nov. 18 2006 and again on Nov. 19
2006. Check your local listings for the time.
