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Respectfully forwarded with permission to cross post.
Letter from The Louisville Kennel Club, Inc.
Currently, we in the dog fancy are in a nationwide fight for our
very survival. In city after city, state after state dog-unfriendly,
anti breeding,
anti-performance, anti-sportsman and breed specific laws are being
passed every day. From California to New York, from Florida to New
Mexico, every day brings
news of another E28098hot spotE28099 where the Animal Rights Movement
has taken away our right to own, breed, show, perform with and just
enjoy our dogs.
As your may know, in Louisville, our own Metro Council passed what
many regard as the worst anti-dog legislation in the entire country
late last year.
Worse yet, in a failed effort to force us to dismiss our Open Meetings
lawsuit, they recently re-enacted the whole 90 page behemoth. Side
by side with the
Kentucky Veterinary Medical Association, the League of Kentucky Sportsmen,
the performance community, boarding kennels, grooming shops, multiple
cat clubs
and many others, we worked diligently for over 14 months to educate
the Metro Council. Our input was disregarded. At the end of the day,
only the testimony of the Humane Society of the Unnited States (HSUS)
and input from
Dr. Gilles Meloche (the disgraced Director of Louisville Metro Animal
Services) was considered. Unfortunately, the Metro Council believed
that the HSUS was a
legitimate organization and did not understand its true agenda. They
also failed to understand the lack of expertise or experience of Dr.
Gilles Meloche in the
area of Animal Services.
We can only wonder what was so enticing about these “experts”
who were heeded when all others were ignored. The HSUS is a national
Animal Rights organization with a stated goal of eliminating domestic
pets, per it's president Wayne Pacelle: “We have no ethical
obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced
through selective breeding. One generation and out. We
have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are
creations of human selective breeding.” (Quoted in Animal People,
May, 1993). The other “expert” was an Animal Control Director
disgraced in Canada for pleading guilty to multiple counts of selling
anabolic steroids without prescriptions or documentation. Moreover,
Dr. Meloche was fired after 10 months from his position as Director
of Animal Services in Durham, N.C. and forced to resign after 18 months
as Shelter Director in Leon County/Tallahassee, FL.
We have currently filed two law suits to overturn this ordinance.
The first suit was filed in conjunction with the League of Kentucky
Sportsmen over violations of Kentucky's Open Meetings Act, ignored
by the Council Democrats when they chose to make substantial changes
to the proposed law in secret, immediately before pushing the changed
law through. The second suit, with a dozen plaintiffs, challenges
the substance of the law. We are hopeful that we will prevail, thus
setting a national precedent.
We are fortunate to have Mr. Jon Fleischaker as our attorney and
we are hopeful that these cases will set a constitutionally driven
precedent. Mr. Fleischaker is a nationally recognized and multiple
award winning constitutional
and individual rights attorney. We are challenging the ordinance under
the multiple violations of the United States and Kentucky Constitutions,
the federal Civil Rights Act, as well as many conflicts with state
laws. Both the
ordinance and the lawsuit can be read at http://www.louisvillepetlovers.com/
by clicking on the Download link.
Pet owners in Louisville are suffering tremendously under this law,
which grants unfettered discretion to animal control officers to seize
any animal (particularly, any unaltered animal) for any reason. Worse,
the fees and fines
that our animal control personnel are empowered to charge for pet
redemption amount to government sanctioned extortion. Most pet owners
must come up with $500 to $600 to retrieve their pets - even if those
pets wound up at the shelter as a result of theft (as did happen in
at least one case). A second citation can result in the forfeiture
of all animals and a prohibition against owning any animals for 2
years, as well as jail time up to 12 months. These
severe penalties apply to the most minor of “crimes”,
including walking an unaltered dog on a leash longer than 4 feet!
It is interesting that the law touted as the panacea for public safety
has not prevented any attacks by dangerous
dogs.
It is our firm belief that we owe a duty not just to the citizens
of Louisville, but to the entire Dog Fancy nationwide to win these.
Our success will set a precedent that will not only allow others to
overturn bad laws in their cities, but will chill the efforts of other
cities to pass similar bad laws.
However, to win this fight, we need the dog fancy to help us. To
date, our club has spent an exorbitant amount in legal fees. We have
received generous donations from many breed and all-breed clubs from
around the country.
However, the loss in entries we suffered at our spring cluster has
had a significant financial impact on our resources. We're asking
your club to join with us and offer a donation to assist us in this
effort which will benefit every club
in the country and allow our sport to continue.
Thank you for considering our request. If you have any questions,
please feel free to contact me by phone (502-339-7062) or e-mail at
donnaherzig@hotmail.com. Please
send all donations to:
LKC Legislative Fund
c/o Ellen Kapen, LKC Treasurer
8620 Bardstown Road
Louisville, KY 402 |
