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THIS ALERT IS CLOSED. It is a live archive to use as a letter-writing example and for background research. Playing Political Games With A Dog’s Life A detailed article gives an accurate picture of Stu and Jeff de la Rosa's ordeal. Kinship Circle has re-phrased it for simplicity and length: Stu lived uneventfully with Jeff and two other dogs for five years, before Jeff had to leave him with a sitter in Aug. 2005, due to a family emergency. He entrusted his dogs to an assistant who knew them. While away Stu atypically clashed with another of Jeff's dogs and wound up with a torn ear. The pet sitter tried to slip a harness over Stu's wounded ear, to bring him to the vet. Injured animals often act uncharacteristically defensive. Such was the case with Stu: The scared dog bit the assistant twice on her arm. The assistant did not file a report with police or L.A. Animal Services (LAAS). She told Jeff she "didn't want to get Stu in trouble." Yet three weeks later, Jeff was slapped with a lawsuit. Ten days after that, Stu was seized (without warning) from Jeff's locked outdoor kennel. Jeff rushed to Animal Services, but staff denied Stu's release, citing a bite report received one full month after its occurrence. Thus began Stu's incarceration, a battle of bureaucratic power plays so embarrassingly absurd, Stu's story is notorious worldwide. With the assistant now dramatizing her account (Stu "dragged her back and forth across the floor"), lawyers asked for six million dollars in damages. Meanwhile LAAS ruled in its initial hearing to revoke the dog's license. The verdict would have let Jeff relocate Stu outside Los Angeles or move himself. The verdict would have let Stu live. Instead, LAAS ignored the Hearing Examiner's recommendations (defying LAAS rules) and a Captain Helen Brakemeier memoed then-General Manager Guerdon Stuckey: "After reviewing the [Hearing Examiner's] report, I disagree...and think that the dog should be deemed dangerous." Brakemeier never mentioned evaluating Stu herself or what authorized her to override the original verdict. Still, Stuckey sided with Brakemeier to sentence Stu to death. Ironically, Mayor Villaraigosa fired Stuckey days later for the GM's inability to bring euthanasia numbers down. Jeff only found out about Brakemeier's inappropriate role in Stu's fate after securing all public records in the case, in an attempt to save his dog. Fast forward four years and Stu is still trapped in a bureaucratic thicket. He's aged inside City facilities as Jeff fights a relentless legal battle. Esteemed dog behaviorists — such as Dr. Richard Polsky, a co-creator of City criteria for gauging dangerous dogs, and Bobby Dorofshar of New Leash on Life, another City advisor and one-time member of its Spay/Neuter Advisory Committee — have testified that Stu poses no threat of aggression to humans. Their common conclusion stems from assessment of Stu's pre- and post-incident behavior, along with comprehension of how the victim's actions may have triggered the bites. Dorofshar even sheltered Stu at his own facility for many months, during which time he came to know the dog. Animal Services and the City Attorney's office remain dead-set on killing Stu. Are they peeved over the negative publicity? Just before the forced resignation of previous General Manager Ed Boks, the City Council admonished him for blogging against Jeff (and other LAAS critics) on the City's time. Animal Services Commission, created to monitor LAAS, even advocated for Stu's life. Commissioner Archie Quincey, a 30-year L.A. County Animal Control veteran, motioned the City Attorney to call off his resistance to Jeff's appeal. Quincey proposed the case go back to Superior Court to drop Stu's sentence because evidence shows a denial of due process. But Commissioner Quincey's motion has vanished from the Commission's agenda and a 6/8/09 meeting before Stu's Appeals Court case was cancelled as well. No one seems to know who's in charge — Animal Services Commission or Animal Services Department — of meeting agendas. It is clear, however, that Stu's case is shuffled so that Commissioner Quincey's motion goes unheard. Quincey intends to bring up Stu's case at the June 22 meeting whether it's scheduled or not. "I think it's gone too far," he told reporter Kate Woodviolet for LA Pet Rescue Examiner. "I have a lot of Animal Control experience. I saw the pictures [of the human victim's injuries], there were a couple of small puncture wounds — and the dog was injured when it happened. On that one bite Stu gets the ultimate penalty? That's like getting the electric chair for a misdemeanor!" At this point, there is but one fair and merciful outcome left: Stu needs to go home. Yesterday.
THIS ALERT IS CLOSED. It is a live archive to use as a letter-writing example and for background research. |
