Jackson County Commissioner's Meeting to ban pound seizure
The meeting held Monday August 9, 2004 of the Jackson County Agency regarding pound seizure went fairly well. Despite it being a work day (and despite numerous date changes) there were a fair amount of people in attendance. All spoke in opposition to pound seizure with the exception of a small handful, 4 people, if I remember correctly. One was Karen Hudson, the expected lab animal person from MSU - her standard talk is how wonderfully the animals are treated at MSU. She does not point out however, unless directly asked, that MSU took only 9 (or 11?) of the total animals sold for research from Jackson County and that conditions at MSU are clearly not representative of the care (or rather, lack thereof) received at other labs where the majority of animals wind up. A Jackson County resident took the morning off work to say that research animals in labs were all treated great, with indoor outdoor runs, lots of love, walks and games, and placement into loving homes at the end of their research experiment and that he wanted animals to be sold to research and get this chance at good care and a new home rather than being euthanized. Then a fellow from the Farm Bureau spoke on behalf of the farmers in the state of Michigan - he wanted to 'go on record as being for pound seizure because the farmers don't want all the dogs running loose with the shelter being unable to "seize" them off the streets' . The word 'seizure' was apparently a source of confusion and these folks did not realize that pound seizure meant the dealer seized pets out of the shelter not that the shelter seized dogs off the street. Then a fellow got up and announced that he is the head of the largest animal control in Michigan, Waterford County, and that he was there to support pound seizure, because "Jesus is the Lord our God and Jesus never had a pet and since Jesus never had a pet that meant Jesus didn't believe in it and that Jesus only put animals here to serve us and that Jesus rejoiced every time an animal was killed for food and every time an animal was killed in a research experiment to benefit man".
One person was there with undercover pictures taken at Fred Hodgin's facility - dogs so starved they could barely stand but the floor of their cages were so littered and encrusted with feces there was no place to lay down - no food, no water, and only urine and feces in the empty food and water buckets - there were bloody dogs from fights and numerous pictures of dogs with license tags that were sold WITH ID for experiments to research labs in other states - the undercover person was able to reunite several of the dogs with their frantic owners - the rest didn't have such a lucky ending.....
There are three problematic members of this particular agency - John Day, district 4, announced that he has a pacemaker which has kept him alive for the past 25 years and therefore he believes pound seizure is necessary and must continue. Greg Wilson, District 11, flat out voted against stopping pound seizure in Jackson County. David Elwell put forth the following "compromise" proposal "as a resolution to the animal issue":
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The director of Animal Control, with the assistance of the County Administrator, shall develop a policy and agreement that deals with the sale of live animals. Agreement shall be signed by Hodgins Kennels, or any other class "b" dealer that we sell live animals to. Said agreement shall specifically list who they can sell live animals to that came from Jackson County Animal Control. The list of such facilities may be added to (or limited), only by approval of County Agencies, during the term of the agreement.
Said agreement shall contain the requirement that monthly reports be provided to the Jackson County Animal Control that clearly details which specific animals are going where, and it be in a manner that allows further tracking after the research facility is done with the animal. Jackson County Animal Control shall specify the for for said report.Jackson County Animal Control shall maintain said records in a manner that is easily tracked. Copies of the records shall be available under FOIA, with a report submitted to County Agencies six months after implementation of this plan. Adoptions of animals are encouraged, as are transfers to facilities such as the Cascades Humane Society.
Direct sales of live animals to specific research facilities such as Michigan State University and the University of Michigan, and other such facilities as designated in this policy, shall be continued, where it is desired by the facilities and by Jackson County.
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Finally commissioner James Shotwell, Jr., District 7, moved to put the topic of ending pound seizure in Jackson County to a vote of the whole commission, seconded by Robert Lacinski, District 10. This commission (John Day) has been very articulate that they do not want to hear from anyone (and will discount testimony from anyone) who is not a Jackson County resident. So its critically important to get the word out to all the kind people of Jackson county and have them turn out in force for this meeting and let their representatives know they want an END to pound seizure in Jackson County. Certainly a strong showing of everyone is always good for while they don't let everyone speak who wants to, at the end of all testimony they will ask for a show of hands from all attendees as to which side of the fence they are on. I have the following message on my website - anyone is welcome to use it, modify it etc. I've included the codes also to make it easier.
Jackson County Pets Need Your Help!
Unfortunately Jackson County is one of the remaining 8 of Michigan's 83 counties who continues the practice of pound seizure. Jackson County Animal Control sells unclaimed pets to Class B dealers for $10. The Class B Dealers then resell these pets for experimentation at a significant profit.
In meetings held Monday, June 7, and Monday August 9, 2004, the Jackson County Agencies Commissioners heard testimony urging them to ban the release of its county's pets to Class B Dealers. A prominent Detroit attorney has been collecting data on the past sales of pets from Jackson County Animal Control to Class B Dealers and has presented his findings to the Commissioners. At the August 9 meeting a motion was passed to put a proposal to discontinue the sale of Jackson County Animal Control's pets to Class B dealers before the full Board of Commissioners.
Jackson Board of Commissioners Meeting scheduled August 24 at 7:00pm
The meeting will take place in the County Tower Building, 6th Floor Conference Room, 120 W. Michigan Ave., Jackson, MI. We encourage the attendance of all Jackson County residents at this important meeting. Please let your commissioners know that you are opposed to the sale of Jackson County's pets to be experimented upon.
You can help. If you are interested in joining other concerned citizens to achieve a permanent ban against the sale of shelter pets for experimentation purposes, please email Amber.