I live in El Cajon California just east of downtown San Diego, one afternoon I was walking to my car I saw a man stop at the driveway open his car door and placed something on the ground and drove away. I went over to see what is was and I found a small kitten just barely four weeks old that he had left there to fend for its self. I took it into the house and while my wife gave her a bath to get rid of the fleas I went to the pet store and got mothers milk, vitamins and a special bottle to feed her with. It has been four weeks now and she is doing fine, settling in with our other cat and our cockatiel.
After that I started looking into animal abuse cases manly here in San Diego County and I was shocked at what I found. Dogs being shot with air guns, dragged behind trucks, one man caught in the act of sexually assaulting a horse. Cats being mutilated, several cases of cockfighting, a bird had its head wrenched off, sheep being sexually assaulted. This one really angered me to no end a Veterinarian was convicted of hoarding 53 cats and two dogs in a two bedroom house. There were numerous cases of dogs dieing because they had been locked in a hot car, dogs being beaten to death, slashed with razors, a poultry ranches were using wood chippers (a machine that chops up wood and tree limbs into small chips) to kill 30,000 chickens and there were no charges brought against them. Petco ordered to pay $900,000.00 over a lawsuit that they mistreated animals and for overcharging customers. The District Attorneys in San Diego, Los Angeles, Marin and San Mateo counties have documented cases of animals kept in unclean cages without water, proper nutrition or veterinary care; sick and dying animals kept in freezers, animals with contagious diseases left untreated and other mistreatments. Then of course you have the deniability statement. “As part of the settlement, Petco will admit no wrongdoing”.
I could go on and on with the different types of animal abuse that I found but the one thing that I found that really made me very angry was the penalties that were given out did not fit the crime people were walking away with basically nothing but a parking ticket.
I wrote to the District Attorneys of both El Cajon and San Diego as well as the elected official and all I got back was basically a form letter thanking me and be assured that they would look into making the penalties fit the crime. Trust me I am not going to hold my breath.
Roger J.
Roger J 