HSUS/ASPCA Are Getting What They Deserve
www.dogdoright.com
Ami Moore The Chicago Dog Coach
Six local dog breeders targeted in a high-profile "rescue" at an Ohio auction have filed a federal lawsuit against the "rescuers," alleging that the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Main Line Animal Rescue engaged in a conspiracy to violate the breeders' civil rights.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, also names as defendants five individuals affiliated with the two organizations, which organized the Oct. 7 "Flight to Freedom for Puppy Mill Dogs."

The two organizations bought 12 dogs, brought them back to Pennsylvania and ultimately filed summary cruelty to animal charges against the breeders, against the advice of the Lancaster County District Attorney's office. All the charges were dropped in December.

But the breeders — Nathan Myer, of Lititz; Stevie Stoltzfus, Manheim; Ella Mae Zimmerman, of New Holland; James Zimmerman, of Ephrata; Loren Nolt, of East Earl; and John S. Fisher, of Gordonville — allege in the filing that the animal rights group knowingly filed "baseless" charges and "trumpeted their actions in the media in hopes that their activity would cause people to donate to their cause and to malign individual commercial breeders engaging in the sale of dogs to the public."

The action, filed by attorney Leonard G. Brown III of the Lancaster firm Clymer, Musser, Brown & Conrad, P.C., demands a jury trial and seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

Named in addition to the organizations as defendants are Harrise Yaron, former president of the PSPCA board of directors; Jodi Goldberg, Yaron's sister and a member of the PSPCA board; Kristen Sullivan and Nicole Wilson, both Humane Society police officers who worked for the PSPCA; and William Smith, president and CEO of Main Line Animal Rescue.

Gail Luciani, chief public relations and outreach officer for the PSPCA, said the organization would have no comment on the lawsuit.

Yaron said she and her sister had not seen the complaint and couldn't comment, though she said they would once they had a chance to review the lawsuit.

Smith referred calls to William Lamb, a former Chester County district attorney and state Supreme Court justice whose firm has represented the PSPCA. Lamb said he hadn't seen the complaint, and that it would be "inappropriate to comment at this time, except to say I can assure you there will be a vigorous defense of this matter.

"We look forward to having it all come out because it will all come out," Lamb said..

In addition to the conspiracy allegations, the breeders allege that the defendants engaged in malicious prosecution, "inadequate training" and "inadequate supervision" of the PSPCA humane officers, and invasion of privacy.

In the complaint, Brown writes that the breeders collectively sent 217 dogs to the Farmerstown Sale Barn in Baltic, Ohio, to be auctioned Oct. 7. All six breeders, Brown said in an interview Friday, were attempting to downsize to comply with new Pennsylvania dog-breeding regulations; a few were looking to get out of the business entirely.

None of the breeders, he wrote, had ever been charged with cruelty to animals.

Before shipping the dogs to Ohio, Brown wrote in the complaint, the breeders had them individually examined by a veterinarian and given shots for rabies.

Upon arriving at the sale, Brown wrote, all the dogs were again examined by a vet. A U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified veterinarian also was present, overseeing the sale, he wrote. None of the veterinarians identified any problems with the dogs, Brown asserted.

Smith wrote an op-ed piece in the Sunday News Jan. 31 noting that state inspection reports "show several of the breeders have a history of housing sick and injured dogs in their kennels and denying their breeding dogs veterinary care."

Smith, according to news reports and the breeders' complaint, knew about the sale well in advance, and had asked officials in the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to block it. When they refused, he called Yaron, who noted that while Main Line Animal Rescue didn't have the legal authority to file cruelty charges, the SPCA does.

The complaint alleges that Smith, Yaron, Jodi Goldberg and others then "conspired together and developed a plan" to go to Ohio, "where the PSPCA had no jurisdiction, with the purpose of filing charges against Lancaster County dog breeders and maligning the reputations of those involved in breeding dogs commercially."

Smith flew to Ohio in a borrowed private jet; PSPCA agents drove all night to get there. Twelve dogs were purchased and brought back to Pennsylvania, arriving in Philadelphia at 4 a.m. Oct. 8, according to the complaint. The next day, Oct. 9, Yaron, Goldberg, humane officer Nicole Wilson and PSPCA supervisor George Bengel were at the Lancaster County courthouse, seeking a search warrant.

Assistant District Attorney Daniel Dye met with them, the complaint states, but Dye declined to approve a warrant after Wilson said she "did not know how the investigation was initiated" and "knew another 'undercover' individual was involved but had no information on that person," according to the complaint.

The PSPCA, the complaint alleges, had no reports documenting its investigation, never spoke with the breeders, and "could not state that the owners of the auctioned dogs had any awareness of the supposed medical infirmities."

"Bengel and Wilson expressed concerns about the validity of the charges and the sufficiency of the evidence," the complaint alleges; Bengel told Dye he understood the decision not to approve the warrant, "but explained that defendant Yaron writes his paycheck," the complaint asserts.

Yaron, the complaint alleges, told Dye that the defendants "were 'big players in the puppy mill industry' and needed to be shut down."

Dye demurred, though the complaint alleges he did subsequently meet with PSPCA humane officers Wilson and Sullivan, who said Yaron had decided she no longer wanted a warrant because the PSPCA would have to shelter too many dogs if the warrant were served.

Instead, the complaint alleges Wilson and Sullivan sought to file misdemeanor cruelty charges; but, the complaint asserts, they provided no additional information and Dye again refused to approve charges "because of the lack of defendants' ability to prove any intent" on the part of the breeders.

The humane officers told Dye "that they knew from the beginning that problems existed with their operation because of crossing state lines and bringing charges based solely on an auction document," the complaint alleges. "However, Wilson and Sullivan were expected by the PSPCA board to produce results."

And ultimately, the complaint alleges, Sullivan did file summary charges against the breeders with various magisterial district justices around Lancaster County on Nov. 10. Even though she had never seen the dogs, Brown wrote in the complaint, and "could not present a clean chain of custody for any dogs and ... had been informed that her charges lacked probable cause, charged plaintiffs with animal cruelty because the dogs allegedly had tartar on their teeth and worms."

A veterinarian who examined the dogs after they were brought back from the auction has characterized the condition of at least one dog as far more serious; one pug had two teeth so rotted "that there were canals going up into its nose, and every time he ate or drank, he'd get the food or water into his nose, and sneeze," Dr. Paul Orsini told the Sunday News in November.

The complaint alleges that the summary charges were filed "because defendants Smith, Yaron and Goldberg wanted the charges filed in spite of the lack of probable cause," and that Sullivan was instructed to "ignore the concerns raised by the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office."

But, wrote Brown in the complaint, neither humane officer believed Ella Mae Zimmerman should have been charged, "as she had no history of problems, cared about her dogs and tried to find good homes for them." In addition, Sullivan "did not know whether Loren Nolt was the owner of the kennel or the owner of the farm, but charged him anyway."

Main Line Animal Rescue, "acting in concert with Yaron and PSPCA," then issued a press release "trumpeting its actions as 'Flight to Freedom for Puppy Mill Dogs — Ohio Dog Auction,' " which led to further media attention. As a result, the complaint states, the breeders "became the subject of hate and derision in the public."

The complaint excerpts several comments posted on Internet bulletin boards about the breeders, including some from Lancaster Newspapers' "TalkBack" forum. One commenter compared "people who treat animals badly" to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer; another wrote, "I personally wonder if puppy-millers aren't sadists, suffering from sociopathic/psychopathic meanness."

The complaint then goes on to cite attempts by the PSPCA and Main Line Animal Rescue to have a special prosecutor appointed, a request Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman declined to authorize. Charges were subsequently withdrawn against one breeder, John S. Fisher, on Dec. 4, 2009. Charges against the other five breeders were dismissed Dec. 21.

This, according to the complaint, followed a meeting with Dye in which humane officers Sullivan and Wilson admitted they had never seen some of the dogs that prompted the charges, and that Main Line CEO Smith "refused to provide contact information" for the woman who allegedly purchased many of the dogs at the Ohio auction. Smith, the complaint alleges, also refused the make the woman available to Dye to prepare for testifying.

Yaron resigned from the PSPCA board Dec. 13, though reportedly for reasons unrelated to the Ohio auction and subsequent events.

The complaint seeks "nominal and compensatory damages" against the PSPCA, and punitive damages against the PSPCA, Yaron, Goldberg, Sullivan and Wilson individually; it also asks for nominal, compensatory and punitive damages against Smith and Main Line Animal rescue, along with costs, attorneys' fees and other relief as the court deems appropriate.

In an interview Friday, Brown said he "typically lets it up to the jury" to decide how much to award in such cases.

The breeders "read the newspapers, they read the comments and see people comparing them to Jeffrey Dahmer," he said. A few have gotten out of the breeding business, but "all of them have a relation to farming, and when other entities they have contact with hear they're being accused of animal cruelty, that can impair contracts in all sorts of ways."