Dear SwayLove.org supporters: Please send this email out…

To: gmoreno@animalcare.lacounty.gov, areyes@animalcare.lacounty.gov, mmayeda@animalcare.lacounty.gov, rreid@animalcare.lacounty.gov

Subject: Dianne Prado

Can someone please give us an update as to what is going on with her volunteer position? She’s been suspended from the shelter since 8/5, while the shelter continues to lack volunteers and while tons of potential future volunteers sit in the pipeline because of the apathetic nature of someone’s staff, who can’t be bothered to schedule more trainings. She comes home and is in tears about this issue almost every night. What needs to be done? Dianne has told you that she won’t sign that selectively enforced document that essentially justifies your in-house breed-discrimination. Does this mean she is terminated as a volunteer? Is she going to sit in limbo for months? She already has, will it be 2 more months? 4? 6? DOES ANYONE AT L.A. COUNTY ANIMAL CARE AND CONTROL CARE, AT ALL?

Thank You.

For those who would want background on this issue, please read here: http://www.swaylove.org/this-is-extremely-wrong

Speaking with Fred Kray of Pit Bulletin Legal News Radio about Riverside County’s passing of breed-discriminatory legislation on 10/8/13.

Topics include how this is an evasive plan to counter state law, incidents vs. existing dogs, dog identification, public safety, and their already existing law.

I saw many of your colleagues at the Board of Supervisors meeting, the same one that I was at. I saw many of your colleagues all lined up, cameras rolling and ready to go the minute the debate started on the floor. I saw many of your colleagues all stay, the entire time. I saw many of your colleagues watch me speak, and film me speak, as they filmed everyone speak. I saw many of your colleagues gasp in offense and snicker at suggestions by random public commenters that many branches of the media sensationalize news. I saw many of your reporter colleagues all dolled-up and on their cell phones texting, or out in the hallway while their cameramen filmed the entirety of the shit-show. I say this because they are the faces doing the live coverage, from the scene, and interviewing people onsite. I saw one of your colleagues going around like a parasite to an animal and jumping on every public-commenter that was “for” the legislation, or who had an outrageous and all-encompassing negative claim to make about millions of dogs, and getting their name, contact information and statement. This same man didn’t bother to approach anyone else. I saw many of your colleagues focus on the select speakers who brought in poster boards or articles that displayed a horrible incident, and then tried to pin that incident on every dog and its owner. I say this because I was literally wearing a t-shirt that was a walking counter-billboard to all of the exploitative material that was held up while people were deeming all of our dogs guilty out of hand. No one wanted to film that, or show it, or ask me about it.

I was quoted a sentence by a nice guy from the L.A. Times and then quoted separately in a FOX 11 article by a woman that I didn’t even speak to. I say this because they hacked the quote up, and worse, called me a breeder! This was then picked up by aggregate websites and erroneously reprinted verbatim. I had to reach out to them each individually and try to get it changed, and while doing this I also mentioned that this is just a prime example of how aggregate news sites immediately repeat inaccurate “attack” data relating to breeds when any “newsworthy” incident occurs. They each did change the “breeder” language but no one had any comment to my parallel point. When FOX 11 finally updated their article, instead of simply taking “breeder” out and putting “Pit Bull advocate” or “of SwayLove.org” in its place, they simply took my entire mention and quote out altogether.

I do not say these things because I care about acknowledgement for myself, but I do care about acknowledgement for information and for differing points of view. So… To those media members looking for quotes about Riverside, feel absolutely free to use any of these:

“Even though the talk is on breed-specific spay and neuter, and the dog population and poor adoptions, these are all covers for the desire to ban a dog that state law says you cannot ban.”

“Riverside County already has a ‘dangerous dog’ law. They should be following it, it’s breed-neutral.”

These were all stated during my public comment, but no one there reporting on this exact issue felt like even attempting to portray any portion of what I or others said. Hopefully there are more of you out there that will find these things worthy of consideration.

Thank you,
Josh Liddy

So I get home from the Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting to see a pile of stories, all filled with quotes and video clips promoting those who favored the BSL, and very little from myself or others who were in attendance to oppose the proposed BSL. Then I see my name used in this FOX 11 story and they actually call me an “area breeder.” I never even spoke to Gigi Graciette or Jeffrey Thomas DeSocio, the individuals who wrote and edited this story. I am not a breeder, never have I ever been and never at any point did I say that I was. Just a funny example of how media members print inaccurate things when they should be easily and properly referenced. They watched my entire public comment, they video taped it. They also took portions of my quotes from my public comment and merged them, as I actually spent many sentences explaining how this law was (and is) being publicly represented in the same way that a breed ban would be. It’s my opinion that that’s what the majority of the Supervisors would’ve wanted, but they are currently being blocked by state law from being able to introduce such legislation. This type of breed-specific sterilization legislation is always the fallback.

Within the hour the Murrieta Patch and Temecula Patch have now reprinted it, verbatim. I wonder how many websites by morning are going to be erroneously stating that I’m a breeder?

Do you like animals? Do you go to a kill shelter and visit them? Do you give them treats? Do you take photographs and video of them in order to try and save their lives? Do you also shine light on the mismanagement of the shelter system? Do you use your 1st Amendment to give your own testimony? Well criminals, the cops may be poking around your area soon!

So on Tuesday “a pack” of 5 “German Shepherds” were “attacking people” while roaming loose outside of an elementary school in South L.A., and 4 people ended being taken to the hospital. I saw nothing about it on TV and very little about it online.

Those few links I did find online, check the headlines. Never mentioning breed, pretty standard (unless it’s a “Pit Bull”). Of course the story is the same… Roaming dogs with no identification, and still no owners to be found. That’s the problem. Not the breed or type of dog as a broad characterization. And I don’t create this post to advertise that the “attacking” dogs were noted as being “German Shepherds,” in any effort to gloat or promote another breed’s misbehavior in this specific situation. No. German Shepherds are awesome dogs as well.

But wait, were they even German Shepherds? Because then 5 dogs turned into 4, and then 3. And then 3 German Shepherds turned into 2 German Shepherds and a Belgian Malinois, which then turned into 2 Belgian Malinois and a Dutch Shepherd… And yes, 0 German Shepherds.

All this fixating on breeds is corny, but I have to do it here in jest because this is so often all that’s ever done.

My ultimate point is the media can’t even keep details straight. No one knows the ultimate breed-mix of the dogs involved. There still is no owner, which means there is no papers (if papers existed), which means that people are simply guessing. The very limited media is reporting on dog breeds though–albeit not in the headlines–and getting it wrong, and getting the amount of dogs wrong, and getting the amount of people going to the hospital wrong.

Had this situation involved dogs deemed by someone to be “Pit Bulls” then it would have been on every TV station and every print and digital outlet. You see what happens when it’s not. But again, the real story is always the same… Dogs getting in trouble because they are roaming freely, loose, and with no supervision in that moment. Or in other cases, unsupervised children in the mix with unsupervised chained dogs or yard dogs that are often territorial. That is the first thing that should matter and the first thing that should be addressed, and every time, the circumstances. Dog breed or type doesn’t matter. Public safety is not about a witch hunt. Pick any breed and show me a horrible incident which involved an individual “visually matching” that breed, and reality and common sense shows you thousands, hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dogs “visually matching” that breed that weren’t.

My suggestion for an appropriate headline would’ve been: “Roaming dogs bite onlookers near Los Angeles school” … The main problem is right there in the first word.

This headline is a massive misrepresentation of the facts. Yet this Miami newspaper opted to run with the headline “Dozens of Pit Bulls torment residents in West Park.” …And while, at the same time, these phrases appear in the actual writeup:

“rusted chains dangle from trees”
“the smell of feces and decay is so strong it lures rats at night”
“sunlight doesn’t infiltrate its (the house’s) darkened chambers”
“inside tight cages scattered throughout the house”
“convicted child molester”
“dogs push their snouts against crates lining the hallway”
“‘I’m not quite sure how many dogs I have'”
“Since 2007, Yohai has become known to authorities as perhaps South Florida’s worst dog owner”
“West Park has fined the five-time felon nearly $160,000 for code violations”
“inspectors have condemned his property as a ‘sanitary nuisance'”
“neighbors have complained about Yohai’s treatment of Pit Bulls”
“police records show the cops have inspected his residence more than 80 times”
“He keeps the dogs caged 24/7”
“‘I’ve found a couple of dogs dead, and he just buries them in the backyard'”
“He has 40 dogs buried there”
“They are locked inside cages strewn among soiled bed mattresses, overturned cupboards, and discarded slabs of rotting wood”
“Yohai served seven years in state prison, convicted of five felonies, including two counts of sexual battery of a minor and possession of cocaine”
“‘Multiple dogs die every month, and he abuses others'”

Here’s a video from 2012 that says the story “first broke 4 years ago,” winding us back to 2008. The initial article notes that West Park has been fining him since 2007, and mentions numerous other pieces of information that correspond to way earlier than that.

So all everything else aside–what’s legal and what is not, what’s humane and what is not, what’s compassionate and what is not–why does this news organization run with that headline? The “Pit Bulls” aren’t “tormenting” anyone. This is a human issue. A circumstantial issue that is controlled by human beings and driven by choices that those human beings have made. Yet, the dogs are portrayed in the headline and elsewhere as evil terrorizers. It’s totally ridiculous and unfair, and typical.

How about they fire Marcia Mayeda (Director of the web of L.A. County pet-killing facilities), then divvy up her massive salary (over $150,000/yr) between shelter workers that actually give a damn and programs that could be created that those shelter workers could then run in order to help save their impounded dogs? Further, I guarantee that many of the shelter workers out there on the picket line yesterday could honestly care less about animals and should be doing something else, anything else. How about they also get rid of Gil Moreno (Carson shelter) and other uncompassionate managers, bring on driven people from outside of the system for half or even a third of the money, then give them bonuses from L.A. County that would be strictly based on performance to fill the salary gaps?

Craven Desires blogger Dawn James, known for being an anonymous hatemonger that pushes an endless stream of exploitative bigotry through at least 15 other websites that it runs, has no answer for people it can’t memory hole at its discretion. It is a vampire and rationale people are high noon. Keep in mind that she/he came to my page on August 22nd and started a dialogue, referencing the screenshot at the bottom of this post. After seeing what she/he wrote, I responded back. It’s since been 37 days and the silence speaks for itself. Dawn James got my post, and it just opted not to respond. Could it be because it simply has no answers for the things that I asked? Of course that’s the reason. It has nothing of validity to say in response, at all.

Responses back to typical “Harve Morgan” and “Luke Russell” vomit is also added… You can often find them on any Pit Bull-related web article, copying and pasting nasty responses to fill up the comment sections.