It’s recently been brought to my attention that Riverside County is selectively enforcing their breed-specific sterilization law, which we all knew would happen but just didn’t have the hard evidence, and demanding outrageous amounts of money through fines without offering the free or low-cost resources that would allow many folks to complete the desired tasks. This, of course, is resulting in dogs being surrendered to (or being impounded by) animal control, who will then eventually end up dead.
The workings of this legislation also renders low-income people “in violation” of such a law, prior to giving them a truly free or low-cost option to take care of the problem before being in violation. So to cut to the chase, the passing of this legislation in Riverside County (followed by Riverside City) immediately made all of their relevant residents criminals in the eyes of this law. Then the uniforms come knocking (when selectively enforcing it) with this type of an insinuation, treating people as if they are egregious lawbreakers. That, instead of educating the community and giving them legitimate options that they can afford, coupled with the means to take advantage of such options, helps no one.
Let’s bust a myth right quick: When being given genuine access to these resources people do actually take advantage of them, and voluntarily. Check out this video from July where over 500 people showed up for 40 free spay and neuter spots. And where? In the Coachella Valley! Those telling you that folks aren’t taking or won’t take advantage of these resources are lying to you. Speaking of the Coachella Valley…
Pictured below is a citation for 2 “Pit Bulls” who weren’t licensed, vaccinated, sterilized or microchipped, and all at a cost of $100 per infraction, per dog, totaling a fine of $819. These violations are “correctable” if showing proof of corrections within 20 days of the citation.
This one is for 2 Pugs, a Boxer and a Cocker Spaniel who weren’t licensed, vaccinated, sterilized or microchipped, and all at a cost of $100 per infraction, per dog, totaling a fine of $1,619. These violations are “correctable” if showing proof of corrections within 20 days of the citation.
And this one is for a Chihuahua and 2 “small” white/black dogs who weren’t licensed, vaccinated, sterilized or microchipped, and all at a cost of $100 per infraction, per dog, totaling a fine of $1,219. Again, these violations are “correctable” if showing proof of corrections within 20 days of the citation.
Putting aside the fact that these citations amount to extortion, did anyone else notice how none of them were in Spanish? I visited the Riverside County Department of Animal Services website, which you have to use in order to even attempt to comply, and there’s no Spanish option or translation component available online. The entire website is in English. This is all preposterous, considering many of those being cited have Spanish-speaking head of households! To be more specific, each of the citations pictured above were written by Riverside County’s animal control, to residents of the city of Indio. This city just so happens to be around 70% Hispanic, and many of these folks live in poverty. Yet no Spanish option? Really?
Making matters worse, it’s alleged by someone in contact with myself that since Indio closed its shelter in August of 2013, the City Council has “jumped into a contract with Riverside County without being fully aware of the terms and provisions of the contract.” This has obviously caused confusion with Indio’s residents, as the majority don’t even know that the shelter is closed. The city simply padlocked the building… With that, they posted no closing sign, left no notifications, and they posted no referral information for those showing up at any given time, some of which may have been trying to comply. A concerned resident printed up a document and went and posted it on the outside of the location, but it was blown away by the wind within a few days. After 6 months the building was knocked down in January without a single posting being visible at the location. As far as the transference of laws/contracts is concerned (more below), if their own City Council doesn’t know what they’ve found themselves in the midst of, how can the residents be expected to?
This, even as Indio is not an unincorporated city of Riverside County. It’s within my current understanding that Indio would need to pass either a mandatory sterilization law for all dogs or a breed-specific mandatory sterilization law before either could be enforced within the city. Yet Riverside County is treating Indio residents as if both already exist. Along with that, Indio residents are now being forced to pay double what every other city in the Coachella Valley apparently pays when it comes to licensing fees.
As you can see, 2 of the 3 citations that were sent to me included dogs who aren’t even listed as being Pit Bulls. Regarding the 1 that does list them as Pit Bulls: Even before enforcing a Riverside County-duplicated breed-specific law that the county passed in October, the city of Indio would have to separately vote such a piece of legislation into law first. They are an incorporated city of Riverside County, just as Lake Elsinore and Jurupa Valley are, cities that have both recently declined approving such a law. Well, guess what? Indio actually declined moving forth with such a law on 4/2/2014. So why in the hell is Riverside County enforcing a law that doesn’t even exist in this city? Dogs are being confiscated and killed, and these laws don’t even exist in Indio!
This is all apparently due to a shadowy alignment of animal ordinances, where Indio voted to take on Riverside County’s laws back on 6/19/2013.
Sadly, attorney Marla Tauscher also informed me that in actuality Riverside County has had a mandatory sterilization law for all dogs in place since 2009. Had I known this back in October it would have been the first thing out of my mouth when giving my public comment in opposition to the Riverside County Board of Supervisor’s desiring to target Pit Bulls with the same law. Trust me, I researched their code but must have only found outdated policies online. Sure enough, Section 6.08.120 of their current county code states that “no person may own, keep, or harbor an unaltered and unspayed dog or cat in violation of this section.” So not only was their breed-neutral dangerous dog law not being enforced, but this all-dog spay/neuter mandate was already in existence prior to their October vote on breed-specific spay/neuter.
These developments bring up many questions… With that law already on the books in Riverside County (for close to 5 years), what was the need for a breed-specific mandatory sterilization law? Pit Bulls are dogs, they would obviously fall under the already existing language. Why did shelter director Robert Miller and head veterinarian Allan Drusys both fail to mention this to the Board of Supervisors, both in their presentation on that day and in their public/private communications leading up to that day? Why did the Board of Supervisors not know, or fail to mention the existence of this all-dog law? If a mandatory sterilization law for all dogs went unenforced and/or did not result in the publicly stated responsibility-aligned outcomes that they desired then and desire now, how will the breed-specific law not have the same outcome?
And now questions relevant to Indio… How have they just retroactively adopted all of Riverside County’s animal codes when they are instead an incorporated city unto themselves? Is that legal, and especially without specific votes on such individual matters (and the opportunity for the public to debate them)? If the mass ordinance transference took place in June, but then Riverside County voted BSL into law in October, does that mean Indio now has BSL? And if so, why did the City Council then bring it up for a vote (which was canned) in April of 2014? Hmm… It was actually canned when a member of the public, while giving a comment prior to the Council’s deliberation, informed them that they already had a mandatory sterilization law for all dogs, the ordinance that was apparently adopted in June from the transference with Riverside County. The City Council literally had no idea. They have no idea what they are doing! So how is the public being informed on any of this? They aren’t.
We all deserve answers to every question that was just asked!
More broadly (relevant to both Indio and Riverside County), the majority of people now receiving these citations from Riverside County’s animal control are low-income folks, senior citizens, and homeless people. In a sarcastic twist, gated communities are not being targeted by such practices. Most affected residents are being intimidated by the threatened infractions and do not even have the means to access the website, know the requirements, or have transportation to the Coachella shelter in Thousand Palms. These people are being left with “green tags with yellow citations” that are placed on doors when there are dogs on the property. Most citations are “left without any contact with the pet owners” because animal control’s hours are the same as when most people are working. As you can also see on the citations, they are threatened with being taken to collections for non-payment of the fines as well as being reported to the tax board and/or the DMV. And again, it’s all strictly in English when many of them speak Spanish.
Going further…
Residents have complained that animal control is looking over their fences and banging on their windows and doors. Many Hispanics feel as if they are being racially profiled by the county. People walking their dogs (on a leash) are being stopped and asked for proof of the dog’s license, and when the owner can’t provide it the dog gets confiscated.
^What?!?! Not cited, but taken. This is means for a legal battle if I’ve ever seen one, especially to those in the city of Indio, where these laws don’t even exist, or at best, have come into fruition under some questionable premise.
Watch this KMIR investigation, which further details all sorts of accusations being made against the tactics of Riverside County’s animal control. The worst, stating that an animal control officer said that they were coming back the next day to search a woman’s house room to room. Of course they’d have no warrant to do such a thing, yet is violating the 4th Amendment even a concern for this department?
Continuing…
The timeline once a citation has been issued is unfair and unjust. 20 days is not enough time to find a solution to the citation. You also can’t comply within 20 days because there’s no open appointments! It is very difficult to find a low-cost spay clinic, especially for the female dogs. Most of the residents being targeted are bringing home $1,000-$1,500 per month. Any excessive cost is a hardship on the family. The cost of spaying/neutering, microchipping and shots can run a resident up to $500. Many residents have multiple dogs, so 20 days places an extreme stress on the owner. Their options are to ‘dump’ their dogs. Numerous places in Indio are now hot spots for dumping, especially schools and parks. Many owners are relinquishing their pets to the county and are being told that for $50 they will try and adopt them out and for $25 they will kill them. After 4 days the animals being relinquished are killed.
Killing animals upon intake, at an owner’s request, or under any other similar scenario is a violation of the state Hayden Act. I doubt Riverside County cares, as no one is there to have access to their untransparent ways and follow it up with a consistently funded lawsuit.
So to wrap up, as far as I can tell they are being given these choices: 1) Take care of the citations in the allotted time, paying substantial amounts to do so, but which allows them to keep their pets. 2) Miss the deadline, which then forces them to have to pay the massive fines on the citation (plus daily impound fees if an animal was impounded), or they will ultimately lose their pets. 3) Relinquish their pets to Riverside County. But wait… There’s another kicker to all of this: You still have to pay the citation fines, even if you ditch your animal or relinquish it to the pound. Residents are unaware of this and are finding it out after the fact. A Riverside County official has compared this process to the process of a “speeding ticket.” This leads me to the act that some are doing (unbeknownst of what I just said) in an effort to avoid having to pay the citations…
Some owners will take (and have taken) the initiative to get rid of their dogs by other means. This story, also tied to Indio, details how Riverside’s legislation is leading to a further number of dogs left for dead in an area pegged by residents as “dead dog alley.”
It’s called ‘dead dog alley’ because dogs are dumped there by owners who, in this case, can no longer affort to keep their dogs thanks to Riverside County’s breed-specific mandatory spay/neuter ordinance, and abandon them on the desolate dirt road where they frequently get run over.
With this, the Pet Rescue Center of Coachella recently put up signs and cameras to “prevent people from throwing their dogs over the wall.” Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit was “unavailable” for comment. That’s lovely, and convenient. This brings back October memories of Supervisor Jeff Stone saying that “if it’s an issue (cost) call our animal control office and we’ll find a way to get your dog spayed or neutered.” I bet Stone would be unavailable for comment on that as well. He will, however, always take a moment to malign all Pit Bulls in the media through his use of foolish and unsubstantiated rhetoric. A real gem of a man, with a treasure trove of character on any opposite day.
If you are a resident of Riverside County (both unincorporated and incorporated areas) then please consider coming to the community forum that has been arranged by the Animal Lovers of Coachella Valley. It will take place this coming Thursday (5/29, 6:00pm) at the Special Events Center of the Fantasy Springs Casino, located at 84-245 Indio Springs Pkwy., Indio, CA 92203.
Here’s the press release for the event, written by animal law attorney Marla Tauscher: