Millions of Americans have spent these recent years living under financial stress thanks to criminal bankers; now, some are being victimized again by another group of predators: Heartless animal shelters that hold pets’ lives hostage to collect extortionate fines the owners can’t pay.
“In a number of cities across the country, animal control agencies are aggressively going after pet owners with big fines for small violations.* … The infractions can include failing to license a pet, owning a dog that barks a lot, or accidentally letting an animal get loose in the neighborhood. [T]he penalties … often amount … to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. … When owners … can’t afford to get their pets back, they relinquish their rights … which can result in a pet being euthanized. … Outraged pet owners and animal rights attorneys say these harsh tactics are all about generating money and unfairly impact low-income Americans.”
[* Sound familiar? Ask the black residents of Ferguson, Missouri, about their white city government.]
One such community is Stockton, California, which also is embroiled in police controversies — so much so that some citizens circulated flyers purporting to offer a $2500 reward to any citizen who got a Stockton police officer fired or jailed. Not exactly an emblem of a government loved by those it governs, eh? Stockton is not only being sued by families of people its cops shot, but also by attorneys representing pet owners alleging animal abuse. Public outcry has had some effect:
“After coming under fire for alleged mistreatment of animals, Stockton has overhauled its shelter policies by lowering fees, facilitating more animal adoptions, and trying harder to reunite lost and seized pets with their owners — [resulting] in a steep drop in euthanizations, from more than 75% of animals at the shelter in 2012 to 25% last year.”
But abusive practices continue in other California cities and elsewhere across the country:
“Last year, Riverside County inspectors incited controversy for going door-to-door and giving out citations … in Indio’s low-income and mainly Hispanic neighborhoods. In some cases, they cited people … without even seeing the animals. … [L]ocal advocates … railed against the agency for leaving wealthy, gated communities untouched.”
Again, sound familiar? The stories that came out of Ferguson included tales of white city officials “fixing” tickets for their white friends. In towns and cities everywhere, the game is to target poor minorities for extortion — and now this game includes killing people’s pets to coerce them to pay extortionate fines that would make a payday lender blush.
Our municipal governments supposedly belong to us and exist for our benefit, but somehow they’re turning into money-extraction machines preying on the poor and vulnerable. How did that happen?
(Story attribution: CNN Money)
Photo: Stockton isn’t exactly a poor city. It can afford to feed shelter animals. Killing them is just a brutal tactic to extract money from pet owners.