“Animal Precinct” Under Attack

{ July 22, 2007 @ 11:58 pm } · { Uncategorized }
{ Tags: animals, current events, Media, news }

This article in the New York Times just gets my blood boiling. Instead of criticizing how the show is portrayed, or the fact that the ASPCA is not fully equipped to deal with the influx of reports that have come from the shows popularity, how about helping this organization and demanding a larger budget for the division?

One idiot is quoted as saying “If they are going to profit from the TV show, they should hire more officers.” The man behind this quote is none other than former A.S.P.C.A. manager Gary Perkinson, who also complained that a report of abuse that he himself called in was never answered.

Well, Mr. Perkinson, having been manager for the ASPCA, couldn’t you have done more than just leave a message at a department you knew was over-worked? I hope you don’t wonder why you don’t have that job anymore, being as how you are so willing to give up after one try. Not only that, stupid, the ASPCA is a NON-PROFIT organization. Did you not realize that when you were the manager?

Enough about an incompetent ex-manager that has no sense of personal responsibility. The ASPCA rebuts:

Officials for the A.S.P.C.A., a nonprofit group that does not receive government funding, call the criticism unfair, asserting that the “animal cops” have never been more effective, that the unit’s budget has been increased and that arrests are up significantly over prior years.

Maybe there are too many expectations on just one organization, when there are others that are helping to do the same job. Criticize one, criticize all… especially since many critics are from animal rights organizations. Here is how this agency is misidentified:

Given its name and its status as the nation’s oldest animal welfare organization, the A.S.P.C.A. is often mistaken for a national umbrella organization. Actually, the 141-year-old group operates independently of all other S.P.C.A.’s across the country, although it does help many with grants and training and works to spread its message nationally with lobbying and education efforts.

So it looks like the ASPCA is doing more than it’s fair share but is stretched thin at times. So these cowards feel the need to criticize the show and the agency the show portrays. Brilliant.

Critics complain about the arrest rate compared to the number of complaints received by the ASPCA hotline because of 50,000 calls, 4,000 were valid complaints, and only 103 arrests were made. 109 more people received summons from the officers (tickets, basically).

But cruelty cases are harder to prove because the victim can’t testify, according to the ASPCA. Mr Riedel, director of the Humane Law Enforcement division of the ASPCA says the ratio isn’t as simple as 4,000 to 103 arrests. Many calls aren’t valid abuse cases.

“If I was a detective commander and had 4,000 of them, and then I only had 103 arrests, I’d be as skeptical as you are right now,” he said. “But we are actually getting a lot of calls that are not, in fact, crimes. They are disputes, or we have to go and educate people.”

Mr. Riedel added, “If you actually look at where there are crimes where we can say an animal was intentionally neglected or maltreated, it’s much, much smaller. It’s not 4,000 to 103, it probably comes down to 300 to 103.”

This seems very effective if you ask me. It seems that educating more pet owners would do better than arresting more pet owners. And because animal cases are so difficult to prove, the standard of judging law enforcement cannot be tailored to judging the effectiveness of the ASPCA enforcement force. It sounds like they are doing the best they can.

Some other things idiots are saying:

Garo Alexanian, executive director of the Companion Animal Network, an 18-year-old New York City advocacy group, said the officers were not active enough in inspecting the stables used by Central Park carriage horses, or monitoring them on hot and cold days. The society, which has a dedicated officer for those efforts, denies both charges.

Patty Adjamine, the director of New Yorkers for Companion Animals, a Manhattan rescue group, said she happened to be on Lexington Avenue one day in March when a man got out of a car and began capturing pigeons with a net. Fearing he meant to use the birds for torture or target practice, she said she called the A.S.P.C.A. to provide the man’s license plate number. Her call, she said, went to voice mail at 3 in the afternoon.

“The A.S.P.C.A. never even called me back,” she said.

The ASPCA couldn’t find any record of this woman’s call. And let’s be real. What evidence does she have that this man was going to torture these birds, and if it is illegal to catch pigeons, why didn’t she call the police? Of course, they also could do nothing without evidence. What a whack-job.

I’ll tell you what, why don’t these critics ask that more than 18 officers be assigned to the task? Why don’t they take initiative and start documenting, photographing, and doing what it takes to collect evidence to make these people’s jobs easier? The officers can’t be everywhere at once, but a neighbor is close enough to document evidence at times when the officers are not or cannot be on the scene.

True, the enforcement program could use some more money to handle the larger case load, but it’s not like the ASPCA is throwing their budget out of the window. They have animal hospitals, education programs and adoption programs they also run. Also, they use some of the budget helping other organizations that hold the same purpose.

What these critics should really be doing is encouraging the agency, not criticizing and complaining. It’s amazing how people will find a flaw in any little thing just so they don’t have to look at their own actions-or lack thereof. Maybe they are jealous they don’t have their own show.