mnp13 wrote:We can't "do" anything. Unless law enforcement makes it into his house and finds dogs living in squalor they can't take them. If crates are clean and dogs are clean then they can't legally do anything. Even if the dogs or crates are a mess there may not be legal standing to confiscate them and a "clean them up or else" warning would be given. Animal control takes dogs all the time, but a lot of the time it's an officer convincing the owner that they should hand over the animals, it's not a seizure. YES, seizures happen but there has to be a lot of evidence - like the recent shut down of Brightstar German Shepherd Rescue in Rochester, NY, where there were over 30 dogs living in a house, and pooping and peeing in there as well. If he is keeping them in crates and managing to keep the crates relatively clean then he's in the clear.
It is not against the law to crate your dogs for 23 hours 55 minutes a day. I wish it was, but it isn't and how would you prove it anyway?
There is nothing to "shut down." SPBR is not a business, it's not a non-profit, it's not a not-for-profit. At most he should have a dealer license because of the number of dogs that he is selling, but even that has some gray area.
I tried to turn someone in for tax evasion a few years ago, I had plenty of first hand info, his address, birthday, social security number and everything else I needed. The IRS didn't care, and neither did New York.
The only thing that can be done is to get first hand stories out there for other rescues and shelters to read. Make sure that the rescues or shelters can find you via phone or email so they can can speak to you about it directly.
Fact is, besides tax evasion, most of what we know is true can't be proven. And even if it is ethically and morally wrong, that doesn't mean it is legally wrong. The rabies stuff may be easy to prove, may be hard to prove, but since he's not an official rescue what will be done? He'll get a ticket or citation about it, pay a fine and get on with whatever he's doing.
There have been many many stories about people "ready to turn him in" and "collecting information" and "ongoing investigations" but nothing has ever come of it so I'm not holding my breath. I'm sure there is something being done somewhere, but it's been over two years since I knew about it and there hasn't been much progress that I've heard about, and he isn't that far from me.
Many people have left his group, but more keep coming in. Like any charismatic cult-ish leader, his followers are rabid. The people who have left the group share their stories but are branded as nut cases with agendas, and the cult members keep on blindly following the leader.
I hope you are right about the turnovers of members, but until people start wanting to read and understand, they never will.
gayrghts wrote:Can you give an example of what type of evidence would be needed to push it to criminal charges?
I'm wondering if there isn't something right under our noses... that we're not aware of.
mnp13 wrote:You'd need hard proof of an actual crime
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