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This story has upset me very much as I could never imagine having any of my Bassets taken away from me by gun-toting police/RSPCA and I'm sure that the law/police etc should be out catching murderers and drug dealers not taking away a woman's 12 or so Basset Hounds that she's spent many years looking after!
Imagine having a pack of Bassets and you have to choose the 12 that will be taken away and goodness knows what would happen to them! I would be absolutely HEARTBROKEN. Surely all of these dogs that were being looked after, would tehn need rehoming somewhere or the other, when there are already hundreds of Bassets crying out for homes!!!!
I've copied a small part of the story. More here: http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/07/21/38327.htm
A breeder of basset hounds claims gun-toting officers from the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals broke her heart and "decimated" her pack of dogs, seizing 12 of them after illegally searching the dogs' heated barn without a warrant, and threatening to "return with television cameras."
Wendy Willard sued the PSPCA and two of its officers, George Bengal and Tara Loller, on constitutional charges in Federal Court.
Willard, a retired public school teacher, Ivy League graduate and volunteer for conservancy organizations, says she "has loved and worked with sporting hounds for more than 40 years."
Willard says she is an "internationally recognized" breeder of dogs known as the "Murder Hollow Bassets." An Internet search this morning turned up a trove of comments on the case from dog groups.
In her 26-page complaint, Willard says she has spent tens of thousands of dollars to care for her dogs, $30,000 on the heated barn she built for them, and has raised 17 litters of "highly regarded hounds."
Willard's attorney Emily Bell told Courthouse News that Willard, a cause célèbre in some dog-breeding circles, is "a really lovely woman who has endured some pretty terrible things" at the hands of the PSPCA. Bell is an attorney with Clymer, Musser, Brown & Conrad, of Lancaster, Pa.
The Murder Hollow Bassets get their name from a grisly 19th-century triple homicide that occurred near the dead-end, single-lane, wooded private road where Willard lives.
Until July 27, 2009, Willard lived in her home with a pair of older hounds and another 21 dogs lived in the $30,000 heated barn she built for them on her 2-acre Philadelphia property, which includes "100-foot runs and an exercise area," according to her complaint.
But Willard says her world was turned upside-down that summer day when a group of gun-toting PSPCA officers paid an unannounced visit and asked for permission to enter the barn.
"When Miss Willard refused them permission to search without a warrant, the officers and wardens temporarily left her property," but not before an officer "threatened Miss Willard that if she did not consent to a warrantless search of her property, the group ... could return with television cameras," according to the complaint.
"Rather than seek a warrant, the officers and wardens, however, simply entered the adjoining property of her neighbor, crossing from that property's grassy area to trespass onto the wooded area on Miss Willard's property," according to the complaint.
Willard says the manager of the 340-acre preserve next door had told the PSPCA officers they were trespassing, but the officers responded "that they did not care and that as PSPCA agents they would go wherever they pleased and do whatever they wanted."
"From their trespassing vantage point, the wardens and officers observed the fenced-in area behind Miss Willard's barn and spied on Miss Willard as she went about her daily chore of cleaning her dogs' exercise runs," the complaint states.
Warrants were subsequently issued "in spite of the fact that the officers and wardens had observed no criminal activity from an area in which they were not authorized to be," Willard says.
The crew returned at about 5 p.m., handed Willard a search warrant, and raided her dogs.
"Miss Willard's hounds had sensed danger and begun to bark," the complaint states. Willard says the PSPCA crew searched and photographed her barn, and a fleet of eight law-enforcement vehicles parked outside her home.
Willard says defendant PSPCA officer Tara Loller falsely accused her of violating Philadelphia's "Limit Law," which prohibits having more than 12 dogs in a single residence.
THERE'S MUCH MORE ON THE LINK: http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/07/21/38327.htm
Imagine having a pack of Bassets and you have to choose the 12 that will be taken away and goodness knows what would happen to them! I would be absolutely HEARTBROKEN. Surely all of these dogs that were being looked after, would tehn need rehoming somewhere or the other, when there are already hundreds of Bassets crying out for homes!!!!
I've copied a small part of the story. More here: http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/07/21/38327.htm
A breeder of basset hounds claims gun-toting officers from the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals broke her heart and "decimated" her pack of dogs, seizing 12 of them after illegally searching the dogs' heated barn without a warrant, and threatening to "return with television cameras."
Wendy Willard sued the PSPCA and two of its officers, George Bengal and Tara Loller, on constitutional charges in Federal Court.
Willard, a retired public school teacher, Ivy League graduate and volunteer for conservancy organizations, says she "has loved and worked with sporting hounds for more than 40 years."
Willard says she is an "internationally recognized" breeder of dogs known as the "Murder Hollow Bassets." An Internet search this morning turned up a trove of comments on the case from dog groups.
In her 26-page complaint, Willard says she has spent tens of thousands of dollars to care for her dogs, $30,000 on the heated barn she built for them, and has raised 17 litters of "highly regarded hounds."
Willard's attorney Emily Bell told Courthouse News that Willard, a cause célèbre in some dog-breeding circles, is "a really lovely woman who has endured some pretty terrible things" at the hands of the PSPCA. Bell is an attorney with Clymer, Musser, Brown & Conrad, of Lancaster, Pa.
The Murder Hollow Bassets get their name from a grisly 19th-century triple homicide that occurred near the dead-end, single-lane, wooded private road where Willard lives.
Until July 27, 2009, Willard lived in her home with a pair of older hounds and another 21 dogs lived in the $30,000 heated barn she built for them on her 2-acre Philadelphia property, which includes "100-foot runs and an exercise area," according to her complaint.
But Willard says her world was turned upside-down that summer day when a group of gun-toting PSPCA officers paid an unannounced visit and asked for permission to enter the barn.
"When Miss Willard refused them permission to search without a warrant, the officers and wardens temporarily left her property," but not before an officer "threatened Miss Willard that if she did not consent to a warrantless search of her property, the group ... could return with television cameras," according to the complaint.
"Rather than seek a warrant, the officers and wardens, however, simply entered the adjoining property of her neighbor, crossing from that property's grassy area to trespass onto the wooded area on Miss Willard's property," according to the complaint.
Willard says the manager of the 340-acre preserve next door had told the PSPCA officers they were trespassing, but the officers responded "that they did not care and that as PSPCA agents they would go wherever they pleased and do whatever they wanted."
"From their trespassing vantage point, the wardens and officers observed the fenced-in area behind Miss Willard's barn and spied on Miss Willard as she went about her daily chore of cleaning her dogs' exercise runs," the complaint states.
Warrants were subsequently issued "in spite of the fact that the officers and wardens had observed no criminal activity from an area in which they were not authorized to be," Willard says.
The crew returned at about 5 p.m., handed Willard a search warrant, and raided her dogs.
"Miss Willard's hounds had sensed danger and begun to bark," the complaint states. Willard says the PSPCA crew searched and photographed her barn, and a fleet of eight law-enforcement vehicles parked outside her home.
Willard says defendant PSPCA officer Tara Loller falsely accused her of violating Philadelphia's "Limit Law," which prohibits having more than 12 dogs in a single residence.
THERE'S MUCH MORE ON THE LINK: http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/07/21/38327.htm
