Showing posts with label Laura Dickie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laura Dickie. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Gloucester, VA Animal Control Retaliates Against Us For Exposing Them (Part One)


Retaliation.  Above what you see is Animal Control officer Jeff Stillman taking pictures of me while I was at a local Animal Swap meet at Tractor Supply a couple of weeks ago.  I was with a couple of friends and met with other people who I know at this meet.  The pictures were taken of not only me, but also a couple of the friends I was with.  What set this off?  Nothing that I did.  I could care less that he was there.  I was not even aware that he was doing this until one of the people I was talking with told me he was taking my picture.


Once I was made aware of what he was doing, it became a battle of the cameras.  It would seem clear that this is retaliation for my reporting issues surrounding other Animal Control officers and how they seem from every appearance, to be following made up illegal county ordinances as well as reporting on them as they use government vehicles for personal use.


After several minutes of the Battle of the Cameras, he pulled behind Tractor Supply and called in the Sheriff's department.  Numerous deputies showed up.  After about another 10 minutes, several Sheriff's deputies get out of their vehicles along with Jeff and then they walk up to where I am with a friend and stare us down.  Since that did not work for them, they removed themselves to the middle of the swap meet and it became a Mexican standoff.  I was not about to leave just because they wanted to be intimidating.

Now is this stalking by Jeff Stillman against me and my friends?

  https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/victims/documents/stalking.pdf

That is a tough one.  Technically, Animal Control in the state of Virginia are not considered law enforcement in one area but are in other areas.  They are not police.  Do they have the authority to conduct public investigations?  Not from what I could find.  What right did he have to do this?  If he was out of uniform?  Who cares.  But he was in uniform and on county, hence, taxpayer time.  Am I even someone who needs to be checked out for animal issues?  Don't you have to own animals first?


So if I can not be considered someone who needs to be watched for past animal abuses, then why is he doing this?  All we can come up with is this is pure retaliation.


This picture above is from a story we did on Animal Control where this deputy was about to break into a vehicle and take someone's personal property.  The owner came out just in time.  She was acting on what we have shown to be an illegal county ordinance in our view based on all available state codes and the Dillon Rule research.


That illegal ordinance is in the sign above, again, based on our research and reported here on this site.

Jeff Stillman still has a job even though we reported this issue to county officials.  What did they do, just slap him on the hand while patting him on the back for this retaliation?  This is only part of the story.  There is more coming soon.  This guy carries a gun.  Do I feel safe knowing he is still on the road?  No.  But there seems to be no state law against what he has done.  That means we are all in danger with this guy being out there and county officials don't seem to care.  Who is next?  You?  Will he decide to not use a camera the next time and use his gun?  Who knows?  Either way, it seems clear that he is unstable.

Steve Baranek from another story we did on Animal Control.


This picture was taken inside of Buying It Used, owned by yet another Animal Control deputy.  The above is of County property.  How was it acquired?  It's against county ordinance for county employees to buy county used goods from the county auction site which is how county property is supposed to be disposed of.  The projector says Petsworth School on it's side.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Gloucester, VA Animal Control Breaking and Entering? What About "YOUR" Rights? (Part 3)


Now for more information we have not covered.  When Laura Dickie, animal control deputy, responded to this call, after talking to the owner of this vehicle with the dog inside the car, while she was preparing to leave, another vehicle pulled in to a parking space the next lane over with a dog in the car.  The dog's head was sticking out the rear window of the car and the dog was barking at Laura Dickie.  Ms Dickie ignored this new incident and did not even bother to talk to the owners of the new vehicle that pulled in.  Why did she only speak to the one and then ignore the other?  Something is very wrong with this incident at so many levels.

Moving back to the poster on store entrances;


Let's look at some issues here.  The sign pictured above can be found at the following locations and is posted on the main entrances of the respective sites.  Wal Mart, Tractor Supply and Dollar Tree in the courthouse area.  No other areas have we found these posters.

  First issue.  The locations where these signs are found are private property parking lots.  The sign requests that anyone can report a pet being left in a car at these locations.  Well, if you see someone pull into a handicapped parking space in these same locations, and the person is not handicapped,  you can call a tow truck but one will never come as you are not the owner of the store or property and have no authority to make the request.  You can call a Sheriff's Office, but again, the same issue.  You are not authorized to report the claim as you are not the owner of the property and therefore a deputy can not do anything about the so called violation.  Only a store manager who's parking space is being violated can file a complaint about someone parking in a handicapped space who is not handicapped.

  So with this in mind, how can any animal control deputy ever possibly bypass these same issues when a person calls in a so called violation?

  If you have an accident in a parking lot at one of these locations, you can call the police.  The only thing you will be told is all they can do is file a report about the accident.  Since it is private property, they can not determine who is at fault.

  So what we have is what appears to be an illegal search and seizure being perpetuated by county officials against anyone they choose in certain sections of the county.  Sort of like a speed trap.  Here is a catch you are not made aware of.  If you make the call to report what you think is a violation?  You may be held just as responsible for the actions of the animal control deputy should the deputy decide to break into a vehicle and remove personal property such as a pet and it is determined that the action was highly illegal.  And you should be held accountable for such a violation.

Article 4 of the Bill of Rights reads;   IV ) The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

  Our opinion?  When you shop at any of these stores, find the store manager and complain about these signs.  They are highly misleading and may just potentially get innocent people in a great deal of trouble.  The signs do not tell you that animal control might just break into a vehicle and take personal property.  The signs also suggest that temperatures of 75 degrees is enough to warrant you to call.  The inside temperature readings on the sign are highly misleading as they do not indicate whether windows were up or down during the readings or if the vehicles were in direct sun light or in the shade.  They also fail to indicate humidity factors.

Online news story quote:

“Anytime we see (the dog’s) temperature jump above the 104 to 105 range it’s dangerous for the dog,” Montgomery told the Daily Telegraph last week. “Once we break into the 100-degree range in the car, the dog will be uncomfortable and the 110-degree range can be fatal,”

More from the web.

Is it illegal to leave your dog in a parked car? The answer to this question, of course, depends on in the state in which you live. Actually, only 16 states (AZ, CA, IL, ME, MD, MN, NC, NV, NH, NJ, NY, ND, RI, SD, VT, and WV) have statutes that specifically prohibit leaving an animal in confined vehicle. The next factor important to the question is the condition under which the the animal is left in the vehicle. Most of these laws provide that the animal must be confined or unattended in a parked or stationary vehicle. Further, the laws add that in order for a person to violate the law, the conditions have to endanger the animal's life. Some of the statutes specifically state that extreme hot or cold temperatures, lack of adequate ventilation, or failing to provide proper food or drink meet this definition. Other laws are more vague and just require that the conditions are such that physical injury or death is likely to result.

Above sourced from;  https://www.animallaw.info/topic/table-state-laws-protect-animals-left-parked-vehicles  Check out all the state codes on the above link.  Virginia does NOT have this code on it's books.

Estimated Vehicle Interior Air Temperature v. Elapsed Time

Estimated Vehicle Interior Air Temperature v. Elapsed Time
Elapsed timeOutside Air Temperature (F)
707580859095
0 minutes707580859095
10 minutes899499104109114
20 minutes99104109114119124
30 minutes104109114119124129
40 minutes108113118123128133
50 minutes111116121126131136
60 minutes113118123128133138
> 1 hour115120125130135140
Courtesy Jan Null, CCM; Department of Geosciences, San Francisco State University

Now checking the chart we looked up online from the AVMA.  We checked the above AVMA chart information and it's based on a vehicle in direct sunlight with the windows closed.  


We like this one a bit better.  It shows the humidity factor with heat.  



Now we do agree that leaving your pet in a hot vehicle can be dangerous and even deadly.  However, we do not think that animals have rights over humans.  We do not think pets should be treated with disrespect or even tortured.  Adding insult to injury however is madness.  We send children to school in buses with no air conditioning in the same exact conditions and nothing is done about that.


Demand Equal Rights For Our Children

Demand Equal Rights For Our Children

We put up a petition on Change.org regarding this matter.  Why are our children treated lower than pets?  Why are our rights being so blatantly violated?  

Now the Board of Supervisors knew about this before the latest BoS meeting in September.  They could have responded to this and in our view they have.  Here is the video where they address animal control issues.


A dog leash ordinance request made by a BoS member requesting more government intrusion on his neighbors they did not want or would have filed complaints themselves.  This is how they address violations to your rights?  Now that is sad.