- Link to the Stand alone petition for Blaze on MoveOn.org
- https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/urgent-mcas-oregon-retaliates-to-kill-young-dog-despite-qualified-and-safe-rescue-offer
Four offers submitted by a long term successful MCAS placement partner to include Blaze in its rescue have not been even acknowledged by shelter Director Wade Sadler, or Jamie Waltz, Interim Department of Community Services manager. Nor have they recognized or accepted the offer of an independent expert animal behavior consultation with a credentialed animal behavior veterinarian to assess Blaze’s strengths and challenges in order to plan a potential healing program.
It is not about liability concerns. MCAS’s partnership agreement is one of the most self-protective and severe in the country. Many rescues refuse to sign it. Nor is it because Blaze is a “dangerous” dog by layman or county ordinance standards. He was impounded three years ago for preventable situational incidents when he was 10 months old, situations that are not uncommon throughout neighborhoods.
The refusals to acknowledge or respond are about retaliation. It is a warning and a show of power and force of their absolutist authority that may never be questioned. If anyone exercises their appeal rights, that effort will be crushed, made an example, by taking a life when humane alternatives exist. Behind the unsuspecting backs of Multnomah County citizens, all checks and balances on the agency’s power have been erased.
The challenges facing any citizen seeking a hearing over a disputed notice of infraction are harsh and intentionally discouraging, beginning with the affordability of appeals, including the need to find an attorney to represent them. The county represents the complainant for free regardless of merit. The defendant must plead and defend him or herself or find legal representation. It is often unaffordable. Only one attorney offers no cost help and MCAS never provides information about that option. The shelter demographic is significantly low income, minority, homeless, and impoverished giving the county leverage over citizens who are vulnerable and without means.
MCAS has created multiple obstacles to due process. They will not permit payment plans for the homeless or low-income parties enabling them to appeal nor waive unaffordable appeal fees. The hearings officer is chosen by the county from a long-standing set of the same 2-3 volunteer officers whose biases are well known. No effective recusal rights are permitted. One former legal aid officer reassured enforcement officers that the system was just a rubber stamp intended to assure the outcome they elected.
Unlike other administrative hearings systems in which the hearings officer adjudicates facts and also determines sentencing, MCAS has bifurcated that process and removed sentencing from the hearings officers’ authority. Instead, that authority remains with the agency and continues to be subject to its clear bias and opportunity for retaliation. The death sentence is imposed even when humane alternatives exist to teach a harsh lesson.
Decisions made by an exclusive MCAS Shelter Review Committee comprised of administrative and enforcement management with little or no animal behavior credentials are closed to community professionals, rescues, and workers who directly take care of shelter animals. The one canine behavior specialist has little shelter animal behavior experience or background and routinely labels animals as “unhealthy/untreatable” without offering any compelling evidence. To streamline and increase efficiency the Shelter Review Process was modified to allow it to be held daily and/or as needed, as opposed to weekly with an attendance quorum required, eliminating thoughtful consideration.
Blaze and others who preceded him on this site: Tron, Chucky, Cain and others before them, are killed to teach the harsh lesson that one should never exercise appeal rights or challenge the county in any way without punishment. The reason MCAS refuses rescue offers and independent consultations is that it interferes with the agency’s power. Democracy is fragile and it has many enemies in government.
Blaze will most likely be killed on the 15th of September. Anytime a government abuses its power and kills to show control over others we can count on the fact that nothing will change if we do not speak out.
We will lose democracy and humanity in so many ways if we do not speak out because Multnomah County counts on silence. Please consider signing this petition and also urgently directly contact those in charge of this injustice. To remain silent is to give permission to needless killing.
Gail O’Connell-Babcock
Contact list for responsible parties
Wade Sadler, MCAS Director:
wade.sadler@multco.us
Phone: (503) 988-6233; (503) 988-7387
Jamie Waltz, Interim Director Dept. Community Services:
jamie.waltz@multco.us
Phone: (503) 988-7968
Interim Chief Operating Officer Peggy Brey:
Peggy.brey@multco.us
Phone: (503) 988-2999
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The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners
County Chair Deborah Kafoury
deborah.kafoury@multco.us; mult.chair@multco.us
Phone: (503) 988-3308
Sharon Meieran, Commissioner District 1
sharon.meieran@multco.us; district1@multco.us
Phone: (503) 988-5220
Susheela Jayapal, Commissioner District 2
susheela.jayapal@multco.us; district2@multco.us
Phone: (503) 988-5219
Jessica Vega Pederson, Commissioner District 3
jessica.vegapederson@multco.us; district3@multco.us
Phone: (503) 988-5217
Lori Stegmann, Commissioner District 4
lori.stegmann@multco.us; district4@multco.us
Phone: (503) 988-5213
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Relevant Documents
Fourth Request to Place Blaze in Rescue
MCAS Placement Partner Agreement
MCAS Employee Conduct Agreement