THE STORY OF HOW THIS CAME TO BE

San Bernardino County Board is permitting their Animal Services to order dogs killed based on a overtly false rationale.  In the latest case, they confiscated a dog from an elderly Hispanic man who accidentally allowed the dog to stray two times in 10 years.  While the first time a dog fight occurred and there were minor injuries to the other dog, it was the first time it had ever happened in a decade. There was a second stray incident when Sheba encountered the same dog but both owners took charge of the situation and nothing happened.

SENTENCED TO DEATH UNDER FALSE PRETENSES. There was a hearing after the second outing and the Hearing Officer wrote in a letter to the owner: “I am ordering Sheba to be destroyed per San Bernardino County Code., Title 3, Division 2, Chapter 14, Section 32.1407(a)  because allowing you to maintain custody of Sheba would create a significant threat to the public health, safety and welfare.”

The false pretense is that no one ever said nor could it be justified that Sheba (as a dog that has never bitten anyone and was only ever in one dog incident) could not be re-homed elsewhere, yet this hearing officer chose to use a false pretense as justification to kill Sheba.

Over a dozen enraged towns’ people signed a petition vouching for Sheba’s long time good behavior.  Even the owners of the other dog wrote the county and asked that Sheba be spared. Even dogs with any aggression background including those with significant human bite histories are released to rescue organizations all the time. Sheba has never bitten anyone or ever exhibited anything but friendliness to people. Sheba was singled out because her elderly owner wasn’t always prompt in meeting county conditions to keep her secure.  Finally, the reason the county gave for the death sentence was because she could not go back to her owner.  That was never the only option so the rationale was fallacious. 

Sheba has now been locked up in a small cage in solitary confinement for a year, never having been let out of the cage to even walk around.  She is decompensating badly mentally and physically. This is the height of animal cruelty.  They won’t even let her owner go in the cage or another larger enclosure available for people and dogs, to give her affection.  Beyond that they are now only giving her owner five minutes of visiting time after he travels well over an hour on trips to see her.

This behavior by the county is purely mean-spirited and is the height of both injustice and animal cruelty.  In fact, this particular animal control department known as the Devore Animal Shelter, has had a very bad reputation for a very long time for excessive killing and cruelty.

Yet the County Board refuses, as has the legal department refused to even talk with anyone about a fair and equitable solution and specifically to a rescue group to taking Sheba for  rehabilitation and re-homing.  As it stands, on September 11, the judge will render a final opinion on the case.  If he rules against Sheba she will likely be killed that afternoon after having  served 14 months in solitary confinement.  Please use your voice to speak for Sheba. When the system goes against the defenseless, it’s a crime against all of us. 
Little has happened in the past year and Sheba has lingered in a tiny cage, never let out for the entire time while court hearings and meetings dragged on. On September 19, 2019 the plaintiff attorney advanced a proposal to dismiss the case in exchange for the county releasing Sheba to a rescue organization out of state. This was communicated to the county attorney who has refused to even talk about it or anything else since then.  Final briefs have been filed and the final meeting of the attorneys and judge is scheduled for September 11, 2020.

THIS CASE BOILS DOWN TO THE FOLLOWING:
a.) The county used a FALSE PRETENSE IN ORDER TO JUSTIFY their destruction of Sheba.  STILL THEY REFUSE TO BE REASONABLE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR INVALID BASIS FOR THE DEATH SENTENCE because they know they are wrong and don’t want to admit it or let it become a detractor in their case.  If they can just keep the dialogue away from the judge on the baseless death sentence and the other relevant facts, they believe they can pull this off.

b.) Additionally, Sheba was never deemed unadoptable.  Because she was in a dog fight once and wasn’t in a secure home, is not a reason to kill her.

c.) The county board has stated that they have no control over the court case (nonsense – they are the “client” of the county lawyers and can instruct as any lawyer’s client can.) 

d.) Multiple attempts to discuss a typical humane and fair arrangement, the same that are offered to dogs regularly with frankly far worse behavior histories have been met with “This matter is in litigation and it is not appropriate to talk about it.”  The county’s continued strategy has been to use this “in litigation excuse” to keep people from talking about it because they know if they are in the position of having to defend an erroneous death sentence, they simply cannot. 

In order to keep the facts from disturbing their case, the county lawyers have refused to talk with “the Sheba team” and have instructed all county employees including the board not to talk with anyone about the case. When you have something to hide, its important to not talk.

What we are witnessing is a hidden agenda in this county and it has to do with getting even with an 81-year-old Hispanic man who was not always prompt in working with the county with over a years’ time.  They have hunkered down and are hoping that their strategy to black out all communications will see them through this case while the clock runs down September 11 when they think they will win their case on a non-compliant tax payer and will be able to kill Sheba without being held accountable for their evil scheme and intransigent behavior.

This is a pure and simple example of local government gone bad and county officials gone rogue without accountability to anyone because neither administration nor the board of supervisors will speak up and deal with the bad behavior of their subordinates.