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alpayton

Always into something...
Joined
Jan 28, 2009
Messages
814
Location
Bowling Green, KY
This thread is primarily for Rick to post Updates and News about the progression of the Rescue operation. Please limit comments in this thread.
 
We will know this week if there will be an appeal.

I met with LA SPCA people yesterday who have been at the holding facility. The place is divided up in to temp/humidity controlled sections and conditions are not bad at all. The costs are running $6-10,000/day.

A very few chins will be adopted by the workers on site. i am hoping to make sure they meet our standards and are not just being rewarded for their work.

That's it for know. As I know more, I'll post it.
 
From the TX SPCA this Monday morning concerning the paperwork:

NOLA Chinchilla Rescue is approved to become a Pet Placement Partner with the SPCA of Texas. We are glad that you will be assisting us with placement for the Global Exotics animals. At this time we are still awaiting to see if the owners appeal and you will receive information when/if if the animals can be picked up.
 
I have added a Paypal donation button to our website to help with the cost of transporting the chins.
 
I received email today from Michael Burk who appears to be in charge of the chins at their shelter. They were running a little low on pellets but today they received another 200 lbs donated and shipped by Oxbow.
 
From Dr Brown:

Hello all,

As most of us expected, Shaw's lawyers filed an appeal at the last possible minute today. We have no idea what this means in how much more time that the animals will have to sit and wait. Last week I was told that they have 15 days to put together another hearing but I also know the city attorneys were trying to press the judge to get this speeded up. Plus there is the complication I was told when I was there last week that in fact there may be no place in that county for them to actually appeal...but no one really knows what that means.

I think we are in for quite a bit more wait. Fortunately losses are WAY down...to zero most days in the small mammals and very small in the reptiles. Things seem stable for the moment, with of course the exception of the ADDITION of new animals in all the births of hedgehogs, some guinea pigs and I am sure soon to be seen gerbils, prairie dogs, spotted ground squirrels and possibly short tailed opossums.
 
Last week I was told that they have 15 days to put together another hearing but I also know the city attorneys were trying to press the judge to get this speeded up.
They may be able to put it on a fast track, if the Court of Appeals in Tarrant County allows for fast tracking. However, it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to make anything happen faster than is set forth in the Texas Constitution and rules of court.

Plus there is the complication I was told when I was there last week that in fact there may be no place in that county for them to actually appeal...but no one really knows what that means.
Appeals are made to the state court of appeals rather than at a city or county level. Basically, you are asking the State to overrule the decision of the lower court. Texas is divided into 14 Courts of Appeal, each court covering a certain area. The Second Court of Appeal would have jurisdiction over Arlington, and is located in Fort Worth. Both Arlington and Fort Worth are located in Tarrant County. So the above statement is somewhat confusing. The Second Court of Appeal consists of seven Justices and has appellate jurisdiction over appeals arising from district and county courts in 12 counties.
 
Things seem stable for the moment, with of course the exception of the ADDITION of new animals in all the births of hedgehogs, some guinea pigs and I am sure soon to be seen gerbils, prairie dogs, spotted ground squirrels and possibly short tailed opossums.
According to my research, depending on the species they shouldn't have any prairie dog births as they only have one litter a year and mating occurs in January for the black tailed and March or April for the white tailed. Short tailed opossums have a gestation period of about 2 weeks, so if they were pregnant they should have had them by now.
 
You'll have to take that up with Dr Brown. I just post status updates here as they are given me.
 
Wow, good thing they care so much about the animals to file an appeal at the last possible minute. Some people are morons...

It is very good to hear that the losses are down. Do they have any idea how many hedgies/other small mammals have been born? Dr. Brown and the SPCA staff are awesome for taking such good care of these little critters!
 
http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1897836.html

Animal-store owners to appeal ruling

ARLINGTON — The owners of U.S. Global Exotics notified the Arlington Municipal Court on Friday that they plan to appeal a ruling that gave custody of more than 27,000 animals to the city. Municipal Judge Michael Smith ruled Jan. 5 that animals seized Dec. 15 were inhumanely confined and denied food, water and veterinary care. Lance Evans, an attorney for owners Jasen and Vanessa Shaw, filed the notice late Friday and said the Shaws believe that the city should return any animals it could not prove were cruelly treated. "The Shaws believe the evidence presented by the city of Arlington was insufficient as a matter of law to require forfeiture of the animals," Evans said. "We’re very concerned that PETA has been allowed to take over a branch of government in order to further its agenda, which is basically the end of the exotic pet trade." Smith has five days to send transcripts of the hearing to Tarrant County court, said Linda Frank, a city attorney.
 
Our status: We have homes for 71-75 chins. If homes exceed available chins, adjustments will be made in the number of fosters being sent those getting larger numbers. The transport is ready to be finalized in the next day or 2.

As well as the updates here, there will soon be group emails to update adoption and for transport people.

Oxbow has accepted a donation request so help can continue to flow to the chins as necessary to fill any gaps in the arrangments made by the SPCA to feed them.

Cash donations total over $700- $165 from list members (not counting a Canadian donation being held for vet expenses) and the rest from my contacts and clients. Some has been spent on ordering chew stuff for the actual trip and some on materials for the carriers. In light of the continued situation, some donations were used to ship free hay to Arlington from Kleenmama's and 50 lbs of dust from Ryerson's. The remaining balance will cover a week's van rental. Cost of gas for the trip will be in the $400 range.
A paypal account has been set up. There is no real need to donate $ at this time.

However, supplies- any type of chew item or toy can be sent directly to the SPCA of Texas at 2400 Lone Star Drive, Dallas, TX 75212. Please clearly mark packages 'CHINCHILLA'. If you don't mind, please let me know what is being sent.

Thanks, all of you.
 
From Courtney Stevens, Chief Investigator, Rescue and Investigations, SPCA of Texas:

"US Global Exotics filed an appeal on Friday, January 15th at 5 minutes till 5pm. This was the 10th day deadline that they had to make. At this point we are in a waiting game to see which court is going to hear the next hearing. It could be at least 25 more days but may possibly be sooner. The animals are still receiving daily care and I appreciate everyone's patience. I know this is a long process to go through. I will keep everyone posted on any information I may receive. Again, I appreciate everyone reaching out to help place these animals!"
 
Don't know but I believe it may be from 5 days after the the 15th. That was a paperwork submission deadline, IIRC. Hopefully, I will hear more from Dr Brown, who has separate sources of information.
 
Just received from Dr Brown:

"I found three photos of interest for you while we are ALL still waiting. Apparently Thursday is another...maybe we will get more info day...but you just never know! They had 25 days from the day they filed the appeal to get this in court again...and I believe that was back on the 10th [15 Jan is the correct date].

Anyway...first photo is of the container the chins were shipped in and spent a lot of time in..i.e. they were not unpacked from the night before.

The second is a photo of the types of cages we put the chins in...it was our only option although I know they tried to get multilevel cages and larger cages. There are two chins of the same sex per cage and since that photo there were more cages added, some larger and the chins were spread out even more. In the foreground is the bin we set up for exercise that they get to play in a minimum of 2 x a week and get a dust bath and play in the wheel (which many did). The third photo is a picture inside the bin, the large dust bath is not visible in this photo as it is in the opposite end of where I took the photo. There is one chin entering the wheel. As you know they have hay ALL the time not just in the play area.

Where the cages are there is a lot of light during the day and if it got too warm, the blinds were pulled shut...it was a nice airy, open area for them, not humid like some of the other areas (where some of the animals LIKE it humid). it had the best air circulation in that area."
 

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I believe Shoots uses those kind of carriers to transport chins all the time. They look close to the same anyway. They don't look bad to me for transport. They have food cups and at some point must have had water or they wouldn't look as good as they did in the pictures that were in the news.
 
If these chins came from Europe (which I think was mentioned in a post somewhere?) then those transporters would have to be sturdy & acceptable for air travel. Do I also recall that they only arrived the night/day before the raid?
The carriers look pretty good to me.
 
Personally the wheel scares me more than the carriers.

My show and transport animals were in carriers from Fri. morn until Sun. night this last weekend.
 
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