HSUS Toadies Feelin' the Pain in Louisville Attorney Jon Fleischaker: this is about civil rights, not dogs You tell 'em, Lawyer Fleischaker! As one of the attorneys representing the Louisville Kennel Club, the League of Kentucky Sportsmen, Kentucky Houndsmen's Association, the Greater Louisville Training Club and eight other clubs, businesses and individuals in their struggle to rid Louisville of the worst, most anti-pet, anti-pet owner animal control ordinance in the country, Fleischaker commented: It's not a dog case, it is about people and individual rights and individual freedoms. . .The ordinance authorizes unconstitutional search and seizures, unconstitutional searches of people's homes. Louisville Animal Control director Gilles Meloche: clueless, tyrannical and caught in the headlights One of the prime defects of the Louisville anti-pet ordinance is the totalitarian power it places in the hands of a single, highly questionable, individual: Metro Animal Services Director Gilles Meloche. As the Motion for Summary Judgement recently filed by the Louisville Kennel Club et al. points out, due to the vague and even irrational language and provisions of the Louisville codes, Meloche personally has sole discretion over which dogs are declared "dangerous" in Louisville. . .regardless of their behavior or their history. The 4th Amendment? Not for Louisville dog owners. Meloche insists he can search private homes without a warrant Under the current Louisville codes, the Director of Animal Services, Gilles Meloche, is supposed to personally inspect the enclosures of every unaltered dog in Louisville. In other words: Louisville residents are second class citizens. Their homes are laid open to searches to be conducted without a warrant just because they own an unaltered dog. How did Meloche get his gig? With a little help from his friends Meloche's friends and fellow humaniacs at Kentucky Humane Society and the Shamrock Society supported his candidacy for the job in Louisville, even though Meloche's work history included some pretty large warts. Such as: --a guilty plea in his native Canada for unacceptable record keeping on anabolic steroid distribution [a controlled substance] --termination for cause [insubordination] after 10 months on the job at a shelter in Durham, NC --drama in a Tallahassee shelter that centered around his monomaniacal approach to shelter management Meloche's very Best Friend: the Humane Society of the United States Its nice to have a $125 MM private corporation in your back pocket. Pam Rogers, a Humane Society of the United States regional director--and the hypocrite that wrote to the Louisville City Council on behalf of HSUS urging a breed specific ordinance--doesn't have a problem with Meloche. When interviewed, Pam Rogers' opinion of Meloche was clear: "I like him. I find him easy to work with. . ." How sweet. That must have made the long hours Rogers and Meloche put in together concocting the Louisville ordinance so much more fun. Prejudice against low income dog owners: perfect in an animal rights advocate, fatal in a public servant Making it harder (and ever harder) for dog owners to continue to own their dogs is standard practice for HSUS and their proxies. HSUS targets the lowest hanging fruit. When the usual first choice -- pit bull owners -- didn't work out in Louisville, HSUS and its cronies simply switched to Plan B: take pets away from the poor. After all, the poor are practically defenseless, too. The Motion for Summary Judgement, which includes part of Meloche's deposition, shines a light on a public servant -- on the public's payroll -- with an unforgivable attitude towards "poor people." Negatively stereotyping and discriminating against Louisville's poor On "poor people" and dog license compliance, Meloche stated under oath: They just don't license, period. On "poor people" and access to veterinary care: First, we know one thing, they barely go to veterinary clinics. On "poor people" and cruelty to animals: Most of the cruelty that I've seen --that we see are from, of course, poor neighborhood, and it's dynamic. Cat got your tongue, Dr. Meloche? The deposition excerpt ends with this exchange: Q. Okay. Do you think it's prejudicial to impose financial requirements on people? ... A. I will not answer. Q. You're not going to answer that? A. No. Backdoor attack on civil rights and liberties Its too late for Gilles Meloche to shut up. He already said plenty.

The agenda is all too clear. The Louisville animal control ordinance is NOT about improving public safety, and its NOT about saving the lives of homeless animals.

The Louisville ordinance is about stripping away the civil rights and liberties of law-abiding Louisville residents, just because they own animals.

Let's hope the courts send the ordinance, and Gilles Meloche, back to where ever it was they came from.