News of Orange  
July 16, 2003

The Mess at APS: an Overview

APS has been embroiled in controversy for almost two years. A 
July 2, 2002  headline (CH Herald) reads "APS CONTROVERSY - After 
nine months, time to move on".  This involved APS Wildlife Direc
tor and veterinarian Bobby Schopler whose contract with APS was 
terminated.  Despite this, APS has sued Judith Reitman and me for 
slander alleging that "Beginning in August, 2002 ... (they) have 
undertaken agreed, conspired and acted in concert to undermine 
and destroy the contractual relationship existing between Defend
ant APS and the County".  

Reitman had been involved with the APS "Pet of the week" which 
was euthanized last August 19.  I became involved later because 
of my concern for Schopler of whom it was said "the public and 
area wildlife are the biggest losers".  I attempted to get nomi
nated to the APS Board, where I hoped to influence policy.  
Immediately my efforts were impeded although I offered my cooper
ation to them on October 14.  APS finally accepted my nomination 
but one week later changed the bylaws illegally taking voting 
rights away from the Membership.  It was not until February 20 
that I and others formed the Piedmont Animal Welfare Society 
(www.ourpaws.org) and sued APS for the return of voting rights.

On April 1, APS President Pat Beyle stated to the Orange County 
BOCC "We will file our answer.  The resolution to many of the 
pending issues will come out in the lawsuit."  Their answer was 
to deny everything and to sue us for slander.  Their earliest  
piece of evidence about me is a statement on November 19 to the 
BOCC saying:

(a) "I believe the Officers and Board of APS are guilty of mal
feasance in denying my request to review and copy the membership 
lists and in illegally changing the Bylaws, taking voting rights 
away from the membership."

(b) "I believe that you should be concerned about the unlawful 
way APS is being run ...

(c)  "I believe that APS is guilty of fraud in submitting these 
blatantly false reports and I believe you should investigate 
this." 

(d) "If there were intelligent life leading APS, they would have 
fired Laura Walters long ago."

This statement was well within my rights as a member of APS, 
concerned with the mismanagement of the animal shelter operated 
by APS under contract with the County.  It has been fully justi
fied by the recent HSUS report of which one newspaper has edito
rialized (CH Herald 7/1)  "The Humane Society's team found fault 
with nearly every aspect of the operation.  It's not going too 
far to say its preliminary report was scathing."

Amazingly Laura Walters said  (CH Herald June 28)   "It's someth
ing that is exactly what we wanted."  We wanted an independent 
organization (to) ... kind of get us on the right track".  Unfor
tunately she immediately got on the wrong track again, prompting 
public outrage (N&O 7/8)  with the suggestion that HSUS required 
a policy which quickly euthanized animals.  She then backed off 
saying  (Ch Herald 7/10) "It's not in stone and it never was in 
stone. If we have an animal that's perfectly adoptable and 
healthy and we have the space, we'll hold it as long as we can. 
That's what we've always done." More recently (CH news 7/13) she 
contradicted this saying "they make it very clear that there 
should be a set number of days these animals can be held", while 
HSUS replied "the focus of the Humane Society's recommendation 
was on finding ways to shorten the amount of time animals spend 
in the shelter, not necessarily to kill them sooner. ... We did 
qnot recommend that animals be euthanized after a specific period 
of time" 

If this seems like "disinformation", it is.  See the facts on the 
PAWS website www.ourpaws.org.

Elliot Cramer is a statistician and UNC Emeritus Professor and is 
the President of the Piedmont Animal Welfare Society.

________________________________________________________________


More recent happenings 2003

June 17 Orange Commissioners (BOCC) refuse to renew APS contract
        for six months. It is renewed for three months and then
        may be renewed month to month
June 26   BOCC reaffirms vote despite request to reconsider
          Board of Health requests Summers to draft letter 
June 27   interim HSUS report released
July 9	  clarification of HSUS report
July 16	  letter to Jude about HSUS report 
Aug 7, 8, 12  depositions of Reitman and Cramer
Aug 28    BOCC Work session on APS  HSUS report and Summers
          Final HSUS Report received
Sept 16   BOCC Board meeting - discussion of APS
Sept 25   BOCC Public Hearing on APS  
Sept 25   APS ordered to release Membership list
            and financial records in Superior Court
Oct 13    APS ordered to document discovery 
            documents in Superior Court - 

2004
Friday June 25  APS withdraws slander suit which was scheduled to 
go to trial on Monday June 28.  We were prepared to prove in 
court that ALL of our statements about APS were true and were 
prepared to document the false statements made by APS President 
Ann Peterson