About three years ago the health department and the Humane Society and Starkill County Ohio converged on an 80 year-old womans house seized her 38 cats Who were all spayed / neutered and up-to-date on their shots. They then killed them. This was all done without warrant any notice or opportunity to contest. It appears from the anecdotal responses weve gotten that this was not a solo incident and actually was a standard operating procedure. In November 2014 Michela Huth an attorney in Ohio and Richard Rosenthal (who is lead attorney in this) filed a federal civil rights class-action against them them. Yesterday the federal judge held a rule 16 conference. That is a scheduling meeting with the court to arrange discovery schedules, pick a trial date and its initial understanding of the case. The court recognized the grave constitutional issues that we are championing and it is our belief that the court will allow this case to go to trial as a class action which is bigger than huge. The court set a July 6 trial date and informed both parties this case was going to trial and that he would not allow unnecessary motions to be brought solely for the purpose of delaying the action. He also suggested in the strongest possible terms that the defendants consider meeting for a settlement conference because as he reminded them it was somewhat doubtful that a jury would accept that an 80-year-old woman with 38 spayed and neutered and up-to-date on their shots cats would voluntarily turn them over to the humane society with the attitude - its okay if you kill them. We will of course update when things get moving. ***Anyone in Ohio who knows of any other incidents, please contact us at [email protected]
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 00:18:18 +0000