No Kill Houston. Bringing No Kill sheltering to Houston's pet shelters

From: Randy Turner <randy@turnermckenzie.com>
Subject: The city is going after Steven Woods again
Date: Tuesday, December 14, 2010, 12:38 PM

Dear Friends of Steven and Mimi:

It never ends for Steven Woods, the disabled Iraq war veteran, and his therapy dog, Mimi. Because of all the negative media coverage the city of Fort Worth received when it seized Mimi it has decided to retaliate against Steven. The city is now fining him $7,252 for failure to quarantine dogs, claiming that when he took Mimi and his other dog to the city animal shelter for quarantine last July as ordered by Animal Control they were not his dogs! And even though Steven lives on $779/month disability income the city refuses to let him into the court program for low-income people who can’t afford to pay fines. This is the worst case of malicious prosecution I have seen. Steven was told by the city attorney yesterday that that decision comes from the top, which obviously means someone way high up in city government.

Thanks to the outpouring of support Steven was able to pay the city over $1,000 and comply with all of the city’s ordinance requirements last month so his beloved Mimi could come home. You may recall that, after a neighbor complained that he had been bitten on the finger by a stray pit bull last July, the city ordered Steven to bring his dogs to the animal shelter for quarantine. He promptly complied. The neighbor viewed Mimi and King (Steven’s other dog) at the shelter and said neither of these dogs had bitten him. So the city released Mimi and King back to Steven. Now the city has concocted a theory that when he was told to bring his dogs to the city animal shelter Steven must have found two other pit bulls somewhere and taken them to the shelter and then pretended that they were his dogs. This is unbelievable. The city has written Steven 28 tickets for failure to quarantine dogs. The fines total $7,252.

The city was outraged over the bad publicity it received in this case and has obviously launched a vendetta to get even with Steven. Since the city attorney refuses to let Steven into the program for low-income people who are unable to pay fines the city apparently intends to prosecute Steven for these 28 tickets and then throw him in jail for however many months it takes to satisfy $7,252 in fines and court costs. I have called city officials to find out why Steven is being maliciously prosecuted and why he is receiving special treatment from the top but my calls have not been returned.

I will be fighting this as hard as I can but, given what happened to Steven at the city’s dangerous dog hearing, there is every reason for concern. If anyone would like to let the city of Fort Worth know how they feel about this vindictive prosecution of a disabled American war hero here are the contacts. I am only sending this email to a few people and a couple of groups so please feel free to forward.

City Attorney, David Yett, 392-7606 david.yett@fortworthgov.org

City Manager Dale Fisseler, City Hall - 817-392-2255 dale.fisseler@fortworthgov.org

Mayor Mike Moncrief, 817-392-6118 mike.moncrief@fortworthgov.org

Mayor Pro Tem Danny Scarth, 817-392-8804 District4@fortworthgov.org

Councilmember Sal Espino, 817-392-8802 District2@fortworthgov.org

Councilmember W.B. Zimmerman, 817-392-8803 District3@fortworthgov.org

Councilmember Frank Moss, 817-392-8805 District5@fortworthgov.org

Councilmember Jungus Jordan, 817-392-8806 District6@fortworthgov.org

Councilmember Carter Burdette, 817-392-8807 District7@fortworthgov.org

Thanks,

Randy

Randall E. Turner