Washington: Peggy Noblitt moved out of her subdivision rather than abide by their HOA rules regarding her pit bull

WASHINGTON -- Pit bull owner Peggy Noblitt has moved out of Issaquah Highlands after a long battle with the homeowners' association.

But Noblitt, who now lives with her dog, Blu Gator, in an apartment complex in downtown Issaquah, still insists her civil and constitutional rights were violated when Issaquah Highlands banned pit bulls. She isn't dropping her lawsuit against the association.

Blu Gator's owner says she has more than lawsuits to worry about, however. Her home is up for sale, she and her boyfriend broke up -- and, she says, she's 4½ months pregnant.

As an about-to-be single mother, she hopes her lawsuits will lead to a financial settlement.

"This has cost me everything," said Noblitt.

Among others, she's suing the president of the homeowners' association and the president of the development company, Port Blakely Communities.

Noblitt acknowledges that state law allows breed-specific bans, but she says due process and procedural guidelines were ignored when the ban was implemented.

"You cannot do it in the way you did it," is how Noblitt summarizes her claim against Issaquah Highlands.

When the ban was first enforced in March, Noblitt and Blu Gator were already living in the development. The homeowner's offered to "grandfather" in Blu Gator if Noblitt met certain conditions.

Among other things, the pit bull needed to be muzzled, spayed, kept in a secure kennel and covered with a $250,000 liability insurance policy.

Noblitt refused.

The rationale for special treatment of specific breeds is based on the assumption that certain dogs are genetically more predisposed to lethal attacks.

In a special report issued by the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2000, 27 people died from dog bites in 1997 and 1998.

According to the report, "pit bull-type" dogs and Rottweilers were responsible for around 60 percent of the deaths.

Asked if she would be comfortable having her new baby and a 60-pound pit bull living in the same apartment, Noblitt was unequivocal.

"Absolutely," Noblitt said. "They are wonderful with children. Petey, on Little Rascals, was a pit bull."

(Eastside Journal - August 24, 2002)

Earlier:

• Washington: When Peggy Noblitt's HOA enacted a ban on pit bulls, they told her she could keep hers as long as she complied with a few things. She refused and got a lawyer instead.
• Washington: Developer sues pit bull owner for refusing to comply with HOA rules
• Washington: Peggy Noblitt continues to refuse to abide by her HOA's rules regarding her pit bull. After they sue her, she countersues

Florida: Andrew Bloom, 69, was charged with animal cruelty back in 1994. Now he's been caught hoarding more than 300 starving animals

FLORIDA -- An elderly rancher was charged with 32 counts of animal neglect after Miami-Dade police said they found more than 300 malnourished horses, parrots, llamas, deer and ducks on his 10-acre farm.

Andrew Bloom, 69, was arrested Wednesday and released Thursday morning on $96,000 bail.

Neighbors have filed several complaints over the past 10 years about the condition of Bloom's animals, said Sgt. Sheree DiBernardo of the Miami-Dade Agricultural Unit.

Officers were able to obtain a search warrant Wednesday after a veterinarian reported that malnourished horses could be seen on the property, DiBernardo said.

A detective found horses with visible rib cages, unlicensed deer, exotic birds and potbellied pigs living on the property, DiBernardo said.

The ranch was littered with animal feces, animal skulls and stagnant watering holes, she said.

REPEAT OFFENDER
Bloom was acquitted on similar charges in 1994, records show.

(Sun Sentinel - August 2, 2002)

California: Authorities searching for Pamela Miller, 51, who fled after police seized 83 neglected dogs from her animal rescue, Millerwood Animal Sanctuary

CALIFORNIA -- Authorities were searching on Monday for the owner of an unlicensed kennel where they seized scores of dogs, including pit bulls and Akitas, in a raid last week.

Pamela Miller (aka Pam Miller, Pamela Miller-Sackter, Pam Sackter, Pamela Sackter), 51, has been missing since Friday, when authorities served a search warrant at her home in the 100 block of North Linden Street and seized 83 dogs. Miller's father filed a missing-person report Sunday, but police said they do not suspect foul play.

Burbank police Capt. Gordon Bowers said the dogs were living in deplorable conditions - many of them in carriers.

"Half of the dogs were inside the house, and none of them had food. None of the animals had water. It was about 100 degrees inside,'' he said.

Authorities said Miller had been embroiled in a four-year legal battle to renew a license for the Millerwood Animal Sanctuary, an animal-rescue organization. Miller had been under a court order since March 2001 to keep only three dogs at the site, officials said.

"She knew we were coming,'' said Bowers, adding that police are pursuing animal-endangerment charges against Miller.

Police took 34 of the seized dogs to the city's animal shelter and 49 to Lakewood Kennels, a licensed kennel across the street from Miller's home.

"When they got here, they were happy to have a chance to run around,'' said Claudia Madrid, interim supervisor of the city's animal shelter. "Some of them wouldn't stop drinking water - that's how dehydrated they were.''

Most of the dogs are docile, Madrid said, even the ones who look like they have been in fights with other dogs. Two of the dogs have only three legs each.

June Lamb, owner of Lakewood Kennels, said the confiscated dogs brought to her appear to be in good health.

"They are in quite good condition,'' Lamb said. "They look pretty well fed. I would say 90 percent of them are adoptable.''

Lamb said Miller told her she planned to move the kennels to another area and that she was keeping them at the Linden Avenue home temporarily.

(LA Daily News -July 30, 2002)

Earlier:

• California: Pamela Miller, who was running a rescue called Millerwood Animal Sanctuary, to be tried this week on animal cruelty charges
• California: Animal cruelty suspect Pamela Miller sues city, saying they're harassing her

California: Animal-control officers remove 86 dogs from Pamela Miller's animal rescue

CALIFORNIA -- Animal-control officers removed 86 dogs from a small,

foul-smelling home full of kennels on the 100 block of West Linden

Avenue on Friday in what allegedly was the owner's violation of a

court order to not keep more than three at the location.

Police were investigating the scene as an animal-endanger- ment

case.

Pamela Miller (aka Pam Miller, Pamela Miller-Sackter, Pam Sackter, Pamela Sackter), the owner of the home, was not there when police

served the warrant shortly after 4 p.m. No arrests had been made two

hours later, when animal-control officers were walking the dogs out.

Bruce Johnson, a neighboring business owner who knows Miller, said

she was afraid that if she did give the dogs to a shelter, they would

be destroyed.

"I've never seen the inside of a house with that many animals,"

Burbank Police Lt. Tim Stehr said. "For the dogs' sake, they are

going to a better environment now."

A nearby shelter will house some of the dogs, mostly pit bulls,

while others will be taken to the Burbank Animal Shelter.

Four years ago, the Burbank Animal Shelter denied Miller's bid to

renew her kennel license to keep her Millerwood Animal Sanctuary

open. She and the city have engaged in legal battles ever since. But

in March of last year, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled

Miller could not keep more than three dogs or cats for five years.

Some neighbors were pleased the dogs were removed.

"All you had to do was look in there to see this was animal

abuse," said Patrick Guilfoyle, owner of the nearby boarding kennel

Double Dog Dare Ya.

(Burbank Leader - July 27, 2002)

Wyoming: Michael Kelley, 34, charged with two counts of animal cruelty

Full Name: Michael Phillip Kelley
Gender: Male
City: Green River, Wyoming
Height: 6'03"
Weight: 200 lbs
Hair Color: BROWN
Arrest Age:34
Date:07/16/2002
Time: 8:44 PM
Arrest Location: Sweetwater County, Wyoming
Charges
#1 CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
#2 CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

Washington: Peggy Noblitt continues to refuse to abide by her HOA's rules regarding her pit bull. After they sue her, she countersues

WASHINGTON -- The case of Blu Gator, a 1-year-old pit bull living in Issaquah Highlands, is headed to court this summer.

Peggy Noblitt, the owner of the 60-pound, female American Staffordshire pit bull terrier, has refused to abide by what she calls discriminatory conditions imposed on Blu Gator by the Issaquah Highlands homeowners' association.

She has responded to a suit from the homeowners' association by launching a countersuit of her own.

Among other things, the homeowner's association has ordered the pit bull to be muzzled, spayed and confined inside a secure kennel when she's in the back yard [by himself]. Noblitt is also supposed to take out $250,000 of liability insurance [which could simply be done by adding a rider to her current homeowner's insurance policy].

Both sides say initial hearings could begin as early as next month.

In an alleged case of pooch profiling, Noblitt says Blu Gator is being singled out because similar or related breeds have been involved in highly publicized attacks on people.

The homeowners' association, backed by Port Blakely Communities, the developer of Issaquah Highlands, wants the court to enforce the special conditions or order the pit bull out of the residential development.

John Adams, president of the homeowner's board and a Port Blakely Communities employee, says the legal focus of the case is simple.

"Can a homeowners' association adopt and enforce a rule?" he said.

Valerie Bittner, Noblitt's attorney, says the state Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that restrictive covenants for homeowners are legal -- but only if they're applied in a "reasonable, rational, fair, impartial, prudent and nondiscriminatory" manner.

That hasn't happened with Noblitt, Bittner said.

The homeowners' association says it began enforcing a ban on pit bulls in March. But Blu Gator, in place before the ban, was "grandfathered in" by the association with the aforementioned conditions.

The rationale for setting special conditions for specific breeds is based on the assumption that certain dogs are genetically more predisposed to lethal attacks.

But delving into the available evidence produces questions as well as answers.

In a special report issued by the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2000, statistics were accompanied by cautions.

In 1997 and 1998, the report says 27 people died in the U.S. from dog bite attacks. Rottweilers and "pit bull-type" dogs were responsible for around 60 percent of the deaths.

But the report points out that pit bull statistics are problematic:

* There is no well-defined pit bull breed. Several breeds fall into that general, nontechnical category.

* The intense publicity some pit bull attacks have generated may have led to an overreporting of pit bull incidents in witness accounts and media stories.

* Pit bulls have become popular with owners who train their dogs to be aggressive and dangerous.

The last point raises the nature versus nurture issue in Bittner's mind.

"The dog is very sensitive to the cues you're giving it," Bittner said.

Adam Karp, a Seattle attorney who specializes in animal law, points out that attack totals for a specific breed are meaningless because we don't know the population numbers for specific breeds.

In 1997 and 1998, 10 fatal attacks were attributed to Rottweilers. But because we don't know how many Rottweilers existed in the United States during that time, it's impossible to know what percentage of the breed was involved.

"Without knowing the number of animals in the United States by breed, one cannot meaningfully compute risk," Karp said.

Noting that cities, apartment houses and other entities make rules about what kinds of pets are allowed, Adams is optimistic the homeowners' association will fare well in court.

But Bittner believes the constitution provides protection from the "unchecked power of private government schemes."

"This is not just a dog case," Bittner said. "This is about the whole power structure of homeowners' associations."

(Eastside Journal - June 21, 2002)

Earlier:

• Washington: When Peggy Noblitt's HOA enacted a ban on pit bulls, they told her she could keep hers as long as she complied with a few things. She refused and got a lawyer instead.
• Washington: Developer sues pit bull owner for refusing to comply with HOA rules

Florida: Randall Konarik, 34, beat and tortured a peacock to death

FLORIDA -- A man has been charged with animal cruelty on the suspicion that he killed a peacock, then cut off the bird's wings, claws and feathers and stuck the carcass in his freezer for a later meal.

Randall Jude Konarik, 34, of 1220 Palm St. was arrested Monday morning on a charge of cruelty to animals. He was being held at the Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday afternoon in lieu of $10,000 bail.

Clearwater police on Saturday received a report that Konarik had captured a peacock in Dunedin, then brought it to his home, tied it to a brick and killed it.

When police talked to Konarik, he told them he struck the bird in the head with a rock, then kicked it. He told police he then picked up the bird by its wings and feet and carried it 2 miles to his home, an arrest affidavit states.

Konarik told police the bird struggled during the walk, which he said "caused the bird to die from heat exhaustion a few hours later," an arrest report states.

Konarik said the death was accidental and occurred while he was trying to relocate the bird.

Once the bird was dead, Konarik removed the bird's wings, claws and some of its feathers. When asked why, he told officers: "Because that's what hunters do," the arrest report states.

He then skinned the bird and placed it in his freezer to eat later, police said.

It was unknown exactly where in Dunedin the bird was captured.

Peafowl have recently created some controversy in one north Clearwater neighborhood. Some residents have tried to remove the birds, complaining they are noisy and messy. That hasn't gone over well with other neighbors who enjoy their beauty.

"I'm in shock to say the least," said Susan Sander, one of the peacock lovers. "To me, animal cruelty is equal to a person. They're God's creatures. I'm so saddened."

Though the birds are very pretty, some who live in neighborhoods where they roam don't appreciate their harsh squawks, particularly during mating season, which is around May. The birds also are known to tear up flower gardens, and even to peck at cars when they see their image reflected.

The birds have lived in the area of the Clearwater-Dunedin border since the 1920s, when there was a peafowl farm there. The birds were raised for their tail feathers, which were a popular fashion item.

When the farm folded decades ago, many of the birds were simply let loose. They have strutted the area ever since.

Rick Chaboudi, executive director of the Humane Society of North Pinellas, said he has never heard of someone killing a peacock, then saving it to eat.

"I have never heard of anyone ever hunting peacocks," he said. "You can't just execute them or mutilate them or things like that."

ARREST INFO:
Full name: Randall Jude Konarik
Sex: Male
Race: White
DOB: 11/10/1967
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 160
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Green
Address: 2108 Palmetto St, Clearwater FL 33765

APRIL 24, 2011 UPDATE:
Randall Konarik is dead.

Konarik was riding his bike across US 19 N and East Bay Drive when he was hit by a car and seriously injured, Tuesday.

Officials said the bicyclist was riding against the traffic signal when he was hit by Skylar Martz, 26, of Largo, who was driving a 1994 Nissan Sentra. Martz was traveling eastbound on East Bay Drive through the intersection when Konarik came into his lane in a southbound direction, officials said.

According to Largo Police, witnesses said Konarik was crossing the intersection outside the crosswalk and against the traffic signal at 10:04 p.m. when he was hit.

(St. Petersburg Times - June 12, 2002)