The rise of exploitive programs like Animal Cops has lead to the rise of vigilante animal cruelty investigators all across this Nation.
Previously I have covered high-school dropout Scotlund Haisley’s criminal targeting of the elderly.
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series I covered urban vigilante and private Rambo Richard Couto who targets poor and minority owned farms for thrills. But just as these high profile vigilante’s are running amuck in America, local publicity hounds are also jumping on the Animal Cops bandwagon and framing your neighbors for crimes they have not committed just to make themselves famous.
In America today, programs wallpaper this country promising to train you to conduct investigations all of them run by quacks. Even most official animal control officers in your city or town receive no training in animals or animal husbandry. Take Virginia for example, animal control officers receive just 84 hours of training on “the law” in the first two years they are on the job. They receive no training on animals. Formerly just stray dog catchers, today animal control officers have redefined themselves as urban warriors taking down brutal cases of animal cruelty. That these investigators are incompetent and corrupt goes without saying. It’s long past time the dog catcher was put back in his place.
Recently in Sandusky County, Ohio, animal rights activist and self-styled Animal Cruelty Investigator Adam Herrera stirred up the public’s outrage when he ran to the media with claims that 13 dead and skinned puppies had been dumped in a creek. Multiple posts were made to the brand new “Animal Cruelty Investigations-Humane Society of Sandusky County” Facebook page boasting that various news media outlets were interviewing him and covering this horrific story. Herrera updated the page again to keep the public horrified and the outrage flowing claiming that he had found 13 dead Goldendoodle puppies after initially claiming in media stories that they were an entire litter of Pitbull mixes. At first, his claims of Pitbull mixes just didn’t give him the media glory he was looking to be covered in so his story changed.
Adam Herrera, Sandusky County Humane Society
His boasts in multiple interviews in the media too couldn’t be pinned down. After he changed his story and claimed that these dead and skinned puppies were Labradoodles or Goldendoodless then he said they were six to 10 months of age. He wants the public to be outraged and in terror believing that some monster is out there stealing and skinning alive 10 month old Goldendoodles and dumping the bodies.
In other news outlets he claimed the bodies were one month old, a difference of up to 60 pounds in size for a dog breed he claimed they were. So were the dead bodies, one pound in size or 60 pounds? Herrera can’t seem to tell the difference. In yet another interview this publicity hound gave, he claimed the dead animals were pit bull mixes that weighed 10 pounds.
A six to 10 month old pitbull would never weigh 10 pounds. He also claimed in one interview that all the bodies were floating in the water, yet in another interview he admitted that 11 of the 13 bodies were buried and not dumped in a creek.
Seems to me he can’t get his own story straight, making me wonder if he dumped the animals there himself to create a story. Perhaps Sandusky County should investigate Adam Herrera to make sure he isn’t the criminal behind this crime, just like profile the FBI has created of serial arsonists who become firefighters.
In the FBI case studies, these arsonists are most likely relatively new hires at fire stations when their crimes are exposed. In an amazing coincidence, Adam Herrera, is a relatively new hire at the Sandusky County Sheriff’s Office in a clerical role.
Herrera promised to bring the hammer down on the evil person who did this.” “They will be facing at least 13 charges of animal cruelty, and possibly more, depending on what the investigation turns up.”
Problem is, Herrera’s story was fake. He late backtracked when an investigation showed there were no dead puppies. Herrera was forced to retract his outlandish claims when a veterinarian determined they were not Pitbulls or Goldendoodles but in fact raccoons. The remains of the dead animals found were raccoons. It gets better. Herrera said that the reason he thought they were puppies is because moss had started to grow on the dead bodies and he said, “making it look like fur.” Just imagine this man testifying against you in a court of law claiming you are abusing animals. He’s so uneducated that he honestly thought moss growing on a dead body was puppy fur.
Besides which, raccoon body is built nothing like a dog. In many areas, including Ohio, trapping raccoons for their fur is perfectly legal. The real question is, how did the bodies get there, and just how long had they been there. It takes a very long time for moss to start growing on a new surface, let alone enough moss to create the impression of “fur.”
Herrera too wasn’t telling the truth about himself to the media. He is nothing more than a recently hired “communications supervisor” for the Sandusky County Sheriff’s Office. His whole second career in animal cruelty is nothing more than hobby. In multiple media stories he gives out his personal cell phone number and a private Gmail address with a request for the public to report crimes to him. Further still, the Humane Society of Sandusky County has no authority under the law to investigate anything. They are not law enforcement officers.
The era of the “Animal Cop” needs to end. None of these vigilante’s operating in America today have an ounce of training in real law enforcement or a background in proper animal care. The cases of Adam Herrera who cried wolf, urban Rambo Richard Couto, and serial dirtbag Scotlund Haisley are proof enough that the lunatics are running the show.
Katharine Dokken is a Public Affairs Specialist at The Cavalry Group and the author of two new books, including The Art of Terror: Inside the Animal Rights Movement, available on Amazon.
Follow Katharine and The Cavalry Group on Twitter: @KatharineDokken @TheCavalryGroup
