Hardcopy.........Who Really Called Animal Control?

 Part 1

Once Dave filed the proper paperwork to get the actual complaint that had been lodged with Pierce County Animal Control, it took several days for the request to be processed and the paperwork mailed to us. With everything that had happened the wait was beyond frustrating. By the time the envelope arrived, Dave could hardly contain himself. Paper was flying everywhere as he tried to get the letter opened.

All Dave wanted to know was the names of the two individuals who had filed the two separate complaints with Animal Control. Because the complaint about Rhet had come just as we had signed the settlement offer in the lawsuit over Storm, Dave had always suspected it was no coincidence so he had requested that information too.

I had always thought Angie Miller or Richard Galarza would not put their name on anything that could be traced so I was not surprised to see a name we didn't recognize on that form. Kelly Panowicz, however, was sharing her self-righteous indignation with anyone who would listen so it was no surprise to see her name on the recent complaint. It was the blatant lies that caught me off guard.

I guess I should not have been surprised considering the extent of the rumors but who knows how much the grapevine  exaggerated the story by the time it reached me. The only thing I could be sure of was TF was being careful about relaying the information exactly as she had heard it. How responsible anyone in between her and Kelly has been was an unknown.

The report Kelly Panowicz made to Animal Control was so far off from what she said to me as she sat in my living room those weeks before, I would have no problem proving to my friend that Kelly had lied. So much can be written off to differences of opinion but facts are facts and part of Kelly's lies forgot that. I had her dead to rights because she got so caught up in painting the worst possible picture of me that she failed to keep the numbers straight.

She had the total number of horses correct and she was correct saying six to eight stallions were on the property. Both of those were numbers she could afford to mess up because no one but me would have known or cared that she got those wrong.

However, I imagine to Kelly those two numbers were part of her condemnation of me so it was important to her to keep them straight. She was building her case. How dare I own 29 horses? How dare I have 6 to 8 stallions? Those numbers with mention of deplorable living conditions were meant to incur prejudice before Animal Control ever set foot on the property by inciting visions of wild, unruly, tortured creatures somehow worse off by the very nature of their unaltered gender.

Wealthy breeders are not criticized for marketing stallions but that is not the case with backyard breeders like me. Somehow people seem to think not having money means the horses are inferior and therefore not worthy of being breeding horses. Luckily for the Arabian horse, backyard breeders have not succumbed to the pressure. Some remarkable stallions were not lost to the breed because of such a petty and ignorant prejudice. Afterall, it should be the conformation, type, quality and temperment of an individual horse that should determine breeding considerations, not the net worth of the owner. I doubt, however, that Kelly Panowicz could see beyond that prejudice since this was never about fairness or equality for her.  She was counting on that prejudice to work for her.

By now I had a clear picture of Kelly's disdain for me. I could see the way she was working those numbers to make things here look bad. She was spot on with those numbers to sell her perception.  The only problem was she had begun to believe her lies so the numbers that mattered were altered in a way that could not be written off to matters of perception.

Granted we all have our own opinions of what is too thin, too fat and everything in between. That is why our horses all look different. With Kelly claiming to have extensive experience in horse rescue, you would think she would know the difference between a thin horse and a starving one. She definitely tried to convince me that she was an expert..and that she was a better judge of proper weight than I was.

There is a system to rate the weight of horses and she should have been experienced with it.  She actually referenced it in her complaint. Again, I think she utilized that information to influence AC's opinion before they ever set foot on my farm.

Obviously she had told her lies often enough she believed them....and she expected Animal Control to believe them too. I will explain this logic at a later date. Believe me there is a logical explanation for her behavior and Kelly will not be happy I have discovered it since it clearly identifies her character for what it is.

If this report came down to nothing more than perception, I might have had trouble getting EF to ever see that Kelly Panowicz was up to no good even with the "Unfounded" determination made by AC. I knew my friend would give Kelly the benefit of the doubt if there was any chance this could be explained away as a misunderstanding......or a difference in perception.

Either excuse was going to be tough to pull off with a complaint that claimed "maybe 2  horses on the property at a body score of 4 and the rest of the horses were body score of 1.5 to 2.5." That's a far, far cry from " Unfounded."

To be continued......

What Animal Control's Report Means to Me...

NOTE: I intend to scan the report to see if I can post it. Blogger doesn't always cooperate with me doing that with documents so we will see how it goes.