Newsclipping summary:

FEAR-List Bulletin posted by Brent Jernigan, 4/9/98
(URL corrected 10/2/01 by Leon Felkins)

Turn your eyes to the pages of the Columbus Dispatch of April 2, 1998 (Columbus, Ohio). Bottom right hand corner is an article about a Mt. Gilead, Ohio couple who had their 36-acre farm confiscated under a law "similar to that used in drug raids" after police broke up a dog-fighting ring there. Regardless whether you feel, as I do, that dogfighting is inhumane or cruel, it could hardly be argued that the nation needs to be fighting a "War on Dogs".

In an unusual move, the couple who owned the farm were allowed to reside in their seized residence and placed in charge of the 34 dogs that will be used in evidence against them in court. The dogs' health will be monitored via surgically embedded computer chips. As a condition of allowing them back on the property, they are subject to random and unannounced inspection by the Sheriff's Dept., the state agriculture dept., and the Morrow County humane officer.

"(county prosecutor) Howard Hall said yesterday that he agreed to the arrangement because 'there was real concern for how these dogs should be handled.' Their seizure also resulted in an unforeseen expense to the county for care and upkeep. 'I thought it was appropriate to put some of the burden (of the cost) on the defendants,' he said.

. . . Hall has aked the Morrow County Common Pleas Court to issue an order to sell the property seized from the Yohos, which includes the land, a house, a barn, some vehicles and equipment in the buildings. Proceeds would benefit the sheriff's office, prosecutor's office and other law enforcement agencies."

It will be interesting to see whether other states follow, forcing individuals to pay the upkeep of seized property the gov't claims is now its own until such time as sale of the property can be arranged.

The Columbus Dispatch maintains a website at www.dispatch.com

Brent