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OPEN LINE FRIDAY (4/29/05)
Announcements
1. Meetings
- Fairfax/Northern Virginia
The Fairfax/Northern Virginia meeting of VVAW will be held on Saturday, May 7, 2005 from 11am to 1pm in the McLean Governmental Center community room.
The address is: 1437 Balls Hill Road, McLean, VA 22101
- Manassas
We have decided to consolidate the Manassas meeting, originally scheduled for Sunday, May 22, 2005 with the Fairfax/Northern Virginia meeting, so the Manassas meeting for May 22 has been cancelled.
We ask those of you who had signed up for the Manassas meeting to join us in Fairfax on May 7 instead.
For those of you who have already said you are coming, thank you!
For those who have not, if you wish to attend the Fairfax meeting, please email us at LSClancy@crosslink.net and let us know you will be coming. Please bring a friend!
2. Brochures
- Brochures have become a wonderful recruiting tool, not only spreading the word about VVAW, but encouraging people to join VVAW.
- The current brouchure (revised this week) can be viewed/downloaded from here: Brochure
- We will have brochures at the Fairfax/Northern Virginia meeting.
You can pick up a sample then, or if you want to order them for delivery at the 5/7 meeting, let us know how many you would like and how you want contact information to appear (it can be your name/phone number/email, or ours).
- Thank you to the many of you who have already ordered brochures.
This week's articles:
This week we are highlighting a facility still using the gas chamber - Chesterfield County. For some background, we have posted the animal records for the Chesterfield County Pound for 2000 - 2003 (pdf file). Pay special attention to the number of animals who "died" in 2003. These are not animals who were euthanized, but simply died in the runs, typically because of a lack of veterinary care or because of fighting.
In 2003, the total number of dogs and cats who "died" at county-run facilities across the State was 1,547. The Chesterfield County pound ALONE accounted for 525 of those deaths - 33.9% of total. This illustrates just one aspect of the problems in Chesterfield.
As many know, Eileen McAfee has been working very hard to expose and correct problems at the Chesterfield County pound. Recently when she and a group of eyewitnesses to problems raised these issues with the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, she was met with hostility and the Board actually had her escorted out of the meeting.
Below are two letters. The first was written by Eileen McAfee. The second was written by her husband, Don McAfee, though at the time, Eileen had no idea he had sent it to the Chesterfield Observer.
This disturbing situation should make you angry. Following the letters are some action items that we hope all of you will take the time to do.
Letter to the Chesterfield Observer - by Eileen McAfee
This is a Letter to the Editor of the Chesterfield Observer which has printed many stories on the problems at the Chesterfield County Animal Pound - a locality about 20 miles from where I live and whose pound I have been trying to get "fixed" since 8/04 when I first met with police officials. (The Pound is managed by a captain in the Police Dept.) The story below is only a fraction of what they have done to malign me.
At the meeting, one of the Board Members called me a "liar". I took solace in the fact that another Board Member also said the Observer lied as well. (The newspaper just won a 1st Place Award by the VA Press Association for their stories on the pound.)
On 4/13/05 when we entered the very large, beautifully-appointed Board Room (something like you would picture on the "Hill" in D.C.), to make our presentation to the Board of Supervisors on the animal pound, we were overwhelmed by the huge contingent of Police personnel: The upper echelons were in what appeared to be full military regalia - with uniforms decked out with badges and medals. Plainclothes detectives and regular uniformed police officers were also in attendance. No doubt all were armed. Such a show of force felt very intimidating.
We were a group of about 40; many were older, retired, white haired ladies, faithful supporters of my efforts, some even dating back to 1999 when I took on the City of Richmond's pound.) We were all nicely dressed and presentable.
After presentations by 6 of us, we were immediately portrayed by the Board as animal rights terrorists. I was personally attacked by a Board Member for his not having seen me "down at the General Assembly opposing partial-birth abortion" which he stated is an "abomination". Never mind that our presentations had nothing to do with this topic, nor anything close to it. For asking, "Why are we even talking about this?", Board Member Kelly Miller ordered the bailiff to "Remove" me.
None of the Board Members had ever laid eyes on me prior to this afternoon. Nonetheless, they quickly determined I was a violent terrorist, a person of no character and a person of despicable low moral and spiritual beliefs.
Here is my Letter to the Editor:
______________________________________________________________________________
In 1999, to silence my criticism about deplorable conditions and practices occurring in the City of Richmond pound, City officials maliciously and very publicly accused me of "racism" - among many other actions to defame me and destroy my credibility. They sent this false accusation far and wide all the way up to the Governor.
Unbeknownst to them at the time, I had worked for L.A. County DPSS (welfare dept.) for many years. My AFDC caseload of 140 families (the equivalent of 700 individuals), was 95% minorities. I held degrees in Criminal Justice and Social Work.
I sued the City for defamation. During Settlement Conferences, the City tried to get me to drop my charges of Perjury, Witness Tampering and Obstruction of Justice against the Pound Manager (all of which occurred during the course of litigation and the City's determination to "win at any cost"), by stating the Pound Manager was "a single Mother" - give her a break.
Unbeknownst to them, I had raised my child completely alone from the time she was 16 mo. old until age 20, when I remarried. I worked and/or went to school full time to support us. Being a "single Mother" does not equate to a privilege to break the law.
When my daughter was 10, I went to college. I received 2 degrees in 3 years and graduated Magna cum Laude with plans to immediately enter graduate school to pursue MSW's in Social Work and Gerontology. (If there were 2 of me, I would take on the treatment of patients in nursing homes which is often very similar to the treatment of animals in pounds/shelters across the nation.)
My daughter's diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma (bone cancer), at age 13 put these plans on hold.
On 4/13/05, I (and others) was maliciously maligned as an animal rights terrorist by the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors. I was portrayed as someone who would "firebomb" animal labs, release the animals, throw blood on people wearing fur coats, and do something in "boats" (I'm not sure what - only that it was something very bad.) The pound Vet, Dr. David Dunnavant, opened his remarks to the Board with the statement he "feared for his safety and that of his staff", though no Board member ever asked "Why?"
Unbeknownst to my current accusers, my husband, Dr. Donald McAfee, is a Neuroscientist, a Professor of Pharmacology and a "pharmaceutical executive". For the last 14 years, among many other projects, he has worked laboriously on taking a single molecule from "the bench to market". This drug, which targets Parkinson's Disease, is now in its final stages and will be available to the public in about 2 years. It has been tested in thousands of patients across the U.S. and Europe. So effective is it in releasing patients from their "frozen" bodies, the FDA has allowed these "test" patients to continue to receive it, a rare occurrence when a clinical trial ends.
Unbeknownst to my current accusers, I worked as a Social Worker in Oncology in a major cancer research hospital. "My" hospital's animal facilities were broken into by the ALF (Animal Liberation Front). The animals were taken and some of the labs destroyed. Years of research suffered.
We were all outraged by the ALF's unconscionable actions, seeing them as ultimately harming patients who otherwise would have benefited from the fruits of this now-destroyed research. We spoke out to the media and decried the ALF's vicious acts. We felt personally insulted and personally attacked by ALF's allegations of wrongdoing by "our" hospital. We dug in our heels, adopting the attitude that we were right and our accusers wrong.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, this would be my awakening to how animals are treated in some research laboratories and, eventually, my knowledge about the mistreatment of animals in many pounds and shelters.
Ultimately, the Federal government stepped in and investigated practices in our hospital's labs. Federal grant money was suspended. New guidelines for animal care were instituted and the physical environment for the animals upgraded. Gradually, very gradually, our attitudes changed about who was right and who was wrong, though I don't like to use the terms "right and wrong" in a situation like this. It was more of a need to open our minds and allow ourselves to be educated about the problems in order to fix them.
I am known for my phrase "I'm not stopping!" This commitment came about as a result of watching Jill, my precious child, my only child, dying. This once physically beautiful adolescent (to say nothing of her inner beauty and grace), lay face down on the floor one night in the bedroom we shared. She was too sick to sleep in her own room, alone. Her skeletal body, partially paralyzed on one side, and her bald head, once covered with waist-length blonde hair, made her almost unrecognizable to me. She couldn't speak. She slowly raised one hand off the rug and tapped the floor with it. She gently shook her head back and forth - I knew what she was trying to tell me -"no, no...No more; I can't go through any more", and I knew it was time to let her go. She had suffered enough; the treatment had become worse than the disease. If my heart could break any more than it already had throughout ! our long journey which brought us to the point we were that night - laying on the rug together, alone -then I guess it did. I held her frail body in my arms; both of us quietly sobbing; we had no strength left.
Unbeknownst to me, an inner, spiritual strength I didn't even know I possessed, started welling up in me. My feelings of resignation and acceptance of the inevitable were replaced with a powerful sense of determination and commitment. I wasn't going to stop; I wasn't going to give up. I sat up and with a voice of confidence and hope, told my daughter, "I'm not stopping! I may lose you to cancer, but I'm not going to lose you because we didn't do everything we could to save you!"
I may not be successful in helping to remedy the problems at the Chesterfield County Pound, but it won't be for lack of trying.
My daughter survived; she is married, has 3 little children, works for several European government agencies as a bioterrorism consultant and will receive her Doctorate in Political Science this year. We are very lucky...and Blessed.
As for my husband, despite Board Members Renny Bush-Humphrey, "Dickie" King and Kelly Miller's vicious attacks on me at the Board Meeting, were they stricken with Parkinson's Disease, he would be there to offer them information about the disease and about "his" drug. He would only ask one thing in return: Keep an open mind to what you are hearing from your critics. Can they all be wrong?
Eileen McAfee
Letter to the Chesterfield Observer - Don McAfee
The hallmark of a wise leader or a good government is one that listens carefully to those governed. It follows that bad government doesn't listen, but how would you describe a government so arrogant that not only will it not listen to the message, it shoots the messenger. Sadam Hussein led such a government and we are now fighting a war to bring the "American Way" to Iraq.
Last Wednesday night the Chesterfield County Supervisors took aim and fired both barrels at animal welfare advocate, Eileen McAfee. She had worked behind the scenes for several months with County police and bureaucrats, in an effort to get them to reform and train staff at the County animal shelter in order to stop practices that were sometime inhumane and even illegal.
Frustrated by a negative response, she prepared detailed documentation and led a group of eyewitnesses to last Wednesday's Supervisors meeting to publicly make her case for the shelter animals, pointing out these problems have been going on for at least a decade. If the supervisors did not want to rely on her or eyewitnesses, she suggested that the County bring in the Humane Society of the United States, a professional organization that provides a nationwide service to evaluate and recommend shelter policy and training. The Supervisors responded to her short composed and reasoned presentation with a shocking, angry, loud diatribe, supported by a number of unscheduled speakers. They falsely accused her of vicious correspondence, acts of extremism and dishonesty, and in a final bizarre scene, a Supervisor berated her for her lack of activism on partial birth abortion. When my bewildered wife ask! ed why they were talking about that, she was shown the “American Way” and escorted from the hall.
OK, Chesterfield County is not Iraq where they did shoot the messengers, but what kind of a government do you have when it uses its power and authority to revile and destroy the reputation of a citizen while denying and denying and then rejecting independent review. If I were a resident of Chesterfield County, I would be ashamed of my leadership and I would be wanting some new faces in power to replace the good old boys who have grown arrogant and repressive. But I am not a resident, I am simply the husband of a sensitive and committed woman with a passion for speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Donald A. McAfee, PhD
Henrico County
Action Items
1. Write to your Virginia Delegate and Senator, and say:
- you want gas chambers outlawed in Virginia
- you want better supervision and inspection of public pounds
Not sure who your delegate or senator is? Just click on the link below, and enter your address, and you will get their names and full contact information:
http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform
2. Write to the State Veterinarian and tell him that the problems in Chesterfield and other public facilities are intolerable.
Richard Wilkes, DVM
State Veterinarian
1100 Bank Street
Richmond, VA 23219
Richard.Wilkes@vdacs.virginia.gov
3. Write to the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors.
Explain to them that an affluent county like Chesterfield that treats its citizens and animals with contempt is unacceptable. As a Virginian, even if not a resident of Chesterfield, you want them to uphold Virginia law.
Full contact information for the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors is here:
http://www.co.chesterfield.va.us/BoardofSupervisors/boshome.asp
4. Send a copy of the letter to your board of supervisors.
5. Send a copy of the letter your local paper, to the Chesterfield Observer, and to the Richmond Times Democrat.
6. And finally, send a copy of your letter to us at LSClancy@crosslink.net
Thank you.