The Cedarshake Shakedown

After I completed my first article on the Cedarshake Dachshund raid a day ago I sat back and contemplated the situation. I thought about money and I thought about compassion.  I thought about empathy.  I thought about my fellow man.  I believe we have lost our way as a people and a Nation. We don't have compassion for each other anymore.   We don't have empathy when something goes wrong.  Everything in our world is in sound bites. We think in preconceived ideas, biases, images that have been spoon fed to us. No one seems to have critical thinking skills anymore. Too many still think "rescue = God" and "dog breeder = Satan" and they make these pronouncements without bothering to find out any information on the target of their rage.  They seem to forget that there is good, bad, and shades of grey in any subset of society.

I don’t know the parties involved in this case so I can only make opinions based upon what I have read.  Make no mistake about that one, I read between the lines, suspect everything and look for proof.  What I know is that the Aguiars' of Cedarshake have bred Dachshunds for a number of years. How long, I’m not sure. The media certainly has provided no information on that and thanks to a massive media campaign destroying their lives, they have taken their website off the internet which might have given their side. The media doesn't care about the back story.  They don't care about the lives of the people they cover.  They just care how exploitative they can make this situation for advertising revenue. Now the (Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) MSPCA has stated that they investigated the Aguiars' three times between 2011 and 2013 and found no violations of the law of any kind. Now that says something to me. Something powerful. If there was anything to find, anything at all, they would have found it. They didn't.

In the many articles on this story, a number of people have come forward to testify at what a wonderful breeder Shirl Aguiar was over the years and talked her beautiful dogs and happy puppies. But it's not all roses and sunshine. Two people came forward to state that they did witness things that weren't quite up to snuff recently. Are these two women trustworthy? I don’t know but I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

The APHIS division of the USDA has stated that a good kennel can become a bad kennel in less than three weeks if "something" has happened. Maybe something has happened to the family. It's flu season. Maybe the Aguiar family has been ill. Maybe they've had a financial set back. Maybe a family situation has occurred with a relative which has taken all of their time recently. Who knows. The point is, whatever may or may not have been wrong with the Aguiar situation, it seems to have been of a recent and short term duration. 

Do we hang someone for that? Do we destroy their life for that? Do we traumatize their children for that? Do we make them unemployable for the rest of their lives for that?  Why weren't they given a warning, a notice of what was wrong, and time to clean up or fix anything that needed it?

Now MSPCA has stated that the temperaments of the dogs "seem to be friendly and sociable," health wise there is almost nothing wrong with them. MSPCA says they were "dirty."  And that old stand by of "feces and urine" though pictures of the dogs show clean and healthy looking animals.  Well you know what? It’s January! I’d be willing to bet that at least 70% of all animals who go outside are dirty at the moment. Cows in winter fields are dirty. Horses in winter pastures are dirty. Sheep grazing in winter fields are dirty. Goats are dirty. And yes, dogs who go outside, get dirty. It happens. It especially happens in winter and spring. It's natural. It's normal.

Was it the weather? Was it a family illness? Who knows! More importantly, who cares. The point is, whatever may or may not have happened, the end result is a families life has been degraded, dragged through the mud and ultimately destroyed over something as minor as a some dirt.  They will be financially devastated.  The Aguiar children will never forget witnessing a raid of their home. More than likely, they will never get over it. The MSPCA caused that. Was it worth it? I think not.

But what of the MSPCA? What's their story?  Turns out, all isn't sunshine and roses in their world either. For the MSPCA is a multi-millionaire.  Think about that.  How many dog breeders are multi-millionaires?  Any?  I doubt it.  Most dog breeders make minimum wage at best.  Many of them are forced to hold jobs outside the home to pay for having dogs since there is so little money to be made in breeding.  Yet in the Retail Rescue field it is common to run across multi-millionaires.  Of course their animals are in excellent condition, they are multi-millionaires.

Here's a break down of the MSPCA Corporation based upon their 2013 tax returns:

They have 557 employees.
They have 1,500 volunteers.
They have 450 foster homes (who take care of the animals for them). 
They own a 55 acre farm.
They own an animal hospital.
They operate four animal sales outlets.
In 2013, they sold 6,992 animals. 

Employees:
CEO Carter Luke received a salary of $346,800 and $147,337 in "other" compensation. 
VP of Human Resources Kathleen Collins received a salary of $203,650 and $109,415 in "other" compensation.
VP of Development Alice Bruce received a salary of $180,405 and other compensation of $20,446.
VP of Finance Amy Miller-Fredericks received a salary of $168,102 and other compensation of $31,185.

Even their VP of Strategic Planning makes more than the average American.  Joseph Silva pulled in a salary of $69,645 and other compensation of $49,066.

As for the staff of their animal hospital, the highest paid is Neurologist Allen Sisson who makes $386,383 with other compensation of $101,190.

These salaries are per year.

MSPCA also paid $943,254 in direct mail services to solicit you for more cash.  MSPCA earned $1,654,734 in interest on investment income.  And I could go on and on but I think you get my point.  

At the end of 2013, MSPCA pulled in $111,011,153 in assets.  Minus their liabilities (payroll, benefits, direct mail costs, etc), they have at least $96,233,423 sitting in the bank left over and doing nothing but earning interest. 

At the end of the day you have one small family with three children that went up against the power and might of the MSPCA who has more money in their stock portfolio than the Aguiars' will probably ever see in their entire lifetimes.

Was this a fair fight?  If the Aguiar's dogs were "dirty" couldn't the MSPCA have used some of their $96 Million they have just laying around in investment accounts to clean the dogs up and leave them where they were?  Or how about offering the services of some of those 1,500 volunteers?  Wouldn't that have been the compassionate thing to do?  

The Dog Fancy eats One of their Own

Retail Rescue Restocks their Sales Floor.

An anonymous tip recently led to the theft of 69 or 71 dachshunds under the color of law.  I say 69 or 71 because the thieves can't get their story straight.   

On January 6th, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSCPA), a private non-profit charity claims they took 69 dogs away from their legal owner, the Aguiars.   Yet in this article on the same day, they claim they took 71.  Can't they count?   Ask yourself this, why is a private non-profit charity committing an action of this kind.  Where are the police?  And why are they accepting an "anonymous" complaint?  That violates the United States Constitution which gives everyone of us the right to face our accusers.  

To back track and provide more information, Cedarshake Kennels is owned by Edward and Shirley Aguiar who run Shirls Whispering Winds Dachshunds. The kennel is a former boarding kennel which was resold in recent years to the Aguilars.  However, not long after the sale Ed lost his job.  Then Shirl's mother died in 2013.  But that's not all.  They had an enemy in Dachshunds who had been following them.   Animal rights activists love to exploit situations like this.  They want animal owners to be suffering, it makes them easy targets.  

"Halpin said the MSPCA visited the property three times between 2011 and 2013, but "no violations of the state's animal cruelty statute were identified at that time." He said, though, that he often encounters poor treatment of animals by owners who are not actually violating any laws."

This is what the Raid Force had to say now in January of 2015:  

"Sixty-nine dogs living in cages outside, under the radar?" he said. "I suspect that these dogs were all being bred for sale." MSPCA Public Relations Director Rob Halpin

69 again?  Why can't they get their story straight?  And what is this breeding under the radar charge?  The MSPCA knew they were there!  The MSCPA admits they visited them and as recently as 2013, found no violations of the law.  Ever wonder why an SCPA has a "Public Relations Director?"  Animal rights extremists and retail rescue con artists who make their living off of stolen dogs had a field day with this one.  They claim the breeder's home and kennel are a "traumatic environment."  Really?   They claim they are underweight and "matted" and the breeder's home was "dirty."  All subjective claims with no backing in the law.  If its a traumatic environment for them to live in a former boarding kennel, then why did the MSPCA say they were not violating the law in 2013?

Check this MSPCA photo out.  There are at least three dogs in the crate to the right.  If a dog breeder transported dogs like this, they'd be under arrest.  But when "rescue" does it, suddenly its all magical and good for the "poor babies." 

60 of the dogs were immediately shipped to Boston for resale.  11 stayed in Westminster at the 55 acre farm that was donated to the MSPCA.  Hundreds of people came out of the woodwork clamoring to buy one of these stolen dogs.   MSPCA of course is fundraising like no tomorrow off the situation.  At first they offered them for sale immediately.   Then after an uproar over how fast they were flipping the animals they have back tracked and now say they will be available in two weeks. 

Turns out, even the activists admit that all of the dogs are "friendly and sociable."  Not abused at all. 

Conflict of interest.  

MSPCA claims the animal owner "signed" over their dogs willingly.  Do you really believe that?   No animal owner faced with a group of armed thugs on their doorstep ever signs over anything willingly.   What normally happens in this case is that these thugs will threaten the owner with criminal charges unless they agree to give up their valuable property.  What the owner doesn't understand is... criminal charges are usually coming anyway.  

Thanks to MSPCA and their allies, a shitstorm has hit the Internet defaming a family and their children, who has had no chance to defend themselves.  This story is everywhere and people who have fallen for the animal rights terrorist claptrap have contacted the authorities to buy one of these "rescued" dogs leaving the authorities to announce that they don't have enough dogs to public meet demand.  These dogs were never at risk.  They were never abused.  They were stolen under the color of law to meet a public demand for "rescued" Dachshunds. 

Lest you think I'm being too harsh, I checked out the MSPCA Financials.  For the 2013 tax year, they had.... Now wait for it.... Wait for it....

They had $111,011,153 in assets.  

Get that?  They are fundraising like no tomorrow off this case claiming they desperately need donations to "care" for these poor abused dogs... yet they can't bother to use the 100 million dollars they have in the bank? What was all that money donated for?  If not for the animals?  Why were 3 dogs crammed into a single crate (as shown above) if the MSPCA has over a hundred million dollars in assets?  If conditions were "dirty" as they claim, why not spend that hundred million dollars on helping the Aguiars' clean their kennel up?  Wouldn't that be the more humane thing to do? 

Adding to the circle jerk of profiteers in this case is Mark Ransom. This article says that Mark Ransom who has a degree in the software industry is the animal control officer who took the dogs and then brought them to the Wachusett Animal Hospital. Sounds great right? Except Mark Ransom owns the Wachusett Animal Hospital. In fact, if you go on the Town of Westminster website, they actually link to his animal hospital giving his private business some sort of quasi-government approval.  In fact, this article claims that Mark Ransom approved the 2014 Cedarshake kennel license. 

Even more interesting is that this was not an official police investigation.  The Westminster Police Department was not involved at all.  The MSPCA and Mark Ransom did this raid all on their own.  It appears that Massachusetts has fallen under the trap that New Jersey and other states have, that being, they have outsourced their animal control law enforcement authority to private vigilante groups.  992 people "liked" the original story on MSCPA's Facebook page and asked them to conduct more raids just like this one, raid more breeders, and charge them all with criminal charges.  Just imagine if these people get their way, there will be no more dog breeders in America. 

A Concerned Citizen asked the Westminster PD about this case: 
 "This was not a Westminster Police investigation but we will try to answer your concerns. The MSPCA conducted an investigation concerning the health/wellness of the animals and the conditions of the kennel. There were no violations of the number of dogs due to a valid kennel license. I hope that answers your questions."

Amazing!  So they weren't "illegally breeding" after all, now were they?  To keep up the pressure, now the animal rights extremists have filed a complaint against the family with Child Services, a common tactic in these cases. 

Now you may wonder why this article was titled, The Dog Fancy eats One of their Own. Turns out fellow dog breeder Lori Darling of Red Oak Dachshunds in Texas has been trying to get the Aguiars' raided for the past seven years and has been following them from their past home to this one.  Was she the "anonymous" tip? Amazing enough, this woman has only been involved in Dachshunds for eight years.  So just one year after she got her very first Dachshund she was already calling Animal Control and trying to set up a fellow breeder for a raid.  Nice gal.  With friends like that, who needs enemies?



Lori Darling sounds just like the poodle breeders who set me up for a raid in 2010 because they were jealous of my lines and pissed that I wouldn't sell them a dog and beat them in the show ring. It's a sad day when ego leads fellow dog breeders to sell out others and become puppets to animal rights terrorists.

Dog owners nation-wide are waking to the illegal raids of dog breeders and they are fighting mad.  Click here, to read a petition demanding the return of the Cedarshake dogs to their rightful owner, the Aguiar family.