On his case

Randy Long hasn't gotten the reaction he had anticipated after telling his story about his Akita Adoption and Rescue of Mid America in Williamsburg, Kan., to PitchWeekly ("Disposable Pets," March 2-8).

"It really hasn't done me any good as far as calls with offers to help the plight of these dogs. I have gotten more calls of people wanting to relinquish ownership, which is sad because I am full here, so I have had to find more homes than ever before," Long says.

But what he says about sent him over the edge was an April 20 visit by two inspectors from the Kansas Animal Health Department. The state agency licenses animal rescues and shelters in Kansas under the Kansas Pet Animal Act.

"I was working on the computer that morning and I heard the dogs barking," Long recalls. "I looked out and saw a truck with state tags with two people sitting in it. I was still in my robe but ran out and asked them where my letter was that I was to have received before this inspection."

Long says the inspectors -- Debbie Spezia, who normally visits his rescue facility, and her supervisor, Carmen Simon -- presented him with a letter dated April 12, 2000, and signed by Debra S. Duncan, director of Kansas' animal facilities program. It was the first time Long had seen the letter, and he wondered why it hadn't been mailed before the on-site inspection. "I have given them my change of address at least a dozen times," he says.

The letter listed violations Spezia had noted on the property since Jan. 11, 1999, and contained a new violation concerning cattle panel fencing for Long's dog runs. Long says he had previously received an exemption on the cattle panel after a telephone conversation with Duncan in late 1999. Now the April 12 letter required Long to reinforce the panels with secondary fencing.

It stated: "Mr. Long, you will recall our telephone conversation after you received your official warning (dated Oct. 5, 1999). You were particularly adamant that the cattle panel was good for your dogs. You said they like to visit each other through the wire and that it is harmless. I said that I would give you an exemption on the cattle panel. At that time, I didn't realize that your dogs could put their heads entirely through the wire. I immediately recognized your facility on the cover of PitchWeekly -- and the dog was doing exactly that. I am sorry to go back on our agreement, but we are going to require you to use some type of secondary wire. We will allow you four months, until the end of August, to complete this correction."

To Long, the letter was the state's reacting to his animal rights activism. "This is nothing but pure and simple harassment of me by the state because I am an outspoken opponent to their sanctioning of puppy mill operations in this state," he retorts. "They don't like what I say because it hits too close to home when I tell them that they are part of perpetuating the problem of pet overpopulation -- not just in this state, but in the country."

After he got the letter, Long says, Simon called Duncan on her cell phone. When Long eventually got on the phone with Duncan, he admittedly was very upset. But he also says their conversation twisted off the issue of cattle panels to the PitchWeekly article and its mentioning of the Nielsen Farm puppy mill. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cited that operation for violations of the Animal Welfare Act and was highlighted in an NBC Dateline exposé on the puppy mill industry.

"I told her I didn't have anything to do with turning you (PitchWeekly) on to the Nielsens'; I hadn't even heard of them until I read the story. But I did ask why a state agency such as hers, that was supposed to be protecting animals, was defending the Nielsens to me, when I am trying to save animals discarded by places like that," Long says.

After the conversation with Duncan, Long says, he accompanied Spezia and Simon on a partial inspection of his property, but after several comments about the dogs, such as one's being overweight, which Long says he interpreted as rude, he asked Spezia and Simon to leave his property. "They were just looking to antagonize me and looking for anything they could as far as what they consider violations," he says.

Duncan refused to allow Spezia or Simon to be interviewed for this article.

Long has disagreed with the way officials have interpreted state animal welfare laws since January '99, when he moved his rescue operation from Missouri to Kansas. He says that when he lived and operated in rural Missouri, the state required no licenses, and he was surprised to find that Kansas regulated people who tried to find homes for unwanted and abused animals.