[Dawson]

A friend of mine and I were the complainants involved in a cruelty case a couple of years ago that involved a dozen or so snakes. It took a friend and I two days of repeatedly calling the county sheriff's office, animal control, the district attorney's office - we repeatedly got the run around, people saying it wasn't their job or they simply didn't want to bother. The city cruelty officer said that his solution for cruelty against a snake would be 12 gauge buckshot. Most people said that if it was a cat, dog, or livestock they'd be all over it, but because it was snakes, no one cared - despite the fact that state law specifically includes reptiles in its cruelty statute. Finally we decided to call Fox news about it. Suddenly, about 15 minutes after Fox news was involved, the sheriff's office decided to cooperate and everything went smoothly from there - even though the sheriff was less than happy to be in front of a camera the whole time. It was absolutely stunning the reaction we were getting from people whose job it was to defend these animals. Even if they didn't believe us, they could have at least looked into it, but no one wanted to lift a finger.

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