Prosecution.......of Americans?

When World War II ended I thought the prosecution of and other nationalities had come to an end. Unfortunately prosecution had just changed its face from the wolf to the wolf in sheeps clothing and here is my story.

My husband and I became the proud owners of three Thai Ridgeback dogs; we diligently cared for each dog. Our landlord thought the animals were beautiful and the neighborhood was buzzing with people wanting to know “what type of dog is that”. We diligently bought the top dog and house training books, jumping happily into turning our little girls into little ladies.

A year later I came down on orders to return to the US from Germany, suddenly problems started appearing out of the woodwork. Normaly problems are resolved through talking to the individual causing them. But the issues kept arrising. The land lord suddenly wanted to keep our deposit and fix the house himself. We had agreed to return the house in pre rental appearance. During the time I could not figure out what would cost over $2,000 of our deposite money to fix.

But this was just one issue at the time which seemed to fuel another through the same source, our land lord. My husband and I decided to take ST Patties day in Ireland. This totaled 4 days in all, the first time away from our children and dogs in over a year. We had a friend cover down on the dogs and our nanny to cover down on the children. All bases were covered or so we thought.

We were hours from flying back to Germany on the last day when my husbands’ cell phone rang. We could barely hear the voice on the other end but we knew it was our Nannies daughter. Walking quickly over to a window we tried to obtain better reception, she had said the police had come over to our house and taken something. We didn’t understand our stomach in our throat we hung up and called back. The land lord had called the German police because the puppies were crying and had asked them to take the dogs. Now the point to this is, the land lord had called the police while we were gone, unlocked the doors and then asked them to take the dogs. All this following our deposite dispute.

This was just the beginning of our problems; the animals were taken to the Tierheim (local pound) where the veterinarian checked them out prior to submission. What we were to find out later is that the veterinarian was almost fanatical in her assumptions that everyone must be abusing their animals, especially Americans. We moved out of our house the very next day, if the land lord can walk off with our money and the police can walk off with our animals, what is to say that the authorities can't walk off with our children.

Our Lawyer started giving us the information from the Tierheim, the vet was claiming that we were abusing our animals through malnutrition, reverse spiked collars and kennel training. We couldn’t believe our ears, malnutrition for one of our genetically thin dog "yet we were not thin. Reverse spiked collars for one of our dogs that had surgery to remove a genetic defect "but no marks on the other two." They even had the audacity to tell us me that my husband had been abusing one of the girls, yet oddly not the other two. The accusations were flying, yet the Vetrinarian knew nothing about the breed. She threatened max fine and taking the dogs away before we had returned from Ireland over the 4 day weekend.

We had our first and last sit down with the vet half a week later, we refuted every last one of her claims easily. There was one thing we couldn’t deny though, one thing that she thought was the most terribly horrible thing in the world, we had kennel trained the pups. That the dogs found the kennel comfortable and that they slept in them at night seemed absurd to her. When we informed her that the kennel was no different than what they had in Thailand she vehemently said that the Thai people eat their dogs and abuse them. I couldn't believe I had just been told that the Thai eat the Royal Dog of Thailand....

The vet thought we couldn't understand her but my husband caught several disturbing comment throughout the sit down by the vet. She wanted to make an example of us, thinking this would make up for all the Americans that must be abusing their animals at one of the local bases. A place she could not just walk into and take peoples animals away without talking to the Military Police. Despite that we had refuted her claims of abuse, her hate seemed to prevent her from doing the right thing. Returning the dogs to their loving owners.

We found her personality to be disturbing during the sit down. We found out later that this same vet had stopped pig trucks going to slaughter and fined the drivers for not having water in the trucks. She was also fining people for having fat dogs, yet she had told us personally that all animals should have an endless supply of food and water. She contradicted herself on several occasions but what could we do, nothing we said mattered as long as she could make an example of us.

We talked to JAG at the highest level, we were informed that we had no rights under the SOFA and if someone wanted to prosecute us under the guise of biaseness they could easily.

Several Days later, after the sit down we got the news, despite every refutal the vet offered only the option to leave the dogs pay the bill and go away. The dogs were not abused, yet she could not see herself giving them back to THE AMERICANS. The Lawyer stated he would take our case and represent us with a 100% chance of a win. After he outlined the cost; court costs $10,000, hotel fees $100 per day for two months, car rental $600 per month for two months, Husband not working, food, fuel, misc costs. Totaling almost $20,000 in fees exceeding the cost for the animals four fold. Just to prove we were right? We had to set our limit...knowing that we had tried is what we needed to move on.

Our lawyer informed us that he has never seen a woman like this before, so completely engolfed in prejudice.

We currently sit in the US, we have a beautiful kennel containing 3 pairs of TRDs. They own a 10x30 ft run with climate controlled building on 3.8 acres of land. The three other girls, if they have been addopted out, now live in an apartment about 500 sq ft in size.

CPT Jeanette Husman
4 April 2005
Darmstadt Germany