DROPPING THE FULL ARTICLE HERE!!
Last summer, after Waddles’ owner dropped him at the SPCA Tampa Bay, Pinellas County Animal Services charged the nonprofit with animal cruelty, alleging that it did not provide adequate shelter.
In July, a Pinellas judge ruled that the SPCA didn’t do anything wrong in its handling of the 350-pound pig.
Now, the SPCA’s lawyer says the litigation — which rallied people from across the country — caused “extensive damages” to the organization. He says the county should pay the SPCA $250,000.
“SPCA has been wronged and cannot let this go without some acknowledgment and compensation for its damages,” says the four-page letter to the county, written by attorney Alec Waid and dated Sept. 1. If the demand is not met, he wrote, the SPCA intends to “pursue federal claims.”
Because of publicity around the pig, he said, the SPCA had to increase security, pay crisis consultants, foot legal fees and hire public relations people. That totaled more than $280,000, according to Waid. Donations also dropped more than $575,000, the demand says.
If the county agrees to the payment, taxpayers would make up some of that loss in donations. The nonprofit’s annual budget is $8.6 million, with more than half coming from private donors.
The letter says the county mishandled the animal cruelty investigation and the charge was “a self-interested and retaliatory action taken at the expense of the rights of SPCA.”
The county disagrees.
Three days after receiving the demand, Managing Assistant County Attorney Christy Pemberton wrote to Waid that the county administrator found the investigation was handled properly, and there’s no evidence “that the County Attorney’s Office prosecuted the ordinance violation in bad faith.”
Initially, the letter states, the SPCA paid a fine, “thereby entering a guilty plea” to the animal cruelty charge. It goes on to claim that when the shelter’s leaders found out that could cause the SPCA to lose its license, they asked a judge to revoke the plea and took the case to court.
The county also claims that the SPCA’s lawyer withheld potentially exculpatory evidence until days before the trial — including the pig’s medical records. “Please let me know as soon as you are reasonably able whether you are withdrawing, modifying, or reasserting your demand for compensation so that the Commissioners can be appropriately advised,” Pemberton wrote.
“I doubt either of our clients wants to prolong the heated rhetoric regarding Waddles’ unfortunate circumstances longer than is necessary.”
The county attorney’s office said it can’t comment on pending litigation.
SPCA CEO Martha Boden and its lawyer did not return calls or emails from the Times. On Sept. 10, Waid replied to the county.
“After reviewing your letter and speaking with my client, we are not withdrawing the demand but welcome any response or counter-offer from the Board of County Commissioners.”
Both the SPCA and the county demanded additional evidence.
A couple of weeks after contacting the county, Waid wrote to the Tampa Bay Times’ attorneys about “the defamatory article you have published regarding my client’s handling of the pig, Waddles.”
Of the six stories the Times had published, he singled out the last one, about a children’s drawing contest sponsored by the newsroom. He demanded that the Times retract what he termed five “misleading and defamatory statements,” including: “A brown crayon scribble looked like a much-needed mud puddle.”
“If you refuse,” he wrote, “SPCA is prepared to pursue a civil action and the full measure of damages supported by the evidence.”
The Times’ lawyer, James Lake, said in a letter to Waid that the statements in question were true and pointed out that the same story included a link to the Times’ article about the judge ruling in favor of the SPCA.
Lake wrote, “Your letter does not provide any basis for any legal claim against the Times.”