I thought that I’d share this article with everyone, and urge you to
write
officials from Dane County and the DNR to express your dissatisfaction.
We
cannot let radicals like PETA and the Humane Society play games such as
this. The impacts to this man’s career are stunning to say the least.
This
this is way too much!! Please read on……
Here is Lee Kernen’s column for 3/15/2002 (Outdoor News)
Why I’m ashamed to live in Dane County
Although we live far from “La-La” land in California and the citified
reaches of the east coast, animal rights zealots have struck right here
in
Dane County. An emotional Humane Society officer and an apparently
clueless
Dane County district attorney have combined to issue a criminal
complaint
against DNR fish hatchery supervisor John Komassa for doing his job and
killing a feral cat. He has been charged with mistreatment of animals in
Dane County Circuit Court. Let me share with you the facts of this
incident
and see what you think.
John is the 37-year-old supervisor of the Nevin Fish Hatchery, located
south
of Madison. On Nov. 17, 2001, he was checking on 350,000 wild brook and
brown trout eggs that were incubating in batteries in the fish-rearing
area
of the hatchery building when he saw a cat. It had no collar and he
tried to
“shoo” (not shoot) the animal out the double door he had opened. After
trying for five minutes, he lost sight of the cat and thought it had
left.
He looked again the following day because he was worried the cat might
accidentally run over an electric cord and cut power to the equipment,
or
even knock the batteries over, thereby jeopardizing the trout eggs which
were collected at great effort and expense. But he didn’t see the cat or
any
evidence that it was still in the building.
But the third day, Nov. 19, John got to the hatchery at 5:30 a.m. and
saw
pools of urine and some feces, a tipped over garbage can and a bag of
trout
pellet food that had been torn open. Some food had been eaten. He
searched
again and eventually flushed the cat and tried to chase it out an open
door
again, but it wouldn’t leave the building. He had it in a dip net
momentarily, but it escaped and ran into the furnace boiler room, where
John
closed the door behind it. He then donned a pair of heavy leather gloves
and
attempted to grab the cat and put it outside. As he got it by the scruff
of
the neck in his right hand, the cat twisted and bit him on his left
hand. He
dropped it to examine his wound. Just as he feared, he was bleeding and
now
was worried the animal was rabid.
John knew that a rabies test requires a brain sample from the dead
animal.
Fearful the animal might escape, he picked up a short piece of square,
hollow, aluminum “tubing” and struck the cat a few times until it was
still.
He did not beat the cat, but tried to kill it as quickly as possible. He
then called the animal control office to get the animal tested for
rabies,
and a Fitchburg police officer came and got it. Meanwhile, he went to
the
urgent care clinic and had his bite wound disinfected and he was given a
10-day supply of antibiotic to take home. He cleaned up the hatchery
immediately and the next day was visited by Humane Society officer Cheri
Carr, who came to write up the incident. Little did he know that she
would
become his accuser.
Two days later John received word the cat was not rabid. He went on with
his
life of rearing fish for the anglers of Wisconsin. But, on Dec. 20,
2001,
John received a summons at his house from a Dane County Sheriff’s
Department
deputy. It charged John with the crime of mistreatment of animals. This
is a
Class A misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $10,000 and up to nine months
in
jail.
Because this is a criminal charge, John can’t even get any help from the
DNR
or Department of Justice attorneys. He had to hire his own attorney and
is
already out $3,500.
What kind of man is John Komassa? He has always loved animals and he
used to
work with the large cats — tigers, etc. — in the Milwaukee zoo before he
came to work for DNR. John and his wife have a pet cat in their home.
They
got it from a Verona veterinary clinic because it was homeless — just a
month before the incident at the hatchery with the feral cat.
Meanwhile, across the nation, animal rights zealots and PETA members who
don
’t know the whole story are calling for John to be fired. Over 150
letters
and 50 e-mails from around the world have gone to the DNR’s
South-Central
region headquarters. The e-mails claim that John used an aluminum
baseball
bat to do the cat in, implying he is some sort of monster — all of which
is
complete fabrication. No one has written in on John’s behalf. Are these
messages from California and other distant states the cause of the
unwillingness of Dane County to just drop the case and get on with more
important activities?
John isn’t sleeping well these days. If the case goes to trial and he
loses,
he also will have a huge legal fee. Still, he’s innocent and doesn’t
want to
admit to something he did while doing his job, protecting our fish.
If John Komassa gets tagged with a conviction on this case, it will have
far-reaching implications on all DNR hatcheries and the Poynette Game
Farm.
Employees will be afraid to protect our investments. I truly hope this
ends
on a high note for John, but if it doesn’t, I’m going to start a fund to
pay
for his legal fees and I hope many of you readers will pitch in.
Meanwhile, Dane County is overrun with an estimated 80,000 feral cats. A
California “pet rescue” foundation has given money to have Dane County
vets
spay and neuter these wild cats. The goal is to do 1,000 of them in the
first year, and then they will be released back into the wild! To kill
another several thousand song birds and small mammals! Now do you see
why I’
m ashamed?
Lee Kernen of Madison is the state’s former fisheries director.
