Telling the truth: Republish 'Inside a Living Nightmare: Recap of Spindletop Raid

The following is the third of a series written by Cindy Marabito about the Spindletop raid. Five of the pieces were erroneously pulled by dog lawyer Zandra Anderson when she complained about the content. The American Pit Bull Examiner column stands by every single statement and has the evidence and sources to back it up.
Question for the dog lawyer and Spindletop group of regulars who seem to haunt the internet these days: do you truly believe the raid was a fairy tale created by the county and HSUS? According to pro-Spindletop internet postings, all of the dogs were well cared for and tossed into the loving arms of Leah and her Spindletop helpers by uncaring losers across the United States? It's all a big conspiracy.
The following article was printed July 23, 2012 and is being reprinted today. Whether one person reads it or a hundred makes no difference. The American Pit Bull Examiner is interested in printing the truth and saving animals. Period.

For those of you who still contend the stories are all made up fairy tales, linked below are the three rebuttals with every misspelled unfounded allegation from the dog lawyer clearly addressed.

http://doggirlpitbull.blogspot.com/2012/08/spindletop-dog-killers-try-to-shut-down.html

http://doggirlpitbull.blogspot.com/2012/08/texas-dog-lawyer-rebuttal-2.html

http://doggirlpitbull.blogspot.com/2012/08/rebuttal-texas-dog-lawyer-part-3.html

Regarding the several trolls from Leah's camp who think this situation is humorous, some of us do not consider mass death and animal abuse a laughing matter. Hopefully, the criminal court system will address the severity of your crimes.

"Inside a Living Nightmare: Recap of Spindletop Raid

Rescuers and common people from across the United States poured into the little courtroom with pictures and documentation to try and locate the dogs they'd spent unknown thousands of dollars to board at the Spindletop Rescue in Willis, Texas. Believed by all these good people to be a reputable and kindly refuge for sometimes troubled and abused dogs, these rescue groups and citizens truly believed their dogs were being cared for and made ready for adoption.

Most of us, including Reunion Rescue, posted the dogs on our websites and adoption accounts like Petfinder to try and secure loving homes for these dogs. Many of us drove for hours to reach Judge G. Trey Spikes courtroom. We were first warned to keep our mouths shut and behave by the on charge deputy. Many of us had already begun to receive hate mail and Facebook postings suggesting we, the rescuers, were the ones to blame for this tragic and horrible abuse. The event was beginning to smack and reminiscent of how victims are treated after being raped, as if they are the criminals.

We sat in the courtroom waiting. We spent the day waiting, many of us talking about our pets at Spindletop, not knowing if they are alive or dead. Stories began to surface that were terrifyingly similar. Leah Purcell had told many a story that their dog had been 'rescued and adopted by her friend down the road who had a ranch.' I, for one, began to feel like Shelley Duval in 'The Shining' when she read her crazed husband's manuscript which repeated, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," over and over for 500 some odd typewritten pages.

We continued to sit and wait. We saw Leah Purcell and her larger than life attorney, Texas Dog Lawyer, Zandra Anderson, parade through the room. They were followed by James 'Cowboy Mind' Brewer, the Spindletop treasurer so many of us Paypaled our monthly thousands and thousands of dollars. He sidled by us without a care in world in his Dumb and Dumber shirt. April was there, the sullen ranch hand who was supposed to help care for the animals. The hunched over mother, Louise Purcell, who had 80 dogs stacked in filthy crates throughout her house was in attendence. Looking at them was like watching rejects from 'The Hills Have Eyes' movie.

Constable Tim Holifield, the Montgomery County Precinct 3 adjunct spoke to us. He explained what might or might not happen. When HSUS involvement was mentioned, many of us shuddered. We'd read about other raids in which dogs had been euthanized that HSUS had a hand in. Again, when we expressed our fears, we were reminded that we placed the dogs in harm's way.

After several weddings and an excruciatingly long recess, we were herded back into the courtroom. Constable Holifield spoke to us again and explained what could happen. The entire time, Leah Purcell and her attorney, Zandra Anderson, Texas Dog Lawyer, were negotiating to lessen the charges. This is the same attorney who stood on the ground where our dogs, like Reunion Rescue's Stella were buried attempting to negotiate release of her dogs and Leah Purcell's personal dogs.

The DA assistant appeared and read the agreement. Leah Purcell will never again be able to operate a rescue in Mongomery County. She gets her own dogs and her family dogs back while the rest of us will have to wait to find out if our dogs are even alive or dead.

I received a call late last night that Batgirl is safe and I am waiting to hear from Animal Farm Foundation when I may drive to Conroe to the 'undisclosed site' and pick her up. Disturbingly, the group had notified another agency about Reunion Rescue's Batgirl one hour before I finally received an email.

With other big name pit bull groups already using this situation to network their organizations, this was alarming. We have witnessed many of these disasters go wrong with dogs as in the Katrina situation, being 'humanely euthanized' once the fundraising dried up.

While in the courtroom awaiting judgement, we heard hours of dialogue regarding how well the dogs were being cared for. Donations from national pet stores, money from giant HSUS, and other support was listed and applauded. I stood up at that point with a small reminder.

When our dogs were on death rows across the United States, taken from horrible abuse situations and off the mean streets of cities spanning the nation to be sent to Spindletop, nobody offered to help us save them. These dogs only had us, the people in this courtroom and their small supporters to help them get these dogs saved and into boarding.

While we much appreciate the kindness now that the nation's eyes are on the dogs and certainly do not want to belittle these acts, I have to ask where was all this support when these dogs were in distress and only had us? Where is the support for the millions in shelters right now who need our help?

This horrible event should be a huge wake up call for all of us. We, as I've stated ad nauseum in my articles, must begin to support our local rescue groups who are doing the work and saving the animals. We must think about where our dollars are going that are intended to save lives. Are they going to huge salaries, trips to talk about dogs at conferences with meals and plane rides, big ranches in lush California real estate and other frivolous and unnecessary interests? While somewhere between 6 and 9 million animals are being killed in our shelters, it is time for a huge wake up call.

Please share this story and follow the American Pit Bull Examiner for updates about Batgirl, Amber, Angel and all the other dogs confiscated and hoped to have survived through a living Texas nightmare.

Today, Leah Purcell picked up her own unaltered pit bulls and other dogs to take them 'home' with her. While she reunites with her own un-abused pets, the rest us us continue to wait for word whether our dogs are alive or dead.

Please email doggirl1@earthlink.net if you have a dog boarded at Spindletop. We are working to organize so that all dogs will be carefully tracked with photographs and proof of ownership.

Follow and 'like' Victims of Spindletop Raid on Facebook where our stories and dogs affected by this incident can be shared:

https://www.facebook.com/VictimsOfSpindletopRaid?ref=ts

Please share this story and follow the American Pit Bull Examiner for details about this situation.

Cindy Marabito of Reunion Rescue writes the American Pit Bull Examiner stories to save lives. Every click on a story donates to the animals

Reunion Rescue: http://www.reunionrescue.com

American Pit Bull Examiner:

http://www.examiner.com/american-pit-bull-in-national/cindy-marabito

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Check out Pit Bulls and Other Animals blog: http://doggirlpitbull.blogspot.com/

Author - Pit Bull Nation

Pit Bull Nation is a tell all book about rescuing pit bulls from death row for over twelve years.

Order Pit Bull Nation: http://www.pitbullnationonline.com

Now available in e-book and print."

According to one of the dog lawyer's complaints, the unaltered dogs picked up by Leah Purcell including Austin, Asia and Cooper, each pit bull breeds, were altered before the raid. Please furnish the date and vet records of the dogs' sterilizations and this article will be corrected. The American Pit Bull Examiner always reports the truth.

Please tune in tomorrow for the reprinting of the third article pulled by the dog lawyer. Trying to shut me up is like trying to control nature....think flood. I am from Beaumont, Texas, home of the real Spindletop gusher. 


Pictorial courtesy Montgomery County Police Reporter:
                      
                                                ...all dressed up and nowhere to go...