Humane Society Ordered to Return Cats to Woman

A 3-year-old cat fight that pitted a 61-year-old Ojai widow against the Ventura County Humane Society and the district attorney’s office is over.

The widow won.

A judge Wednesday dismissed animal cruelty charges against Glenda Brunette and ordered the society to return 35 seized cats it has held since the raid.

The decision came three years after the Humane Society, a private nonprofit group, had led what an appeals court later ruled was an illegal raid on Brunette’s Fairview Road home.

Brunette had been charged with five misdemeanor animal neglect charges stemming from the June 1995 raid. In fighting the charges, she cited the unprecedented law enforcement powers granted the Humane Society by state law.

“It’s a great victory for justice and for the individual who chose to battle the government,” said Roger Jon Diamond, Brunette’s Santa Monica-based attorney. “It’s a very bizarre creature, this Humane Society. . . . They’re clothed with some governmental authority, but they don’t seem to be subject to any control.”

The Ojai-based group works closely with the county’s Animal Regulation Department, operates a shelter for unwanted animals and employs officers who investigate cases of alleged animal cruelty.

In Brunette’s case, the Humane Society said she had been selling cats that looked sick, with their eyes matted shut.

The raid on Brunette’s home fueled criticism of the society’s power, criticism that came to a head last fall when a group of society members urged the board to change its policies. However, a majority of members voted to leave the power in the hands of the board.

Brunette, who is pursuing a lawsuit in federal court against the Humane Society officers who conducted the raid, was exultant.

“I never dreamed what I was up against,” she said. “It’s really been an experience that I could never have imagined, that’s for sure.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Denise Payne said Wednesday that Brunette got off on a “technicality.”

“In my view, the case never went to trial on the merits,” she said. “As of 1995, Humane Society officers were not empowered to execute the search warrant. . . . It was a legal technicality.”

Humane Society officers no longer execute search warrants in the county, the district attorney’s office has said.

Humane Society officials did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment.

The group of animal activists who unsuccessfully sought to revamp the society last year pointed to Brunette’s case as an example of the wide-ranging powers wielded by a private group that operates with little public scrutiny.

A Times review of income-tax statements showed that the group had a multimillion-dollar bank account, yet spent comparatively little on animal programs.

Critics also said the society uses intimidation tactics, and cited the raid on Brunette’s 11-acre avocado farm, when the Humane Society led armed sheriff’s deputies and county code enforcement officers to the property and cut the chain on a locked gate.

Diamond said he was surprised by how aggressively the district attorney’s office pursued a relatively minor misdemeanor case. The case had been set for trial in April.

“I can’t believe how they fought this,” Diamond said. “One would think they would let her alone.”

Payne recommended to her superiors that the office drop the case after concluding that the illegal search meant that no admissible evidence remained.

On Friday, Brunette plans to pick up--or have someone else pick up--the cats, which have been kept in two small rooms at the Humane Society’s offices since the raid. Brunette said she is still afraid of the Humane Society after her lengthy ordeal.

Whether the society can still collect money from Brunette for caring for her cats is unclear.

Diamond maintains that the group cannot, since the animals were illegally seized in the first place.

However, Brunette said, the organization presented her with a $4,500 bill after returning a dog and a dozen ducks to her a year after they were seized in the same raid. The animals were returned because they were not included in the alleged animal neglect case. The bill remains unpaid.

Brunette said she has no regrets about taking on the system.

“I want to make people aware that the Humane Society doesn’t have the right to do this,” she said. “I hope that helps people who are having the same thing done to them.”