Animal activist questions King's commentary

Dear Editor,

I would like to respond to Supervisor Dickie King's "Commentary" (Jan. 17). Mr. King credits citizen input for bringing about much needed change in Chesterfield's policy governing public comments at county meetings. I'm afraid it was a little more involved than that. A ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court prohibited policies, like Chesterfield's, from continuing to violate citizens' rights to free speech.

It should not have taken citizen input or a court ruling to force Chesterfield officials to comply with the most basic of rights in a democracy - the First Amendment. Good government itself would never have allowed such policies.

While seeming to applaud citizen dissent over restrictive speech practices, in the next breath Mr. King does an about face and decries "activists," stating it was "difficult" to listen to them. He goes on to invalidate their speech as "uninformed" and "distorted" and even used the word "scary" to describe some of his experiences as chairman of the board.

I was one of those "activists," having spoken out about deplorable conditions at the county animal pound. I provided the board, the police department and the Commonwealth Attorney's Office with irrefutable eyewitness accounts, photographs and documentation by state officials of the abuse. If what I presented was untrue, why were major changes made at the pound? Why, for example, has the number of animals found dead in their cages decreased from 481 in 2004 (more than 10 times the rate of similar-sized pounds throughout the state) to 207 in 2006? Why has the transfer of animals to rescuers for adoption increased 700 percent during the same period? (Data provided by the Office of the State Veterinarian.) While I am grateful for the changes, if nothing was wrong, why was it fixed?

Sadly, for my activism, I became the target of a criminal investigation instigated by Captain Thierry Dupuis of the Chesterfield Police Department. In an e-mail to Commonwealth Attorney Billy Davenport, Dupuis asked for his "help" in figuring out something to charge me with "other than civil." Now that is what I would call "scary."

Wisely, I was never charged with a crime, though many aspects of my life and finances were scrutinized.

Eileen McAfee

Henrico County