Target: JoAnna McClinton, Speaker of Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Goal: Prevent people accused of animal cruelty from financially or otherwise profiting from their charges.
In 2022, over 200 animals were seized from a farm in Erie, Pennsylvania. Most of the animals reportedly needed medical care, and several of them went to new homes. Now, due to audacious demands from their accused abuser, these animals’ lives could once again be upended.
Gregory Havican faced 100-plus animal cruelty charges in the wake of the investigation into his farm. But because of legal loopholes that led to suppression of key evidence, all charges were ultimately dismissed. In short order, new caretakers of the rehomed animals began receiving notices that their beloved pets could be taken away; Havican had filed a request for “return of property.” While Havican’s legal team has since claimed that he does not want the animals returned to him, the idea that this request could become a reality is outrageous enough. More outrageous still, Havican is demanding “fair market value” – or cash reimbursement – for the very animals he was accused of neglecting and abusing.
Sign the petition below to demand state lawmakers amend existing legislation to ensure such potential injustices never happen again.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Speaker McClinton,
“We did what was best for the animals. We received a call from the state police for assistance in giving them the immediate medical care that they needed. That’s what we did. At the end of the day, I thought there was no way that an animal would go back into that situation.” The director of an Erie County animal shelter said the preceding in response to reports that a man accused of neglecting and abusing 200-plus animals on his farm either wanted the animals back or wanted “fair market value” for these rehomed living beings.
The very notion that these animals could go back into an allegedly abusive environment because of legal technicalities is unconscionable. And the idea of paying an accused abuser – when countless funds were spent to care for and shelter the animals that were seized from his residence – is even more so. Whatever changes or amendments that need to be made to existing state animal cruelty statutes to prevent these opportunities for exploitation from ever arising again, please make them at once.
These animals – and all like them – don’t deserve to be treated like bargaining chips. They deserve security, stability, and love.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Lukas Kosc
