I Was Arrested

 

(I took this selfie to send to Deb Quimby to thank her for the socks and the necklace for Christmas)

 

I woke up thinking about the kinds of questions Joe Exotic would just love to be able to ask me once I am called as a witness in his murder for hire trial.  He’s wanted to debate me for a decade now because he believes if he says something people will believe him.  I know he will insist that his attorney ask if I killed Don and will go on and on about it for as long as the judge will allow.  As part of that he’ll probably ask if I was arrested, and it turns out that I was actually arrested once.

 

I think it would have been around 1988, when my mother had told me that Chuck needed my house that they had built for me in Odessa a few years prior.  I had moved out, and Chuck moved in, but the house was still in my name.  Apparently the dog catcher cited Melissa (Chuck’s wife at the time) for not having a rabies tag on their dog.  The citation was to Ms. Stairs at 11306 Castleberry Road, Odessa, FL 33556.  When they never acted on the citation, it became a warrant.  See 8/11/1989.

 

When I buy houses at tax deed sales, and from foreclosure sales, I don’t get keys, so I have to break in and change the locks.  People would be astonished how easy it is to wiggle a window for a minute or two to make the latch come undone.  That’s what I was doing one day when a neighbor called the police.  When I gave the officer my driver’s license the outstanding warrant matched with my last name and the address.  They put me in the back of their cruiser and took me to jail, where I was finger printed and put in a holding cell while Don drove in separately to post my bond and bring evidence that we owned the home I was breaking in to.

 

I wasn’t there very long and I was held alone, so it wasn’t as terrifying as it could have been.  I’m claustrophobic so being in a cage and not being able to see out a window had me close to hyperventilating.  Don thought the whole thing was hilarious.  Now he could say he wasn’t the only jailbird in our family.  

 

I had my day in court.  Don didn’t come, nor did he offer to provide me with a lawyer.  I couldn’t afford one.  It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, because I represented us pro se all the time in evictions against our tenants and foreclosures because we both thought attorney’s were just too expensive and typically mucked things up to have more billable hours.

 

I was a single mom at the time and Jamie had to go to court with me.  She saw me cry in frustration at the situation.  That made Jamie cry.  I didn’t want to throw my brother under the bus so I pled that I’d never had a dog while living there and didn’t live at that address at the time, by showing electric bills and such from Lemon Street.  The case was dropped.  I don’t know if it was from the evidence or just because the judge didn’t want a mother and child crying over such a stupid warrant. 

 

In retrospect, how bizarre that you can be arrested for not having a rabies tag on a dog but no one has ever been arrested for not having a rabies shot on file for their tigers.  The law says that any possessed animal, capable of contracting rabies, must be vaccinated against it.  There are no rabies vaccines that have been tested effective on any wild animal and most places that keep big cats don’t vaccinate them at all because there is no evidence that the vaccines are effective.  We vaccinate all of our cats, big and small, but we are held to a much higher standard than the criminals we are trying to shut down. 

 

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  These are my views and opinions. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you have any interest in who I really am please start at the beginning of this playlist: http://savethecats.org/

 

I know there will be people who take things out of context and try to use them to validate their own misconception, but you have access to the whole story.  My hope is that others will recognize themselves in my words and have the strength to do what is right for themselves and our shared planet.  

 

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Music (if any) from Epidemic Sound (http://www.epidemicsound.com) This video is for entertainment purposes only and is my opinion.  Closing graphic with permission from https://youtu.be/F_AtgWMfwrk