Archive for the ‘bonniebradshaw’ Category

​You may remember Bonnie Bradshaw, the woman who freed a raccoon she believed was overheated and dying in a live trap at a Richardson apartment complex. On that sweltering June afternoon, she thought she was doing the work of a Good Samaritan when she took the animal home, nursed it back to health and confiscated two traps. Instead, she got a summons for attempted theft when their owner pressed charges. At a jury trial in Richardson Municipal Court this morning, Bradshaw's attorney, Randy Turner (yes, that Randy Turner) tells Unfair Park the prosecution's heart just wasn't in this one. After pleading its case against his client, Turner made a motion for a directed verdict on the basis that there was no intent on Bradshaw's part to actually steal Critter Catcher owner Lon Menefee's traps. The judge granted the motion, and both Turner and Bradshaw said the supporter-packed audience erupted in cheers and applause like a scene straight out of a bad courtroom drama. "On the one hand, you could look at this and say it was a tremendous waste of tax dollars and a waste of time and effort," Bradshaw said, referring to the trial. "But it was an incredible opportunity for the general public to see how cruel these traps are. As a wildlife rehabilitator, we see horrible injuries in those traps on a regular basis." Asked if she would do the same thing again if she came across another animal in distress, Bradshaw replied, "You bet." No word on the animal cruelty charges against Menefee. His pretrial hearing is scheduled for Monday. He didn't respond by the time of this posting, but we'll update when we hear from him.

Christ, it's hot.​Here's a moral conundrum for you, Friends of Unfair Park: Do personal property rights trump the exigency of a wild animal dying in a live trap? Apparently, they trump each other, because when certified wild-animal rehabilitator Bonnie Bradshaw loosed a raccoon from pest-controller Lon Menefee's trap, each earned a trip to court to face...Class C misdemeanors. Yeah, so the stakes are low. Traffic-ticket low. But the essential question is interesting. Stacie Hughes noticed the large male raccoon in the live trap below her balcony before she left for work on the morning of June 23. She notified maintenance at the Richardson apartment complex and was told the animal would be handled. But when she came home at 7 that night, the raccoon was still in the trap. She splashed a little water on it, but it lay there listlessly after a full day spent exposed to the sun and triple-digit heat. So she looked up Bradshaw online and called her over. Bradshaw, a former Dallas Morning News general-assignment reporter, thought the raccoon looked moribund. "It was so overheated its tongue had turned purple from panting so hard," Bradshaw says. She took the animal home with her, re-hydrated it, kept it under observation for a few hours and released it near Hughes's complex. Bradshaw expected a call from the maintenance manager the next morning. Instead, she got a call from the Richardson police.

Christ, it's hot.​Here's a moral conundrum for you, Friends of Unfair Park: Do personal property rights trump the exigency of a wild animal dying in a live trap? Apparently, they trump each other, because when certified wild-animal rehabilitator Bonnie Bradshaw loosed a raccoon from pest-controller Lon Menefee's trap, each earned a trip to court to face...Class C misdemeanors. Yeah, so the stakes are low. Traffic-ticket low. But the essential question is interesting. Stacie Hughes noticed the large male raccoon in the live trap below her balcony before she left for work on the morning of June 23. She notified maintenance at the Richardson apartment complex and was told the animal would be handled. But when she came home at 7 that night, the raccoon was still in the trap. She splashed a little water on it, but it lay there listlessly after a full day spent exposed to the sun and triple-digit heat. So she looked up Bradshaw online and called her over. Bradshaw, a former Dallas Morning News general-assignment reporter, thought the raccoon looked moribund. "It was so overheated its tongue had turned purple from panting so hard," Bradshaw says. She took the animal, its trap and another empty trap home with her, re-hydrated the coon, kept it under observation for a few hours and released it near Hughes's complex. Bradshaw expected a call from the maintenance manager the next morning. Instead, she got a call from the Richardson police.