The puppy-powered drama centering around the Animal Kingdom Pet Shop finally maneuvered its way in small claims court. Like a tension-filled episode of Judge Judy, Animal Kingdom owner Adam Tipton and his fiancee Michelle Crook faced off against disgruntled puppy purchaser Jen Toste over $10,000 in a Grover Beach courtroom presided over by Commissioner Leslie Kraut—who is, by all accounts, much nicer that the daytime television judge.
Funny thing is, it actually could have been an episode of Judge Judy, which extended an invite to Toste, who declined to televise the little lawsuit over beloved Lola, a puppy Toste purchased from Animal Kingdom that ended up with thousands in medical bills over hip dysplasia. But I don’t blame you, Judy. This is a whopper, complete with puppy advocate activists in an ongoing war with a local pet shop. With just the right jabs from the television star, it could have spun out of control! Cute!
Toste sued the pet shop over claims of irresponsible breeding (or irresponsible sourcing). In the midst of defending itself, the pet kingdom decided it was done selling puppies! Thank god. If I have to listen to anymore drama over those pet fiefdoms, I’m probably just going to lose it.
Meanwhile, we’ve got Los Padres ForestWatch sounding the alarm over what it calls “commercial logging” operations happening in Los Padres National Forest. Nevermind the fact that the whole forest is basically a fire hazard and the state allocated millions of dollars to reduce that risk because there has been so much loss due to fires in the last two years. And that loss is more than just property damages. Hundreds of people have died.
The recently announced projects are intended to protect the mountain communities with the highest risk to future fires.
I’m all for a lively discussion about forest health and what projects are “good,” but keep the spin out of it. That’s what got us into this stupid mess in the first place. I’m pretty sure that the state calling out the Trump administration for talking about fracking on California’s public lands isn’t going to allow the federal government to clear cut its forests for monetary gain.
It’s more beneficial to everyone if you just tell it like it is. This argument simply comes down to this: ForestWatch doesn’t believe cutting down dead and dying trees in the national forest is going to reduce fire risk and Cal Fire does.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m going to have to go with the agency that fights fires.
The Canary is a spin doctor. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 2-9, 2019.
