Lied sues Dewey, animal groups

Friday, Oct. 4, 2002 | 11 a.m.

The operator of the Lied Animal Shelter filed a defamation and racketeering lawsuit against another shelter and other animal welfare groups in connection with a possible new regional animal facility.

The non-profit Animal Foundation, in its lawsuit filed Thursday in Clark County District Court, alleged that the for-profit Dewey Animal Care Center has "orchestrated and overseen a plan of intentionally disseminating false and/or misleading information about the Animal Foundation to gain an unfair competitive advantage."

Other defendants include Media Partners For Pets and its president, Ann Herrington, Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and its president, Jennifer Palombi, and director, Doug Duke, Dewey president and veterinarian Joseph Freer, and AFT, a Nevada partnership.

The foundation, which provides services for the city of Las Vegas, stated that it and Dewey -- which provides an animal shelter for the county and North Las Vegas -- are competing for a $15 million animal shelter contract from the county that is to begin in 2005. Dewey's contracts with both the county and North Las Vegas expire in 2005.

The foundation alleged that the defendants broke state laws and engaged in "intentional interference with contractual relations" in an effort to win the new county contract. The county plans to make a decision on a potential new regional pet shelter by the end of the year.

A central part of the lawsuit has to do with a lease that the Nevada SPCA, an animal adoption group, signed with Dewey and landlord AFT on Oct. 21, 1996, involving property at 4800 W. Dewey Drive. That's the location of both the Dewey shelter and the SPCA facility.

The lease stipulated that the Nevada SPCA is to assist Dewey in "requesting from Clark County an extension of time on the contract between Clark County and Dewey for animal shelter services for an additional three, five year periods (a total possibility of 15 additional) following the expiration of the current contract between Clark County and Dewey."

The lease also stipulated that within 12 months of its execution, "SPCA will assist Dewey in whatever reasonable means are necessary and appropriate for Dewey to acquire the animal shelter contract of the City of Las Vegas."

At the time the lease was signed, the foundation still had nine years left on its contract with the city of Las Vegas. The city awarded the 10-year contract to the foundation in 1995 after discontinuing its affiliation with Dewey because the latter was located outside city limits. Dewey went to court to try to regain the Las Vegas contract but lost.

The relationship between Dewey and the foundation -- which is chaired by Janie Greenspun Gale, a part of the Greenspun family that owns the Las Vegas Sun -- has been chilly ever since. The Nevada SPCA in recent weeks has been critical of the foundation, alleging that the Lied shelter has violated a policy against killing healthy and friendly animals, something the foundation denies.

But Palombi previously said that she never complained publicly about problems at Dewey -- which have included county complaints about roof leaks, mold and failure to maintain reasonable kennel temperatures during the summer and winter -- because she chose instead to discuss problems with Dewey privately.

She also said the provision of the lease indicating her organization would assist Dewey has never been enforced.

"I don't know why that's still in there," Palombi said. "They have never asked us to politick for them."

Duke, a former Lied shelter employee, said during a recent interview that his public statements against the foundation in his capacity as director of the Nevada SPCA had nothing to do with the lease. He has said the foundation does not deserve to run a regional animal shelter.

"We joined every other animal group in opposing this because of the fraudulent and failed past of the Animal Foundation," Duke said. "This is a stand based on conviction, not a lease agreement. The lease agreement has nothing to do with us taking a stand."

But foundation attorney, Matthew Callister, a former Las Vegas city councilman who prepared the lawsuit, had a different take.

"What you have is a clear-cut case of anti-competitive behavior," Callister said. "That they would put this in writing is beyond me.

"It is a case that involves a tortious interference with an existing relationship between the Animal Foundation and the city of Las Vegas."

The lawsuit alleged that Media Partners for Pets is funded by Dewey and provides media consulting services to that shelter.

Duke, the only defendant immediately available for comment on the lawsuit, called it "a desperate move."

"They are attempting to silence us," Duke said. "It won't work because we won't standby and tolerate cruelty to animals."

He said a provision in the lease that was attacked by the foundation expired six months after it went into effect and did not represent "a smoking gun."

"It was a six-month deal and it was over long ago," Duke said of the provision. "It was never enforced."