Sioux City Lawsuit: The Deposition of Cindy Rarrat

Welcome to a special edition of the Individual Animal. What follows is a reenactment of the deposition of Cindy Rarrat. She is a private contractor working with Sioux City Animal Adoption and Rescue Center.  Animal Farm Foundation is helping to bring a lawsuit against Sioux City's "pit bull" dog ban.  The website for the lawsuit states: "Despite acknowledging that her officers have no training, she insists that they all know the breed standards for the breeds included in the ban and that they have enough animal experience to know exactly what characteristics make a pit bull a pit bull, though she cannot name those characteristics herself. "Forty years of experience tells me I know." Cindy maintains that certain breeds are more aggressive than others, and that physical characteristics are indicative of behavior. When presented with science that states even experienced people misidentify breeds based on visual identification 60% of the time, Cindy insists that her visual identification and knowledge trumps all while also insisting that breed determinations are made by consensus at animal control."   Rarrat's deposition shows that lack of training and knowledge the animal control officers of Sioux City have.   You can learn more about the lawsuit and read the depositions at siouxcitylawsuit.org and donate to help us end breed-specific legislation.