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I have known Mary Cummins for about 18 months now. We met a total of four or five times, once at Boks office planning how to best support Ed and the department, two or three times at Boks/community meetings, and once at Mary’s house for a planning meeting with Ed when he failed to show because he was afraid activists would blog about his hanging around his groupies. At that time, he didn't want anyone to know where he lived, so his place was out and I lived far away from either. Her “significant other” was there on that occasion.
We talked on the phone maybe ten times—tops. We have hundreds, maybe a thousand or more emails, mostly during the period when we were supporting Boks. We have hundreds of replies to or emailed from Boks re all kinds of things, from defending him and the department, to reviewing kill stats to commenting on his posts.
She was never his lover. She has been in a committed relationship ever since I met her. In the hundreds and thousands of emails,phone calls, or meetings was there even one indication of a romantic bond between them.
Nada. When attacks on Boks seemed to be going nowhere, the anti Boks people in the animal community attacked us to force us to stop defending Ed. She defended me and provided moral support.
She is one of the most intelligent woman I have ever met, and one of the most committed to the welfare of animals. She rescued and returned to the wild 1,400 wildlife in 2005. Her work and reputation were heavily damaged when she spent so much time and energy defending Boks. Then even Boks even went after her when he (allegedly) had two LAAS field people search her house.
She tried to prevent the killing of hundreds of ground squirrels poisoned by the City of Santa Monica. If you think she was obsessed, look at my postings about County Vector Control and Santa Monica officials killing squirrels. During her birth control project of the SM squirrels, there, she used to routinely rope and lower herself over the edge of the 200 ft cliffs in Palisades Park to treat the burrows with a cholesterol ingredient known to cause temporary sterility in small mammals.
Several of you have remarked to me as to how much she helped you when you had problems with wildlife or even with your animals. She can be relentless and selfless when it comes to helping animals or her friends.
Her only fault is her exuberance in the defense of friends. She pissed off a LOT of people when they attacked Boks and she responded in kind. She will counterattack to the same degree she and her friends are attacked. She was not afraid to go toe to toe with lots of people that attacked her friends of herself.
AND, she apologized to everyone that she had been overly enthusiastic when defending Boks.
I want to remind everyone that Mary is not your enemy. We all want to get rid of Boks. She has been providing statistics and information, including the transcript of Boks before Council when they reamed him for the way he went about the Pit Bull Academy.
Will you get off it and focus on the real problems at hand, saving animal lives at LAAS by whatever means needed, including exposing several general managers as the incompetents or liars that they are? Talk to her if you will to see if you can now get together for common goals.
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4 comments:
I've never considered Mary an "enemy" nor you Ed. And when you think about it, the two of you individually have consistently provided way more information about what's going on at the LAAS city shelters than Boks ever has From the Desk of Ed Boks
( and yeah, that's a jab )
Brad Jensen
Cypress,CA
Thanks Ed
Nice to see support for Mary. You're helping to put the community back in the animal community.
This isn't the first time that being honest and bold had caused trouble for Mary. There are so many lies floating around that have used against her. If people stick to their own knowledge and experience, not the slander of some who is paid or crazed, they will conclude that she is a woman of great courage and will.
Mary has continued to rescue animals and to support other rescuers and assist the public with the wildlife they find, even through all these attacks on her reputation. It is tragic that a few liars can spin so much trouble with no concern for the damage they do to the people and animals that look to Mary for support. Let alone the damage done to her life and reputation. It's a crime.
Thanks for standing up, maybe a few brave souls will take note and follow suit.
We shouldn't be attacking any animal people. Infighting is the reason the animal movement is not stronger than it is. The enemy is the person who is abusing and neglecting animals, not each other. I can't think of a greater waste of effort than attacking people on our own side. Keep your own on the real goal, helping animals. Don't get distracted with pettiness.
The three people attacking Cummins are as follows:
Psycho-Bitch #1, whose only claims to fame are her ongoing divorce proceedings and the Bar Association's ongoing scrutiny of her questionable practices.
Psycho-Bitch #2, the agoraphobic, self-absorbed, unemployed scribe who brags about her gang ties in her rarely published articles and who's being ostracized by publishers across the country who don't want to be associated with someone so unstable and unprofessional.
Psycho-Putz, a certified loser with a cellphone videocam who can't hold down a job and who without his meds would be just another babbling bonehead at the corner of Van Nuys and Victory, if he could find his way there.
This insane clown posse (apologies to the band) is guilty of the very things each of them accuse Cummins of doing - lying, cyber-stalking, consorting with criminals...you name it.
Why do they hate Cummins? Like you say, she's smart and she stands up to people who attack her. They don't like that she doesn't suffer their foolishness, so, like other bullies who can dish it out but can't take it, they went on the warpath.
It would be nice if we would stop attacking each other and focus on helping the animals, but the three stooges (apologies to the comic geniuses) described above hardly qualify as animal activists. If we number them amongst us they will just continue to poison the entire humane community.
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