http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/12253949.htm
July 29, 2005
Monterey County
Herald (California)
Fines upheld in cat deaths
Appeal denied; fumigators held responsible
By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer
Fines levied by the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner
against two pest control firms have been upheld by an administrative
law judge.
Gregory Gee, chief deputy agricultural commissioner for Alameda
County, heard appeals of the fines at two hearings in Salinas
on June 27 and 28, and has ruled that the two companies involved
must pay.
Central Coast Exterminator Co. of Salinas
was fined $2,750 and Mission City Fumigation Co. of San Jose $2,500
after the agricultural commissioner's office investigated the
deaths of neighbors' cats that crawled into clients' houses
in Carmel Valley on Sept. 22 and in Carmel on Oct. 6, according
to Monterey County Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Bob Roach.
Nancy Carlen of Carmel, whose mother's cat Velvet died in the
fumigation incident for which Central Coast Exterminating was
fined, said she left her house the morning of Sept. 22 and returned
in the late afternoon to find a neighbor's house wrapped in gas-proof
fabric and the residence pumped full of poison gas to kill termites
and other insects.
When Velvet failed to return that night, Carlen suspected the
cat had gone to a favorite hiding place -- the crawl space under
the neighbor's house -- and had been trapped. The cat's body was
later found by workers.
In the case of Mission Cities Fumigation, James Dowhower and
Brenda Morrison went looking for their cats after a neighbor's
house on Dolores Street in Carmel was tented Oct. 6. They found
two of their cats safe outside but heard the third, Phoebe, meowing
inside the neighbors' crawl space.
Dowhower crawled in and rescued the cat, but the animal died
early the next day from inhaling poisonous Vikane gas.
At the June hearings, Deputy Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner
Ken Allen said the two pest control companies failed to follow
labeling instructions on the Vikane containers they used.
The labels say that pets or other domestic animals and desired
plants should be removed from a building before the gas is applied,
and state law requires that pest control companies follow label
directions.
