08:07 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 18, 2006
By KARIN SHAW ANDERSON / The Dallas Morning News

Dry dirt and withered peppers and tomatoes may be the last of the garden planted at the well-traveled intersection of Tripp and Collins roads in Sunnyvale.

IRWIN THOMPSON/DMN
For Don Mayfield, his garden at Tripp and Collins roads in Sunnyvale was his church. For years, Don Mayfield tended the vegetable patch, which was a draw as much for the tidbits of gossip and wisdom passed along as for the fresh organic produce.

Mr. Mayfield died at his home Saturday.

"Nothing else has been planted there, and nothing else probably will be," said his cousin Ed Stiager of Forney.

The drought took the garden, he said, and cancer took Mr. Mayfield.

The 68-year-old was told in late May that cancer had spread throughout his abdomen, his wife, Phyllis Mayfield, said in June. Instead of seeking treatment, Mr. Mayfield chose to remain near his garden under the shade of his sugar pear.

"We called it our church out there under his tree," Mr. Stiager said.

There, the ponytailed Mr. Mayfield counseled strangers and friends alike, his cousin said.

"Don helped me through my darkest hours," Mr. Stiager said. "He helped me through some hard times and put my eyes toward God."

Mr. Mayfield, whom Mr. Stiager described as his best friend, professed to find Christ in the natural elements on his corner lot.

"He was a devout Christian," Mr. Stiager said. "His calling in life was for others.

"He was always satisfied with what he had, and he was not a rich man."

Visitors to the vegetable patch on Monday still found the Folgers can where Mr. Mayfield collected $2 per bundle of vegetables on the honor system.

His rusty metal chair rested empty in the shade, and a wreath decorated with sunflowers was tacked to the edge of the wooden display table.

"I just felt that we ought to leave it there," Mr. Stiager said.

Services for Mr. Mayfield have been set for 10 a.m. Wednesday at New Hope Funeral Home Chapel, 500 E. U.S. Highway 80 in Sunnyvale.

In addition to his cousin and wife, Mr. Mayfield is survived by a son, Donnie Wayne Mayfield of Farmers Branch; two daughters, Vickie Reedy of Knoxville, Tenn., and Keli Mayfield of Austin; two sisters, Alba Sue Miller of Mesquite and Ruth Ehrenberger of Dallas; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, June 11, 2006
By KARIN SHAW ANDERSON / The Dallas Morning News

Don Mayfield came home from the hospital with a diagnosis of terminal cancer – and a vow to live.

Photos by IRWIN THOMPSON/DMN
'My dad bought this place in '39,' Don Mayfield, 68, recalls about the Sunnyvale property where he continues to tend a vegetable stand and share news and stories with visitors. Three weeks ago, he discovered he has cancer. Sitting in the shade of a sugar pear not much younger than he is, the ponytailed 68-year-old sells homegrown vegetables while dispensing wisdom and "mythellaneous" news about Sunnyvale, the town he calls home. You can take or leave the stories you get with your vegetables, so long as you don't forget to leave $2 in the Folgers can.

"Most of my information don't come out of the library," Mr. Mayfield said. "Most of my stuff comes from old people."

He stakes a claim to the greatest resource available for such news-gathering: time.

"My dad bought this place in '39," he said, recalling that even then, the property at Tripp and Collins roads where he played on weekends as a boy contained the oldest vegetable patch in town. Mr. Mayfield moved there in the 1950s and commuted to a downtown Dallas hotel for work.

"In '72, I quit my moneymaking job," he said. "There's so many phony, phony people there. ... It's almost like you got to get drunk to put up with them."

These days, Mr. Mayfield frets that bare feet and bandannas are no longer at home in Sunnyvale. He worries that real estate developers will try to move him along before he's ready.

Sunnyvale Mayor Jim Phaup said he was saddened to learn that one of the town's icons had fallen ill.

"He marches to the beat of a different drummer, that's for sure, but so do most of the people in Sunnyvale," he said.

Neighbor Bubba Titsworth says Mr. Mayfield's produce lot is the place to go for down-and-dirty gossip.

"If you want to know anything about Sunnyvale, you can pull up to his vegetable stand and ask him," Mr. Titsworth said. "That's a great thing about him. He keeps the oldness of Sunnyvale right here."

He also keeps his customers in corn, peppers, tomatoes and onions. Mr. Titsworth recalled a woman who recently swore off buying tomatoes anywhere else.

"She said, 'I'll wait until yours are ready to pick,' " he said.

Sunnyvale residents haven't always admired his work.

Mr. Mayfield once was one of the country's most successful breeders and handlers of pit bulls for dogfights. The Internet is full of tributes to him. A man identified as Norman Kemmer wrote that Mr. Mayfield was " the greatest conditioner of all times" for fighting dogs.

"I see a dog in a dog's place, and a cat in a cat's place, and I like eating beef," Mr. Mayfield said.

In 1986, when Sunnyvale had about 2,000 residents, 28 of them petitioned the Town Council to deny renewal of a special annual permit Mr. Mayfield held to raise animals on his property. He has since given up handling and breeding dogs.

"You know society's opinion today of someone who would fight a dog into another dog," Mr. Mayfield said.

"That don't very well coincide with a man with a garden who has cancer," he said. "I've been traveling the long roads to be where I'm at."

It was three weeks ago that Phyllis Mayfield took her husband to the emergency room.

"He's never been a person to take medication, and he just never slowed down," Mrs. Mayfield said. That night, the pain overtook him, and he begged for morphine.

Doctors told him that tumors were filling his abdomen.

On a recent morning, a hospice nurse pulled up to Mr. Mayfield's stand to check on him. He didn't ask for more pain medicine but wanted to increase the dosage of his anti-anxiety medicine.

These days, when folks stop by, they're as likely to hear about Mr. Mayfield's spiritual ponderings as his recollections.

"The people that this garden has been bringing here ... there's more of them that have just been God-sent," he said. "They're not here just to talk about the garden. They're here to talk about life, and that garden is just the door opener."

And it all takes place under the sugar pear Mr. Mayfield has dubbed his "therapy tree."

"I could sell this place and get a high buck and go off somewhere, wherever I want to be, and get away from it all," he said. "But when I'm after something, it's always the same way: I'm going to go all the way with it."

The "NYSE Hostage" website tells the story of an animal rights group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), which is hell-bent on destroying a medical research firm that uses lab animals to search for cancer and AIDS therapies. In September 2005, SHAC militants, six of whose leaders were later convicted on federal terrorism charges, succeeded in forcing the New York Stock Exchange to abandon its plans to list the research firm on the Big Board. How this was accomplished isn't entirely clear, but it appears to have involved hundreds of threatening e-mails and phone calls directed at stock exchange executives and employees.

The Exchange now has considerable egg on its face, but the larger point is that modern anti-everything activist groups are highly adaptable. They learn from one another. And if threatening the NYSE brings a desired result to animal-rights miscreants, what will stop other groups -- whether motivated by animal "rights" or some parallel fervor -- from adopting the same tactics?

Yesterday CNBC online editor Charlie Gasparino indicated that the Street has taken notice. "The New York Stock Exchange caving," he said, "is really -- I mean they set a horrendous precedent. I was at the luncheon club for the closing on Friday. This is the esteemed luncheon club where all the members [have] been. And let me tell you something. This is all they could talk about."

We've already seen People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) adopting some of SHAC's controversial tactics, including intimidating protests at their targets' homes and places of worship. How long will it be until other special-interest protest factions take the same kind of initiative? The "NYSE Hostage" website speculates that labor unions, environmental groups, and "corporate accountability" groups might give the Exchange a New York-sized headache the next time the cause du jour involves a publicly traded company. Time will tell.

DOG PULLING
IT is quite surprising that the dog remains mans' best friend in light of the abuse some receive at the hands of their thoughtless owners.

While not as grotesque or cruel as dog-fighting or badger baiting, the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is quite right to condemn the latest animal freak show to hit our shores - dog pulling - the first ever Scottish event being staged in the Lothians at the weekend. It may have taken place in a sports centre, but sport it most certainly isn't.

Competing in weight categories dogs were expected to pull heavily laden sledges across the ground. One unfortunate animal was tasked with trying to pull a sled loaded up with 2100lb - roughly the weight of 15 fully grown men.

Naturally the competition attracts owners of heavyweight breeds dogs such as bulldogs and bull terriers. Organised by the American-based United Pulling Federation the event could only go ahead because it was staged indoors, as it is illegal to make dogs pull loads on a public highway under the 1912 Protection of Animals Act. The Act was introduced to stop what was regarded at the time as the cruel practice of making dogs pull carts, generally on delivery rounds. Had it been envisaged at the time that such practice would be developed into a "sport" it is virtually certain that the Act would have been extended to cover all premises and not just highways.

The SSPCA is now seeking to have this loophole closed, calling for stricter guidelines to prevent further competitions being staged at any venue and is calling for venues themselves to refuse to take bookings. They say it is not only cruel but fear dogs that have not been properly trained in pulling excessive loads could easily be injured.

From the evidence they have seen they say that some dogs are clearly unaccustomed to such tasks and simply incapable of dealing with the loads their owners were trying to encourage them to pull.

It is sad to see that some dog owners seem unable to derive pleasure alone from owning and caring for a dog in return for love and affection and only seem to be able to gain some degree of perverse satisfaction from pushing an animal to beyond its limits of strength and endurance.

Such abuse should be outlawed and dog pulling should go the way of fighting and baiting and be classed as illegal, as the law no doubt intended.

Crossposted with permission from pet-law permission to crosspost widely.

I own purebred dogs. Once a year or so I breed a litter from DNA profiled champion stock. For that, I will never apologize as I truly have the best interest of my chosen breed foremost in my mind. Am I an elitist? You betcha! Would I cringe if you went so far as to call me a dog Nazi? No. Serious breeders mate dogs of known background in order to reduce the chances of congenital defects and predict with greater accuracy the positive outcome of a planned litter of puppies. Therefore I probably seem like an unlikely advocate for the guy advertising puppies in the local newspaper. However, I am also a civil libertarian. And I wont apologize for that either.

Proposed, pending and contested legislation around the United States and abroad that is aimed at restricting our property rights by targeting animal reproduction has become rampant at every level of government. Forced spay and neuter, cost prohibitive licenses for unaltered dogs and breeding permits, microchipping of our animals with their information (and ours) in government data bases, warrant-less inspection of our property, arbitrary limits on the number of animals we can responsibly care for and mandatory husbandry practices are some of the ways in which dog owners are bing relieved of their civil rights.

While our agrarian forefathers did not specifically guarantee us the right to own and breed animals, they did guarantee us the right to be treated equally under the law, the right to own property, the right to be free from warrant-less search and seizure of that property, the right to due process and the right to commerce. With no respect for our Constitution, animal rights supporters are working hard to relieve us of these rights by packaging restrictive legislation in a way that is not only palatable to dog owners but
misleadingly leaves them with the impression that they have supported something beneficial. Far too many animal owners and welfare advocates are buying into it in one area or another.

Divide and conquer. By creating stereotypes and labels, like "puppy mill" and "backyard breeder"and attaching a stigma to those labels, the animal rights movement is trying to disgrace the act of breeding animals. And they're doing a great job. The media has been flooded with images of dogs being raised in cages, in filth, in neglect. Sad faces of shelter animals behind prison bars on "death row"Images intended to produce an emotional response instead of an intellectual one. And don't forget the staggering statistics.

It's not a secret that animal rights means no more domestic animals. It's in their mission statements. HSUS president Wayne Pacelle brags that "We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding. One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are the creations of human selective breeding". Allow me to translate, no animal breeding means no more animals. Period. And while the general public cannot be sold on such a radical concept, it's been surprisingly easy to sell them on the concept of ever tightening restrictions. Although united in our love of domestic dogs, slick marketing by the enemy has created infighting. Breeders both private and commercial, rescuers, shelter staff, animal control, dog show exhibitors and pet owners are cleverly being turned against one another to forward the animal rights agenda. Each believing that their point of view is the only valid one and everyone else's civil rights no longer matter.

Yes, I too personally find those images disturbing. They are the product of gross human negligence and irresponsibility. I love animals, I have been a shelter volunteer, and I believe in animal welfare but I am also a realist. Things are rarely what they appear on the surface. In order to end the animal surplus and related suffering, I want to get to the actual cause. To prevent the illness instead of treating the symptoms, so to speak.

The demand for a product (puppies, for example)is driven by the consumer. It's a simple case of supply and demand in a free market economy. Don't blame the seller for being an opportunist. It's only human nature flourishing in what is still a mostly democratic society. An uneducated consumer has every
right to purchase an inferior product and suffer the consequences. Just as the seller has every right to promote the benefits their product, in order to influence the decisions of the consumer. If breed purists and elitists like myself are outraged at breeders who turn a profit by selling what we consider to be an inferior product, then we must only blame ourselves for failing to educate the buyers.

Ignore the propaganda, dog breeding is not the cause of shelter overpopulation. Animals end up in shelters for a myriad of reasons. Behavior problems that result from a lack of training and proper socialization along
with normal breed characteristics that the owner finds unacceptable top the list. Owner death, job transfer/move, landlord/rental restrictions, insurance discrimination, financial trouble and the inability to comply with escalating pet ownership restrictions also contribute to the problem. The system is designed to perpetuate it.

We live in a disposable society. As long as domestic animals are viewed as a short term convenience, instead of a serious long term commitment then change is unlikely. The problem is one of perspective, information and education. Pointing fingers at each other is cowardly and counterproductive.

According to a 2005 article in the HSUS magazine "All Animals", 75% of the shelter population is comprised of mongrels. Now I'm no math wizard, but I can extrapolate that only 25% must therefore be purebred animals. If this is true, then random bred dogs are the real cause of shelter overpopulation, not "puppy mills&", breed enthusiasts or "backyard breeders" of purebred dogs. Yet this same HSUS article praises the mongrel as superior because of its' larger gene pool. One that may very well be polluted with unknown genetic defects. They even go so far as to market them as a "designer" product. Sort of a haute couture, one of a kind canine fashion accessory.

Now, it occurs to me that if you truly want to reduce the animal shelter population in a meaningful and dramatic way, than you should advocate for the
elimination of the mongrel, through mandatory spay and neuter of random bred dogs with unknown ancestry. (See, I am a dog Nazi!) Most dog breeders know that
you must have a firm grasp of the genetic past, in order to improve the genetic future of your line. Many of the minority purebred animals that end up in the local shelter may not have a known origin either, and are therefore not an ethical choice for perpetuation of their breed. The same "hybrid vigor" so highly touted in the mongrel is just as easily achieved by crossing healthy purebreds of known ancestry to create new breeds. Man has done so since the beginning of domesticated dog breeding and whatever we fancy, that breed was created by this process.

The beauty of purebred dogs is that there is something to appeal to almost anyone. I don't have to agree with your choice but I must respect your rightto make it. I'm not going to advise that consumers rush out and purchase a Puggle, Labradoodle, or Cockapoo, anymore than I would suggest that everyone
should select my preferred breed. (Not everyone deserves one!) Whether these designer hybrids stand the test of time or fade out with other trends is not
for me to say. Freedom of choice means the freedom to make the wrong choice, and the freedom to make better choices in the future.

Am I a "backyard breeder&"? Well, by technical definition I guess I am. I have also been a front yard breeder, a living room breeder and a cab of my motor home on the way to the dog show breeder. If that makes me a villain, than the animal rights lunatics and the terrorists who support their ideology win. But if you become an independent thinker, than freedom wins.

We all win.

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The Attorney Generals office has received numerous complaints from pet owners about problems many are having finding their pets following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Through its association with other animal welfare organizations nationwide, HSUS has documented and placed animals in shelters around the country, often resulting in the displaced pets adoption. In some cases, pet owners claim that those who are currently caring for the displaced pets are refusing to reunite the pet with the proper owners.

Once again we will be on the lookout to make sure that those who seek to raise money for Hurricane victims in our state, do exactly what they claim to do when soliciting funds, stated General Foti, While I commend the work of the many wonderful charitable organizations that have come forward to help us in our time of need, I also want people to know that they cannot take advantage of our situation in any way added General Foti.

The Attorney General is asking anyone with information about questionable fundraising activities by animal groups or any other groups to please contact the Attorney General Consumer Protection Section at 1-800-351-4889 or visit our website at www.ag.state.la.us.