If you remember nothing else, remember these two pieces of advice

If animal control comes knocking at your door, or calling, or asking for a friendly visit, there is a lot of complicated law and lots of specific advice we could give.  But there are two key, very important things to remember, that if you forget everything else, remember these... they will keep your animals alive until you can get legal help.

1. Do not let any authorities into your house,  kennel, cattery, etc without a warrant -- the phrase to remember is: "I do not consent to any searches, please leave my property now."

2. If they get into your house, either with a warrant or by talking their way in, and want to remove animals... do not sign animals over to any authorities!

This advice is simple but so many rescuers who are targeted do not follow it.  Remember the above as your guiding principles in dealing with authorities.  We will elaborate on each one below.

1. Do not let any authorities into your house, shelter, kennel, cattery, etc. unless they  have a warrant (and be careful even if they do)

If animal control has a warrant you have to let them in.  If they do not, you don't. Don't agree to friendly visits to "just check up on things."  If they come to your house, don't even stand in an open doorway and talk to them. Come out onto the porch, close the door behind you (and lock it if you can) and talk with them outside.   If they do not have a warrant they will likely try to talk their way in using tricky phrasing where "no" means "yes"... for example "Do you mind if I just check and make sure everything is OK"?  If you answer "no," you just gave consent.  If you answer "yes" to that question,  they will attempt to interpret that as consent by immediately re-asking the question to make it so yes means yes... for example they may  follow up a "yes" answer with something along the lines of "So it's OK that I check and make sure everything is OK"?

The temptation is to be polite and cooperative and answer the questions asked.  This is how they trick you.  No matter how they phrase or couch the request, your answer should always be these exact words: "I do not consent to any searches.  Please leave my property now."  This cannot be intentionally misinterpreted.

There is plenty of other important advice about keeping them from peeking into your property or your animal enclosures which I won't repeat because it's here.  Please go to this link and familiarize yourself with the specific advice it provides. It also includes advice on handling visits from authorities with warrants.

2. Do not sign over any animals to authorities

This seems like simple advice but here is where they really apply the trickery and pressure.  We are familiar with several "friendly visits" in NC that turned into raids in which animal control convinced intelligent rescuers to sign over the animals to them.  Do not sign over animals!  When you sign over the animals, that gives animal control the right to kill them immediately, without any holding period or any evidentiary rights.  They want you to sign the animals over for one reason only:  because it makes their jobs easier.  They will say and do anything to convince you.  But verbal promises they make have no legal force and cannot be relied upon.  Here are some tactics they may use.

They may promise to make sure the animals get to no-kill rescues.  This promise is usually not kept. In over 2/3 of the raids/visits we are aware of, the person signed the animals over after being assured they would go to no-kill rescues, and then majority (or all) of the the signed-over animals were dead before the next morning!   Once you sign, no verbal promise made to you by anyone has any legal force.  To get you to sign over animals, animal control authorities consider it a routine part of their toolkit to make promises they have no intention of keeping.

They may threaten you with massive fines or boarding costs if you don't sign.  They will say that if you don't sign you will have to pay some outrageously unaffordable sum  for the animals' upkeep until your case is finished, which can be months.  But what they aren't telling you is that they cannot charge you this money until a court hearing determines that the assessment is legal and how much.  So you don't have to sign right away,  but they'll make you think you do because their goal is to get your signature while you are still in shock and distress and before you can think clearly about what's happening to you and your animals.  If you don't sign right then and there, you can always sign later if the hearing goes badly (assuming it happens at all).   By not signing, you keep the animals alive for at least the  72 hour legal holding period, and in the meantime you can get legal help arranged which may keep them alive longer or even get them out. By not signing you buy time to get a lawyer who can at the very least negotiate on equal ground with animal control, instead of in duress as they have you now.  In fact the only case we know of in which all of the seized animals actually went to rescues was when an attorney got involved.

They may promise to go easy on you if you sign.  Do not believe this promise unless it is in writing. In every single case we know of, the person was still charged after signing and their animals were killed. The animal control officer on site does not have authority to make plea deals but they can make you think they can.  Once they've raided you and taken your animals, likely with news coverage involved,  they have to have a charge and a conviction to justify what they have done. So don't be fooled.  They will not go easy, no matter what they promise in the heat of the moment to get you to sign.

So how can you refuse to sign in the heat of the moment under intense pressure from authorities who seem to have all the power in the situation?  Many people don't want to or can't openly defy authority in a pressure packed situation like this.  You're likely stressed, depressed, and in disbelief that this is happening to you and your animals. So if you don't want to or can't directly defy their request, deflect.  Say "I need my attorney to look over any papers before I sign them."  They will likely try to pressure you by saying you have to sign  now or never, or otherwise try to convince you to give in and sign.  They will try to make you feel like you are being unreasonable, but what could be more reasonable than just wanting your attorney to check out such an important paper before you sign?   By deflecting to needing your attorney to review the paper you avoid directly defying them and also put them on notice that you either have or will have an attorney and will not be just rolling over.