Yesterday, in courtroom 708 of the Multnomah County Circuit Court, Judge Adrienne Nelson was smiling while she dismissed Matt Rossell’s case (IDA’s Northwest Director) where he had been aggressively tackled and falsely arrested last February 7th at a puppy mill protest. The arrest occurred after a free speech event where the Radical Cheerleaders for Animal Rights had performed some cheers in protest of the store’s sale of puppy mill puppies in their Lloyd Center Mall location in Portland.

The entire event and arrest was captured on video and the Youtube post has been widely circulated, sparking a flurry of complaints against the mall.

The case was dismissed following a civil compromise that was reached between Rossell and the mall owners, Glimcher Properties Corporation, L.P., where both parties agreed to drop all civil or criminal claims and granted the right for Rossell to go back to the mall for “peaceful use” (they had issued a four-year exclusion prohibiting access.) Rossell was represented by Stu Sugarman, local Portland criminal defense attorney, an activist in his own right, and longtime advocate for activists.

The Portland Mercury’s story, “Dog-piled; mall cops pound puppy protesters” details the events of the day and uncovers the mall’s security company opperating procedures, which show that the mall security acted in direct violation of their own rules of conduct by tackling Rossell to the ground and taking him into custody.

Late last year, Ann Yeager of KGW Channel 8, had conducted an investigation into Scamp’s sale of sick and genetically defective puppies from puppy mills. IDA contributed significantly to that news story, sharing contacts gathered over the years from the ongoing campaign against the chain of pet stores.

But the biggest news that puts a giant exclamation point on the end of this issue, is that the entire regional chain of five Scamp’s Pet Stores have closed their doors forever, declaring bankruptcy this summer, around the same time Oregon’s state legislature had successfully passed a puppy mill bill, that would have forced Scamp’s to disclose the sources of their puppies which they have long kept secret.