Sean Fucking Janas, Why the Law Fails, & Needed Changes

Sean D. Janas was a Wausau, Wisconsin woman who tortured her boyfriend's dog, Mary, for months. Authorities knew what was happening, but did nothing. Janas eventually brutally killed the dog. Janas was 20 years old at the time.

In March 2013, Janas was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, plus two and a half years of supervision, for two felony counts of animal abuse. Janas was also ordered not to own or posses an animal for five years.

This blog details Janas's crime, but also discusses the poor way animal cruelty cases are handled by authorities in Wisconsin and beyond.

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Original story posted 11/24/12

Sean Janas is currently sitting in jail under a $2,500 bond, charged with two Felony I charges and a misdemeanor. The public is clamoring for her blood, signing petitions, protesting  outside the courthouse and sending a ton of letters, so that hopefully she'll get the maximum sentence. As a result of this atrocity, the city of Wausau is even trying to pass "Mary's Law" to help fight animal cruelty. Oh how sad for Mary, but yay that justice is being done and people are paying attention, right? WRONG.

Underneath all the hoopla, it's the same old shit: apathy, bureaucracy and neglect. All you have to do is read the actual police reports to see how badly Wisconsin handles animal abuse cases.

See, Janas had been torturing Mary all last winter and all this spring, and people knew about it even back then. A neighbor reported hearing whimpering and crying from the dog. In April, poor Mary had been found wandering in the street with major head wounds and huge bruises on her spine. A local vet looked at her then... and turned her back over the Janas and her boyfriend, Steven Kuik.

Eventually, Janas killed Mary around June 4th.  There was a ton of blood at the scene, more blood in other places around Janus's apartment building, eyewitnesses that saw Janus hitting Mary and hearing Mary cry, and human drugs found on the sidewalk in dog vomit. The local vet, who recieved Mary's dead body, reported large cuts all over her, and signs that indicated poisoning. The animal control officer reported all this, got some lame excuses from Janas, and then basically dropped the case after Janas and her boyfriend stopped talking to the officer.

Pic from Steven Kuik's Facebook, believed to be Steven and the murdered dog, Mary

Four months later, Steven Kuik's father was cleaning out some crap his son and Janas had left in their squatter's apartment, when he came across Janas's diary. The diary described in detail how Janas took pleasure in forcing the dog to consume drano, bleach and human pain pills, and how Janas "beat the living shit out of her." She also wrote, "The pleasure I get from watching her whimper in pain and cry out for help as I shove Drano and bleach down her throat is like no other."

After Mr. Kuik Sr. turned the diary over to police, they finally got off their asses and started really investigating. They took the diary over to Janas's mother, Cynthia Janas, who admitted the handwriting was her daughter's, and even threw in that she'd known her daughter had beaten Mary over the head with a bottle.

Let's recap, shall we?

• First, someone finds the dog wandering around with major wounds, and takes her to a vet.
• A neighbor complains about the dog's noises upstairs and sees the dog being hit.
• The dog is dead, and the investigating officer finds blood everywhere.
• The vet that took in Mary's body reports that she had huge wounds and signs of poisoning.

...and still nothing was fucking done.

It wasn't until after two parents handed the police evidence that was practically fucking gift-wrapped that the authorities finally arrested Sean Janas.

And you know what? She might be in jail at the moment, but she will ultimately only get a slap on the wrist. The most Janas could get under the law is five years in jail and a $10,000 fine, and my bet is, they'll dismiss one felony and the misdemeanor and she'll get maybe 3 months in jail and a $5,000 or less fine. (And only that harsh of a sentence because of the media attention.) Sean Janas's boyfriend Steven Kuik, who owned the dog, knew about the abuse and allowed it to continue, will not be punished at all.

As for "Mary's Law," it's no big deal at all, really. It's a law that would authorize Wausau to use pet license fees to hire 2-3 more animal control officers for the county. So basically they'll have a couple more people who don't have any real authority, and will ignore blatant evidence of abuse, just like the officer in this case.

The outrage will die.
Nothing will change.
The law will continue to fail.

Currently, U.S. laws treat animals more like property than living creatures, and some states, like Ohio, don't even really have anti-animal cruelty laws beyond misdemeanors.


Even states with felony-level laws, like Wisconsin, can't seem to enforce them. This is partially because of apathetic district attorneys and judges, and partially because animal control officers don't have the power to do crap about neglect, even if they're willing to go after it.

• In many states, Animal Control officers have absolutely no legal powers. They can't stop or arrest someone, they can't execute a search warrant, they can't carry a weapon.

• ACOs can write abatement orders ("stop starving your dog") but these are can be appealed, and the abuser must be given multiple orders and multiple days/chances to follow each order. 

• An ACO has to request a prosecution from the DA before anything can actually happen, like a fine, arrest or animal seizure. A DA puts animal neglect/cruelty cases below pretty much ANY human case.

• ACOs are often untrained, unarmed "education officers" not associated with the police. In Wisconsin, humane officers only have to take a 40 hours training course... after they're hired.

• An ACO can also be a deputy, usually the junior one, who gets stuck with this job title on paper but largely ignores it in favor of his human-policing duties. 

• Most counties in Wisconsin have one humane officer, and he's usually also a regular cop who has next to no time to look at animal cases, even if he cares. Often, he's only patrolling a major city within that county, and doesn't bother much with the rest. List of WI county ACs here.

• Non-police ACOs are simply hired by contract because they were willing to be paid the least. A county offers the job to the lowest bidder, and that person gets paid what they bid from the very limited licensing and impound feeds a county gets from its taxpayers.

• Usually, ACOs aren't reimbursed for their own uniforms, gas/mileage and any supplies they might give to those they visit (like a bag of dog food for the numbfuck owners of a starving dog).

So even the most decent, diligent animal control officers can't do fuck-all about anything. Not that the law would allow them to do anything in the first place. Besides their inherent powerlessness, their hands are also tied by laws that require a heavy burden of proof, or aren't stringent enough in the first place. Have you read the Wisconsin law prohibiting cruelty against animals? There's pathetically little text:

951.02. Mistreating animals

No person may treat any animal, whether belonging to the person or another, in a cruel manner. This section does not prohibit normal and accepted veterinary practices.

Now, there are a few more follow-up laws, but they're all equally vague. For instance:

951.05. Transportation of animals

No person may transport any animal in or upon any vehicle in a cruel manner.

951.13. Providing proper food and drink to confined animals

No person owning or responsible for confining or impounding any animal may fail to supply the animal with a sufficient supply of food and water as prescribed in this section.

(1) Food. The food shall be sufficient to maintain all animals in good health.

(2) Water. If potable water is not accessible to the animals at all times, it shall be provided daily and in sufficient quantity for the health of the animal.

See how those laws are totally open to interpretation? Even "good health" is laughably hard to define. In Wisconsin, there aren't even any laws about providing vet care, except for some vaccinations. So basically, I could keep a slipper-toed, malnourished horse with a leg wound barely alive on straw and muddy puddles of water, and it would be legal because that's "adequate" care, or at least it can't be proven inadequate under the law without expert testimony at a trial. And I won't wind up on trial unless the officials have proof of wrongdoing. And the cops can't come onto my property to try to find evidence of nastier cruelty unless they have a search warrant... which requires reasonable evidence of wrongdoing. See how there's a vicious cycle? You need proof to get proof. This is why so few animal abusers are prosecuted.

Federal laws are not much help either. The Animal Welfare Act oversees animal research labs and commercial pet breeder, but doesn't cover an individual's pets, farm animals, snakes and reptiles or shelters.

Many, many horrible animal abusers are never prosecuted. Remember my blog on MaryLoeffelholz? That scumbitch had starved and mistreated over a dozen horses for 4+ years (pic above), until concerned neighbors raised such a stink that the cops finally got their shit partially together and convinced Mary to surrender some of them. And yet she wasn't charged with a goddamn thing. Forget conviction, this bitch didn't even get a strongly worded letter. The kicker? She still has horses.
Several blogs have already covered the New York-based movement to create mandatory state Animal Abuser registries. It's a nice thought... but in practice, it's useless. As the proposed law stands now, animal abusers will only appear on the registry for five years, and then only if they are actually convicted of Animal Cruelty (or "Mistreatment" here in Wisconsin). So people like Mary Loefflholz wouldn't be on it.

What we need is a new set of laws, laws that actually work. Here's what I would like to see:

1. MUCH better funding for animal control/humane officers, allowing for more of them and more training for them.
2. More animal-specific ACOs, at least two per state. (Because the average cop ACO knows shit about founder, hay vs straw, etc, but a horse-specific ACO would.) 
3. ACOs given police powers.
4. DAs required to prosecute a certain number of animal neglect cases per year, to be determined on a county-by-county basis. Increase funding for this as necessary.
5. Mandatory prison time of no less than siz months, OR mandatory fines of no less than $10,000, for abuse or neglect that results in the death of an animal. 
6. Animal abusers convicted of anything above a misdemeanor never allowed to keep animals again. This includes no animals on their property, owned or rented. (So there's no bullshit about, "oh, that's my sister's dog.")
7. Convicted animal abusers kept track of for 15 years on an offender database, checked on monthly by specially trained humane parole officers.
8. Convicted animal abusers banned from working at, or owning, any animal-related business or any business involving care of children or the elderly. (Because we know for a fact that animal abuse is a very common indicator that a person will go on to abuse others and commit other types of crimes.)
9. Welfare, government-sponsored students loans and other assistance shall not be given to anyone convicted of animal abuse within the last five years.
10. Laws setting out more specific standards of care and/or definitions of abuse and neglect. (This one would be the toughest.)
11. Laws mandating that a state-certified veterinarian be brought into any animal abuse case to determine the health of the animal(s) involved.

Yeah, it would all cost a frick ton of money... but that's money I'm willing to spend. I think most other pet owners would be willing to as well. Nor would it be that hard to do. Dane County, the richest county in Wisconsin, only charges $7.5 - $20 for cat and dog licenses. Up that to $25. Increase fines for those who break animal neglect laws. And maybe look into licensing horses. Most of us horse owners consider our equines pets, not livestock-- why shouldn't we pay to license them, like everyone else? If we must, we could make an exception for people who make their living off of horses-- like trainers, etc.


Okay, I'm all typed out. If you made it to the end of all that, congratulations: your attention span is excellent!