End of Debi Day for Nathan Winograd follows Charlottesville debacle

No Kill Nation founder Debi Day, left; No Kill Advocay Center founder Nathan Winograd, right.

Winograd tries to distance himself from Day,  who tries to distance herself from herself

         OAKLAND,  California––No Kill Advocacy Center founder Nathan Winograd on August 15,  2017 distanced himself from No Kill Nation founder Debi Day,  his longtime leading funder and prominent ally in pit bull advocacy.

Winograd acted four days after photos and video placed Day among the armed self-described “Freedom Keepers” who accompanied a mob of neo-Nazis,  Ku Klux Klan supporters,  and other “alt-right” elements in violent “Unite the Right” protests held on August 11 and 12,  2017 against the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a park in downtown Charlottesville,  Virginia.

Debi Day appears to be armed at alt-right event.

Day identified herself at alt-right event

Two weeks earlier Day had identified herself by name to alt-right videographer Johnny Dale Mcclung,  of Biloxi,  Mississippi,  at an “Anti-Immigration March” through New Orleans.  Mcclung posted his video to social media on July 29,  2017.

         The Charlottesville demonstrations culminated in the August 12 deaths of Heather D. Heyer,  32,  a paralegal from Charlottesville who was protesting against the “Unite the Right” faction,  and Virginia state troopers H.J. Cullen and Berke M. M. Bates,  whose helicopter crashed during surveillance of the violence.

Winograd did not immediately comment

         Winograd did not immediately or directly respond to an ANIMALS 24-7 request for comment about Day’s appearance at alt-right events of an anti-Semitic and generally racist nature.

On his own Facebook page,  however,  Winograd said that he had been “tagged on Twitter and Facebook with a photograph taken in Charlottesville,  Virginia,  of Debi Day of No Kill Nation wearing a gun and asked whether or not she was the president of my non-profit organization.  She is not,”  Winograd clarified.  “I am the founder and Executive Director of the No Kill Advocacy Center, headquartered in California.  Debi is the founder of No Kill Nation,  located in Florida.  We are two separate and distinct organizations.

“No Kill Nation has donated to a variety of organizations that promote No Kill over the last decade,  including the No Kill Advocacy Center,”  Winograd  acknowledged.  “They have sponsored the national No Kill conference in Washington, D.C. which I organized,  and they have funded the documentary based on my book,  Redemption: The No Kill Revolution in America.  They are donations I have been very grateful for and because of their generosity,  have publicly acknowledged on more than one occasion.

Nathan Winograd, left, with Debi Day, right.  (Facebook photo)

Dark moment

“I want to make abundantly clear,”  Winograd added,  “that I consider what happened in Charlottesville to be a very dark moment in our nation’s history,  a tragedy that has shaken me to my core.  The cruel and vile views of white supremacists on display and the violence against innocent people standing up to tyranny and hate are an anathema to every value I hold dear,  and everything I have dedicated my life to.

“Both my wife and I mourned the death of Heather Heyer, the injury of 19 others,  and the terrorizing of the people of Charlottesville by both white supremacists and armed militias,”  Winograd said.

“It has pained me to see the extent of racism still so prevalent in our society and to witness anti-semitism on the rise and in such open,  vulgar,  and shameless embrace.  I don’t just say this because of family members lost in the Holocaust or because of an uncle who barely survived and was forced to endure the lifelong emotional scars and the tattoo upon his arm from his time in a concentration camp, but as a human being and as all human beings should.

Debi Day at alt-right event.

Will no longer take money from Day

“I condemn, unequivocally,”  Winograd finished,  “anyone who sympathizes with or enables white supremacists,  such as serving as an armed guard to the KKK and NeoNazis or terrorizing the people of Charlottesville by walking the streets of that city fully armed with a paramilitary organization. In light of these events,  the No Kill Advocacy Center will no longer partner with, nor accept donations from, No Kill Nation or Debi Day.”

The No Kill Advocacy Center had been the beneficiary of at least $158,000 allocated by No Kill Nation in 2013-2015,  according to the three most recent available No Kill Nation filings of IRS Form 990.

Debi Day as pit bull advocate.
(Facebook photo)

Pit bull advocate

Day in her no-kill advocacy appears to have been most prominent in promoting rehoming pit bulls who have been owner-surrendered or impounded for running at large and/or violent behavior.

Day for example was identified by the Miami Herald as one of the funders of a failed August 2012 attempt to repeal the lightly enforced 1989 Miami-Dade County ban on possession of pit bulls.  Though there was no organized opposition to the repeal attempt,  it failed by a margin of 63.2% to 36.8%.

Day also promoted as “a very important book for the dogs of course,  and for us who champion them!” Galunker,  a self-published title by Douglas Anthony Cooper,  written in the assessment of ANIMALS 24-7 reviewer Barbara Kay to “actually peddle pit bulls to preschoolers.”

         (See Galunker, by Douglas Anthony Cooper, reviewed by Barbara Kay.)

Red circle shows woman identified as Debi Day.

Day says she “would never knowingly align myself with white supremacists”

Day herself,  after ANIMALS 24-7 published photos and still images from video of her appearances among the “alt-right” demonstrators in New Orleans and Charlottesville,  on August 15,  2017 restricted access to the content of her Facebook page to her cover photo and took down the No Kill Nation page,  amid a blizzard of postings from upset No Kill Nation supporters.

Earlier,  Day claimed to “have participated in several events around the country to bring awareness to the plight of free speech,”  insisting that “I now and always have disavowed racism, bigotry and I have spoken on behalf of LGBT rights and equality for years.  It’s all on record,”  Day said.

“I would never knowingly align myself with white supremacists or neo-nazis,”  Day insisted,  “and I am deeply sorry that some photos taken out of context have made it appear that I have.  I am sorry that has hurt some people close to me and the No Kill movement.”

Day likened running over protesters to “Wack-a-mole”

But even as Day sought to distance herself from the mayhem in Charlottesville,  a meme surfaced that she allegedly posted to Facebook on June 18,  2017,  showing actor Matthew McConaughey grinning behind the steering wheel of a car,  captioned “When you run over Antifa [anti-fascist] protesters and you hear one being dragged.”

Commented Day herself on the meme,  “Crunch-a-commie?  Not unlike wack-a-mole.”

In a second comment,  Day said “Laughter is the best medicine.”

U.S. Judge Gloria M. Navarro.

Day urges impeachment of federal judge

On August 9,  2017,  Day posted a link to a Change.org petition seeking to “impeach Judge Gloria M. Navarro of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada,”  with an illustration showing Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy wearing a shirt resembling the Confederate battle flag.

Bundy at an April 2014 media conference suggested that Americans of African ancestry were better off under slavery than they are today.

The petition seeking to impeach Navarro was posted two weeks after Navarro sentenced Gregory Burleson,  53,  of Phoenix to serve 68 years in prison for his role in a 2014 armed standoff at Bunkerville,  Nevada.

Burleson had joined Bundy and far-right militia members from throughout the west in resisting a Bureau of Land Management attempt to impound cattle belonging to Bundy from leased BLM land,  in satisfaction of more than $1 million in grazing fees which had gone unpaid since 1993.

Judge also sentenced Trump campaigner

Burleson was convicted in April 2017 of eight felonies, including threatening and assaulting federal officers,  obstruction of justice,  interstate travel in aid of extortion,  and firearms offenses related to a crime of violence.

Earlier,  Navarro sentenced 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign official Gerald “Jerry” DeLemus,  of Rochester,  New Hampshire,  to serve more than seven years in prison for conspiracy and interstate travel in aid of extortion,  in connection with the same events.

The petition seeking to impeach Navarro was posted to Change.org by Matthew Deatherage,  31,  a former marijuana store employee who in November 2016 was elected to the Coos Bay,  Oregon,  city council.

Cliven, Ryan, and Ammon Bundy.
(Malheur County Sheriff’s Department photo)

Deatheridge admitted on the witness stand at the October 2016 trial of Cliven Bundy’s sons Ammon and Ryan,  with five co-defendants,  that he had helped the Bundy sons and co-defendants to “guard” the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for several days during a 41-day occupation of the refuge headquarters in 2015-2016.

Day urges support of the Bundys

All seven co-defendants were acquitted by jury at that trial,  but Cliven,  Ammon,  and Ryan Bundy are all currently on trial before Judge Navarro in Las Vegas for their actions during the 2014 standoff.

Merritt & Beth Clifton

Commented Day on the petition link,  “PLEASE, what’s happening to these people is a violation of their constitutional rights and if they, the Feds get away with doing this to them––we can all kiss our freedom and our rights goodbye.”

This,  suffice it to say,  was a bizarre interpretation of a series of cases in which individuals who argue against freedom and for slavery for a substantial part of the U.S. population have claimed property belonging to the American people for their own private use,  in defiance of elected government and multiple levels of the U.S. judiciary.

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