REGULATORY ASSAULT: THE BRAKKE'S FIGHT TO KEEP THEIR FARM

The effect of government overreach can, at times, be hidden in the form of diminished opportunity or higher prices.  In the case of the deer-breeding industry, the effects are much more recognizable and in some cases, people and their families are left completely devastated, often with no recourse. Case in point:

Tom and Rhonda Brakke are your typical American farmers.  It has often been said that happiness is finding something you love – then figuring out a way to do it for a living. Tom and Rhonda did just that and were on their way to creating a business around one of their favorite hobbies: deer hunting.  The Brakkes acquired some land and began to breed and raise deer.  Upon maturation, the Brakkes would release the deer on a large preserve in order to allow hunters to enjoy the sport in a controlled and private environment.

Their small venture was a great success as they worked hard and followed their pursuit of happiness. Then – as often happens whenever achievement in the private sector develops – the government showed up to help:

In 2012, inspired by a Humane Society of the United States scare campaign, the USDA adopted a new set of rules to address Chronic Wasting Disease, a rare ailment that affects deer and other cervids. This uncommon disorder is not communicable to humans or other animals and displays few symptoms until the death of the deer many years after infection.  In other words, CWD is not a threat at all, but rather, the Restless Leg Syndrome of the deer world, a contrived crisis designed by activists to make captive breeding and hunting preserves nearly impossible to operate.

The same month that the USDA released their new CWD rule, the Brakkes were informed that one of the deer in their herd of nearly 700 had tested positive for CWD.  The government offered no evidence that their test was not a false positive, nor did they allow for any additional tests by a third party.  The Brakkes were forced to take the government at their word.  The Center for Disease Control estimates the rate of CWD infection among deer nationally to be at about 2%, other sources say 1% or less.  Still, in accordance with the new USDA guidelines, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources ordered the

Brakkes to eradicate 200 deer on their hunting ranch, despite their having an infection rate of only 1/7th of a percent.  They were then ordered to erect an electric fence around all of their property, test all their remaining animals, and dig up and rebury the top soil on several parts of their land. In addition, under the direction of the USDA, the State of Iowa quarantined and required continued testing of the remaining 500 deer in their herd.  The quarantine is in effect until 2018, and if they find another positive, the clock will reset for another five-year quarantine. In other words, game over.

Don’t worry, the Brakkes are still required to spend roughly $3,000 weekly to feed the remaining 500 deer on their property without any means of profiting from the livestock. They have spent a small fortune in a futile attempt to comply with the new USDA regulations, all while the government has put them out of business. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

The truth is that this has nothing to do with the Brakkes, their small business, their hard-earned money, or even the health of deer or any other animal. This is about a government agency permeated by left-wing activists and operated as an arm of the animal rights extremist movement. The USDA is using a non-problem to create a non-crisis to regulate captive hunts out of existence, because animal rights activists don’t like them. By the USDA and the Center for Disease Control’s own admission they don’t even know how CWD is spread.  They offer no evidence there was a potential emergency with the Brakkes' operation – yet the jack-boots marched in and declared the place to be shut down. End of story. No recourse.

Directors, spokespersons, Department heads in the Obama Administration, and the President himself may smile and say that new gun restriction proposals have nothing to do with Americans right to hunt, but hunters should recognize that they are aggressively getting it done another way. Beware of the new changes in the name of “animal care” that occur behind the scenes or else one day we may wake up in a world where hunting is a thing of the past.

Author, Phil Christofanelli is the Director of Public Affairs for The Cavalry Group, a member based company protecting and defending the Constitutional and private property rights of law abiding animal owners, animal-related business, hunters, and agriculture concerns legally nationwide.

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NEVER LET A FAUX-CRISIS GO TO WASTE

Many of those who donate to the Humane Society of the United States are unaware of the fact that HSUS is one of the greatest foes to fishing and hunting in the country.  Wayne Pacelle, President of HSUS, on numerous occasions has revealed his personal disdain for the American sport.  Pacelle was once quoted by the AP saying, “If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would.”  To date, HSUS has spearheaded upwards of 25 anti-hunting ballot initiatives across the country.  Like many Fabian left-wing groups, HSUS takes an incremental approach in making hunting progressively more difficult through additional regulation of the sport at the ballot box and in state legislatures.

One of the main targets is what HSUS refers to as canned hunts.  These hunts are of wildlife bred in captivity and released over a large, enclosed area for hunting.  HSUS believes that it is “cruel” to breed animals for the purpose of hunting, but these hunting areas have provided business opportunities to many struggling, rural Americans and have also allowed hunters to enjoy the sport in a controlled and safe environment.  In fact, many of the species bred in captivity would have long since gone extinct, but for the cultivation of these businesses.  For radical animal rights activists, however, the needs of animals always outweigh the needs of humans.

As Rahm Emanuel aptly taught us, it is critical to create a crisis in order to quickly implement one’s agenda.  HSUS seems to have found their silver bullet against captive hunting in an obscure ailment known as “Chronic Wasting Disease,” or CWD.  CWD is a progressive disease which in rare occasions afflicts older cervids (read: deer) and results, over time, in brain lesions and ultimately, death.  According to the Center for Disease Control, there is no evidence that CWD poses any threat to humans who consume a deer with the disease, nor is there any way the disease could spread to domestic livestock.  Infection rates among your average white-tailed deer linger at less than 1%.  Infected deer can live quite a long time with the disease, produce healthy fawns, and remain nearly symptom free until their deaths.

By now you might be thinking: What’s the big deal?  However, to HSUS, and lately the USDA, CWD is a massive crisis crying out for a swift passage of numerous regulations on captive hunting farmers.  According to HSUS’s website, in order to address the CWD crisis, states must ban all game farms and captive hunting, as well as end the transportation of any deer across state lines, a move which would effectively decimate the ability of deer farmers to make money and to breed genetically diversified livestock.

Unsurprisingly, it is not difficult to determine the source of the USDA’s newfound obsession with CWD.  The head of the CWD Program at the USDA is none other than Dr. Patrice Klein.  Dr. Klein is a former employee of the Humane Society of the United States where she served as a Wildlife Veterinarian and Director.

Just last year, the USDA took HSUS’ policy recommendations to heart.  In their new CWD Program Standards manual, they proclaim that the most reasonable course to be taken once a deer on a captive farm tests positive is complete eradication of the entire herd.  These irradiations are done entirely at the owner’s expense and leave little avenue for appeal to the farmer.  The USDA also has begun to test the waters for extensive regulation of the transportation of cervids across state lines with a new “voluntary” policy which sets the guidelines under which interstate trafficking of deer can occur.  The USDA admits that it has no idea how CWD is spread, yet it still holds that entire herds should be destroyed if even one deer develops this disease which occurs naturally and does not in any way affect humans!

While CWD may pose some threat to cervid species and may be worthy of study, analysis, and careful monitoring, the disease should definitely not be used as an excuse to destroy hunting and farming in accordance with the extreme agenda of a radical few.  In the rare cases of CWD infected, deer farmers have shown great success at controlling the disease within their herds.  Fear mongering from HSUS has nonetheless resulted in gross overreactions that have completely destroyed some American farms.  Bottom line: HSUS is out to destroy people’s way of life, not help animals. They are an extremist, radical, corrupt group bent on taking away the rights of law abiding citizens through deceit, manipulation, and intimidation.

Author, Phil Christofanelli is the Director of Public Affairs for The Cavalry Group, a member based company protecting and defending the Constitutional and private property rights of law abiding animal owners, animal-related business, hunters, and agriculture concerns legally nationwide.

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USDA RELEASES PRIVATE INFORMATION OF DOG BREEDERS TO ASPCA

The contemporary “animal rights” movement and its various factions are not what they seem. For every legitimate concern, there are dozens of front groups operated and funded by extremists with radical agendas. For instance, over the past several years, the ASPCA, PETA, and HSUS have been waging a war against so-called “puppy mills.”  

They lead Americans to believe that their focus is on rogue, unscrupulous dog breeders, but in a recent interview, the ASPCA admitted that they consider even law-abiding dog breeders to be “puppy mills.” Animal rights activists hold the belief that bringing new, pure-bred dogs into existence is unethical so long as there are dogs in shelters.  Thus, they seek to put every law-abiding dog breeder permanently out of business by any means necessary.  

Their public relations war against dog breeding has raked in countless millions from unsuspecting donors who are unaware of the fact that almost none of this money actually goes to the care of dogs. The numbers of abused animals are inflated and exaggerated to the point where you would think that puppy mills were an epidemic. In reality, almost all dog breeders are hard-working, rural Americans, who take very good care of their animals.  

Recently, the activists have turned to a disturbing, new tactic of singling out individual breeders and publishing their names, their addresses, and photographs of their breeding establishments. Where do they obtain such information, one might ask? The answer: None other than our own government, courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture.  

The USDA, once tasked with protecting American farmers and breeders, has crawled into bed with the most anti-farming elements of the Left. Despite the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) explicitly granting a protection through Exemption 6 for any personal information that can be linked to an individual, the USDA decided to respond the ASPCA’s FOIA request by handing over the personal information and inspection photos of dog breeders from all over the United States.

As part of the inspection process, the USDA takes these photographs of breeding facilities in order to ensure compliance. Many breeders report being told that these photos are to be used only for the purpose of inspection. Several contacted The Cavalry Group, an organization which defends the rights of animal owners, horrified to find pictures of their homes and businesses on the ASPCA website. Many of the photos were over 10 years old, and some included pictures of businesses that have changed owners. In several notable cases, the breeder in question had been deceased for many years.

The ASPCA wants people to believe that these photos depict a day-to-day reality of all dog breeding facilities. 

The photos, however, were taken out of context in order to support an exaggerated claim of widespread animal abuse and to renew calls for widespread regulation of the dog breeding industry. In reality, the breeding facility in question corrected any areas of non-compliance with the law shortly after the inspection. 

Yet today, their businesses are being perpetually smeared by an organization that seeks to bring about an end to pure-bred dogs in favor of adoption from shelters, all with the help of our own government.

The ASPCA is well within their rights to advocate for adoption, but using out of date information to smear the reputations of individual dog-breeders is going a step too far. Most importantly, the USDA should not be skirting FOIA exemptions in order to accommodate the agenda of radical activists. However, when the USDA is hijacked by these very same groups, we should not expect anything less. A once-sensible objective of animal welfare has been corrupted by today’s activists, who exploit government in order to put animals ahead of humans at any cost.

Read this article on Breitbart.com

Author, Phil Christofanelli is the Director of Public Affairs for The Cavalry Group, a member based company protecting and defending the Constitutional and private property rights of law abiding animal owners, animal-related business, hunters, and agriculture concerns legally nationwide.