Private Property: The Real Endangered Species?

In 1973, Congress passed and President Nixon signed into law the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with the intent of protecting threatened species such as the bald eagle. Since then, close to 2,000 species and subspecies (1,400 of which are in the United States), have been added to the listing under the Endangered Species Act.

While the original Act was well intended, the Endangered Species Act has become the Trojan horse that sneaks in property-thieving regulations and a “sue and settle” lawsuit scheme while pretending to be beneficial to conservation. This threat to animal owners, animal based businesses, and private property has expanded significantly in recent years with animal rights groups hijacking the conservation aspect of the ESA to advance their radical agenda.

These groups make up a $400 Billion global coalition of organizations that raise money under the guise of promoting the welfare of animals, while using that money to buy lawyers and lobbyists to fund misleading, emotionally driven campaigns to pit the public against animal owners and breeders.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) is one such radical animal rights group based in San Francisco that files lawsuits against privately owned animal businesses with no intent of winning in court. Rather, the lawsuits are used to propagate a false narrative against their targets (typically animal based small business owners) in order to force them out of business. Instead of doing the work of raising, breeding, and caring for animals, the victims of these lawsuits must spend scarce resources on lawyers and public relations experts to clear their good name, and defend their livelihoods and their animals. Many cannot afford this burden and simply close up shop.

Recent reports from the House Committee on Natural Resources have uncovered that an entire cottage industry exists around filing lawsuits based on the ESA. As a result, funds that were once intended to be used to protect species in danger of extinction are now being diverted to fund frivolous lawsuits against animal owners who are the targets of extremist animal rights groups.

In addition, government bureaucrats often act unlawfully through a tactic called “sue and settle.” They settle litigation with their allies in environmental and animal rights groups behind closed doors in a way that advances the activist’s radical agenda, and in the process block out citizens, states, and local governments affected by their decisions and their subsequent rules and regulations.

This “sue and settle” tactic funnels millions of settlement dollars from the Federal Government to the animal rights and environmental activists to fund their continuing efforts to game the system and wrongfully attack animal enterprise ultimately.   The result is the destruction private property, businesses and lives.

One such victim of these attacks is Pam and Tom Sellner, owners of Cricket Hollow Zoo in Iowa, are one of many faces of victims of these attacks. Pam and Tom have been bringing joy to families for years with their privately owned collection of tigers, lions, pumas, and other exotic animals. Their zoo provides learning opportunities for students in rural Iowa who may otherwise not have access or contact with these animals. However, that will never satisfy the animal rights extremists who believe that these animals don’t belong in captivity.

Tom and Pam are now faced with mounting legal fees to fight this frivolous lawsuit from an animal rights activists group (ALDF) radically out of step with American values, but funded and well staffed with attorneys to do the dirty work. The Sellers are just one of the many faces of the victims of ESA-based lawsuits that have sprung up across the country.

While well intentioned when written over forty years go, the ESA has become a weapon for lawyers to beat small animal businesses over the head, all at the taxpayer expense.

Ultimately, the abuse of power under the ESA puts at risk the very animals it was intended to protect, as private property rights are trampled under the hooves of this Trojan Horse, and the system attacks the animals it was intended to protect.

Animal rights groups are using the ESA and our court system as a weapon to destroy those who aren’t in line with their ideology.  If this works on animal enterprise, what is next?

Mindy Patterson is the President of 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 and legislatively nationwide.

Follow on Twitter: @TheCavalryGroup  @cowgirlathart

You can read this article and more at JoeforAmerica.com click here

2015 Will Be No Different

To herald in the New Year, Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced his “Big Plans” to push HSUS' emotion-based, agenda-driven policies on Capitol Hill to destroy the pet industry, the horse industry, and animal agriculture.

In an effort to appeal to public sentiment purely as a fund raising tactic, HSUS attempts to redefine time-tested agricultural practices that ensure the health and safety of both people and animals as inhumane.  

Year after year, HSUS attempts to pass their so-called anti-cruelty policies, which are based on emotion, not science -- while imposing unnecessary onerous, and costly regulatory reform at the expense of fewer farms, fewer farmers, higher food prices, and a growing concern of a domestic food shortage.

Just ask Californians who rang in the New Year with the promise of higher egg prices -- perhaps even an egg shortage no thanks to HSUS and their 2008 ballot initiative, Proposition 2 --and its Amendment, AB 1437 signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2010.  We (among many others) tried to warn Americans about the dangers of Prop. 2.

While HSUS continues to push their lies and propaganda on Capitol Hill, The Cavalry Group makes the promise of being in Washington, D.C. to inform Congress about the corruption behind HSUS and the true intentions behind their policies.

Sorry, Wayne. The Cavalry Group has Big Plans, too.  And we are looking forward to being the ant at your animal rights policy picnic. 

Happy New Year!

The Cavalry Group Team

Governor Jindal Signs Bill To Keep Tiger With Rightful Owner

The Cavalry Group is thrilled to share Michael Sandlin's press release and wonderful news that his Bengal tiger, Tony will be staying with him!

The animal rights groups have been pushing to remove Tony from Mr. Sandlin's care with false accusations and lies, and the result after much controversy was the recognition that Mr. Sandlin was and always had been in full compliance with the law, disproving the false allegations by the animal rightists who attempted to take Tony away from his rightful owner.

This is a huge victory for animal ownership.

Congratulations to Michael Sandlin and to Tony the Tiger.

The Cavalry Group Team

Tony stays with his rightful owner.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Governor Signs Bill To Keep Tiger

(June 20, 2014 Grosse Tete La.) The effort to save a Bengal tiger from exploitation by professional animal activist exhibitors was successfully finalized June 18 when Governor Bobby Jindal signed Senate Bill 250 into Louisiana Law.

Activists had worked their way through legal loopholes to try to force Michael Sandlin, owner of the Tiger Truck Stop and its 14 year old tiger Tony, to give up his cat, but the Legislature made itself clear that a law enacted in 2006 was intended to allow responsible private owners who met all federal and state regulations to keep their exotic animals.

The bill was the subject of much controversy, and animal rights activists from all over the world became embroiled in petitioning lawmakers with their pleas to “rescue Tony”. Their knowledge about the condition of the tiger and his habitat was the result of misinformation, lies and deception on the part of a few activists that stood to gain from his relocation, according to Sandlin. “We spent a lot of time and energy putting the truth into the hands of the decision makers”, Sandlin said, “and at last the truth won out”.

Mr. Sandlin is known as an animal welfare advocate, which is borne out by the fact that at one time his facility had more live tiger births than any other facility in the nation. He stressed that the difference between welfare and “rights” activism is that the activist makes no real effort to follow up or care for the animal once it has been given its “human” rights. Animal welfare experts from around the United States have concurred that the habitat at the Tiger Truck Stop is one of the finest private exhibits in the country, and has excelled in diet, veterinary care, and spaciousness.

Claims have also been made by adverse activists that Mr. Sandlin has repeatedly violated United States Department of Agriculture regulations in caring for his animals, but these allegations have been disproven. USDA inspectors have certified that the Grosse Tete, LA facility meets or exceeds all federal regulations, and has never had its USDA permit revoked.

The State of Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries also has a permitting process, and recognized that Tiger Truck Stop was fully in compliance with Louisiana Law in granting two permits for the tiger. The animal activists tried different ways to get the permits revoked, and were successful only when they got a court, in a suit against DWF by Animal Legal Defense Fund, an activist group based in California, to overturn the permit based on law that was later discovered not to apply to the exhibit at Grosse Tete. This injustice was rectified by SB250.

Denham Springs, La. lawyer Bob Morgan, who led the lobbying effort at the statehouse, commented that “once the legislators were told the truth about the tiger’s situation, it was a watershed moment for them. They did not like being lied to by the activists about the tiger”. Mr. Morgan is an attorney with expertise in Louisiana property law, and sees this as a clear cut victory for Mr. Sandlin’s property rights. “We applied the truth, and it won,” he said.

For Tony, and the thousands of visitors that view his exhibit at Tiger Truck Stop, the legislation means that he will be able to live his life out in the care and protection of Mr. Sandlin, in the spacious home with the people he has known since he was a 6 month old cub, and continue to delight visitors to the exhibit.

Schoolchildren mobbed the tables displaying information about Tony at the Capitol Rotunda during the legislative session. More than 1000 DVD's about Tony's life were given free to the student visitors and other interested people.

Mr. Sandlin offered his final comment - “We would like to thank Governor Jindal, Senator Rick Ward, Rep. Major Thibaut, the Louisiana Legislature, the Tiger Truck Stop legal & lobby teams, friends, family, employees, loyal customers and our local community, as well as the many supporters from around the world for taking a stand against animal rights terrorism. It is a great victory for private exotic animal owners, personal freedoms, and the protection of all of our animals.”

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