The Cavalry Group's Statement Regarding USDA's Policy Change to Remove Licensee Information from Its Website

In recent months, The Cavalry Group has been responding on behalf of our members, to letters from USDA/APHIS indicating that the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and other animal rights extremist organizations had requested private, confidential information about their business via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted to USDA. 

In response to the onslaught of FOIA requests affecting our members, I wrote an article challenging USDA's policy of releasing private, confidential information to these radical animal rights groups, highlighting that USDA knows full well that this unjudicated information would be taken out of context and used to hurt the businesses of the affected licensees.  

Read article here  

Listen to Mindy Patterson's interview with Trent Loos about this issue here

Statement:

The Cavalry Group and our Members all over the United States applaud the change in USDA policy that was implemented on Friday, February 3, 2017 regarding private, confidential and un-adjudicated USDA licensee information.

For the last eight years, USDA has been releasing confidential and un-adjudicated information to animal rights extremists and activist organizations, such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) knowing that the information would be used wrongfully against USDA licensees with the intent to run them out of business.

Empirical data exists evidencing that animal rights groups have used licensees’ information to make fraudulent claims and anonymous tips to authorities, and terrorize law abiding American families whose livelihood happens to involve exhibiting, breeding, transporting, or selling animals.

Evidence also exists that during the past eight years, USDA has been infiltrated by animal rights extremists who, with some success, attempted to change the culture within USDA-APHIS from one that is supportive of animal enterprise to one that aggressively bullies and harasses law abiding animal businesses with the ultimate goal of running them out of business.

Mindy Patterson

President

The Cavalry Group

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

Winston Churchill Was Right

You're probably familiar with the Winston Churchill quote, "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

The Cavalry Group has plenty of enemies. Why?  Because The Cavalry Group is standing up and standing firm to protect the livelihoods and private property of our members. Members made up of law abiding animal owners and animal related businesses.  

Let's not forget that the rule of law provides that all Americans are protected by the United States Constitution against illegal search and seizure of private property, and are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law based upon facts and evidence. Unfortunately, for animal owners and businesses today, false accusations, slander, intimidation, and wrongful prosecutions are becoming more and more prevalent.  

The animal rights zealots make their ideology no secret, and they promote their false propaganda and strategies to nudge public opinion to their point of view.  It's no stretch to figure out that what the zealots intend to accomplish with their lies and bully tactics is the abolition of animal ownership, animal related businesses, and ultimately private property. 

Ah... there. I said it! Private property.  The animal rights terrorists loathe the historic principle that animals are property. In fact, they detest that fact that private property is protected under the fundamental foundation of our U.S. Constitution -- and further reinforced under the Fourth, Fifth, and  Fourteenth Amendments.  Unfortunately if your Constitutional Rights go out the window because an animal is involved, then it isn’t a far reach to the point where government or animal rights extremists can ignore your Constitutional rights altogether.

The animal rights industry is a $400 billion machine intent on destroying animal related businesses, animal agriculture, and animal ownership while pushing a vegan agenda for all. You see it every day with new costly regulations based on emotion, not science being introduced at the local, state, and federal levels.  Attacks on pet stores, dog and cat breeders, horse breeders, horse events, carriage horses, livestock breeders, animal agriculture.  And the animal rights extremists are in the news everyday with quotes who know nothing about the businesses or industries that they attack, but who are willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get their way.

 

These animal rights terrorists also despise the notion that people actually make a profit from breeding and selling animals. God forbid, people make a living working to raise and sell animals.  That explains a lot, don't you think?  Just look at the onslaught of the vilification of pet stores today and all the pet store bans popping up all across the U.S.  Not to mention the campaigns against dog breeders, carriage horses businesses, and animal agriculture.

The outcry from the animal rights zealots is never really about animal welfare,  but is more intent on tricking Americans into giving up their Constitutional rights, while destroying our animal heritage, and ultimately destroying the concept of private property. 

 So, let's recap! 

The Animal Rights Terrorists promote: 

•    Destruction of private property rights.

•    Destruction of free market and capitalism (making a living raising, breeding, working with animals.)

•    Destruction of the American way of life.

•    Destruction of animal agriculture.

•    Vilification of breeding all animals.

•    Vilification of hunting.

•    Vilification of animal confinement, animal use, and animal ownership. 

So with all that said, these recent Facebook posts by anonymous cowards who are animal rights extremists (below) and this petition calling to condemn The Cavalry Group, are full of nothing but hot air and propaganda.  The petition organizer got one thing right:  The Cavalry Group is most certainly an anti-animal rights organization, and proud of it! 

The Cavalry Group will continue to stand firm to protect the Constitutional and private property rights of our members all across the United States!

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 businesses, hunters, and agriculture concerns legally nationwide.