Animal Rights Whack-A-Mole in Kitsap County, Washington

Here’s something you may not know. The animal rights movement loses a lot. You probably think that animal rights activists are out celebrating their victories every night but the truth is that they are constantly defeated at the federal, state, and local levels.

How can that be, you ask, when they are constantly in the news? 

That’s because they are loud and obnoxious. They are the epitome of the squeaky wheel. Even when they are led off in handcuffs they are happy to video the scene and post it online so they can raise money for bail.

But animal rights activists are persistent. They play the long game.

If they lose with bills at the federal level – and they do lose with bills, year after year after year – they try to get changes made through regulatory agencies. If that doesn’t work to their satisfaction, they move down to the state government level and try to get what they want, one state at a time.

When they are thwarted by state governments, they go local. Activists can turn up in your city or town and start whispering in the ears of your local council members.

When a bill that would have banned the sale of puppies and kittens from breeders was defeated with the help of The Cavalry Group in Washington’s state capitol, animal rights activists began singling out individual pet stores in the state. That’s how Jack Munro found himself at the center of a fight in Kitsap County Washington. Jack, who used to show and breed Collies and Shelties, is the owner of Farmland Feed and Pets in Kitsap County where he’s been in business for 43 years.

In December 2018, just after Christmas, Jack says he got a call from a county council member telling him that in five days they intended to vote on a measure that would put him out of business. He was told that he could see the proposed ordinance online. He had no input in writing the ordinance. The ordinance would ban his store from selling pets unless they came from the local shelter or rescue group.

It took seven months, but the ordinance was finally passed on July 22, 2019. The Cavalry Group mounted several large e-mail campaigns on behalf of Farmland to fight the ordinance. The county council received thousands of e-mails asking them to reject the proposed ordinance. The council told Jack, “No more emails!” According to Jack, many people turned out on behalf of Farmland at each reading of the ordinance. When it came to the date of the final vote the council moved the vote several times. No public comments were allowed for the final vote.

Jack would originally have been required to stop selling his animals immediately but that has been amended. He now has a year to stop selling his puppies and kittens.

Jack says that he will never sell shelter animals in his store. He has had a decades-long positive relationship with a professional licensed and inspected dog breeder in Kansas who has supplied him with puppies for the store. Through Farmland he has sold puppies with a 5-generation pedigree that were DNA-tested. They came with pictures of the parents, a complete medical record, a health guarantee, a free visit to the vet, and they were microchipped. The kittens in his store come from local people who drop them off. He gets them for free or never pays more than $10 for the really cute ones. They don’t come from breeders. Yet critics claim that Jack is only selling puppies and kittens for the money.

Per the local humane society, some 6,000 dogs were rehomed in Kitsap County in 2018. Three-thousand of them came from out of state. Thousands of dogs are brought into Washington from out of state by “rescue” groups every year, not all of them legally. Jack sells about 400 dogs per year at Farmland and only 3 percent of them ever have a problem. That’s 12 dogs. And Farmland’s dogs have a health guarantee and a contract.

Puppies at the local humane society in Kitsap County are $350. Purebred dogs are $250-$500. Kittens are $175. Before you can get any pet at the humane society you have to fill out an application and you have to be “approved.”

Jack is well-liked and some local people in the community, even people who do not particularly like commercial dog breeders, have said that they felt bad about this ordinance and putting Farmland out of business. According to Jack, even the local council members told him that they didn’t like forcing a local business to close.

Local ordinances banning pet stores from selling puppies from breeders, like the one that is forcing Farmland to close, are being passed all over the United States. Local governments are often pressured by animal activists to pick winners and losers in business because the activists are pushy and outspoken. Sometimes proposed ordinances are hidden so the public doesn’t know about them until after they are passed; votes are moved at the last minute; people who oppose an ordinance are not notified of changes; people affected by ordinances and their supporters are not given timely access to proposed drafts. This is the worst kind of dirty politics and it’s being played in our hometowns, affecting our animals and our businesses.

These ordinances can be passed anywhere and affect any of us. Today it’s pet stores but tomorrow it could be an ordinance to ban dog breeding or whether you can own pets at all. Good people are being driven out of business because of the animal rights agenda. This is not fair or honest government. Local government should not be agenda-driven and it shouldn’t pick winners and losers in business based on animal rights ideology. We all need to stand up to these bad ordinances and bills when they appear. We need to fight together and protect our rights.

  

Carlotta Cooper is vice president of Sportsmens’ & Animal Owners’ Voting Alliance and a regular contributing writer for The Cavalry Group, a member-based company working to defend the private property rights of animal owners and animal enterprise nationwide. Follow The Cavalry Group on Facebook, MeWe, Instagram, and Twitter.

AZA Whistling Past The Graveyard

Throughout history, evil has persuaded man by masquerading as good. But when evil masquerades as good because it believes it is good, there in lies a bigger challenge.  

That's my interpretation in a nutshell of Wayne Pacelle's keynote address before the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) convention this morning. (Video of his speech is embedded at the bottom of this page.)

Wayne Pacelle opened up his address by stating, “I'm here as an ally, not an adversary."   

Contrary to that statement, Mr. Pacelle is a wolf in sheep’s clothing where his actions speak louder than words.  As the CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), he has turned the alleged animal rescue organization into the world’s most radical animal rights-driven organization committed to destroying all animal enterprise and animal ownership.

In case you didn't know, Pacelle and HSUS are: 

• Opposed to capitalism, or making a profit from raising, breeding, working with animals.
• Opposed to the breeding of animals.
• Opposed to pure bred dogs; dog breeding kennels.
• Opposed to the breeding of domesticated animals & livestock.
• Opposed to pet stores.
• Opposed to the circus and animals in entertainment.
• Opposed to zoos.
• Opposed to animal agriculture; meat, dairy, and egg consumption. 
• Opposed to animal confinement of any kind. 

No, Wayne Pacelle is no ally. 

Wayne Pacelle is at the helm of an agenda to fundamentally transform our country and destroy animal agriculture, animal enterprise, and animal ownership, at the heart of which is our foundational Constitutional right to private property.  

HSUS has also consistently pushed ill-advised legislation affecting the Horse industry, Animals in entertainment, Dog breeders, Egg Production, Pork Production, Exotic Animal Ownership, and others.  HSUS has also historically targeted the defeat of pro-agriculture Members of Congress, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to attack Members who oppose their animal rights agenda.  

HSUS has been behind the radical transformation in the philosophy that drives the regulation and treatment of those who raise animals for profit using pressure on retailers, promoting misleading state referendums, and pressuring agencies to make federal rule changes to do their dirty work. Time-tested science-based husbandry practices that ensure the health and safety of both people and animals are being redefined as ‘inhumane’ treatment of animals by those, including Wayne Pacelle, who have this emotion-based agenda. 

When it comes to zoos, everyone needs to heed the warning that organizations like HSUS are pushing zoos toward the rescue-sanctuary model; to create a profit driven monopoly accessible only by the most affluent under the guise of “saving” species. Impossible to do without breeding programs, which Wayne Pacelle also vehemently opposes. He made this clear during his efforts to stop SeaWorld’s orca breeding program stating, “During my discussions with [Joel] Manby, I was clear that the agreement we forged should deal with all animals – not just orcas.”

Pacelle’s performance on stage at the AZA Convention was nothing more than his smooth talking the zoos about ‘common ground’ and ‘working together to be a force for good,’ arm over their shoulder as he walks them toward the guillotine.

"One way that SeaWorld and animal advocates can find even more common ground is for the company to choose not to breed any more dolphins in captivity and to bring rescued animals that cannot be released back into the wild into its facilities for any exhibition needs. SeaWorld can morph into something of a sanctuary over time." – HSUS CEO, Wayne Pacelle as quoted in TakePart, June 29, 2016  

Pacelle’s actions tell us that his ultimate goal is to eliminate human interaction with animals even if that results in the elimination of animal species, themselves.  Behind all the ‘let’s just get along’ rhetoric espoused by Pacelle, his true commitment to destroy animal enterprise and animal ownership shows through.   

Americans are tired of being lied to and lied about, and will see through the veil of Pacelle’s true intentions and the potentially devastating results of buying into emotion, not facts.   We must allow time-tested animal husbandry practices to proceed free of interference from organizations like HSUS who claim to care about animals but know nothing about animal care!  Who deemed Wayne Pacelle the expert on the care and keeping of animals?  

We hope that the Members of AZA will see through the manure that was tossed in their laps this morning and recognize the false ideology that will ultimately lead to their own extinction.

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.

Federal 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Rules for Ag Groups' EPA Data Breach Suit Regarding Disclosure of Personal Information

       On September 9, 2016, in the case of American Farm Bureau Federation et al. v. Environmental Protection Agency et al., Case No. 13-cv-1751, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the federal appellate court revived a bid by two farm groups to stop the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from releasing addresses and other information about large-scale animal farms under the Freedom of Information Act, finding that exclusive of the mandates of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the provision of such data to environmental groups is actually a privacy violation.

       The American Farm Group Federation and the National Pork Producers Council sued the EPA in July 2013 after the agency released the names, addresses and GPS locations of farms that keep animals in close confinement in several states. Environmental groups, including Food & Water Watch, had requested the information, and the plaintiffs sought to prevent further disclosures.

       U.S. District Judge Ann D. Montgomery found that Clean Water Act regulations for pollution discharges require farmers to disclose their location to state agencies and that the information must be made public under federal regulations. The plaintiffs argued that the EPA's release information would be an invasion of their privacy and should have qualified for an FOIA exemption.  But the judge held they lacked standing because they failed to show an imminent injury. The information was already available on Minnesota and Iowa environmental agencies' websites and easily found by searching their databases, according to the lower court opinion.

       The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council asked the court to reverse a lower court's ruling that killed their challenge to the EPA's disclosure of their members' personal information as it related to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO's), saying the agency had misapplied an exemption under FOIA that's meant to protect personal privacy.  The farmers argued to the appeals panel that the Supreme Court has held that "the law recognizes a right not only to prevent the public disclosure of facts that remain wholly private, but also to control of 'the degree of dissemination' of facts that, although in the public record, nevertheless concern private matters."

       The court of appeals panel sided with the farmers, concluding "the undisputed evidence of nonconsensual disclosures or impending disclosures by the EPA suffice to establish an injury in fact that was caused by the agency and is redressable by the court," adding that "disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy ... and it was an abuse of discretion for the agency to conclude otherwise."  "The EPA's disclosure of spreadsheets containing personal information about owners of CAFO's would invade a substantial privacy interest of the owners while furthering little in the way of public interest that is cognizable under FOIA" the panel said.

       The 8th Circuit Court held that just because information about a particular farm owner can be obtained through publicly available sources does not mean privacy interests go out the window, highlighting an important distinction between merely accessing information and the likelihood of the public to actually focus on that information.

       "The agency's release of the complete set of data on a silver platter, so to speak, eliminates the need for requesters and others to scour different websites and to pursue public records requests to create a comprehensive database of their own," the court said. "If the information were so easily accessible, then it is passing strange that the parties would engage in protracted and expensive litigation to secure it through the Freedom of Information Act."

       This case provides The Cavalry Group, its members and other animal owners/enterprises with a solid argument to contest USDA's and other agencies' disclosure of private and personal information being solicited by animal rights and other activists/organizations.

Kurtis B. Reeg, Esq.
Partner, Goldberg Segalla
Legal Counsel for The Cavalry Group

Information for this article also came from Portfolio Media, Inc. and Law360

To view the case file, click here

New Book Reveals Dog Shows Promote Dogs

By Jay Kitchener

Book Review:  The Dog Merchants by Kim Kavin

It takes an activist with a degree in journalism to inform us that dog shows promote dogs, and when two dog shows appear on national television, it’s the cause of all substandard dog breeding.  If Kavin really holds a degree in journalism, she might want to ask for her money back.  It’s not journalism to plagiarize the propaganda of controversial animal rights groups.  The source pages in her book are thick with references from the shady Humane Society of the United States.

A self-described expert on the luxury lifestyle of yachts, Kavin misses the boat when it comes to getting this story right.  Somebody throw her a life preserver.  She’s drowning in propaganda.

When a book claims to “expose” the commercial dog breeding and rescue industries, it gets my attention.  I give this activist credit for visiting the Hunte Corporation’s commercial kennels.  Unable to say anything bad about the Hunte facility, Kavin throws responsible journalism overboard and jumps the shark to claim that televised dog shows cause substandard dog breeding. 

The day before the book’s release, Kavin crowed on the Facebook page for her book, “My op-ed in today's Albany Times-Union, urging New York State lawmakers to go beyond passing ‘pet store puppy mill’ bans and also outright evict the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show--the type of event that the American Kennel Club itself calls a huge marketing asset for the business model of commercial-scale puppy farms nationwide.”

Calling for the censorship of an annual American television tradition is not journalism, it’s activism.

In the book Kavin flops around like a fish out of water.  She can’t even get a reference to Prohibition right.  She points out the obvious that government prohibition of alcohol created a black market for alcohol.  However, she fails to make the obvious connection that the kind of government prohibition she’s advocating for would create a black market for dogs.

The Prohibition Movement began as a ban on the sale of alcohol on Sundays only.  It seemed reasonable and most folks supported it.  But over time the movement grew and the mission expanded to become a complete ban on the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol in public and in private.  This is exactly where we are heading with the kind of government prohibition Kim Kavin is proposing on dog breeding. 

It wasn’t illegal to drink during prohibition, and it won’t be illegal to own a dog in Kavin’s world.  It will just be illegal to breed a dog in Kavin’s world. 

American’s didn’t stop drinking during Prohibition, they just drank different alcohol—bootleg alcohol.

Americans won’t stop owning dogs in Kavin’s world, but they won’t own purebred dogs. 

Led by the controversial Humane Society of the United States, activists in more than 120 communities across the United States have forced their propaganda on local governments and bullied them to mandate that you many not buy a puppy from a professional breeder in a legitimate pet store, and that you may only buy a puppy in the store supplied by a shelter or rescue organization.  The problem is that these shelter and rescue organizations no longer sell animals in need of homes from the local community.  These organizations now primarily sell animals imported from unknown sources in far-away states and foreign countries with no regulation and no oversight.

The bans on the sale of animals in legitimate pet shops from professional breeders presumes that those breeders are unprofessional and sub-standard.  If that’s true, why would Kavin mandate that your next puppy must come from a mysterious place that might be even worse?

These bans mandate that the public may only purchase animals in a pet shop supplied by shelters and rescue organizations.  Animals sold by shelters and rescue organizations are exempt from consumer protection laws that cover animals sold by breeders.  Why would Kavin remove these protections for consumers and animals?

Government is working hard with activists like Kavin to make sure your next puppy comes from mysterious sources. 

What do you call a book based on propaganda?  More propaganda.  The Dog Merchants by Kim Kavin is one activists’ opinion trying to pass as balanced journalism. 

Written by Jay Kitchener who is a leading advocate in the purebred dog industry. Jay has been on the forefront in preserving the rights of dog breeders and animal owners, and recently helped in turning back an effort to ban retail pet sales in Maine. Jay is now serving as the New England Regional Director for The Cavalry Group.

Animal Rights and You: Using Americans Love for Animals to Steal your Rights

When people think of “animal rights” they think that taking good care of their family pet is the goal. It sounds right. It sounds like good common sense. After all, who could possibly be against taking better care of animals?   Unfortunately, this feel good idea is the polar opposite of what the animal rights movement is truly about. They want you to think they are against the “abuse” of animals when they appeal for donations from you, they just don’t tell you that they view animal ownership itself as the abuse they are against

The animal rights movement seems like it is focused on being kinder to animals as a moral guise to cover their true activities which seeks to create an invisible barrier between humans and animals. To make a moral equality between the life of an ant and the life of a child.   To end all human ownership of animals, end all domestication of animals. To remove animals from our plates, our barns, our homes, and our lives. The end goal of the animal rights movement is the exact same as their sisters in the environmentalist movement, they seek to end the free market system, seize and redistribute wealth, and gain power over others using our love for animals against us.   Activists could really care less about the fate of the animals they claim to be speaking for. As I discuss in my recent book, The Art of Terror: Inside the Animal Rights Movement, the end result of most animal rights policies, the animals die.

The largest group in America today focused on taking your rights away and giving them to animals is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).   The HSUS is a warm and fuzzy sounding group that constantly shills for donations to help them save animals.   The problem is, HSUS doesn’t run a single pet shelter in America. Not one.  They are not an umbrella group for any local “humane” society in your community.   In reality they are a Washington, DC based vegan lobbyist group with $214,549,879 in assets, and morally opposed to pet ownership and meat consumption.

“One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals.
They are creations of human selective breeding.”
Wayne Pacelle President of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).
Every state in America has extensive and excessive animal care laws and regulations already on their books to ensure that animals receive good care from their human owners. That is not animal rights, though these activists want you to think it is. You will not find mentions of rights for animals in the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors of both these documents would be rolling over in his grave at the thought of his documents applying to animals. What about the ‘right to air conditioning?’ Do you believe that all animals have a constitutionalright to air conditioning? Urban voters passed a ballot initiative in Missouri in 2010, funded by the animal rights extremists of HSUS, which outlawed all farmers and dog breeders overnight. The Missouri bill which extremists promoted as an end to “puppy mills” immediately made all farmers into criminals for failure to provide air conditioning to their animals. To animal rights extremists the most common normal animal practices are all abuse. In Michigan, the Department of Natural Resources issued a regulation outlawing the ownership of any pig that isn’t solid pink in color. Making farmers into felons overnight.

To the animal rights movement, a frog’s life has more value than your right to a pond on your property.   Human beings are suffering in California while all the water they need is instead given to the delta smelt (a bait fish)which has more right to life than anyone in the San Joaquin valley has a right to water. Under animal rights, the rights of a chicken are above the rights of the farmer who owns it.   Voters in California approved another HSUS ballot initiative in 2008 that caused 50% of egg farmers to go out of business, making the price of eggs rise across this nation. Control the food supply, you control the people.

These extremists have bought their way into government across the board from Tom Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture to your local Animal Control Officer, now more than likely a closet member of theAnimal Liberation Front (ALF), a domestic terrorist organization. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) now spends taxpayer money to promote Meatless Mondays as part of their promotion of veganism toreward their animal rights masters. They have infiltrated many large corporations and are working to take them down from the inside out.  They are in your children’s schools and your local church.  They have taken over providing training on their views of “animal law” to theNational Sheriffs Association, to your local police department and animal control officers. Social vigilantism is encouraged as they set us against our neighbors and encourage people to report each other to the authorities.

As part of the moving goal post of their animal abolition goals, Fairfax County, Virginia has just outlawed the use of a dog leash for more than one cumulative hour per day, making it a crime of animal cruelty to walk your dog too much.   Other counties nationwide are outlawing allowing dogs to stay outside in cold weather, instantly making farmers into felons for using live stock guardian dogs. Communities nationwide have low pet “limit” laws denying you the right to own the animals of your choice.   Own three Malamutes, walk them 62 minutes on a 30 degree day, and you too might be a felon.   Next thing you know, you and your neighbors will appear on the latest “animal abuser” registry that is floating around legislatures in a state near you and be banned from owning animals for life.

The right to own private property is a cornerstone of America.   Our Founding Fathers viewed private property rights as existing above and beyond government.   You not only have legal title and ownership of private property, you have the right to use that property as you wish. Animals are property, not our equals as the animal rights movement portrays, and as such, no legislature or court can ban or “limit” you from exercising your right to own and use or eat the animal of your choosing.

Read this article on its original posting at the American Policy Center

Katharine Dokken is a Public Affairs Specialist at The Cavalry Groupand the author of, The Art of Terror: Inside the Animal Rights Movement, available on Amazon.

Taking a Step Down the Path to Extinction

The California State Assembly's Arts, Entertainment, Sports & Tourism Committee is scheduled to potentially outlaw elephant conservation efforts on July 14, 2015.  The bill before them, Senate Bill 716, would outlaw the use of a tool called an elephant guide.  Elephant guides are no different than leashes for dogs or reins for horses.    You can't walk an elephant in public without one. Animal rights activists call this simple tool, cruel.   They claim that these tools cause injuries, puncture wounds, abscesses and other types of trauma to an elephant.

"They are weapons with only one purpose:  to cause pain, suffering and fear in elephants."
 activist Nicole Pagquette, HSUS.

Funny enough, these activists from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have no injured elephants to show the public to prove their statements.  If these simple training tools cause puncture wounds, where are they?   The Ringling Bros Circus, in particular, is one of the most inspected shows around.   In 2012, during "one 11-week stay in California last summer, a total of more than 18 state, local and federal government agencies sent 44 different inspectors to look at Ringling’s pachyderms.  The 82 visits spanned more than 221 hours, or more than 3 hours for every day the circus was in the Golden State.”  At no time during those 221 hours of inspection did any inspector find an injured or "traumatized" elephant. 

Nicole Paquette went on to say that Ringling was stopping their elephant acts because of "the public's overwhelming opposition to the mistreatment of elephants for entertainment."   Again she lies.    Last year, HSUS lost a RICO Act lawsuit and paid Ringling $15.75 million to settle claims that activists had lied about how Ringling treats their elephants. You would think that activists from the HSUS would give up after being outed in court but here they are again lying to legislators and the public.

Earlier this year Richmond, Virginia banned elephants and other cities across America have listened to the same animal rights puppet masters.  These efforts are all part of the activists determination to remove all animals from our lives, one specie at a time.   Today its elephants, tomorrow its carriage horses, such as the long running campaign by New York City Mayor DeBlasio to ban carriage horses from Central Park, and tomorrow it will be your dog.   Ringling made a business decision to remove their elephant act because they have spent millions defending their reputation, wining, and the activists just continue to lie. 

Activists scream that elephants belong in the wild but in the wild they are dying in large numbers.   The vast majority of elephants in America today are domestically born.   They were born in captivity.  they are not 'wild' animals.   Animal rights activities want to remove them from our lives.  Today it's the circus, tomorrow they will disappear from our zoos and sanctuaries.   Activists are already attacking zoos nationwide and forcing the closure of many elephant exhibits.    Just up the road from Richmond, the Virginia Zoo recently announced that they are closing their elephant exhibit and getting rid of two elderly elephants under pressure from the animal rights infiltrated Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).    Just a few months ago, the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington got rid of their elephants under continuous pressure from activists.  Once elephants are no longer in the public eye, people will forget about them.   In today's electronic world, people have notoriously short attention spans.   Once out of sight, will anyone care that they are quickly becoming extinct in the wild?  A world without elephants, what a sad world that is. 

Katharine Dokken is a Public Affairs Specialist at The Cavalry Group and the  author of a new book, The Art of Terror:  Inside the Animal Rights Movement, available on Amazon. 

Follow Katharine and The Cavalry Group on Twitter:   @KatharineDokken  @TheCavalryGroup

Animal Rights Activists Exploit Animal Suffering for Profit: Here's the Proof

In today’s big brother society, Homeland Security uses the slogan, “If you see something, say something” harking back to the days of Soviet Russia and East Germany.    It is not American to nark on your neighbors.   But in some cases, saying something is a good thing.  For example, if you see someone assaulting a woman or child.   Or if you see an animal abused.   The animal rights movement, however, doesn’t want you to say anything, ever.   Sounds polar opposite, doesn’t it?   All across America, thse activists are lobbying against what they call “ag gag” laws that interfere with their profit making advocacy.   They make millions off of images of abused animals. The more images they have, the more money they make.  They don’t want to see animal abuse stopped because then they can’t exploit it for cold hard cash. 

For example, in North Carolina, the pro-animal rights Governor recently vetoed an agriculture Property Protection Act, which the activists referred to as an ”ag gag” bill.   The North Carolina legislature then rightfully overrode Governor Pat McCrory’s veto.   Activists claim that these laws prevent them from reporting animal abuse.   They claim farmers are hiding something from the public.   They lie.   Animal rights activists do not want to report animal abuse.   Instead, they film it for their snuff films to raise money from the public.  Farmers are the ones that want to report and stop animal abuse in its tracks.    Many bills like the one in North Carolina have been filed in recent years in states across this Nation to force animal rights activists and others to report animal abuse when it happens.    Some versions of these laws include provisions that any witnessed animal abuse must be reported to the authorities within 24 to 48 hours.   Activists are opposed to reporting an abused and injured animal.   Instead they want to film the suffering animals, sometimes for up to 9 months, just so they can get their animal snuff film images.

    

A chronic offender in this category is a group called Mercy for Animals (MFA).   Recently the Dairy Farmers of America issued a statement calling out MFA for not reporting animal abuse in a timely manner.   MFA sent an activist named Jessica Buck into the Geordert dairy farm in Colorado who then didn’t do the job she was hired to do, which was to take care of their animals.  Instead the female activist spent two months filming animal abuse by a few of the farmer’s 30 employees and not reporting it to anyone. 

 

"We couldn't believe that someone who we hired as a milker and trusted to do the right thing and care for our cows would act so contrary to our values," said Marie Goedert of the undercover activist, Jessica Buck. "Why not bring these concerns to our attention immediately?"

The employees in question had already been fired by the Geordert’s by the time MFA released their video to the public.  In addition, they are working with the local Sheriff to ensure that everyone who abused animals on their farm is prosecuted.   So tell me, who’s speaking up for the best interest of animals?   The farmer or the activist? 

In the past, activists from the animal rights front have been accused of actually staging the animal abuse themselves both in Idaho and Colorado, and other states, in order to discredit American farmers and discourage consumers from eating meat.   

In the Colorado case, activist Taylor Radig, was arrested and charged with animal cruelty for failing to stop the abuse she witnessed for over two months.   Instead of reporting what she saw, in violation of state law, she simply filmed the actions so her employer, Compassion over Killing, could release the video to the public months later and exploit the situation.   She didn’t care about the actual animals who were suffering in front of her.   

Instead all she and others like her care about is selling snuff films to a gullible public and pleading for donations.   Donations that do not ever go to the animals you saw in those videos.   These so-called ag gag laws are needed to force people to say something if they see animal abuse occurring. 

VIDEO: Activists lock themselves to construction equipment. Two animal rights activists are atop construction equipment to protest the building of an animal research lab. click here

Katharine Dokken is a Public Affairs Specialist at The Cavalry Group and the author of a new book, The Art of Terror:  Inside the Animal Rights Movement, available on Amazon. 

Follow Katharine and The Cavalry Group on Twitter:   @KatharineDokken  @TheCavalryGroup

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