All over America, localities are outlawing and killing exotic
animals. Brown shirted bureaucrats
claim they are doing it for public safety but the public is in no danger. By removing animals from our lives, that
creates an unreasonable fear of the unknown.
When you get to know these animals, it’s easy to see that there is no
danger to the public. Every animal is
different. Some only eat if they are
hungry, others such as wolves, kill for the thrill of killing. But a captive raised animal has never hunted
for their food. They don’t know how. Should one of them escape from their home,
you are in no danger. They don’t want
to leave their enclosures. They are
used to the routines they live in and have bonded to their caregivers. In other words, a captive raised wild animal
is more afraid of you than you are of them.
When localities outlaw and ban previously legal animals,
there is no other end for the animals but death. There is nowhere else for these animals to
go. Activists demand that they be
returned to the wild, but these animals have never known life in the wild. Most privately owned animals in America today
were born in captivity. They don’t know
any other life. They are no more “wild”
animals, than we are still cave men.
The new flash point today is Skagit County, Washington. Local bureaucrats passed a new ordinance
last year outlawing the ownership of exotic animals such as wolves, cougars,
foxes and some snakes. Also located in
Skagit County is a thirty year old business called Predators of the Heart owned
by Dave Coburn. Predators of the Heart
(POTH) is the largest traveling exotic animal business in America with an
impeccable safety record and licensed with the USDA. For 30 years, Dave Coburn has visited
schools, churches, libraries, and other events to educate people on his
animals. Overnight, dozens of his
animals became illegal to own. Illegal
to keep alive. No grandfather clause
for Dave Coburn. His choice is, pay a
fine of $50,000 a day or kill two dozen animals. These kinds of bureaucrat actions are
happening all across America. These
animals have nowhere else to go. Zoos
and sanctuaries are already full of animals that have been outlawed in other
states. There is no more room at the
inn.
Coburn has already jumped through endless hoops that the
Skagit County enforcers have made him perform.
He has filed applications, paid fees.
He has made modifications to his property that un-elected bureaucrats
have demanded that he make. Bureaucrats
who have never cared for an exotic animal in their lives are writing regulations
and enforcing them at the point of a gun.
The government just pockets the fees, no refunds, and denies his
permits. What is happening to Coburn
is no different than what Ohio is doing to Kenny
Hetrick and Tiger Ridge. They
arbitrarily make new standards of care to keep the owner jumping through hoops
to meet a bar that can never be met.
Today an eight foot fence is legal.
Tomorrow the ordinance is changed to ten feet. Next month it’s twelve feet. Bureaucrats love to keep their targets broke
and constantly under stress. When
challenged they will simply turn on the owner and proclaim to the media that
“Joe American is out of compliance with our laws and has a long history of
this.” Or like just like propagandist Skagit
County Commissioner Lisa Janicki said, “[P]ulling at heart strings isn’t
fair play. She calls the issue a matter
of public safety.” This is nothing more
than a systemic and methodical destruction of the private property owner under
the false flag of safety.
Predators of the Heart is a private business with a long and
successful history. Legislators and
bureaucrats do not have the right to outlaw a business just because they
disagree with it. Agendas do not belong
in the government of “We the People.”
Supporters of POTH have set up a GoFundMe account to help raise money to
fight back. You can support them 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
You can also read this article on Joe4America: click here
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