Tyson Foods Lets the Fox in the Henhouse

The Cavalry Group takes a hard line in protecting its members' Constitutional rights to private property against the onslaught of the animal rights agenda.  In doing so, we often say privately to our members and publicly when speaking at agriculture and liberty events, "Never collaborate with those who seek your demise."

Tyson Foods failed that Creed with the announcement of their newly formed Animal Well-Being Advisory Panel.  Shocked were we to learn that they invited Miyun Park, executive director of Global Animal Partnership to be a member of this board.

As a quick reminder, Wayne Pacelle is on the board of Global Animal Partnership.  And let's not forget that Global Animal Partnership's agenda is the elimination of animal agriculture and furthering global governance through the implementation of Agenda 21.

Our friend at iloveag further describes Tyson's tragic announcement quite well in this excellent article:

Tyson Confirms Fears: Fox IS in Henhouse
by iloveag

In “Tyson Foods Announces A Win For Wayne Pacelle” and ”Dancing With The Devil” I warned about Tyson Foods’ futile attempt to placate animal rights activists.

Tyson finally announced the 13-person advisory panel that will develop standards for their Farm Check audit program.

Members of the panel include:

• Ryan Best, 2011-2012 president, Future Farmers of America
• Anne Burkholder, cattle feedlot owner
• Ed Cooney, executive director of the Congressional Hunger Center
• Gail Golab, Ph.D., DVM, director of American Veterinary Medical Association’s Animal Welfare Division
• Temple Grandin, Ph.D., professor of animal science, Colorado State University
• Karl Guggenmos, dean of culinary education, Johnson & Wales University
• Tim Loula, DVM, co-founder and co-owner of Swine Vet Center in St. Peter, Minnesota
• Miyun Park, executive director, Global Animal Partnership
• Ashley Peterson, Ph.D., vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs, National Chicken Council
• Richard Raymond, M.D., former U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Food Safety
• Janeen Salak-Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor in Animal Sciences, University of Illinois
• Janice Swanson, Ph.D., chair and professor, Animal Behavior and Welfare, Michigan State University
• Bruce Webster, Ph.D., professor of poultry science, University of Georgia

The fact that animal rights and vegan activist and former HSUS Vice President Miyun Park is on the panel should give every producer heart palpitations.

Continue reading...

Obama Administration Tightens Grip of Hobby Pet Breeders

Don’t believe the “job-creating” rhetoric coming out of the current administration. At every turn, Obama’s bureaucrats are developing new and creative ways to make it more difficult for small businesses to survive. Down at the Department of Agriculture, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has decided to broadly expand their jurisdiction. Under the new proposed rule, all pet breeders who sell their animals over the internet, phone, or mail will now be subjected to the demanding licensing and inspection requirements of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Under current law, retail pet stores are not required to comply with the Animal Welfare Act. The proposed APHIS rule would strip the retail pet store exemption from any breeder who uses the internet, phone, or mail to sell their pets, as many have chosen to do in the modern economy. During a conference call unveiling the rule, APHIS clarified that if a breeder sells even one animal in a location other than where the animal was bred, the breeder would then be subject to the AWA. They refer to this change as “closing a loophole.” In actuality, it is a vast expansion of the regulatory jurisdiction of the federal government.   Continue reading

Tennessee Governor Haslam Veto’s Agriculture Legislation: The Real Story

On Monday, May 13^th, 2013, Tennessee Republican Governor, Bill Haslam elected to veto the Tennessee legislation known as the Animal Abuse Reporting bill (HB 1191/S 1248) under the guise that the current wording of the legislation needs to be reworked to avoid constitutional challenges. 

While I want to give Governor Haslam the benefit of the doubt, what was really at work here was an over the top effort by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and other animal rights activists to pressure Governor Haslam into submission. Although there were many non-Tennessean’s such as singer Carrie Underwood and celebrity Ellen DeGeneres who were involved in this effort, HSUS, the self appointed arbitrator of animal welfare, is the loudest of the voices who regularly manipulate the facts and, in many cases, lie to support their ideological view.

While they claim the mantle of free speech, those who don’t agree are ignored or told to shut up.  Unfortunately, this particular subject matter has serious consequences which ruins lives and businesses while throwing the 4^th, 5^th and 14^th Constitutional Rights of American citizens out the window.

In this recent instance, HSUS has used every dishonest tactic available to them to pressure Governor Haslam to veto this legislation passed by the Tennessee legislature to protect animals from abuse, while also protecting the Constitutional and private property rights of citizens.  The legislation, fraudulently labeled by HSUS as the “Ag Gag Bill” was a response to abuses perpetrated by HSUS and other animal rights extremists attacking animal owners, animal related businesses, and animal agriculture around the country. 

HSUS targets animal owners and businesses, illegally gathers or manufactures evidence of supposed “animal cruelty,” while manipulating prosecutors and judges to obtain search warrants and/or seizure warrants against private citizens or companies.   The subjects of most cases are law abiding citizens caught unprepared in a cruel web of accusations, and without legal representation or the funds to defend themselves. 

HSUS takes weeks or months, and sometimes years to plan out these actions to create the biggest spectacle with the real intent of raising money from the process while destroying their target. The target is then blanketed in the media as an “animal abuser,” ruining their reputation and business before having their day in court.  Overwhelmed by the process and the cost, some cop pleas to lesser charges, but those who have fought back have, in most cases, had charges dismissed.   Unfortunately however, their lives and businesses are already destroyed, and their private property (animals) have been euthanized, sold off, or have disappeared without a trace.

Case in point, HSUS issued a press release last week claiming that the Tennessee Walking Horse industry required HSUS to police their industry with lengthy undercover investigations.  To support that claim, HSUS produced a lengthy evaluation of the inspection results from the Super Bowl of the Tennessee walking horse industry, the 2012 Celebration intended to provide evidence for the need for HSUS’s ongoing investigations claiming that 76% of the horses were found in violation of the rules.  As typical of HSUS, they again manipulated the facts and fabricated information to make their point.  

The actual USDA inspection results present a much different picture with actual violations issued to only 9% of the participants rather than the 76% that HSUS would like you to believe.   To further pressure Governor Haslam, HSUS and former HSUS employees (now working at USDA) orchestrated a surprise attack on a facility owned by high profile Tennessee walking horse trainer, Larry Wheelon, who has been targeted for years by animal rights activists.  

The legally questionable search and subsequent seizure of 18 elite horses from the facility raises some serious questions especially when some of the horses were immediately released to an owner with ties to one of the animal rights groups involved in the seizure.   Notwithstanding the fabricated propaganda, Mr. Wheelon has been charged with only one count of animal cruelty and legal sources close to the case expect the charges to be dropped.  Unfortunately, HSUS and cooperative media outlets don’t care about Mr. Wheelon’s right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.  They have declared him guilty, and in addition to bullying Tennessee lawmakers they are using this case to raise money for future HSUS terrorist activities.

The Tennessee Animal Abuse Reporting Bill attacked last week by HSUS would have required accusers to simply bring forth evidence of animal cruelty to law enforcement within 48 hours to get law enforcement to act.  Common sense would require that if an animal is at risk, law enforcement should be contacted immediately with the evidence to protect the animal.  I would think that HSUS would be in favor of such a law.

To further connect the dots, you may remember that last year Pilot Travel Centers, owned by the Haslam family, dropped their support of the Humane Society of the United States due to HSUS’s attacks on animal enterprises and agriculture.  It’s clear that this correct change in corporate policy coupled with the Animal Abuse Reporting Bill awaiting Haslam’s signature put the Governor in the cross hairs of HSUS’s intimidation tactics.

Hopefully Tennessee lawmakers and Governor Haslam will rise to the challenge and reinvigorate their efforts to pass legislation to protect Tennessee citizens and businesses from those who want to abuse due process, and private property rights under the guise of animal welfare.  

Mark Patterson is the CEO of The Cavalry Group a private member based company protecting and defending the Constitutional and private property rights of law abiding animal owners, animal-related businesses, sportsmen, and agriculture concerns legally, nationwide at the local, state, and federal levels.

The Trojan Horse that is Agenda 21

One of the most critical of America’s Founding principles is private property.  Without our right to private property in the United States, we have nothing. I believe our current administration and their socialistic views seek to destroy private property in America.  And like anyone seeking to destroy something precious, the attack will come in a disguise and chip away incrementally.  A steady push has already been underway to remove the free market system from America, which rewards success, and to move us toward Socialism, which punishes success, redistributes wealth, and encourages “collective ownership” while promoting the belief of  “global dominion.” 

The Obama administration will be implementing 68 new regulations per day during the first 90 days in 2013. Many of these onerous regulatory reforms will be directed at small business and agriculture.

How do you destroy agriculture, including the pet industry, in America? 

Answer: Regulate them out of business:

•      Raise the cost of growing our food and breeding animals.
•      Which reduces the total production and availability of food and animals.
•      Thereby, weakening the economic structure of agribusiness and the pet industry.

And, while this sounds like fiction, it is very real and happening throughout America courtesy of the United Nations action plan called, Agenda 21. 

Agenda 21 was introduced at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro organized by the United Nations.  The Earth Summit brought together environmental activists from around the world to deal with the supposed threat from global warming.

UN Agenda 21 comes to us cloaked in the disguise behind the green movement and environmentalism seeking to promote “sustainable” development, which is publicized as conserving an ecological balance by avoiding the depletion of natural resources.  Sounds benign, doesn’t it?  But when you pull back the curtain, Agenda 21 is eating away at America’s sovereignty bit by bit, like a cancer. Ultimately destroying Americans’ right to private property and moving us toward global governance and a totalitarian state.

Here is just a short list of things that Agenda 21 considers unsustainable: Grazing livestock, meat consumption, plowing of soil, building fences, paved roads, logging and timber, dams and reservoirs. 

It is not a coincidence that the man who authored Agenda 21, Maurice Strong, sat on the board of the Humane Society of the United States until 2010. If you put some of the recent laws and regulatory reforms that have been placed on licensed dog breeders into the perspective of Agenda 21, one begins to see the alarming trend and connect the dots: Limitation of the number of animals you can own, mandatory spay and neuter, unfettered access to outdoors, temperature control, guardianship laws for pets.

Agenda 21 should be a bi-partisan concern. We’re all being called to duty to protect our nation’s sovereignty. If you’re opposed to being subjected to UN governance and International Law, first you must become more informed about Agenda 21.  I encourage you to go directly to the UN website to read the Agenda 21 action plan and learn more about it. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development. Website address: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/

Secondly, become involved at the local level with your city and county councils and local/state school boards. This is where Agenda 21 is being implemented. UN Agenda 21 is already being pushed in our schools through social studies, and implemented through local jurisdiction in the form of city ordinances, changes in zoning under the terms sustainable development, smart growth, sustainable farming, multi-use trails, green building, open space, conservations easements, and more. Inform and educate yourself and your neighbors.

While we have big challenges ahead, and a very steep hill to climb, we must stay vigilant and keep up our fight for freedom. No one ever said living in a free republic would be easy, and this is a time that will test our mettle.

What Ronald Reagan said in 1964 applies today, “Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends?”  And he added, “If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.”

Like those who have fought for freedom before us, it is now our time to protect the flame of liberty and not allow it to be extinguished.  The serpent of tyranny rises again, this time as Agenda 21 to threaten American freedom and sovereignty.  We must remain vigilant.

Mindy Patterson is president and co-founder 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, sportsmen, hunters, and agriculture concerns nationwide. http://www.thecavalrygroup.com

Governor Nixon and Attorney General Koster sell out Missouri jobs to appease special interests.

The old adage of “its not what you say, but what you do that counts” has never been more poignant than in the last four years of Governor Nixon’s administration.  There have been many examples of Nixon selling out Missouri families and Missouri businesses in favor of powerful special interest groups, or trying to curry favor with President Obama.  Let’s not forget Governor Nixon trying last year to sneak in the Obamacare exchanges under the nose of Missourians.  However, none of the Governor’s actions have been more vicious and transparent as pretending to broker a compromise between radical animal rights groups and Missouri Dog Breeders and animal agriculture groups and then selling law abiding Missourians down the river.

After a bitter battle over the slimly won 2010 Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act Ballot Initiative where the Humane Society of the United States spent $4.8 million dollars on propaganda in Missouri to create a “crisis” where one didn’t exist, the Missouri Legislature courageously stepped in to protect law abiding Missouri businesses from an un-constitutional effort to destroy a viable industry.  Missouri already had extensive animal welfare laws in place, and this new Measure did nothing to deal with the small percentage breaking the law, nor the State’s failure to enforce the law.   However this battle was really about wiping out the already heavily regulated, successful, Missouri dog breeding industry.  An industry which has produced quality purebred dogs for families all over the United States and beyond.  Ironically, the Humane Society of Missouri will sell you a mutt with behavioral problems for $300 if you are interested.  The conflict of interest is obvious.

 As the Missouri legislature crafted a fix for this job killing Measure, Governor Nixon, stepped in to broker what is now known as the Missouri Solution.  He caps that by meeting with both sides and declaring victory.  The Governor’s failure to actually determine with empirical data that there is a problem is swept under the rug.  Instead the Governor falls in line with the massive propaganda campaign put forth by out of state special interests, specifically HSUS.   Nobody questions or takes into account the fact that HSUS has gone state by state claiming them as the ‘puppy mill capital of the US” and subsequently destroying their dog breeding industries.

According to Missouri Law what was supposed to happen next is that a 12 person committee made up of diverse agricultural interests works with the Department of Agriculture to write the rules and regulations so as to accurately and fairly implement the law.  Unfortunately, Governor Nixon had disbanded this committee in 2009. So who wrote the rules and regulations?  We have information that Director of Agriculture, Dr. Jon Hagler was involved, as was a gentleman named Bob Baker who is the director of the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation (MAAL), animal rights advocates masquerading as animal welfare proponents and a direct conduit to the radicals at HSUS.   Otherwise we are not sure who else was involved.  In that smoky back room, most of the unconstitutional aspects removed from the Measure made it back into the rules coupled with numerous onerous and business crushing new rules that had no foundation in the law itself.  These rules went into affect on July 11, 2011.

According to Matt Rold, Animal Care Facilities Act (ACFA) Coordinator for the Missouri Department of Agriculture, the result was that in the period from July 2011 to July 2012 approximately 50% of the 1,500 licensed Missouri dog breeders went out of business as they were financially incapable of complying with the new onerous rules requiring thousands of dollars of unneeded kennel modifications.  The impact to Missouri is tens of thousands of lost jobs and over $500 million plus in lost positive economic impact to Missouri.  So while the economy is struggling all over Missouri, Governor Nixon decides to crush thousands of Missouri families and their jobs to appease out of state radical animal rights activists.  Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster even decided that it would make a good campaign ad.

Taking a cue from President Obama, Nixon then doubled down on this strategy moving  $1.1 million dollars from other important Missouri programs to the Department of Agriculture’s 2011-2012 budgets to enforce these new rules and implement an aggressive new enforcement campaign rather than to go after the unlicensed law breakers that were the target of this Measure.  This effort ramped up this summer and the immediate results were hundreds of questionable violations against even Missouri’s top Blue Ribbon breeders.  New interpretations of the old rules and vigorous enforcement of new rules that were unsupported by the actual law put everyone in a state of confusion including the Department of Agriculture’s Inspectors who were told to call Dr. Hagler for interpretation of the new rules with Dr. Hagler acting as the Department of Agriculture’s judge, jury and executioner.  Worried that the Missouri Department of Agriculture could wipe out the Missouri dog breeding industry by the end of 2012, The Cavalry Group filed suit in early September 2012 challenging the constitutionality of many of the provisions in the Canine Cruelty Prevention Act including the “new” rules and regulations, and making a claim for a regulatory taking of private property.   The Cavalry Group is in the midst of this legal action and will pursue all remedies to protect Missouri jobs and ultimately Missouri families.  Hopefully we can help save a Missouri industry made up of real Missouri families with a great history and heritage.

 Missouri voters have a clear choice on November 6^th.  Governor Nixon and Attorney General Koster have made that choice easier by attacking and destroying the livelihoods of those who they are supposed to protect: the law abiding citizens of Missouri.  When you vote on November 6^th, I hope that you will remember those law abiding, hard working Missouri families that Governor Nixon and Attorney General Koster forgot.  Vote for Dave Spence for Missouri Governor, and Ed Martin for Missouri Attorney General.

Mark Patterson is CEO of The Cavalry Group, America’s advocate for animal owners, outdoor sportsmen, and animal related businesses -- defending them on legal, legislative, and cultural fronts.  www.TheCavalryGroup.com

Lawsuit Update: The Cavalry Group vs The State of Missouri

We were unsuccessful in getting the Cole County Circuit Judge to issue a Temporary Restraining Order associated with freezing the Canine Cruelty Prevention Act.

First of all, this action does not affect what we are doing with regards to the overall lawsuit. We are still in the discovery phase where the State has to respond to our request for documents, records, etc. We have our first formal court date on 11/30/12 at 9:00 a.m..

On a parallel path we are pursuing injunctive relief that would freeze everything.  

Last Thursday we argued for an immediate Temporary Restraining Order.  That type of hearing involves case law and legal arguments but no live witness testimony is presented. The threshold at this point in the proceedings is high and would have required the judge to put the inspection division of MDA on sabbatical if he issued the TRO.  The Court declined to do so at this point.

At the same time, the State asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.  The Court did not dismiss the case and called on the State to answer the complaint which keeps us in Court.  Again, the judge asked some very interesting questions that indicate that the Court is giving our case strong consideration.

We next ask for a hearing at which evidence and witnesses will be presented as we request a "preliminary injunction".  Basically, it is the same thing as a TRO but we get to present evidence in this action. If we get the preliminary injunction which usually lasts 90 days, we will pursue a "permanent injunction" that would freeze everything until the conclusion of the lawsuit.

To summarize, we didn't get immediate relief, but the court didn't throw out the case either, so we go forward on both paths.

Should you have any questions, feel free to email me at mark@thecavalrygroup.com.

Best regards,

Mark Patterson

CEO

The Cavalry Group