I've been asked in private emails what you and I can do to help fight back and a while back I mentioned joining organizations, getting out there to volunteer and, if you couldn't find what you wanted, START something. I started this blog and now I'm taking my own advice again. Animal owners should not have to fight Cities, States, NPOs, and other powerful individuals and groups all on their own all the while being vilified in the press a nearly sub-human and with no regard to the effects on their reputations. As we should all know by now, once something is spewed into cyberspace, it often spreads round the world in moments, particularly when it is sensationalized by the media.
Fighting back against an animal seizure is costly and painful, literally painful in a multitude of ways. We animal owners must join together in this fight and support those who are accused and whose animals are seized. I had been discussing the possibilities of a defense fund to assist in these endeavors by owners to fight back and get fair hearings and, finding none currently existing, had decided to found a defense fund. I have been contacted by the owners of U.S. Global Exotics (USGE), subjected to seizure of its assets by the City of Arlington at the spurring on and funding by PETA and its operative (Howard Goldman). I now have information that has only served to further infuriate me about this particular seizure and it has spurred me to get this defense fund functional now.
Now having information that goes beyond what the media reported (although it certainly should have reported some of this, it didn't), you will be seeing additional information about the seizure in future blog entries but your assistance is needed NOW. Feld recently won their case against PETA operatives and we have some momentum to assist animal owners right now but that will only spur the radical animal rights activists to more aggressive and potential dangerous behavior. The USGE case will be used by them if it is not appealed and that could affect us all. The simple truth is that the City of Arlington essentially bankrupted USGE by seizing its assets (and they seized far more than was authorized and far more than animals, something that seems to have become an endemic practice).
Please visit the new Animal Owners Defense website at http://aodefense.viviti.com. Send in a gift and your support TODAY to show we will no longer sit idly by while abusive authorities violate our constitutionally protected property rights, spurred on by radical activists who feel no obligation whatsoever to abide by any law. Encourage your friends, family, and every animal owner you know to join this fight for their rights to keep their beloved pets of all species.
Now I'd like to speak briefly to the exotic animal owners. Due to my own lack of knowledge about exotic pets, I've spent quite a bit of time haunting your message boards. I've found your conversations quite rational and most of you very well informed. I guess with the lack of veterinary care for your pets until rather recently, you'd rather have to be so. It's been a refreshing experience to see how you join together and share. I have also read your concerns for the wholesaling and supplier side of your pets and most of you seem to grasp that these are businesses which, of necessity, operate differently with animals than you do with pets in your homes. Here's your chance to have an effect in multiple ways. First, you can help to protect the incoming supply of your animals. Second, you're sure to have more input and impact on the supplier side by joining with suppliers. Remember that supply and demand isn't just price, it's also quality and care of the animals in the process. I see your efforts to defeat the Python Bill; now you need to show your support for one of your suppliers.
- When you see an animal in your community that you think is in need, contact the owner politely and try to see if you can help. It may be a simple matter of the owner's lack of knowledge.
- When you see a media story on animals being "saved" through seizure, reach out to the owner and get the real facts and show up at their hearing if for nothing more than to show the courts we expect these hearings to fair and reasonable; treated as the serious matters they should be.
- By joining together, we can help far more animals in our communities and do so long before situations become desperate. There are times when owners have to make very difficult choices, especially when times are tough, but that's precisely when an owner may need help and support to make those tough decisions.
Today, I ask you to reach out and show your support that U.S. Global Exotics get an appeal to a more proper court where the abuses by the City of Arlington, PETA, SPCA of North Texas, HSNT, and others will be recorded in the court's records for all to see.