Category: Environment

updated

Several Tea Party pundits have jumped on the media bandwagon for Debe Bell and the Six Bells Rabbits.

“There was no warrant”, they claim, based solely on what they were told by Bell (never bothering to fact check).

“The rabbits were in great shape!”, they shouted, again based on what they were told by Bell (assuming that Bell was telling the truth, while a dozen or so veterinarians, animal care personnel, and sheriff’s department personnel were all lying).

Well, nothing like a few facts to show how foolish these people are.

In the sidebar to the story is a link to both the warrant and a slideshow of the conditions on Bell’s farm. You better have a strong stomach before clicking the link to the slideshow.

The sad thing is, many puppy (and bunny) mills in Missouri share similar conditions, but they’re not being closed down.

update

The Baltimore Sun picked up the story as have the Denver TV stations.

second update

A judge has denied Bell’s restraining order and the rabbits can now go up for adoption. Finally, these bunnies have a chance.

Last I heard, though, Tea Party friends of Bell have decided that the photos were doctored, that Colorado has entered into a conspiracy with the USDA and HSUS (and probably little green aliens from Mars) to deny Bell her Constitutional rights to continue treating rabbits like crap.

Folks involved with the puppy mill effort in Missouri have long been familiar with Wendy Laymon, and her so-called “Rescue a French Bulldog”.

Wendy Laymon has a shameful history of animal neglect as a commercial breeder, including being fined by the USDA and losing her USDA license. Chat in the community has it that she started up the Rescue a French Bulldog, not to save poor homeless french bull dogs but to muddy the water for genuine rescues—not to mention siphoning off donations from the less informed, as well as being a way to get rid of frenchies that haven’t sold through her commercial breeding operation.

Thankfully, the Humane Society of the US has taken action on Ms. Laymon and her dubious enterprise. The organization recently filed a complaint with the Missouri AG that the Rescue a French Bulldog violates Missouri’s consumer protection laws.

This gives the AG a reason to go after Laymon, but the more important point of all of this is why is this person still in business? I don’t want to keep reading about the AG’s office closure of one breeder, as if the closure of one breeder justifies overriding the vote of the people.

The Department of Agriculture now has money. It now has the inspectors it needs. The AG office has focused one Assistant AG on prosecuting bad breeders under the the so-called “Missouri Solution”…

So why does an organization like HSUS have to point out the obvious?

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I did hear back from the USDA regarding my FOIA request related to the Dollarhite rabbit mill case.

Since the case is still not finished, they can’t release any of the investigative material. All 120 pages of it. Yeah, that tells me there’s a lot more going on then has been claimed by various fact challenged Tea Party types.

What they could send me is a copy of the letter sent to the Dollarhites in 2006 (PDF) with information about becoming licensed breeders. And screenshots of the Dollarhite web site showing that the Dollarhites were selling rabbits early in 2006 (not in 2008, as they claimed).

What blows my mind is the fact that this case isn’t closed. The USDA is letting the Dollarhites off without a fine. They wouldn’t have had to pay one single penny. The Dollarhites sold rabbits as pets to dealers for at least two years, in violation of long established USDA laws, but the USDA was willing to forgo a fine. Yet the Dollarhites just can’t seem to let it go.

I linked the USDA letter that offered to dismiss any financial fines as long as the Dollarhites refrained from breeding animals, or owning any animals that can be bred. They can have pets, but the pets either have to be the type of critter that isn’t covered under the Animal Welfare Act (birds, fish, and reptiles), or has been spayed or neutered (cats, dogs, bunnies, horses, etc.).

This is not an unreasonable request to make of people who ignored the laws for at least two years, and sold several hundred rabbits to a commercial petting zoo and Petland.

Yet the Dollarhites are now spinning a tale that they can’t have any animals. None, zip.

They said a few weeks back that their lawyer was preparing a response. Now they say he isn’t and they’re looking for another one. I am sure that all the attention they’re getting from the factually challenged Tea Party types has nothing to do with the fact that they haven’t yet responded to the letter.

If the Dollarhites don’t respond by July 29th, it will end up in court. They’ll basically have lost their chance to get off without a fine.

The USDA informed me I could re-submit a request for the additional 120 pages of information once this case is closed. However, I have a 100 new kennel campaigns I want to start in the next month, and am not sure I want to continue to waste time with this issue. I would like to continue with a defense of the USDA—I feel they were grossly maligned with this incident—but there’s a tawdry aspect to all of this that is making me lose interest.

It’s not as if the Tea Party types will admit their errors, or do any fact checking. Evidently, tea and facts don’t go together well.

If I do make a later request and get any more information, I’ll post it here. If someone else wants to access the records and send them to me, I’ll post them here. Otherwise, it’s time to get back to the puppy mills.