This incident has so many different abuses by the police that it is difficult to accurately list them all. Every last argument used against the owner of the property was full of ignorance. What shines a light on this whole scenario is the following statement:
The “salt in the wound” that the situation had become was the fact that the sheriff’s office officials were accompanied by volunteers from the local branch of the House Rabbit Society — a nationwide group comprised of people who, according to Bell, think rabbits need to be raised like small children.
…
Umm, the civilians had absolutely no authority to be on the property, and the property owner had every right to request their removal, warrant or not. Here’s a quick list of issues, most of which were created by the actions of law enforcement or law enforcement was ignorant of the actual law.
- Claimed improper zoning, when in fact the property is zoned for agriculture.
- A dead rabbit was automatically cause for concern, with no regard for cause or time of death.
- Officers disconnected the cooling system raising the temperature in the barn.
- They disconnected the water system for the rabbits.
The last two actions by law enforcement provided the grounds for the abuse charge, of which I believe the warrant was based. While waiting for the warrant police continued to attempt to trick her and extort her into surrendering her animals. What was most telling was the abuse the animals received at the hands of the “professionals”.
In response, the sheriff’s office employee said, “That’s their mom. Why would she do that?”
The mother in a confined space wont be able to tell that those are her babies, instinct for survival is going to take over. This also ignores the fact that the rabbits were relocated to a non air conditioned area, and left to live in their own feces and urine.
Sadly this is not the first story I have heard of animal rights activists lying and manipulating law enforcement for their own political game. I had to fight to help a non-profit horse rescue fight charges of neglect, made by the owner of an animal whose horse was seized. Seriously, the owner didn’t take care of her horse, had neither the facilities or money, and someone saw that it was extremely malnourished, lack of facilities, and called the police. Charges were filed against her and the horse was seized. She was found guilty and lost the horse permanently, she was even banned from ever owning horses again, however the hell that works.
The rescue while working to rehabilitate the horse, had a visit from the state vet regarding complaints of abuse and malnourishment. She had spread a rumor online that the owner had killed the horse. They seized all of his computers, cameras, and other office equipment he needed for day to day operations. This was done because they could not find any physical evidence of abuse and the claim was made that he was hiding it. Some of the claims also included mass graves for horses and the like. Much of the complaints was that the malnourished horses weren’t gaining their weight back overnight. Instead of just getting them fat, he was properly rebuilding their muscle, fat, and digestive system as you would a human. I have helped rescue a couple horses beginning to end, it takes time but the results are outstanding. Not only that but the horse knows what you’ve done believe it or not and they love you for it.
The whole issue damn near put him under and resulted in expenses that went to a bull crap legal fight than actually helping the horses. It was private donations that kept him afloat since they took his computers in the middle of the grant filing season. The individuals also damaged farm equipment and were vandalizing property, including the horses to make it appear to be his fault. Two men were caught trying to sneak into the barn in the middle of the night. One of the horses had been injured the previous night and required treatment every 4 hours so the owner was staying in the barn. He surprised both of them and they ran off*. He reported it and stated them as the probable cause of injury to the horse as well. Thankfully in the case of this rescue, most of the officers knew the owner, it was very civil, the state vet was on hand during the whole event, and after it was over they told the complaining party to shut up.
The bottom line is groups like PETA, House Rabbit Society, and others file false claims that do nothing more than ruin law abiding citizens. The use law enforcement to strip the law abiding of the rights. The only harm that came to those animals were from the House Rabbit Society and law enforcement. These laws are there to protect animals, but are too easily abused against the law abiding. As I have had to explain lately, that guilty people sometimes going free isn’t a bug, it’s a feature to protect the law abiding.
State Sponsored Criminal Count: 19
Because the job of the police is to violate the rights of citizens based on their ignorance and then commit the very crimes they were supposedly ending.
H/T Alan.
*I found out about this just after the case was finally dismissed. After which they stopped coming around. When he first told me about it my response was, “I’ll bring my cot, AR, NVGs and stand watch in the barn till this is over.” Then he told me they had since stopped, I was kind of disappointed and happy at the same time. I kind of wanted to cause one of those little pricks to piss their pants for totaling the engine in the deuce and a half, by adding a seize agent to the oil.
TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms.
Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.
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