Unfortunately, the political game is the only one being played. Our freedoms in all areas depend upon politics, no matter how much we would like to think otherwise. Who we elect, who we support, who greases whose palms and so forth.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) licensees were not exempted for two reasons. The first is the usual lack of involvement by owners in the political process. Not enough stood up long enough and loud enough to make a difference.
The second reason is actually the most important though and effects all of us. The animal rights activists (ARA) improve their tactics every year. This year, they began making the absurd statement that anyone can get a USDA license for twenty bucks and asking. As those of you who are licensed know, this is not only absurd, but basically an insane statement.
Everyone in other states should watch for this new tactic of discrediting the USDA licensing. Right now it is vulnerable due to the problems we have seen in USDA facilities, the pet food, human food etc problems that can all be said to be "proof" of lack of USDA inspections and oversight. Some of the crappy places being shut down can be used as "proof" that USDA standards for handing out licenses is almost zero.
The legislators usually will not take the time to actually check with the USDA to find out what it takes to get a license or to find out what is actually done to inspect licensees. The ARA pushing the bill are usually very convincing and very excellent at either outright lying or expertly twisting a fact or telling a partial truth.
In addition to denigrating the USDA licensing procedure, the ARA have glomed onto an obscure bit of data regarding current activities. This goes along the lines of - The USDA is too busy chasing terrorists and concentrating on global threats to actively act as an oversight on exotic owners who are getting these licenses simply by applying and have no ability to deal with these animals and pose a HUGE threat so it is not ok to exclude these unmonitored, dangerous, incompetent owners under the cover of a license that means nothing or less than nothing...
Watch for this tactic in other states. It is not openly stated but is part of the usual whisper campaign from the ARA to the legislators that doesn't come to light unless you are on top of it and communicating with all the legislators - even the ones supporting the bill. Eventually you ferret out the tactics of the ARAs'.
The ARAs are expert at their work. Most of the USDA C and non-AZA facilities have been assured they are exempt under this bill. Even though a complete reading clearly shows they are not. It is incredible to me that we could clearly state in THREE hearings a list of places that will be closed down and these legislators didn't get it. But more incredible is the fact that the facilities themselves are so dense that they actually believed themselves exempt!!
For example, Cougar Mountain in Issaquah is not AZA accredited. They belong to the "other" AZA - ZAOA (Zoological Association of America) yet they are convinced they are exempt. When it comes time to replace their cougars they have a surprise coming. Wolf Haven understood they were at risk and came to testify against the bill...so the drafters put in an obscure exemption for them only that deals with their breeding of a rare species. This exemption was designed to cover them only. Olympic Game Park was at risk, so their State Representative got a special exemption for them that covers another obscure area of game parks raising game birds. They have a couple of pheasants so they come under that.
We were able to convince such places that they needed to address the bill, the drafters were able to design a special exemption just for them.
We have won for 10 years by having a large, vocal and diverse group of people saying "NO!!" Every year we win concessions and get the ARA backed off. This year, the fight went on, but the writing was on the wall from the beginning.
The ARA drafters of the bill wanted the bill passed, the legislators are ALL really tired of it. The supporters were beginning to look really stupid to be beaten so long by a rag tag bunch of "rabble". To get the bill passed, the ARAs said (to the legislators) they were giving us everything we wanted - keeping all animals for their life, no insurance, no requirements, no effect on any of the smaller cats, no reptiles except the venomous ones, no wolf dogs, no micro chipping, no sterilization, no registration, no signage etc etc. They made it sound as though they had given in to all of our demands.
The truth is, they never spoke to us even once. Not once. They just gathered up the items from all the previous attempts, gave in on everything they could tolerate and made the bill as simple as they possibly could and still have a bill.
Thus it passed.
Two really bad points made it thru - all primates are banned and all wolves. I am sure all wolves have become "wolf-dogs" overnight. But, the primates are all banned. Those currently in state are exempt of course, but no new ones will be allowed. The misunderstandings on primates are extensive and we were not as successful in dealing with those as we were with the other animals.
Ohio needs to follow the lead of Polly at Ohio Association of Animal Owners (OAAO). They have been successful for many years in defeating these bills. But, watch for the same tactics used here to be used there.
Once a bill is passed, no matter how minor, it is easier to amend and expand it. That is what we are looking forward to addressing next year and the year after and the one after that....Politics is unfortunately here to stay when it comes to our freedoms.
