Ohio Once Again Stomps on Citizens Rights

On May 4, 2016, the out of control goon squad from the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) once again illegally raided the home and property of an Ohio exotic animal owner in their never ending campaign to kill or remove all wild animals from Ohio.  As I have written about previously the ODA has seized and destroyed the Tiger Ridge animals and since then sent their vigilante SWAT teams after Daniel Chambers, Mike Stapleton, and a family who owned an 18 year old bear. 

"And I said goodbye to him and he was licking me and grabbing my finger and stuff ." said Jeff [Fitzgerald]

The state of Ohio has even been wasting taxpayer money to prosecute a domesticated bobcat owner that is in complete compliance with the law since the new ODA regulations do not cover bobcats.  Adam Federer's 26 pound cat, legally permitted under his Department of Natural Resources (DNR) permit since 2003, is nothing more than a large house cat and never leaves his home.  Federer has continued to win in court against these out of control bureaucrats yet Ohio is wasting taxpayer money to fight the way to the State Supreme Court over a single bobcat.  

Now they raided the non-profit educational and rehabilitation center Stump Hill Farm of Perry Township, Ohio, a long time target by the animal liberation fanatics of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), while a SWAT team stood by, and then trucked the drugged animals to the inhumane animal prison that ODA built at Reynoldsburg in 2013.  

Stump Hill Farm's lawyer immediately filed a restraining order against ODA and the Judge agreed that these desk jockeys had violated the law. This is typical behavior for the ODA. They routinely raid owners who have filed for permits that have not yet been approved, or who are properly permitted through other state and federal agencies. The ODA uses the permit application system as simply a shopping list to find animals to steal. 

"There was no reason to move these animals and put them through the distress until this is resolved," Juergensen said, adding the move was meant to "gain an advantage" over his client. "It was a waste of taxpayer money."

Two baboons and a chimpanzee, in particular, have lived at Stump Hill Farm for over 20 years.  20 years!  Yet just because Ohio passes a new permit law with hoops and hurdles that no Ohio resident can meet, suddenly now the public is in "danger" from these dangerous animals that justifies the use of armed SWAT teams?  

All of these facilities that the ODA has raided and destroyed under the new law had existing state and federal permits in place from beginning.   Huntsman of Stump Hill Farm has an existing permit from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources but the Ohio Department of AGRICULTURE in a power grabbing move wants a chunk of the pie as well and demanded new permits from them.  As is typical with bureaucrats, you can be a licensed and legal business for 40 years and they pass a new law and suddenly run to the media declaring you have no permit to operate.  

A spokesperson from the Ohio Department of Agriculture told Fox 8 that the owner, Cindy Huntsman, failed to acquire a permit or an exemption as required by state law.

See? Absolute and utter lies and a typical move of the ODA. 

"We've been fighting with them (state) for two years," Juergensen said. "She has a permit and she believes it covers all the animals. The state disagrees."

The next hearing on Huntsman's permit fight was scheduled for August but ODA couldn't wait that long to seize animals they wanted.  The Judge agreed that ODA had denied Huntsman her Due Process rights and had wasted a ton of the taxpayers cash.

A judge in Stark County Common Pleas Court has ruled that 10 animals seized by the state Wednesday be returned to the Perry Township woman who owns them.

Judge Forchione ruled that ODA has two weeks to return the animals back to where they illegally took them once the effects of the tranquilizers wear off. You can bet the farm that over the next two weeks, the ODA will do everything in their power to avoid having to return the stolen animals. 

[Judge] Forchione scolded state officials for failing to provide him with information about the ongoing conversations with Huntsman, the upcoming hearing and the quarantine order, and said he would not serve as a "rubber stamp" for the government.

After all in the Tiger Ridge case, the Judge in Wood County ordered the animals to be returned to their legal owner but the ODA stalled and stalled and bombarded the court with motions to delay and obstruct justice and then quietly and illegally shipped the animals out of state. Well all but one.  ODA's poor animal care killed one of the Tiger Ridge animals. 

The state is burning taxpayer dollars by the fist full while they stalk state residents, conduct fly overs of property looking for animals to steal, and send SWAT teams out on the smallest pretense.   After all, they need to justify the budgets of these overgrown little boy's clubs and their tactical outfits and wanna-be military gear.

Nothing here is surprising to veteran animal owners. The State of Ohio under hated and horrible Governor Kasich signed a deal with the number one animal rights extremist organization in America, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), called the Buckeye Compromise. Under this deal, HSUS agreed to temporarily stop attacking Ohio's farmers and instead concentrate their fire power on exotic owners. The elite Progressives do not believe people have the right to own animals, any animals. Exotics are just low hanging fruit in their campaign to remove all animals from our lives.

Just before despised Governor Kasich suspended his failed and useless Presidential campaign, supporters of Tiger Ridge went to one of his rallies to confront him in person.  When his staff saw buttons and shirts for Tiger Ridge, they forced the people to leave.  

Surprising no one, ODA continues to burn Ohio taxpayer dollars by the fist full and filed multiple frivolous motions to block the return of the 10 stolen Stump Hill animals.

"The state is challenging Forchione's authority in the matter, arguing the Department of Agriculture has the authority in the case, not the county.

"That court patently lacks jurisdiction to act because ... oversight of dangerous wild animals is committed to special statutory proceedings before the Department," according to the motion.

State Department of Agriculture officials and local law enforcement removed the animals May 4 from 6633 Klick Road SW, after obtaining a search warrant signed by Forchione. The animals were taken to the state's holding facility in Reynoldsburg."

There is nothing funnier than a bureaucrat for shear audacity, while they whine, moan and hand wring about "public safety."   Let me explain. These paper pushers went to the courtroom of Judge Forchione and then lied to gain an illegal search warrant.  Once Judge Forchione found out that they lied to him, he issued a ruling that ordered ODA to return the animals.  Now ODA is whining that Forchione has no authority in this case. Really? If he has no authority, then why did ODA go to him to get the illegal search warrant in the first place?

As for public safety, the thugs of ODA are so incompetent at animal care that they not only bungled the Tiger Ridge raid as I covered in this article and several others I've written on the ODA, but they also killed Leo, the beloved lion of Tiger Ridge.  The only people threatening the safety of the public are the employees of the Ohio Department of Agriculture.  

Ohio Department of Agriculture Commits Animal Cruelty

On Wednesday, January 28th, the State of Ohio Department of Agriculture committed a massive act of animal cruelty. They raided the 40 year old Tiger Ridge Exotics farm owned by Kenny Hetrick in Stony Ridge, Ohio. Tiger Ridge has housed lions, tigers and bears for 40 years without incident and is USDA licensed with the federal government. Never at any time has an animal gotten loose from Tiger Ridge.

"In November, Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn told 13abc, "We've never had a problem with any of the animals here. We've never had any complaints or any type of escape." 

First some background, In 2012, the State of Ohio listened to its animal rights puppet masters and passed a massive unconstitutional bill that violates the rights of every Ohio resident and bans the private ownership of exotic animals. Now if you could meet the unmeetable standards written into the law, these un-elected brown shirts promised they'd issue permits for the existing animals until they died. They lied. Anytime some bureaucrat tells you that you have to apply for "permission" to exercise your constitutional rights, you can be sure they will simply withdraw that permission at any time. Many stories abound of owners trying to comply only to have state bureaucrats stonewall them at every turn.

When the law passed four Ohio exotic owners got together and sued challenging the fraudulent Ohio Dangerous Wild Animal Act. That lawsuit was working its way through the courts until March of 2014 when the state in conjunction with animal rights lawyers from HSUS prevailed.

Tiger Ridge was one of those opponents who stood up and said, "This is wrong." As such they were one of the first victims of Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA). In October of 2014, Hetrick received a letter stating he had ten days to give up his constitutionally authorized private property. He kept fighting for his rights to own and protect his animals. In November of 2014, ODA inspected him and then dragged their heels until January 17, 2015 when they sent him a letter denying his ODA permit. During this entire time he has still been licensed under the USDA and complies with all federal standards. The denial process was supposed to include a 30 day time limit for him to file an appeal of the denial of his permit. 

Instead the nation exploded in horror when they heard and saw the brown shirted thugs of ODA descending on the farm in 22 degree weather led by animal rights extremist David Hunt, an agent of the ODA.  David Hunt is another animal rights thug connected to HSUS with zero credible education in animals.  Once there they started seizing the elderly animals in this frigid weather endangering their lives. They woke the bear up from his hibernation, shot him with a dart gun, and beat him with steel pipes. They kept shooting him until he finally collapsed. They went around the farm causing property damage, cutting locks, destroying gates and fencing, and shot the rest of the animals with dart guns wounding them. Not one single veterinarian examined the animals to determine their age, weight and appropriate dosage to dart them with. They dragged at least one tiger on the ground while stealing the 11 exotic animals housed at the farm. They dragged many of the animals across the ground and shoved them into open steel horses trailers for the three hour drive to the state's exotic animal prison. They also tried to stop bystanders from filming the raid not knowing that Kenny had surveillance cameras capturing their every sadistic move. The ODA deliberately raided this elderly man on the fourth anniversary of the death of his wife. A move planned by these brown shirts to cause maximum trauma to Kenny for daring to oppose their unconstitutional actions. 

While this horrific act of animal abuse was occurring at Tiger Ridge, Hetrick's lawyer raced to the courthouse to file an injunction stopping the raid. Knowing what his lawyer was racing off to do, ODA worked quickly to get the remaining animals off the farm, into their steel trailers and raced off down the highway to avoid getting served by the Judge's order. Even so, ODA was notified of the Judge's ruling before they reached the state exotic animal prison built at Reynoldsburg. Instead of just turning around and bringing the animals back before they woke up, they instead kept going. They figured possession is 9 tenths of the law and it will be just that much harder for Hetrick to get them back.

Now they claim they will be "evaluated" before deciding if they will obey the Judge's order and return the animals. How's them apples? What if a Judge issued a written ruling ordering you to do something and you said, "You know what your Honor? I'm just going to think that one over and I'll decide when I'm going to obey." How do you think that would fly for one of us?

Now ODA keeps telling the media that all of this is simply the result of the Zanesville incident. they are lying. This legislative effort pre-dates Zanesville and has its roots in the Ohio Farm Bureau's "Ohio Buckeye Compromise" with the animal rights group, HSUS . Basically the Ohio Farm Bureau threw the exotic owners under the bus to protect themselves from animal rights attacks.

ODA spokesperson, Erica Hawkins has been speaking to the media and saying things like this to justify their failure to obey the Judge's order, "One, we're looking at the security of the cages. We want to make sure that they're appropriate to contain the animals that are in them."

First off, ODA is the one that destroyed the cages. Secondly, Erica Hawkins is a career bureaucrat operating on the Ohio taxpayer dime with ZERO education in animals. None.  She has a degree in political science, not animals.  Here's her lying again. Veterinarians?  Some of the people dragging the animals around looked like people in their early 20's. 

Here ODA is again, lying when confronted with the evidence that their raid was videotaped. 

""While we cannot comment specifically on the video without seeing it, our veterinarians and animal health staff are trained to carefully move animals on net stretchers and did not drag any animal through the snow. Additionally, it is a standard veterinary practice to test the reflexes of an animal that has been aestheticized in order to determine if the anesthesia has taken full effect."

It is a standard veterinary practice to beat a bear with a steel pipe to "test the reflexes?"  In what world?

The animals were taken from their secure outdoor enclosures on the farm to being stored in concrete prison cells at state run Alcatraz at Reynoldsburg with no access to sunshine and light and no ability to go outside. These animals are used to being able to roam at will in their large enclosures only to wake up in a small steel cell with no human interaction.  They have to live, sleep, and defecate on the same piece of cold concrete.  

Now the paper pushing bureaucrats at ODA are pulling every string they can to avoid having to give the stolen animals back.  After they whined and cried a Judge agreed to let them hang onto the animals until a hearing on February 3rd. The brown shirts of the ODA released a statement:

"Today the state filed an appeal in the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals regarding the Wood County Common Pleas Court Order to return dangerous wild animals that were seized from Mr. Ken Hetrick in Stony Ridge, Ohio. ODA believes the trial judge should not have ordered the animals to be returned because Mr. Hetrick cannot possess them under Ohio law and because it would be detrimental to the health and well-being of the animals."

Yes, after the brown shirts of the ODA abused them and destroyed some of their fencing now they are all concerned about their "health and well-being."  The problem is, none of them have any formal education in how to care for lions, tigers, and bears.  They are being paid by the Ohio taxpayer to commit these acts against Ohioans.  It is long past time that Ohio stood up and withdrew their tax money from the ODA.