Mom’s update about Dad:

Vern had a very restless and painful night but the doctor has sent a strong pain medication and Vern is resting peacefully now.  Not eating anything for two days even with encouragement from the kids.

 

Howie’s letter to Pat Craig of Wild Animal Sanctuary

On Sunday after the conference is over they have organized a meeting from noon to 5 to brainstorm about the big cat issue.  I have no idea what will come of it.  Could be waste of time, or prove productive. But at the very least it should be interesting I think because the people currently on the list (below) that I do know are some very sharp folks and a pretty unique opportunity to be in a room with people from so many organizations.  The group is a rather unwieldy size so it will be interesting to see how they conduct it.

 

I have pasted the info below and the contact at PAWS is Catherine Doyle.  We went to the conference last year for the first time only because we were asked to speak. Agree hard to get away.  I think you could help us add a lot of on the ground experience to the group. Maybe you could arrange with Catherine just to come for Sunday?

 

Info on Sunday attached with Catherine contact info.

Regarding the breeding I think you make interesting points.  Couple comments:

 

• The bill grandfathers in all current owners so they are not objecting based on their cats being taken away.  Ohio had a couple issues that I think drove what is happening.  One is they added caging requirements.  People not meeting those is what appears to be driving the confiscations, along with some idiots just refusing to do the simple paperwork to register was also an issue.  If they had just grandfathered in the existing owners like the federal bill does without adding requirements they would not have this issue. Second, they correctly did not exempt people with USDA licenses, which as you know is a huge loophole because anyone can get a license. So I think people with USDA licenses left the state for states where a USDA license exempts them from the state rules.  The bigger mistake Ohio made in my opinion was exempting ZAA, which I believe was driven by Kasich listening to Jack Hanna.

• The meaningful opposition to the bill is not from owners.  Other than Antle and Tabraue, they don't have much a following or resources to oppose. Mario Tabraue and/or Antle have engaged a lobbyist to oppose the bill, and Ringling's Feld has lobbyists opposing even though we put in language to exempt Feld.  That is the main opposition.  A bigger issue really is ZAA.  While some states have refused to exempt them from state laws, once Ohio did, it set a precedent and some other states have followed, giving them undeserved credibility.  And, I have to give them credit, they have been smart.  They hired a very experienced lobbyist who is well known to state legislators around the country, Alan Smith, as E.D.  The guy is smooth.  I heard him speak to a committee hearing in TX and he makes this sow's ear sound like a silk purse.  Plays on the "small business" sympathy and presents ZAA as the little guy's AZA.  Meantime, some AZA zoos have joined ZAA as well.  I think they do this to keep AZA off their backs - i.e. if AZA gives them a hard time, they just promote they are ZAA, and the generic public does not know any better.  But meantime, these AZA zoos joining gives ZAA even more credibility. The issue with ZAA is not that they oppose the bill. It is that they want to be exempted like AZA, claiming it is unfair to exempt AZA and not them.  To deal with this we have crafted different exemption language I can tell you more about.

• Just banning breeding is interesting and worth considering.  One issue that comes to mind is enforcement  -  finding out who is breeding.  If someone has a tiger born after the bill is passed (those born before are grandfathered) how do we prove who bred it? I suppose one could try to draft language to address that by requiring records if you have