Diane's an
Investigative Journalist, member of the LA Press Club,
business woman, and animal rights activist. As you will
hear in this podcast, she has been threatened by very
powerful people for revealing their miss use of power.
About Karen Strange
KAREN STRANGE
KAREN
STRANGE,
President & Lobbyist
Missouri Federation of Animal
Owners, Inc. (MoFed)
Karen was born and raised in central Missouri with deep roots in
rural life. A professional artist for many years, she became
concerned with the animal rights movement in 1990 while on the dog
show circuit in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In 1991, she and Anne Edwards worked against the passage of the
Animal Care Facilities Act, and in 1992, formed MoFed (Missouri
Federation of Animal Owners) to combat the growing threat of animal
rights issues in Missouri. Since their formation, MoFed has killed
many animal rights proposed bills, including such issues as
trespassing, confiscation of animals without a search warrant, no
due process in courts of law, and numerous pieces of legislation
aimed at eliminating the pet breeding industry. They have
successfully passed and supported legislation to prevent
guardianship of animals, requiring humane societies and rescues to
pay the same licensing fees as breeders, preventing animal rights
activists from being inspectors of animal enterprises, and requiring
that animal related license plate fees be directed through the
Department of Agriculture.
When HSUS and ASPCA attacked Missouri with Proposition B to
eliminate the pet industry in Missouri, MoFed and the Missouri
Agriculture Coalition filed a lawsuit against the ballot language
and joined forces with the Alliance for Truth to fight the ballot
initiative, coming within 60,000 votes of 1.9 million cast to nearly
defeat the animal rights ballot initiative.
The momentum gained during the lawsuit and campaign against Prop B
showed that MoFed, accompanied by Missouri Pet Breeders Association,
Professional Pet Association and Missourians for Animal Care
Agriculture Coalition, would not back down to threats by outside
animal rights groups.
Working closely with the legislature, the group passed SB's 113 & 95
to eliminate the negative impact of Prop B. With the threat of a
lawsuit by HSUS to stop enactment of the law, the group worked
closely with Governor Nixon and the Agriculture Department to enact
SB 161, "The Solution", to make necessary changes to Prop B that
would allow the pet industry to thrive in Missouri.
MoFed has nine registered lobbyists who specialize in various
aspects of animal ownership, use and enjoyment, including hunting,
fishing, trapping, farming, ranching, rodeos, medical research,
zoos, circuses, and pet ownership, competition and production.
Karen is the principal lobbyist for MoFed, spending much of her time
working at the state capitol during the legislative session as well
as traveling throughout the country speaking at seminars and
workshops. She also is owner of her own legislative consulting firm,
Karen Strange and Associates, LLC, and represents such clients as
the Sporting Dog Association of Missouri. Her advice and expertise
are sought in many states facing devastating legislation on animal
rights issues. She has worked on many political campaigns, including
U.S. Senate, Congress and numerous state and local campaigns.
Missouri Federation
of animal Owners
P.O. Box 554
Eldon, Missouri 65026
Karen Strange, President and Lobbyist
Many breeders in Missouri
turned in their licenses when adhering to USDA inspections grew
impossible. With the constant barrage of inspectors nitpicking and
hunting for "something" to write the breeders up about, the pressure
grew unbearable for many while others simply got tired of the
stress. The last few years, inspectors were instructed to "find
something non-compliant", meaning that nearly every breeder received
violations in their inspections. No matter how minor the violation,
pet stores refused to buy from breeders who had even one violation.
Keep in mind that violations can include such ridiculous things as
having the lid off a food storage container, even though the breeder
may be feeding at the time; one was written up for a cobweb above
the door of her office when nothing could be found in violation in
the kennel; another was scolded for having a few bees flying around
near her outside runs this spring. She asked the inspector if she
would be written up if a bird flew over and pooped in a run; the
inspector replied that she would need to clean it immediately or she
would be written up for it. She would also have to do everything
possible to keep birds from flying over her kennel. (How in the heck
do you do that?!!!)
Others are reporting to me
that USDA is bringing along their own veterinarians to assist in the
inspections with those vets discounting treatments and advice from
vets used by breeders. The economy, coupled with increasingly
difficult inspections and pressure by AR groups to shut pet stores
nationwide has led many breeders to simply grow tired of it and
close their businesses.
As a side note, I cannot
express enough that each of you needs to read the proposed rules in
their entirety. Study each word and interpret it as though it will
be enforced to the fullest extent allowed by law, because it WILL BE
if the rules are approved as they currently stand! I fully expect
the breeders in my state to be the most targeted with others to
follow as HSUS demands that USDA inspect and enforce the rules to
the fullest degree. Do NOT believe interpretations and opinions. As
one who has lobbied for 22 years and been involved in the rulemaking
process many times, I can tell each of you firsthand that opinions
do not matter; what is written in black and white is what will be
enforced. Employees and officials of various departments come and
go; what is written into the law as rules and regulations will
remain intact and will be subject to interpretation by the governing
body at the time. Just because someone states now that their
intentions are not to do "so and so" does not mean that someone else
who steps into that position in the future will not interpret the
words in their own way.
Also keep in mind that no
matter how well your animals are cared for, no matter how clean
their surroundings, no matter how much you socialize them, how well
you feed them or how selectively you breed them, you are forever a
"pm" in the eyes of HSUS and other animal rights groups. Your
opponents will do everything possible to smear you in the eyes of
the public. If you dare have more than four breeding females, you
will be a disgusting breeder and labeled as such. Notice how the
magic number is now four? That will become the new "high volume
breeder" magic number. My how times have changed!
In my opinion, Diane, I
believe HSUS has its fingerprints all over these proposed rules as a
means to make it increasingly difficult to breed dogs, thus bringing
to a close what many of us have enjoyed as hobbies or as professions
for as long as we can remember. I see many similarities between
these proposals and the Prop B campaign we had in Missouri in 2010.
Prop B was also written so poorly that even the animal rights
activists supporting it didn't know and understand that the mere
enforcement of the ballot initiative as it stood would be
detrimental to the health of dogs and puppies and was actually much
more harmful than beneficial. Those who write such measures have no
experience in handling animals nor do they care. That is not their
agenda, nor is it the agenda of the proposed APHIS rules to improve
animal care. It is to drive those not willing to adhere to
government inspections out of business and gradually to dry up the
sources for home-raised pets. Instead, our society is heading toward
having the only pets available being from those who put us out of
business while exempting themselves from inspections and licensing
by an ever-growing government agency.
Karen
ENTER
H$U$
Websites and
material mentioned on
today's program:
