REXANO Solutions Start at Home Kat Wolfdancer

Solutions Start at Home

By Kat Wolfdancer

Speech given at the 2005 annual Phoenix Exotics Wildlife Assoc. Inc. meeting
At Bonnie Springs, Las Vegas, NV, Friday, Feb. 25th, 2005

Friend of mine and I were talking about despair after this past election, and she told me a little thing. She said:

“A friend of mine talks about one mile circles being the only way we can truly influence the world. We can live as good people in our one mile circle. Protect each other and the earth in our one mile circle. Then we must trust that others are out there living the best they can in their one mile circles and we can act to interface our one mile circles as best we can.”

And it made me pause, this simple truth. It’s something to live by in a time when many of us doubt our lawmakers, doubt our representatives, and even doubt our neighbors.

Responsible people are becoming targets for biased, knee-jerk uneducated blanket legislation, rather than justly prosecuting those who will not do what is necessary to be a responsible owner. We begin to feel besieged and persecuted, and often times it is by the very people from whom we most deserve cooperation: Sanctuaries.
Responsible private owners are not the ones who owned the animals in sanctuaries, unless there was litigation involved. Responsible owners aren’t the problem, exotics aren’t the problem, dogs aren’t the problem, irresponsible owners and an uneducated public are the problem. Ban laws are punitive against a wide section of society who are not law breakers. We need to protect the animals by prosecuting those who do them harm, or who break the applicable laws, not make it illegal to responsibly own animals. If there’s already a law making it illegal to steal, we don’t need another law making it illegal to steal color TVs.

Sometimes our own Governmental agencies seem to assist irresponsibility by allowing too many people to slip through the cracks. As an example, the IRS has thus far seen fit to allow people like Rae Ott of NAWA infamy to keep their 501(3)(c) status, despite being given irrefutable proof of misappropriation of funds. As a matter of fact, even after the survivors of the Conroe Concentration Camp were rescued from Rae Ott’s neglect, she is opening up ANOTHER so-called “Wolf Rescue”, with the same IRS tax ID. She has already procured more animals that she can exploit. Over 50% of the wolfdogs that Rae Ott purposely misidentified as “wolves” in order to scavenge more money from the public died of treatable diseases such as distemper and hookworm. They died in horrible filthy, conditions, and many died in agony as a direct result of her neglect. Yet, she is still able to procure public funding, and is still offering dead animals for “adoption”.

And Rae Ott isn’t the Lone Stranger, either; look at the recent happening at Wolf Haven, in Tenino, WA. This is an organization that has worked hand-in-hand with organizations such as Animal Protection Institute (API) and Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) to strip responsible private owners of their rights to own animals, because, they claim, private owners cannot care for them correctly. Yet they allowed Akela to suffer diagnosed complete kidney failure and the debilitating pain that kidney failure causes for nearly a month and a half before finally being forced to be put him out of his misery. They let that poor suffering wolf lay in the freezing mud for six days, barely able to move after two Vets had advised that he was suffering, and in terrible pain, and needed to be euthanized. For what purpose? How could they allow this? This organization has repeatedly been at the forefront of legislation calling for owner-bans. How can they tell us that we cannot take care of our own? I would never let any animal suffer like they forced Akela to suffer, and neither would any of the responsible owners I see here.

We have seen Wild Animal Orphanage, another facility dedicated to stripping private owners of their rights, have numerous escapes and containment issues. Issues that, were they a private owner, would have been harshly criticized, but because they are an AZA accredited facility, basic requirements that a private owner must adhere to seem to be disregarded. I am pleased to see that Wildlife Waystation, in California, has resolved its’ long-standing containment problems, but I wonder how much leniency a private owner would have been accorded. We already know to what lengths Shambala will go to for publicity, at the expense of an animals’ safety and health. We, as a community, have seen people exploit the animals we love so dearly as replaceable commodities, and tear-jerker fodder for websites begging for donations. We have seen too many people make a killing off the killing off of our companions, and the stripping away of responsible citizens’ rights.

Passing laws banning the private ownership of selected animals will never solve the problem of people who will exploit animals. It will simply destroy families, and in many cases, cause the unnecessary relocation or death of the animal. It will also stress the already-stretched-thin capacity of sanctuaries, shelters, and animal control. Ban laws have inherently high court costs, specialist fees as well as being an administrative nightmare in identification. Those facilities who are so actively pursuing private ownership bans need to take a closer look at their own glass houses, their own containment and escape issues, and their own neglect of the animals they have “rescued”. In fact, in several targeted species, of the 23 listed bite incidents in 2003, 21 of them occurred at Zoos, Sanctuaries or Circuses, not private owners.

And once again, the solution for this problem lies within our hands as well. Before you donate any money to any facility, do your research. Don’t take the word of a website as Gospel. Be responsible in your support, as well as in your life. Make sure the organization you support does not support making your companions illegal to own.

Because of this bombardment of legislation, responsible owners can wind up feeling torn between acting proactively, or reacting protectively. And I can tell you that personally, it’s difficult to balance being positive, and being mad as hell.

And I AM mad as hell, as I’m not gonna take it anymore. I’m sick and tired of ignorant people claiming that my canines are inherently dangerous when they’ve never even met them. Wolfdogs still get lumped into this grey betweener place, between exotic animal laws, and dangerous dog laws. I’m sick and tired of feeling like a fringe citizen. When breed specific legislation and species bans are suggested as the answer to questions of general public safety, the face of the person directly affected is my face. And I intend to make sure that the folks who are responsible for making those laws, or influencing lawmakers know it.

So what can a responsible private owner do to change things? I have to admit to you, face to face, that the definitive answer eludes me. Some of the answers I have found are so stunningly obvious, that I was stumped for weeks, in a blocked nightmare, writing this speech. But heck, I have a few minutes left on the clock, so why not.

Almost every community has community meetings that are regularly posted in a local newspaper. It seems very apparent to me that many of our legislators are getting their information from unreliable, misinformed sources, OR sources with an agenda. It is also becoming apparent that laying low and waiting for the storm to blow over is not an effective tactic. We obviously need to stop being silently suffering.

Become a person in your legislator’s eyes, not just a Voter I.D. number. Get to know your representatives and legislature. These are the people we elect to represent us in these manners. Check your local area for “Meet and Greets”, and introduce yourself. Send them thank you notes for any support they may have given to private ownership rights. When they come up for election, support them, and send them a note telling them you are Voting for them, and one reason why is because of their pro-responsible private ownership support. If you are able, make a small contribution to their campaign, if they have represented you wisely and well. If your representative is against responsible private ownership, be proactive about THAT as well. Write them, call them, let them know that you are a constituent and their position directly threatens your Constitutionally guaranteed right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, and that YOU ARE WATCHING!! And putting your Vote where your heart is. There is innate responsibility, however, in becoming an individual in your legislator’s eyes. In each contact we all make as individuals, we are making it at the same time as representatives of the whole of exotic ownership. So be polite.

It is our responsibility to pay attention to what they are voting on, and make our opinions known, even if it’s in a shaky, nervous “Citizen Jane” voice. Get involved, and don’t expect that someone else is going to represent your views. We all need to express those views to our policy makers. We all need to continue being proactive with legislation, and our legislators. Let them know that you are a registered Voter, (and dang it, if you’re not a registered Voter, GET REGISTERED!!) and that you are watching.

We can even be proactive without leaving our own homes, too. Many of us are on the Internet now, and there are quite a few folks who track legislation. When they send an alert, we need to start taking it seriously. We all need to be more proactive in our local politics. Make phone calls, and if you get a secretary, put yourself on record, in as clear and concise a manner as possible. Our Opposition is well established, well funded, and misinformed, at best. It’s up to us to prove them wrong, within our one-mile radius, to prove that responsible ownership is the norm, not the exception, that the exceptions are the problem, that we already have a layer of appropriate laws, and that effective law-making gives teeth to the laws we have, doesn’t create new laws with less teeth and less definition.

Another place we can really make a difference is in our local animal control. I don’t think it’s just my own towns that are beleaguered by a lack of funding, and the unfortunate position of always seeing the dark side. Animal control officers just rarely get to see or meet responsible owners. It’s their job to deal with the cast-offs, the unwanteds, the extraneous, the lost, the frightened, the abused, and the inconvenient. Just like police, being constantly bombarded by the worst that humanity has to offer doesn’t do much to endear humanity to the officer. It is…. understandable to view animal control as “the enemy”, since they have the power to separate us from our loved ones. But it is not logical to do so. We need to remember that, as a general rule, the individuals who do this job are habitually underpaid, and chose the career because they love animals. These people are our potential advocates, as long as they can be shown that we are the Good Guys.

It is a HUGE leap of Faith on both sides, to trust one another. But if you live in a legal area, I would whole-heartedly suggest that we all make an effort to outreach to these people. They are on our side. Again, like us, I truly believe the norm is not being represented. So, how about an influx of volunteers from the exotics and the wolfdog community? How about a donation of extra toys? Blankets? Bones? Time? Most progressive shelters and animal control people welcome volunteers. It can really make a difference for the animals there, too. In some shelters, trainers volunteer to train the adoptable animals in basic obedience, making them even more adoptable. Be available so if they do need advice, they have a source that’s actually knowledgeable, and isn’t looking it up on the PETA website.

We also need to support other beleaguered animal advocates. In your one mile radius, if you see a pittbull ban suggested, as an example, stand up and fight it as the unconstitutional bad unable-to-implement policy it is. Even if you don’t own a pittbull, we all have to stop dividing ourselves up. Every piece of banning legislature is one more brick in the wall, and we cannot accept that wall getting any higher. Not by one brick.

I’ve had people ask me why I have my animals. What is their job? I’ve been asked. Their job is to be happy, and to make me happy. My job is to be happy, and to make them happy. My responsibility is to provide a safe, healthy life for the animals I take responsibility for. It starts in my backyard, in my town, and in my one-mile radius. I hope you will allow it to begin in yours, too.