Missouri Rabbit Raiser Responds to USDA Proposal
by Bob McCartyFacing a July 29 deadline, John and Judy Dollarhite of Nixa, Mo., responded Friday to officials at the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service with a “Substitute Stipulation Agreement” that, hopefully, will allow the couple to avoid fines of up to $4 million in fines for selling too many bunnies.
The substitute agreement, prepared on behalf of John Dollarhite by attorney Richard Anderson, was submitted almost a month after I reported on John Dollarhite being “not happy” with the USDA’s revised offer which came on the heels of substantial national attention — including coverage on Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Drudge Report — about their plight.
The substitute agreement was addressed to Sarah L. Conant, a USDA bureaucrat with a very long title — Chief, Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement Branch, Investigative and Enforcement Services — who was the focus of my June 27 post, Animal Rights Activism Fuels USDA Rabbit Chase.
Below is the “meat” of the cover letter that accompanied the substitute agreement:
Mr. Dollarhite has reviewed the proposed Stipulation Agreement of June 22, 2011, and is of the opinion that it does not adequately reflect the terms that had previously been discussed with him. Specifically, the Stipulation Agreement provided by the USDA asks Mr. Dollarhite to waive any future right to challenge the USDA’s jurisdiction over his alleged activities and it seeks to prohibit him from engaging in future activities that in no way violate the Animal Welfare Act or current regulations adopted pursuant to that Act. This is neither fair, nor acceptable. Mr. Dollarhite is absolutely willing to conform his future behavior to the restrictions imposed on all other citizens, but he will not sacrifice his right to be treated like his neighbors or to question the USDA’s authority in any legal proceeding that should arise as a result of his actions. Accordingly, Mr. Dollarhite proposes the attached Substitute Stipulation Agreement.
On the pages that followed, Anderson listed three terms to which John Dollarhite is willing to agree IF officials at APHIS agree not to institute an administrative enforcement action against him:
1. John Dollarhite agrees not to initiate any legal action challenging the jurisdiction of the USDA or the constitutionality of the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. § 2131 et. seq.) (AWA) and the regulations promulgated thereunder (9 C.F.R. § 1.1 et seq.); provided, he reserves his right to raise jurisdictional or constitutional arguments as affirmative defenses to any administrative or legal action against him initiated by government agencies or officials.
2. John Dollarhite agrees not to sell, own, or possess buy or sell breeding rabbits or other animals for the purpose of exhibition or resale under any circumstance under which a valid USDA license is required by the AWA regulations [9 C.F.R. § 2.1(a)(I)] without first applying for, obtaining, and being issued the required license. “Breeding rabbits”, for purpose of this paragraph, are rabbits which have not been spayed or neutered. [Under current AWA regulations, Dollarhite may own and possess breeding rabbits not intended or used for exhibition or resale (for example, meat rabbits kept only for home consumption).]
3. John Dollarhite and any partnership, firm, corporation, or other legal entity that he controls or in which he has a substantial interest, financial or otherwise, shall not engage in activities governed by the AWA (7 V.S.C. § 2131 et seq.) and regulations issued thereunder (9 C.F.R. § 1.1 et seq.) as related to breeding rabbits, either directly or indirectly, on or off 1537 Osburn Lane, Nixa, Missouri 65714, without first applying for and obtaining an AWA license for the exhibition or resale of rabbits and shall not hereafter in any manner violate the terms of the Animal Welfare Act (7 U.S.C. Section 2131, et. seq.), or the AWA regulations (9 C.F.R. Sec. 1, et. seq.)
It remains to be seen whether or not Conant and her fellow animal rights activists at the USDA agree to the conditions of what is, in essence, John Dollarhite’s refusal to cede his Constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Stay tuned to see what happens next.
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65 Comments
IF there ever was proof of the fact that there is room for DEEEEEEEEEP CUTS in the Federal Budget, and still not harm ANYTHING AT ALL that might even be considered essential, it's the fact that the loons involved in this persecution have government jobs.
Note that the USDA insists that he acknowledge that their actions and existence is Constitutional. There is a lot of that in federal enforcement. Did you know, for example, that the payment of FCC fines is never called such? it's always listed as "voluntary" contribution to the treasury…
Thanks for keeping us updated on this. I look forward to the next installment.
Rabbit Police?
Have they contacted Hugh Hefner?
Translations from lawyerese:
"Kiss my constitutionally free @ss!
or
"The Constitution is the law. You are not."
Any others?
Perhaps there should be a program of selective breeding, neutering, or spaying for our elected / appointed officials.
Perhaps we could come up with a RINO free Republican
On a real serious not (my comment above was said tongue in cheek), but I stand on my original thought regarding what John Dollarhite needs to tell the USDA.
He needs to call a formal Press Conference, and get every TV camera within a 500 miles radius there.
He needs to calmly step to the microphone, clear his voice and say three simple words.
" Go Phuck Yourself".
Then he needs to go home.
I'll donate five grand to his legal defense fund.
They used to. But their agents kept coming down with venereal diseases.
No.
Pol Pot called it a purge.
Morons are not born they are a byproduct of Big Government Bureaucracy
Moron creation up 35 % since Obama came to town!
We need to be asking GOP presidential hopefuls whether or they would fire the bureaucrats involved in this. The officials aren't even backing off after the media exposure.
Good idea, but I'd prefer he do a total Galt: "Get the hell out of my way!"
Quite the intriguing story, totally ridiculous.
Along those lines while listening to Mark Steyn today,I realized I had illegal baked goods bought at a Fireman's festival bake sale this weekend.
We're all outlaws these days.
i want to know when we will start the bureaucrat police, and start rounding up bureaucrats and giving them pink slips, and take away thier clipboards.
yes but to update that, he should have a Glock in a sholder holster, visible.
As CL commented above–why negotiate at all with these azzles? Just tell them to kiss certain areas and move on. Dare them to do something. Demand a jury trial. The "government" isn't doing so hot lately with jury trials.
"Perhaps we could come up with a RINO free Republican?" They are currently known as Tea Party Republicans IMHO.
BBQ time? All that fat might create some fires though and my dog gets sick when dinner is too greasy.
The USDA have become Obama's Brown Shirts. Sieg Heil. Do it our way, or else.
Another agency that need to be cut down to size, and be reminded of who they're serving.
Actually, more rabbits should be bred and sold for the meat. It is tasty, lean, lower in cholesterol, and higher in protein than other meats. And, they breed like rabbits.
Yeah, you could be right…..hell, let's give it a shot anyway, we'll get the dog some Alka-Seltzer, I'll bring the beer.
Hugh is usually, ….umm…..busy….
I like to contrast this story with the actions of multi-millionaire Michael Vick. Disgusting. Maybe the rabbit police should go after hawks, bald eagles and foxes too. They eat the poor little bunnies alive!
Isn't the USDA also handling Pigford ?
I concur. Bloody purges are way too messy and crude. I say we just banish these undesirables and their families from our shores for all eternity. (Treat them exactly like how our forefathers treated the Torie traitors back during the Revolutionary War.)
Judging from that letter, it sounds like the FDA met Tar Baby.
Chief, Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement Branch, Investigative and Enforcement Services
Elmer Fudd?
"WE THE PEOPLE" need to come to the aid or our fellow citizen who is under attack. An attack on a citizen is an attack on all. The legislative branch of government is responsible for this abusive law situation, and I could not agree more, that without further ado: CUT DOWN THE SIZE and REACH of this government machine. This is no longer the American experiment in self-government, but has become tyranny on par with any monarchy, theocracy or communist/fascist dictatorship. GOOD GRIEF, in this disgusting economy, why on earth would we be persecuting FARMERS who produce food with politically panzzy correct bullshix??? I wonder if the over paid (and breeding like rabbits) Bolsheviks in Washington are reading these things?
Good idea – poor decisions in any venture reaps consequences, just working for big gov. shouldn't protect you from your own stupidity, Fire stupidity and incompitence, and replace it with common sense. Protecting losers from their own behavior only reinforces more of the same stupid behavior because you failed to cut the cancer out.
You're 100% correct that it's BS against us ALL.
First they came for…..
Also, screw the TSA !
Yes. Good point.
I can't wait to see what they do to those sinister lemonade sellers! They were purportedly selling one cup after another in front of their parents house. Yikes! Millions upon millions of fines there!
Come on over I got lots of charcoal after the forest fires died out.
What's this? The government's stipulation agreement included a part that takes away one's constitutional right to petition the government for redress of grievances? How is that constitutional?
Watch out the MIB squad will be out to confiscate your baked goodies and haul you away in chains to the funny farm. If there ever was a time to cut federal agencies, it is now. I hate a socialist, nanny government.
Hurry up 2012 we need real Americans in our congress and administration.
And here I have been told that the toddler's administration is so very business friendly. Can it be that our nanny state has misinformed me. Shades of 1984.
I do not profess to be a lawyer, but it does seem that good old Sarah has overstepped her bounds, and hopefully may be subject to a lawsuit.
Having had my own experiences with the USDA I whole-heartedly agree. If I were president and had a true conservative Congress to work with, USDA would be one of the very first agencies to go down. I would cede all Forest Service lands to the States in which they reside. What with beef retailers having higher standards by far than the USDA and the history of the USDA not really doing anything to check beef anyway, there would be no loss there either. The entire agency needs to go. Permanently.
Apparently you can get in more trouble for selling bunnies than you can for selling pussies.
Same is true for liberals, so I've heard. Except that they mostly only practice breeding like rabbits, thankfully. If they reproduced like rabbits, we'd be done for!
True, but let them get through their first tour in the swamp at "Foggy Bottoms" and see if they remain to their pledge that got them there. Or, if they become tempted and turn to the Dark Side.
If anyone needs an example of tyranny, this surely wiil do!
USDA's 2011 budget = $149 Billion, not including supplemental funding, earmarks and "stimulus" money.
How many of next month's military paychecks and Social Security checks, that Obama threatened to take away, would that pay for? — All of them. And for the next few months as well.
Why are soldiers in combat and retired elderly a lower priority than persecuting someone for selling more than $500 worth of bunny rabbits?
I bet the annual salary and benefits of Sarah L. Conant, Chief, Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement Branch, Investigative and Enforcement Services alone is enough to cover at least 100 of next month's Social Security checks President Obama threatened take away if the Republicans don't give him a new credit card.
I agree. . .
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”
– Samuel Adams, American Founding Father
It's not. But that's the whole point of the USDA and other government agencies' behavior: to threaten and bully the citizens into VOLUNTARILY agreeing to give up their Constitutional rights. Beacuse they cannot legally take away your rights, they conduct an onslaught of bureaucratic crap against the common citizen, then wave a peace treaty around in the form of a "compromise agreement," which consists of what you see in this case – getting the citizen to agree to abandon his (or her) Constitutionally guaranteed rights. We ALL need to band together to fight these abuses! An attack on one citizen is an attack on us all…
Eliminate a dork's salary and make the payments on 100 Social Security checks? Yeah, I could get behind that!
Sometimes it just takes a good example to put a fine point on a story, KS. Thanks!
Only time will tell.
— Chief, Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement Branch, Investigative and Enforcement Services —
I can remember when we laughed at the Russian bureaucrats for having titles like that. We have become like the U.S.S.R.
I thought that Mr. D. had a local license to do this business. What's the Fed doing here, anyhow?
Here's a new idea. Use Public Law 97-280, 96 Statute 1211, October, 1981 or '82.
"Congress Declares the Bible is the Word of God"
The various laws therein, allow us to be prosperous, and without hindrances, while yet be neat and clean. A 10% tax (tithe) is to be paid on the increase(s). No tax is paid on wages. No sales tax,; no real estate tax…just 10% paid on the Net Profit.
Animal Welfare? Does the State of Missouri have to abide those Federal Laws..? They shouldn't!
Actually, Liberals eat their young.
They indoctrinate your young, sorta like the Jay Bird which is known to steal other bird's nests for their eggs. The other birds raise the Jay's young rather than their own.
Several types of birds are known to do this strange stuff.
But the Liberals just steal your young.
Let's see, CAHaWEBIES???
Is that anything like HMFIC???
Or was that inappropriate?
It isn't just the USDA – it's the whole thing.
These outfits are just riding roughshod over the townsfolk.
Get a rope.
Washington, D.C. = Socialist Re-education Camp, or maybe " What's that dirt doin' in the Boss's ditch, Luke?"….
Washington plays by " summer rules " ( some are rules….and some aren't ).
The Revolution goes on….
Big Brother…our Federal Govt is clearly insane with power…and needs reformatting back to Founders' Intent. Those who have become insane with unConstitutional power grabs and socialist over-regulations need criminal prosecutions to prevent further erosions of our freedoms. Damned Democrats!
These morons lose 24,00 ultra secret defense documents but they crunch a guy for selling rabbits….brain damaged bureaucrats exposed…lose jobs and go straight to jail.
There's another angle that we're missing on this… WE (citizens) are expected to know-interprete-understand-obey ALL laws, rules and regulations of every department, agency, etc… Screw up one time and face severe jail time or fines. BUT, law enforcement can charge US with anything they want and later say oops and let you go. They get off scott free for misunderstanding and violating our rights.
In this rabbit case, a simple letter mailed to Mr Dollarhite would have been sufficient to notify him of the laws he was unaware of. His compliance with this letter would have resolved the entire issue… had he not complied with a warning letter then he would knowingly be guilty of violating regulations/laws/whatever.
Every year our rules/regulations/laws grow, but there is no communication to the general public as to what they are. Why? Because its just another hidden tax and control system over us!
This "case" exposes all that is wrong with burueacracy. Conant was nothing more than a tree huggin bunny f'ker. Now she is a tree huggin, bunny f'ker with power. This stinks of infiltration into a world of regulation and punification. We can't legislate you out of business , but we can regulate and fine you're A$$ into submission!!! Sound familiar, submit or die. This is going to set a very dangerous precedent. With farm groups, EGA, NPPC and the Catlleman's assc. caving to these freaks animal agriculture will be outlawed!!!. Hope you enjoy you're lab rat meat and tofu dogs!!!
BRAVO FRIEND!!!! These are not laws though. They are "rules", not debated but enacted. A "comment period" is given but not taken to seriously because the decision is made the day the idea is hatched. And you are right most of these arbitrary bullsh!t rules are nothing more than hidden taxes. Why is it legal only if it is permitted. I can burn scrap wood with a permit legally, but without I'm subject to fine. The smoke and pollution are the same , I just bought the bullsh!t right to pollute, from a burueacrat that doesn't do anything but issue permits. He doesn't clense the air with that money, he just gets paid.
HSUS and PETA are infiltrating our regulatory system. What they could do in court they will do in burueacracy. They are not elected and will remain nameless and faceless and untouchable because they have the full power of the U.S. government enforcement machine behind them!!!
Agenda 21, the White House Rural Affairs commitee, all designed to confiscate our private property in the name of the law and the GLOBAL good. When they come for mine it will be scortched earth.
It isn't the ferderal government, it's Sarah Conant with a grudge to settle. Had her a$$ slapped to many times in court , so she becomes an enforcer. Once the charge is made prove yourself innocent. Ask any ex husband that has been accused of sexual abuse or battery. Guilty until proven innocent.
Another nameless, faceless obama gustapo hit squad.
Don't get me started on the private property issues… I aint payin NO Gov agency for permission to do something on MY privately owned land!
Think about it, the 4 million that the USDA will confiscate from this poor bastard will help pay down the deficet. And it will promote Agenda 21 and the White House Council on Rural Affairs, because , you know, rural America "needs" obama's help!!!!
GOD help us!!!
Get ready to goose step my brothers. Communism is on it's way!!!
Nope, we're the "little people" obama talks about. The hopeless, helpless, great unwashed that just doesn't understand. But maybe, if he made this "perfectly clear", just one more time, we would. HUH?
What's next is this: Vegetable and plant activists will prevent you from growing and selling consumption vegetables either edible or medicinal (herbs), without proper licensing and regulatory over site. We in America blinked for a second…. and boy has it cost us.
Lemonade anyone?
I paid $150 for the licensee to sell it so I have to charge a buck an oz.
Oh the lessons to be learned by us citizens…"You can build your coal plant but you'll go out of business"
And don't even THINK of selling bunnies.
If we voted them in we should be able to vote them out…Problem is we probably didn't vote them in at all they stole in.
In short, the government must get out of the way and let the people function as a supposedly free society. You're right about forests. A recent map show how much of the West have been gobbled up by the federal government.
I can only shake my head and move on to the next example of BAD GOVERNMENT in the news.
After the 2012 election, we need to FIRE about 1 million federal employees just like this witch. No buyout, no notice, no severance, no hesitation. These are the bureaucrats that have bankrupted us & are stealing our freedom. That would save about 100 billion per year , which would be a good start & make a great example.
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