B) An Evening for
the Animals Silent Auction
Saturday, October 27,
6-9:00 pm ~ Our annual silent auction and Halloween
party ~ We need donations, help with setting up, help with decorating,
help with serving, help with clean-up, and help with
collecting admissions. We can also use gift certificates, gift baskets,
tickets to sporting events or concerts, etc. We will again have a prize
for Best Costume, trick-'r-treat door prizes, and wonderful food!
C) Important Alerts ~
Wesa-A-Geh-Ya Making a Comeback
The
pseudo-sanctuary in
Warrenton known as
Wesa-A-Geh-Ya
(pronounced
weez-a-jee-a) is trying to
get back in the good graces of the community. An odd,
one-sided
article was written in the
Warrenton Journal last week, and it
makes numerous false statements. The truly odd part about
this
article is that it was written by the same reporter who wrote a more honest,
fact-based article earlier this summer. (That piece plus links to other
articles and reports is at
Big Cat Rescue.)
It's one thing to present both sides of a story; it's quite another to write
whatever one side feels like saying without doing any fact-checking. The
first article presents USDA findings and eyewitness statements. The second
simply allows the Smiths to ramble. For instance, they accuse their most
outspoken opponent, Rosella Baller (a neighbor who has kept up with them
over the years), of demanding payment after being a volunteer. Ms. Baller
was never a volunteer for them, and most certainly never tried
to extort payment from them. This should have been easy enough to
check.
The owners of Wesa-A-Geh-Ya claim to be a
sanctuary, when they clearly are not. Just some of their
infractions:
1) A real sanctuary does NOT breed, yet the Smiths
have continually allowed their animals to breed, claiming they couldn't
afford to have the animals altered, and they were too overwhelmed by the
magnitude of their mission.
2) They claim to have "saved a large number of
animals' lives," yet they have no record of 24 missing animals.
3) A real sanctuary cannot sell its animals, so where
are these unaccounted for animals?
4) A real sanctuary actually cares for its animals,
but neighbors know that most of the animals have no shelter from the heat
and sun, and are not provided adequate water.
5) After a year in the "care" of the Smiths, only
three of 25 "rescued" birds are still alive.
The
Warrenton Journal needs to hear from those of us who know the
truth. These animals are woefully neglected, and the Smiths do not deserve
the sympathy of anyone. You can call
636-456-5665,
and leave a message without having to leave your name, if you wish. You can
also write a
Letter to the Editor online. There is more than enough
ammunition at the
Big
Cat Rescue site to give examples of why the only coverage of
this facility should be to urge officials to shut them down.
E) Zoo Found Guilty in
Polar Bear Deaths
The
St. Louis Zoo was recently
found to have
willfully violated the
Animal Welfare
Act (AWA) in regards to the deaths of
two Polar bears,
one in 2004 and one in 2005. The federal AWA is a pathetically weak
instrument, mandating only the most basic of animal care procedures. These
are common sense, even-a-child-would-know fundamentals. Yet, the zoo
violated it repeatedly, and
this is only two cases to which they are
admitting fault. You can see the violations in the USDA-APHIS
documents on the START website. The
Citations and the
Decision. (Thanks to
ClarasVoice.org for
sending the documents.)