Humane Society Lawyers Fight Culture of Cruelty, Government Bureaucracy.
Soon after reading the words above, which appeared as the headline of an article published in November 2007 on the University of Virginia School of Law website, I discovered something ironic about Sarah L. Conant.
According to HumaneWatch, Conant is a 2006 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville.
According to a 2006 article published on the law school website, Conant’s favorite law school experience was founding the Virginia Animal Law Society, a nonprofit student organization is affiliated with the radical animal rights organization, Animal Legal Defense Fund.
According to the same article, her post-graduation plans included serving as a Litigation Fellow for The Humane Society of the United States, Animal Protection Litigation Section, in Washington, D.C.
Now, let’s return to the headline of the 2007 article mentioned atop this post and expose the irony.
Today, Conant is an animal rights activist lawyer-turned government bureaucrat who, as a USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service employee with a very long title — Chief, Animal Health and Welfare Enforcement Branch, Investigative and Enforcement Services — and she’s threatening John and Judy Dollarhite with fines of up to $3.9 million in fines for the “crime” of selling more than $500 worth of bunnies during a single calendar year without a USDA license. In short, Conant is now the government bureaucrat against whom she once claimed to fight.
Her signature appears on the cover letter of the “Stipulation Agreement” that was the subject of the most recent post in my series, “Chasing Rabbits,” about the Nixa, Mo., couple’s battle for freedom and liberty. Below is an excerpt that highlights the demands Conant is making of the Dollarhites:
The first and, perhaps, most interesting stipulation, is that “John Dollarhite must admit that the Secretary (of Agriculture) has jurisdiction in this matter and waive an oral hearing and further procedures.”
While I’m not a lawyer, it strikes me as a sign of weakness on the part of the USDA that such a line is included in the agreement. Are they afraid that they overstepped their bounds in the first place by aggressively pursuing fines against the Dollarhites? Are they afraid of that point becoming a losing issue in future litigation efforts? Seems that way.
Other terms to which John Dollarhite must consent and agree including the following*:
John Dollarhite must agree not to buy, sell, own, or possess breeding animals. “Breeding animals” include those animals that have not been spayed or neutered and fall under the definition of “animal” contained in the AWA and regulations promulgated thereunder.
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, are permanently disqualified from (a) obtaining an AWA license, and (b) engaging in activities governed by the AWA and regulations issued thereunder, either directly or indirectly, on or off [the Dollarhite's physical address].
John Dollarhite consents and agrees that his failure to comply with the terms of this Agreement shall automatically void paragraph D below, and that APHIS shall have the right to immediately institute enforcement proceedings against John Dollarhite based upon the non-compliant items documented in connection with animal welfare investigation MO09099-AC, and any future violations, and to pursue any and all remedies available to APHIS under the AWA.
For and in consideration of John Dollarhite’s agreements and actions described in paragraph B above, and the promises and admissions of John Dollarhite set forth herein, APHIS agrees not to institute an administrative or civil enforcement action against John Dollarhite in connection with the alleged AWA violations documented in animal welfare investigation MO09099-AC.
*Note: In the paragraphs above, I omitted the specific descriptions of the regulations cited and the Dollarhite’s physical address. To see them, download the Stipulation Agreement.
Recap: The HSUS lawyer who once claimed to be fighting animal cruelty and government bureaucracy is now a government bureaucrat who wields a regulatory whip that inflicts cruel and unusual punishment on people like the Dollarhites.
Oh, the irony!
UPDATE 6/27/11 at 2:05 p.m. Central: Cross-posted at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com.
UPDATE 7/17/11 at 4:14 p.m. Central: Has HSUS Hijacked the APHIS Office of Enforcement?
UPDATE 12/03/11 at 8:09 a.m. Central: Looks like someone else has discovered Ms. Conant’s apparent conflict of interest, going so far as calling her a mole for the HSUS.
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13 responses so far ↓
1 Esbee // Jun 27, 2011 at 6:54 am
my goodness this sounds like what they do to drug dealers!!! If we let the USDA and this woman get away with this travesty on one non-criminal, they will be after the rest of us next!
2 Esbee // Jun 27, 2011 at 7:00 am
What a misuse of our tax money to criminalize one family! How many real crimes are being committed while time is being wasted on this non-issue? How many drug deals, meth labs, child molestation, etc are happening AND if this woman who claims she is so concerned for animal welfare, how many animals were being tortured for gang initiations. Let’s see these so-called animal rights activists go after them! No, these cowards; real agenda is to stop all real animal husbandry and ownership.
3 Esbee // Jun 27, 2011 at 7:19 am
There is also a place on the web where lawyers can be rated and info about cases. I do not know if the Sarah Conant listed is the same one but if it is, we should take advantage of it and rate how she is handling the case against non-criminals and their rabbits.
If gays can get their rights protected and even have gay-marriage laws passed, then we should be just as pro-active protecting our rights against people like this young woman, obviously mistaken in her goals and agenda, looking more like she was raised in a communist country, rather than the USA!
lawyer review— https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/20037-dc-sarah-conant-1763599/write_review.html
4 Bungalow Bill // Jun 27, 2011 at 8:06 am
Wow, animal law attorneys…
That’s the problem here.
5 Chuck MacNab // Jun 27, 2011 at 9:08 am
Bob, you have exposed one of the many over educated left wing zealot brats that head for liberal government appointments. They are the typical zealot variety that left wingers love to place in positions of power in government bureaucracies. They fill them with talking points and we all see them on the Sunday talk shows where they jabber non-stop over others on the program and are well schooled in preventing any other view from being heard.This one is a great example at the beginning of her career, where she hasn’t learned how to make her actions look “reasonable.” She’s basically a kid whose only judgement is a coarse view and use of government power to the extreme by “punishing” anyone who she sees as a violator of a liberal dogma. That, of course, is why she was hired and placed in the position she is in. She obviously obtained a law degree (I’d like to know who paid the bills for her) so she could get the sort of government job that would allow her to abuse the power of her position to punish anyone who dared to step on the sacred ground of her pet subject. It sells well among the left wing political community too! Hillary is an advanced example of this same variety of spoiled brat that, through liberal zealotry, has long ago been able to turn herself into a leftist power monger. It’s also very profitable! This is the ambition of many of these over educated brats, the law schools are turning them out in droves and the leftists are expanding government in order to create a place to use them!
6 RM // Jun 27, 2011 at 9:41 am
I would love to see the details of how this man “abused” his rabbits considering, from what I understand, he was very well spoken of in regards to the quality of his rabbits. This is the same bunk happening to food co-ops where they raid raid raid even after the co-op is in compliance. This not a free country anymore. Also, Mr. Dollarite was accused of selling over $500.00 worth of rabbits and now these “people” want him to sign away his right to apply for a license? Fine him a reasonable amount(ignorance isn’t an excuse to break the law), see he is operating at standard on probation(redemption), issue the license, be inspected like anyone else. Case closed. What a bunch of idiots.
7 Milo Goin // Jun 27, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Just so you all realize, rabbits are considered poultry by the USDA. Each state has defined a large farm for its own big agricultural interests. There is much more to this story than Bob reported.
8 Laura Johnson // Jun 27, 2011 at 3:38 pm
This is way beyond overreaching by a government agency…this Conant person is animal rights agenda personified…and in her position of “enforcement power” she is using force to make the Dollarhites abandon ALL interaction with animals. Folks, this is not just government liberalism, this is animal rights, which is a cult working to eliminate all animal use…pets, zoos, farm animals, you name it.
9 Sam Anderer // Jun 27, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Why doesn’t she set her sites on enforcing the Horse Protection Act and inspect unannounced the Walking Horse Stables in Shelbyville, TN? And other locations.
No, I guess this would really be doing something constructive. They have been playing cat and mouse with that Act from the beginning and now they have finally come to the conclusion that local inspection DQPs have a conflict of interest. They are going to use veterinarians, yet won’t allot any more that $500,000 a year to inspect over 600 shows a year, and no barn inspections what so ever, and soring goes on.
The radical animal rights cultist agenda is rampant through the college courses; goes hand in hand with the Marxist-Leninist ideology.
If memory serves me correctly, there isn’t anything in the Act that mandates they needed a license to raise and sell rabbits. Hopefully they won’t give in to these rabid demands.
10 larry // Jun 27, 2011 at 8:07 pm
Here is a good animal rights on meat: http://carnism.com
11 Clancey S. // Jun 28, 2011 at 7:17 am
If one feels for this man, this happens to dog owners every day and farmers, and biomedical people. We have to start realizing that HSUS, PETA, and ALF are all cut from the same cloth. No more animal use for anything. Should a free society buckle down to the vegan animal rights movement. Animal welfare – yes. Animal rights and a vegan society – no. There are many animal rights activist holding jobs such as Conant especially in jobs with authority to take people’s animals and livelihoods. Maybe they should be named! It is purposeful to have people with authority “set in place” by the vegan animal rights movement. HSUS is not about saving animals, it is about the ending of all animal ownership and use of any animals! Wake up, people who donate.
We can only wonder why FBI and IRS have not been all over these groups as it is the biggest fraud since Fannie Mae and not much different than Alcapone. All due to a philosphical movement according those who do not believe in using animals in any way, not even for food. They in turn believe also in population control – to save the earth and though at odds at times with the radical environmentalist, both see a utopian society for our future. Humane Society International is represented at the table of the UN – Agenda 21. In case you do not know what that is. It is the “New World Soceity”, signed by Pres. Bush in 1992. I think Americans have a reason not to trust these “rights” groups! Utopian societies have been tried and failed – each one. Think about it!
12 Thumping Bunny // Jun 28, 2011 at 11:42 am
People are hopping mad. We in CA are fighting 2 bills AB1117 & SB 917.
Both listed as animal cruelty bills.
I call them human cruelty bills.
AB1117 if passed will allow for property seizure, prior to obtaining a Search Warrant. This goes against the legal system and a right to a fair trial.
Animals maybe destroyed before you even get a day in court.
SB917 will make is a FELONY to harvest any animal for food in CA. This includes FISHING & HUNTING. Raising animals known by and as food for Human Consumption; and list as such by USDA.
If SB917 passes?
No Fishing
No Hunting
No Farming animals for meat.
In CA. FOREVER!
The fine if you happen to need to feed yourself or catch a fish is $20,000, & jail time.
One would be a convicted Felon if they try to feed themselves in CA by killing any fish or animal.
How messed up is that?
Look up:
http://www.wethepeopleusa.us/
For more info.
Now you know why I’m Hopping MAD!
Bunny
13 metoo // Jun 28, 2011 at 5:57 pm
I’m a vegetarian, not because of any type of moral or health stance. I have life-threathening allergies. This abuse of the government for personal agendas makes me sick and it makes everyone’s life much harder than it needs to be.
It’s not just “liberal” or “bipartisan”. It’s not just animals rights either. They’ve passed a law to make gardening illegal, too. Our government has made themselves the enemy of individuality, from the top to the bottom. They want everyone to be a one-size-fits-all person and they’re trying to peg everyone with a label. This woman is so stupid, she can’t see that she’s the first person they will send to the FEMA camps.
Thank you Bob, for the information. Now we need to find out how to get her fired for misuse of power and abuse of government funds.
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