This story shows how illogical the thought processes behind exotic animal bans can be.
A law that would punish every single exotic cat owner in the state was proposed because Rep. Jackson considered a facility guilty of unproved charges.
“I originally had wolves in the copy that went to Jackson first but he has a brother or uncle or someone that has wolves so he sent it back to me to take wolves off the list.”
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Feline Conservation Federation member and University of Arkansas mediation student Julie Roper had a unique opportunity to get an inside look at the politics behind that state’s proposed bill bill banning exotic cat ownership when she found herself in class with the attorney who provided the text of the bill.
Rep. Jackson had asked the attorney for a bill to regulate “big cat people like the nut in Elkins.” The “nut in Elkins” he referred to? An already regulated USDA licensed educational exhibitor and safari park operator. Four lions were found roaming free outside the facility and were shot. Some claimed the lions escaped from the facility; the park operator said an outside party abandoned them on his property. When people abandon kittens in boxes outside the local humane society, shall we try to press charges against the shelter?
This attorney said he did a search for bills, and took the first one he found. After a few changes he sent it to Jackson. The attorney admitted “I originally had wolves in the copy that went to Jackson first but he has a brother or uncle or someone that has wolves so he sent it back to me to take wolves off the list.”
When asked to explain how this legislation would have prevented the Elkins incident, he said “It might not have prevented but it would have given a method of holding this guy accountable and allowed them to trace the cats to him.” Excuse me? This was a USDA licensed facility, already required to keep records of every animal they had. If they were dumped on his property, how could this legislation have done anything more about it? It’s already illegal in Arkansas to release any non-indigenous animals into the wild.
In this case, a law that would punish every single exotic cat owner in the state was proposed because Rep. Jackson considered the park guilty of unproved charges. Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty?” Apparently that’s been changed to “you and every other member of your minority group in the state are guilty without a trial.” Fine print: “(Unless one of you happens to be related to me, in which case I’ll grant that person an exemption.)”
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