Things are turning around for Caboodle Ranch. Yes, it may be baby steps but the very fact that Caboodle Ranch WILL NOT give up the fight for what is right, is finally starting to pay off. If you read the Judge’s ruling on the ASPCA Cost Hearing, it may seem a bit confusing. Fortunately, our lawyer friend that has been a crucial part in uncovering the wrong doings of the ASPCA, made things clearer for us. Here is an excerpt from him:
“ Paragraph 2 of the findings is sweepingly broad. Notice the difference between Paragraph 3. In it, it says there was no agency relationship for purposes of the animal cruelty statute, but paragraph 2 says there was no relationship of any kind. If paragraph 2 stands, it seems that the ASPCA committed trespass and conversion (theft essentially) when its people entered Caboodle Ranch’s land and took Caboodle Ranch’s cats and continued to hold them.
Since the ASPCA actually participated in the proceeding that produced this ruling, they would normally be precluded (by “collateral estoppel”) from challenging the factual finding in paragraph 2 in a subsequent lawsuit brought against them by Caboodle Ranch for damages. Judge Parker might as well have painted a bull’s eye on the ASPCA’s back. “
The Prosecution is putting together “an offer” soon. One could assume they are feeling the weight of the real meaning the Judge’s ruling and are shaking in their boots. They will not be able to prove “animal cruelty” , especially with all the contrary evidence that Caboodle’s lawyer has.
Our hope, is that in the end, this will mean that Craig and Caboodle Ranch will have their reputation restored and that the ASPCA will be under extreme scrutiny of their actions and expenditures. We also hope that there will be a group that steps in to ‘step up’ the guidelines and fairness for small rescues and shelters all across the U.S. Yes, of course there needs to be guidelines on health and safety but not unreasonable ones and “made up” ones that come from 3rd party personal agenda opinions.
Please pay close attention to the news of late. Recently the ASPCA has been making headlines, and not good ones. The truth is coming out. The ASPCA has recently had to award a circus almost 10 million dollars for wrongful actions. They have also been in the news for abuse of the animals they “rescued” that were displaced from the devastating storm Sandy. The president resigned and they have not been able to replace him. He made a whopping 500,000 a year! They make tens of millions of dollars in donations from hard working people. Be watchful of what they do with it.
After all that has been done to Craig and the cats, and the ranch, he still has to prepare for the criminal trial. There is not a date set as of yet. We are still holding out hope that someone with a brain cell in that courthouse will drop the case and see that it is wrong and a total waste of money and time, and let Craig get on with his life. Pick up the pieces and try to get through his losses. (The Madison Florida Voice, January 4, 2013)
Showing posts with label caboodle ranch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label caboodle ranch. Show all posts
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Friday, October 5, 2012
The Terrible Truth About Some ASPCA/HSUS Rescues, such as on Caboodle Ranch
You read the magazine adds or
watch the three-minute infomercials by the ASPCA and HSUS about the terrible
plight of abused animals across our country, and then the request for
money.
Then you see the newspaper article
and news reports on Channels 6, 7, 9 etc., about a local non-profit rescuer who
had 90 or 150 or even 400 cats who were all rescued from deplorable conditions
by the City Animal Services along with the local or national ASPCA or HSUS. The
reporter is told that the number of animals just got out of hand and the owner
just wasn’t able to take care of the animals anymore. To read the rest of of the story, Click Here!
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Killing a Dream
A cat started it all.
Nothing much to look at, just an ordinary calico cat that wandered into a home,
a heart, and a new life.
Craig Grant had to decide if he was going to care for the cat his son could not take, or leave it to an uncertain, but likely cruel fate. But it wasn’t his decision to make. It was Pepper’s. And Pepper...
Craig Grant had to decide if he was going to care for the cat his son could not take, or leave it to an uncertain, but likely cruel fate. But it wasn’t his decision to make. It was Pepper’s. And Pepper...
became Craig’s cat.
And one cat became two, and then two more, and finally the flock overwhelmed the heart and became bigger than the house. So Craig did what he knew he was meant to do. He became the savior of cats. The shepherd of lost kittens. The kind of man with the kind of dream America needs. He knew he had to save, not kill. Create, not destroy. Define your dream, marshal all your resources, and do it.
So with his goal in mind, Craig used all his savings, his creativity, and his persistence to build what would become Caboodle Ranch, the largest free-range cat sanctuary in the world (Guinness Book of World Records, 2012).
He searched for the right kind of property. One with no restrictions on the numbers of animals. Maybe in a poor county, where he could offer jobs to local people and others could benefit. And in 2003, he found the right spot. Thirty acres of woods in Madison County Florida. This was ranch country, so his daughter named the spread the Caboodle Ranch. And a magical place was born.
There were a few cats at first, but as the word got out that there was a place that could give cats a second chance at life, a place where feral cats, sick cats, old unadoptable cats, could live without cages and without the constant threat of the needle, well, in 2003, the cats started coming.
By January of 2012, 653 cats lived a happy, safe life at Caboodle Ranch. By March of 2012, the cats were gone. What happened? Where did the cats go? And why were they taken? There were two reasons, one local and one political.
For some unknown reason, the Madison County Board of Commissioners decided the county really, really needed an ordinance to control the number of animals allowed on 2 1/2 acres or more. Not the cattle or goats, or bison, but the cats or dogs. It was very important to have this ordinance, so the Excess Animal Habitat Ordinance was created. The EAH would limit the number to 30, but a sanctuary could apply for a permit, if it could meet all the requirements that the county could think of. And Craig applied for the permit and began to work.
So while he sweated and worked, and thought he was exactly on the right track, and spent thousands on fencing and barns, and whatever they came up with next, the raid was being planned. Craig was given a deadline of March 27 to finish all the requirements for the permit, but a month before the deadline, they struck.
On February 27, 2012, the rainiest day in Florida in months, the Sheriff’s Department, the ASPCA, and hundreds of volunteers from rescue groups flown in from all over the country, poured onto the ranch. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Craig Grant for animal abuse. The raiders chased the terrified cats, caught them and put them into carriers and then into a truck. They turned over the charming little buildings; they tore down part of the fencing; they carted away Craig’s files, his money, his medicines, his dream.
The cats were put in cages in an unused shelter in Jacksonville. Everyone was assured that this would be over soon, and the cats, at least those that were adoptable, would soon be happier than they ever dreamed. Those that were still alive, that is. The ASPCA , the victorious rescuers of already rescued cats, they announced the incredible victory over a hoarder, a criminal abuser, someone who should never, never even hold a cat again.
There were hearings to be heard, and trials to be tried, and all the while the cats were in cages in a hot building in Florida all through March, April, May, June, July, and part of August. The cost didn’t matter, as the ASPCA had told the sheriff the raid wouldn’t cost the county a penny. After all, donations funded all the ASPCA rescues. That was such a coup for the county. No more Caboodle cats that annoyed somebody, somewhere enough to want to wipe them off the map.
Victory is ours, said the ASPCA, but you know what? Let’s see if we can have the Sheriff get Caboodle Ranch pay us back for our expenses. Even though we don’t have to do that, our donations take care of rescue events, why, we have spent $700,000 on car rentals, $150,000 on airline tickets, $15,000 on pheromones to calm the cats and just a teeny, teeny bit on Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen! Maybe we can get a few nickels from the broken man. The costs hearing is being scheduled.
So for months the cats lived in their cages. They had vet care, just like they did at the ranch. They had ample food, just like they had at the ranch. They had volunteers to watch over them, but they didn’t have their Papa. They didn’t have their freedom, and some of them soon, wouldn’t have their lives.
Oh, there was another reason for the raid. A political one. Some annoying legislators wanted to pass a law making it illegal for shelters to kill an animal when a qualified non-profit rescue organization is willing to save that animal. Some people didn’t want that law. No-kill shelters might end up as hoarders by taking in more animals than they could handle. It could happen. It might be kinder to the animals if they died before they could suffer the abuse of over-crowding. Keep them in the kill shelters.
How can that proposed law be stopped? How about if someone makes an incriminating, misleading video of a sanctuary, then persuades the sheriff to take the video as evidence of abuse to the state attorney, who after considering the possibilities, decides to press charges against the sanctuary. A huge, dramatic raid would be a perfect public relations event. Let’s do it.
So they did. And with the raid, the accusations, the hearings, the trials, the legal fees, they—the unknowns who wanted Caboodle to be a memory—they broke the man. They “disposed” of almost all of his cats, and in spite of a court order demanding that the ASPCA make a good faith effort to locate and identify Craig’s personal pets, Tommy, Meatball, Toot, Snoop Dog, and Crackers, Craig hasn’t seen any of his cats for months. The ASPCA was also asked to keep them from being adopted, and to hold them until the court decides to end Craig’s despair, and return them to him. Nobody knows where they are or if they are even alive. And the ridiculous charges of animal abuse against the cat man still loom.
There is already a book called An American Tragedy, so I won’t borrow that title, but the name fits. Caboodle Ranch has been taken from Craig Grant, but also from all the people who had lost jobs, then houses, and found a home for their beloved pets at the ranch. It’s lost to the shelters that were overcrowded, who knew Craig would take in their excess cats. It’s lost to the tourists and visitors who came by the hundreds, and then spent their money in local shops. It’s lost to the volunteers who got so much personal satisfaction because they knew they were helping families and animals and Craig.
The trials and hearings are not over. For Craig, the threat of jail time exists; the threat of poverty is real. The legal bills are huge, but thousands of Caboodle Ranch fans are praying for Craig to prevail, and are sending donations, writing letters, sharing the story on Facebook and Twitter.
Out of the ashes a new Caboodle Ranch will be born, but certainly not in Madison County, Florida. And a new group of unwanted, unloved cats or just plain unlucky cats, will be given a second chance at life. And, as he was meant do to, at the helm will be Craig Grant, a man building his dream.
And one cat became two, and then two more, and finally the flock overwhelmed the heart and became bigger than the house. So Craig did what he knew he was meant to do. He became the savior of cats. The shepherd of lost kittens. The kind of man with the kind of dream America needs. He knew he had to save, not kill. Create, not destroy. Define your dream, marshal all your resources, and do it.
So with his goal in mind, Craig used all his savings, his creativity, and his persistence to build what would become Caboodle Ranch, the largest free-range cat sanctuary in the world (Guinness Book of World Records, 2012).
He searched for the right kind of property. One with no restrictions on the numbers of animals. Maybe in a poor county, where he could offer jobs to local people and others could benefit. And in 2003, he found the right spot. Thirty acres of woods in Madison County Florida. This was ranch country, so his daughter named the spread the Caboodle Ranch. And a magical place was born.
There were a few cats at first, but as the word got out that there was a place that could give cats a second chance at life, a place where feral cats, sick cats, old unadoptable cats, could live without cages and without the constant threat of the needle, well, in 2003, the cats started coming.
By January of 2012, 653 cats lived a happy, safe life at Caboodle Ranch. By March of 2012, the cats were gone. What happened? Where did the cats go? And why were they taken? There were two reasons, one local and one political.
For some unknown reason, the Madison County Board of Commissioners decided the county really, really needed an ordinance to control the number of animals allowed on 2 1/2 acres or more. Not the cattle or goats, or bison, but the cats or dogs. It was very important to have this ordinance, so the Excess Animal Habitat Ordinance was created. The EAH would limit the number to 30, but a sanctuary could apply for a permit, if it could meet all the requirements that the county could think of. And Craig applied for the permit and began to work.
So while he sweated and worked, and thought he was exactly on the right track, and spent thousands on fencing and barns, and whatever they came up with next, the raid was being planned. Craig was given a deadline of March 27 to finish all the requirements for the permit, but a month before the deadline, they struck.
On February 27, 2012, the rainiest day in Florida in months, the Sheriff’s Department, the ASPCA, and hundreds of volunteers from rescue groups flown in from all over the country, poured onto the ranch. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Craig Grant for animal abuse. The raiders chased the terrified cats, caught them and put them into carriers and then into a truck. They turned over the charming little buildings; they tore down part of the fencing; they carted away Craig’s files, his money, his medicines, his dream.
The cats were put in cages in an unused shelter in Jacksonville. Everyone was assured that this would be over soon, and the cats, at least those that were adoptable, would soon be happier than they ever dreamed. Those that were still alive, that is. The ASPCA , the victorious rescuers of already rescued cats, they announced the incredible victory over a hoarder, a criminal abuser, someone who should never, never even hold a cat again.
There were hearings to be heard, and trials to be tried, and all the while the cats were in cages in a hot building in Florida all through March, April, May, June, July, and part of August. The cost didn’t matter, as the ASPCA had told the sheriff the raid wouldn’t cost the county a penny. After all, donations funded all the ASPCA rescues. That was such a coup for the county. No more Caboodle cats that annoyed somebody, somewhere enough to want to wipe them off the map.
Victory is ours, said the ASPCA, but you know what? Let’s see if we can have the Sheriff get Caboodle Ranch pay us back for our expenses. Even though we don’t have to do that, our donations take care of rescue events, why, we have spent $700,000 on car rentals, $150,000 on airline tickets, $15,000 on pheromones to calm the cats and just a teeny, teeny bit on Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen! Maybe we can get a few nickels from the broken man. The costs hearing is being scheduled.
So for months the cats lived in their cages. They had vet care, just like they did at the ranch. They had ample food, just like they had at the ranch. They had volunteers to watch over them, but they didn’t have their Papa. They didn’t have their freedom, and some of them soon, wouldn’t have their lives.
Oh, there was another reason for the raid. A political one. Some annoying legislators wanted to pass a law making it illegal for shelters to kill an animal when a qualified non-profit rescue organization is willing to save that animal. Some people didn’t want that law. No-kill shelters might end up as hoarders by taking in more animals than they could handle. It could happen. It might be kinder to the animals if they died before they could suffer the abuse of over-crowding. Keep them in the kill shelters.
How can that proposed law be stopped? How about if someone makes an incriminating, misleading video of a sanctuary, then persuades the sheriff to take the video as evidence of abuse to the state attorney, who after considering the possibilities, decides to press charges against the sanctuary. A huge, dramatic raid would be a perfect public relations event. Let’s do it.
So they did. And with the raid, the accusations, the hearings, the trials, the legal fees, they—the unknowns who wanted Caboodle to be a memory—they broke the man. They “disposed” of almost all of his cats, and in spite of a court order demanding that the ASPCA make a good faith effort to locate and identify Craig’s personal pets, Tommy, Meatball, Toot, Snoop Dog, and Crackers, Craig hasn’t seen any of his cats for months. The ASPCA was also asked to keep them from being adopted, and to hold them until the court decides to end Craig’s despair, and return them to him. Nobody knows where they are or if they are even alive. And the ridiculous charges of animal abuse against the cat man still loom.
There is already a book called An American Tragedy, so I won’t borrow that title, but the name fits. Caboodle Ranch has been taken from Craig Grant, but also from all the people who had lost jobs, then houses, and found a home for their beloved pets at the ranch. It’s lost to the shelters that were overcrowded, who knew Craig would take in their excess cats. It’s lost to the tourists and visitors who came by the hundreds, and then spent their money in local shops. It’s lost to the volunteers who got so much personal satisfaction because they knew they were helping families and animals and Craig.
The trials and hearings are not over. For Craig, the threat of jail time exists; the threat of poverty is real. The legal bills are huge, but thousands of Caboodle Ranch fans are praying for Craig to prevail, and are sending donations, writing letters, sharing the story on Facebook and Twitter.
Out of the ashes a new Caboodle Ranch will be born, but certainly not in Madison County, Florida. And a new group of unwanted, unloved cats or just plain unlucky cats, will be given a second chance at life. And, as he was meant do to, at the helm will be Craig Grant, a man building his dream.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Caboodle Ranch Becomes a Ghost Town
After they took the caboodle cats aways to the Jacksonville ASPCA for their "rescue and treatment", the onslaught of false accusations, lies and staged photos came to the court in order to shame the man who built this oasis and saved over a thousand cats over the years. These cats had no where else to go. There were no other no kill shelters that could take them. They came to the ranch from all over the US and other countries. But that did not matter to the ASPCA or PETA. They continued to drag Craig Grant and its workers through the mud telling everyone that they were horrible people and cruel to boot. The "haters" made it their mission "to destroy Craig Grant and Caboodle Ranch" and despite the most gallant of efforts and thousands of dollars in legal fees, they succeeded. The ASPCA recently held an adoption event on August 11th and 12th. Succeeding in adopting out only about 300 cats of the 650+ that were taken away. So what's the next step? More adoption events? A court order AT LEAST prevents them from euthanizing any of the remaining cats. But that does little to ease the bone marrow deep grief that Craig Grant, the workers and supporters feel.
Craig is a broken man. Not a man that has given up, but a man who has had his 'family' taken from him, his dream destroyed, his ranch demolished after putting 250K into it to make it a magical joyful place for the cats. He is a man that has been brutally beaten down at every turn for the mere fact that he wanted to make a difference and give people an alternative to euthanasia or having a cat live forever in a cage. The level of injustice that has been done to this man, this ranch and most of all the cats is an atrocity to the so called legal system. In a court order, Judge Parker said that Criag will have his personal cats returned to him. He has over 12 personal cats and the two Great Pyranese that were the watch dogs. The judge only mentioned 5 cats. So why return his cats if this man is cruel and neglectful in the care and treatment of animals? Exactly. The county of Madison had an agenda that involved closing the ranch altogether and went about it so corruptly it's a wonder that Dateline or 20/20 hasn't been here yet to investigate. And we hope they DO come. This cannot happen again. Every rescue and every shelter and every person out there that is trying to save lives, to make a difference will be next, because PETA and the ASPCA feel and are treated, as if they are above the law.
Someone has to step up and stop this insanity. These precious cats were happy. And the people behind the events that have taken place from February 27th 2012 to present will be held accountable, eventually, for their atrocious actions. Want to Read More! (Caboodleranch's Journal, August 16, 2012)
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