Be Careful When Selling Rabbits
 

Family Facing $4 Million in Fines for Selling Bunnies

Almost nine months after a Missouri dairy was ordered to stop selling cheese made from raw milk, I share details of another hare-raising story from the Show-Me State: John Dollarhite and his wife Judy of tiny Nixa, Mo., have been told by the USDA that, by Monday, they must pay a fine exceeding $90,000. If they don’t pay that fine, they could face additional fines of almost $4 million. Why? Because they sold more than $500 worth of bunnies — $4,600 worth to be exact — in a single calendar year.


About six years ago, the Dollarhites wanted to teach their young teenage son responsibility and the value of the dollar. So they rescued a pair of rabbits — one male and one female — and those rabbits did what rabbits do; they reproduced. Before long, things were literally hopping on the three-acre homestead 30 miles south of Springfield, and Dollarvalue Rabbitry was launched as more of a hobby than a business.
“We’d sell ‘em for 10 or 15 dollars a piece,” John said during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon, comparing the venture to a kid running a lemonade stand. In addition, they set up a web site and posted a “Rabbits for Sale” sign in their front yard. Most customers, however, came via word of mouth.

In the early stages, some of the bunnies were raised and sold for their meat. Much further down the road, John said, they determined it more profitable to sell live bunnies at four weeks old than to feed bunnies for 12 weeks and then sell them as meat.

“We started becoming the go-to people” for rabbits in the Springfield area, John said. “If you wanted a rabbit, you’d go to Dollarvalue Rabbitry.” He added that the family even made the local television news just before Easter in 2008 for a report about the care and feeding of “Easter bunnies.”


Initially, the Dollarhites sold the large, white, pink-eyed variety of rabbits. Eventually, however, they switched to selling a couple of different varieties of miniature rabbits, the mating pairs of which were purchased from breeders across the state. Not only did their “show-quality” miniatures reproduce well, but they ate less and seemed to be more popular with theme park visitors and retail buyers.

During the summer of 2009, the Dollarhites bought the rabbitry from their son who had grown tired of managing it. They paid him what he asked for it, $200. Things kept growing, however, and the Dollarhite’s landed a pair of big accounts in 2009.

A well-known Branson theme park, Silver Dollar City, asked the Dollarhites to have them provide four-week-old bunnies per week to their petting zoo May through September. When the bunnies turned six weeks old, they were sold to park visitors. The Springfield location of a national pet store chain, Petland, purchased rabbits from the Dollarhites as well.
In the fall of 2009, the theme park deliveries ended for the year and the Dollarhites scaled back their operation. At about the same time, the folks at Petland asked the Dollarhites to raise guinea pigs that the store would purchase from them. No big deal.

By the year’s end, the Dollarhites had moved approximately 440 rabbits and grossed about $4,600 for a profit of approximately $200 — enough, John said, to provide the family “pocket money” to do things such as eat out at Red Lobster once in a while. That was better than the loss they experienced in 2008.

Then some unexpected matters began demanding their attention.
It’s an understatement to describe the Dollarhites as being “beyond surprised” when, in the fall of 2009, a female inspector from the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed up at the front door of the family home, wanting to do a “spot inspection” of their rabbitry. She said she had come across Dollarhite Rabbitry invoices while inspecting the petting zoo at Silver Dollar City.

“She did not tell us that we were in violation of any laws, rules, anything whatsoever,” John said, explaining that the inspector said she just wanted to see what type of operation they had. Having nothing to hide or any reason to fear they were doing anything wrong, the Dollarhites allowed the inspection to proceed.

John said he had to go to work at the family’s computer store, so Judy took the inspector to the back of their property where the rabbits were raised. There, the inspector began running the width of her finger across the cage and told the Dollarhites they would need to replace the cage, because it was a quarter-inch too small and, therefore, did not meet federal regulations.

Such a requirement came as a shock to the Dollarhites, because they had just invested in new cages to ensure the bunnies had a healthy amount of space to develop, John explained. Though raising dwarf breed varieties of rabbits which require less space, they had opted to purchase cages designed for “large breed rabbits” so the dwarfs would have plenty of room. All for naught.

Not only was the cage too small, according to the inspector, but she noted a small rust spot on a feeder and cited it as being out of compliance. When the Dollarhites told the inspector that rabbit urine causes the cages to rust and that they worked hard to keep the rabbits cages in top shape, she told them it didn’t matter. The rust spot would count as an infraction.

The inspector then asked how the cages were sanitized, John said, and Judy explained how she moved the bunnies to travel carriers and powerwashed the cages, using bleach when necessary. Afterward, she allowed the cages to dry in the sun before putting the bunnies back inside them.

The Dollarhites’ practice was much safer than that used by some breeders who used blow torches to burn hair and manure from the cages — a practice that can lead to rusting metal and produce toxic fumes from burning metal.

During the course of the spot inspection, John said, the inspector asked his wife if she and John would like to have their operation certified by USDA. Judy said she wasn’t sure and asked what certification would entail and if it would help them sell more rabbits. The inspector responded, telling her it would involve monthly inspections and was completely voluntary. The inspection ended with the inspector telling Judy that the Dollarhites rabbits looked healthy and well-cared for.

After the inspection, the Dollarhites didn’t hear from the USDA again until January 2010, John said, when he received a phone call from a Kansas City-based investigator from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

“He called us and said, ‘I need to have a meeting with you and your wife,’” John recalled.

After explaining that he asked the investigator to come after the workday at the computer store had ended, John said he asked the investigator about the purpose of the meeting,

“He said, ‘Well, it’s because you’re selling rabbits and you’ve exceeded more than $500 dollars in a year,’” John said, “and I went, ‘Okay, what does that have to do with anything?’”

John said the investigator refused to discuss details over the phone and made it clear that rejecting his request for a meeting would be a costly error in judgment.

When Judy asked if they should have an attorney present, the investigator responded, saying, “Well, that might be a good thing.”
“At that point, we kind of set back, (wondering) what in the world is going on,” John said. Then he found an attorney who is also a farmer.

“I didn’t want a ‘city slicker,’” said John, a farmer himself until 1996 when he sold his farm to build a home in Nixa. “I wanted someone that had been around the agriculture and farm business.”

John found a guy and they met for the first time a couple of days later — at the same time both met the APHIS investigator in person at John’s home.

“The first thing (the investigator) said was ‘My name is so and so, I’ve been in the USDA for 30-plus years, and I’ve never lost a case,’” John recalled, continuing. “He said, ‘I’m not here to debate the law, interpret the law or discuss the law, I’m here just to do an investigation.’”

John said the investigator went on to explain that he would ask questions, write a report based on the answers and send that report to his superiors at the USDA regional office in Colorado Springs, Colo. The entire process was suppose to take about a month, and John was told to contact the regional office if he had not heard anything in six weeks.

“At this point in time, we were still not knowing anything about the law he was talking about,” John explained, adding that his rabbitry had never had any issues with any animal welfare agencies.

Eight weeks passed, and John decided to call Colorado Springs.

Immediately, he was given the number to a USDA office in the nation’s capitol. He called the new number, and the lady he reached there was blunt, John said.

“She said, ‘Well, Mr. Dollarhite, I’ve got the report on my desk, and I’m just gonna tell you that, once I review it, it’s our intent to prosecute you to the maximum that we can’ and that ‘we will make an example out of you.”

When John once again tried to determine which law he and his wife had violated, he said the USDA lady replied, “We’ll forward you everything.”
“Ma’am, what law have we broken,” John said.

“Well, you sold more than $500 worth of rabbits in one calendar year,” she replied, according to John.

“Okay, what does that have to do with anything?” John countered.
The lady replied by saying there is a guideline which prohibits anyone from selling more than $500 worth of rabbits per year, John recalled, but she refused to cite any specific law and, instead, promised to send him the report containing details.

At that point, John said he called his attorney and was told not to worry about it, because he couldn’t find evidence of any law or regulation the Dollarhites had violated.

Soon after the meeting with the APHIS investigator and with the stress of the investigation hanging over their heads, John said he and his wife traded everything associated with the rabbit operation for other agricultural equipment.

At this point, some important facts about the manner in which the Dollarhites conducted their operation are worth reviewing:
The business was carefully conducted on the property of their Missouri home;
The business complied with all applicable state laws;
The bunnies were kept in large, clean and well-maintained cages; and
Not a single bunny was sold across state lines.

Recently, the Dollarhites received a “Certified Mail Return Receipt” letter (dated April 19, 2011) from the USDA informing them that they had broken the law and must pay USDA a fine of $90,643. Their crime? Violating violating 9 C.F.R. § 2.1 (a) (1): Selling more than $500 worth of rabbits in a calendar year.

At this point, Dollarvalue Rabbitry is expected to produced a $90,643 certified check to cover the fine issued by the Department of Agriculture. The USDA was, however, kind enough to provide in the letter the web address for a website — www.pay.gov — where they could go to pay their fine by credit card by May 23, 2011. Now, that’s convenient!

Based on an average price per rabbit sold being $10.45, the fine comes out to more than $206 per rabbit. In addition, the letter contains the following statement:
APHIS laws and regulations provide for administrative and criminal penalties to enforce these regulatory requirements, including civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each of the violations documented in our investigation.

If the threat contained in the letter is to be believed, the family could be fined as much as $10,000 per rabbit beyond the first 50 bunnies that netted the family its first $500. Do the math (390 rabbits x $10,000 each) and, if they don’t pay the initial fine, they could face additional fines totaling $3.9 million.

Needless to say, the Dollarhites stopped selling rabbits in January 2010 and are considering setting up a legal defense fund.

To see what the USDA has to say about the matter, read my follow-up post, USDA Stands Behind Hare-Raising Fine.

Fucking unbelievable. Next thing you know the government is gonna start regulating the number of custom built megasquirts per calendar year. :eek5:

Everything is about control and regulating someone else. Meanwhile all people are trying to do is make it by without living paycheck to paycheck, but apparently you never know what kind of "law" or "regulation" your in violation of.

Pure BULLSHIT if you ask me.

You should read about licensing for Florists.

Gotta make sure you don't store those flowers in a cooler that doesn't meet state/federal regulations.

http://townhall.com/columnists/johns..._right_to_work

I think this guy must have been eating all the rabbits.

http://bobmccarty.com/wp-content/upl...ngOfficial.jpg

Holy crap.

They really don't have anything better to do? Isn't the USDA supposed to help farmers develop their business...not shoot them down for trying?

They shouldn't have broked da law.

Sounds to me like that just requires them to get a permit. So the USDA should have said, hey peoples, you sell more than $500 worth, you need a license now homey...that is all.

this is so sad. they shouldve sold the kid and kept the rabbits

Hi guys I sell rabbits. If anyone needs one to eat, breed, or fuck, lemme know

I dont think my family would ever have that problem, we would just eat them. Hell, our tradition is to have rabbit for easter dinner

That shit pisses me off. USDA can suck my balls.

I work at a school. I see what the USDA calls a healthy meal for kids. Its a joke.

The lengths the government is willing to go to fill its coffers is unbelievable. It's become so big and unwieldy it can't support itself any longer and does whatever it can, no matter how ridiculous, to gain it's financial backing. Social programs it can't pay for, massive debt and rising taxes on the population are slowly eating it from the inside. These are the paths many governments took right up to their failure. Even if they taxed everyone 100%, it still wouldn't be enough to fill the bottomless pit they have created. The elitists flourish while the general population's quality of life declines.

Makes me sick to even think about it.

but think about all the programs they'd create to help you!

you can have the bunnies that live under my shed for free.

I don't completely blame the government. SO many worthless fucks in this country ruin shit for the rest of us.

You might enjoy watching the series "Jamie's school dinners"

Granted, Jamie Oliver is a bit of a turd, but the series (which was short in the UK but is applicable to the US as well) explores some of the underlying reasons behind this, and demonstrates why efforts to resolve this situation are essentially doomed to futility.

He got LA to ban flavored milks finally.

I'm waiting as fast as I can.

Anarchy in the USA.

The banning of flavored milks is just unreal. How can they get away with that? Strawberry milk is the shit.

because its full of sugar and an awful excuse to justify the need. its seriously political and the milk industry lobbies for it and makes deals with the school board.



WHOLE MILK FTW.

I'm a milk purest, FUCK flavored milk.

It's the American way. Take something healthy, process the shit out of it, and pack it full of sugar. Then when someone calls you on it, send in the lobbyists. Thank god they lost that battle.

Better than the Muslim way. I mean we could have just sent in suicide bombers! WOOOOOOOOOOO YEA!









I mean as long as we are generalizing.

i dont think either of you are far off from the truth.

So... no more rabbit-flavored milk?

Funny how these threads develop, we are just about to page three and Muslims have already been mentioned. It will end in the same old religion debate.

I just get tired of you bringing in the whole "American Way" thing into every thread. America is diverse, you will never find one specific "way". Am I saying there isn't some really corrupt, retarded BS going on, no.

But there are always going to be people on both sides of the argument, and people will speak their opinions about it. You won't find that very often in other parts of the world. Unfortunately the dumb people seem to speak the loudest sometimes.

I was responding to Joe, not you man.

Don't let my location fool you, I am as American as you are. I'm from New Orleans and left after Katrina. This may go some way to explaining why I may come off as anti U.S. govt sometimes, but I am a very patriotic guy. I love what the US says it is, but I am embarrassed by what it is.

Don't worry though, I piss and moan about England on the British forums too. And of course be being the immigrant here I bet you can guess how that goes.

My comment was regarding the Muslims, so your response seemed directed at me. I know you are from the US.

Actually, I've long been quite curious about this. One thing which I find interesting is how easy it is for US citizens to travel in Europe (or at least, in the EU)- no Visa required, just show up at the front door and present your passport. They don't even ask why you're there or how long you plan to stay.

By contrast, we make it quite a bit more difficult for pretty much anyone other than from Mexico or Canada to enter the US, to say nothing of immigrating to it.


So what does it actually entail for an American to immigrate into the UK?

Well aside from claiming asylum and all that crap, there are 2 ways to get in.

The first is called the "highly skilled migrant" program. It is basically a points system. education gets you points, being young gets you points (on the assumption you will work/pay taxes longer), and earning potential gets you points; So they will assign more points to specific industries. That changes from year to year, but as you can imagine medicine and engineering gets points. A degree in history not so much (guess what my degree is in).

And the other way is of course a student Visa. Thats how we did it, my wife signed up to get her masters in radio production, at a university here in England. Then she got a job with the BBC before that Visa ran out, and talked them into sponsoring her for a work Visa. I have been on a dependent Visa all along. I am a mechanic and work at a muscle car restorer, so there is no way I would make the points, and it would cost my employer over 5 grand to sponsor me for a work visa. And it would be declined anyway as they would not be able to prove that I can do anything an Englishman can't. and they wouldn't get the 5 grand back.

So I will not be getting divorced then.

They are clamping down on this stuff like mad since the new prime minister came to power as it is now a conservative govt. One of their big issues is immigrants. Since membership in the EU means everyone can work in whatever country they want, and England has the strongest currency (or rather the only country not on the euro) everyone from eastern europe has moved here and is sending the money back home. All the same stuff everyone says about mexicans in the states but they are here legally in this case. Its a BIG issue for alot of people here. all the waiters and gas station attendants are polish. Doesn't bother me as the women are usually georgous and the guys have in my experience been pretty cool. But it aint jolly old England anymore. So the conservative govt needs to get results and they squeeze the non EU immigrants because its all they can do to keep their voters happy. as a result the law is constantly in flux and when this visa runs out (in 3 years) there is every chance they will have raised the limits and we will not get the next one.

Funny thing is, my mother is British and that does me no good at all. If I had applied for a UK passport before I was 18, then fine. Or if it was my father that was British then also fine. but not my mother with me past 18. Old victorian laws.

So to visit is easy, but actually living and working (legally) is an absolute pain in the ass.

And since we are not full UK citizens we have "no recourse to public funds". that means basically no tax credits. We get free health care and all that, but we pay full tax rate. For most people here they start at full tax rate and adjust it down based on how many kids you have, your income level, your education level, what you can afford, ect. Not for us. If I was a uk citizen I would make $4000 more per year at my current pay level.


On the plus side I am only a 5 hour drive from the nurburgring. Its just about worth it.

I'm interested in what it takes to live in the UK as well.

But Joe don't include Mexico in that easy to get into the US stuff. One of my Coworkers (She is now here Legally BTW) had every intention to do things the right way when she last flew into the United States from Mexico. She's a developer and previously was in SAP she wasn't coming here to steal a cheap job as a laborer, in fact after she left she finished her visit here she was going to be doing SAP work in Brazil. When she came in they asked what was the nature of her visit. She explained, and said she was coming for a vacation and expected to say about a few months with friends and family. Now lets consider shes not driving across the border shes flying in. This means tickets tend to have dates and arrangements have to be made. This is not a oh just turn around at and drive back home. She was told in stead of the few months she had planned she would have to leave in a few of days. (I don't recall the exact number but it was less than a week)

Ok, so for no obvious reason, or at least no reason that she wasn't given they cut her trip short.

In the end because of how things worked out she ended up breaking the law by over staying the few days allowed. Fortunately within a couple months she married her Boyfriend who was the friend she was going to be staying with.

To make a long story short she planned on doing the right thing, and because what seems like an arbitrary judgement she ended breaking the law. Fortunately for her she was able to make things legit later, but its still sad.

A couple of years later, this woman is married with a child on the way, and just purchased her first home. I say she did, because she is the primary earner in the family.

Oh its not always easy coming in from Canada either, but that's a completely different story.

What I meant is that there's no Visa requirement. Citizens of Canada, Mexico and Bermuda are specifically excluded from all Visa requirements except under certain very specific circumstances.

Here is the US State Department's page on the subject: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wi...hout_1260.html

Actually, I just did a little research, and found out about the Visa Waiver Program. Apparently citizens of most of Europe can come into the US for up to 90 days without a Visa, provided that they go through ESTA and pay a $14 administrative fee. Still, this is quite a lot more complicated than a US citizen travelling into the EU, where you literally just get off the plane, show your passport at customs, and walk right in without paying any fees or giving them any information. (When I entered through CDG last year, they literally did not ask me a single question. Just stamped the passport and let me right on in.)

That's the 9/11 factor. It used to be the same going both ways everyone here grumbles about it now. As you say I waltze right in when we go home, but the brits have to apply for the visa ahead of time.

Security is the same story. Much more lax here. We were in New Orleans last month, flight thru Charlotte. Went out for a smoke between flights and getting back in was MUCH more hassle than the flight from London. Same bag checks for fluids and such, but none of the pat downs or backscatter scanners (or whatever they are called) in London. They even let you keep your shoes on here.

I won't argue that it's any safer the Brit way, and in fact I know it isn't, but it's much easier.

To come into the US? They shouldn't have to. Great Britain is one of the 36 countries on the State Department's VWP list. According to that, they just need to apply via the ESTA for stays of less than 90 days.


Travel into Mexico is kind of interesting. For starters, if you cross on foot (my preferred method when I have to go), there is absolutely no border security of any kind. None. But even according to the letter of the law, you don't need a passport to enter Mexico from the US for destinations within the "border zone" (20-30km from the border), however you do need a passport to re-enter the US, even if you are a US citizen.

I wonder what happens if you accidentally leave your passport at home (or are a complete idiot and don't have one), and find yourself stuck and unable to re-enter the US after a long, hard night in Tijuana?

they probably look you up and gladly pull you out of the hell hole.

Welcome to America, fuck your dreams. Try to find another way to get rich....and we'll fuck you over on that too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doppelgänger (Post 730282)

Welcome to America, fuck your dreams. Try to find another way to get rich....and we'll fuck you over on that too.

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The thing I find odd is when you read the statue (which I posted a link too), it just says if you sell more than $500 worth, you are required to be licensed. Fine. I can handle that. The gov't at this point assumes you are housing a shit ton of rabbits and selling then, so they want to make sure they are housed properly and what not according to their standards.

But I can't find any where it says what a penalty would be if you didn't. The inspector that showed up that one day should have told them they were now required to be licensed since they sold x amount in sales to that zoo, and then there wouldn't have ever been this issue.

I realize it's a citizen's responsibility to know the law, but when an inspector comes to your house to look over your shit when currently unlicensed, tells you you ar ein no violation, then tells you a license is still optional, when it wasn't at this point, the inspector is at fault here.

Update:

more odd details:


gotta love the offer: police, judge and jury.

more on the rabbit police:

http://bobmccarty.com/2011/05/25/usd...ing-magicians/

classic:

“So I could break my rabbit’s neck and feed him to my friend’s snake and I wouldn’t need a license?” Marty asked.

“Correct,” she said, “But you need a license to use him in your magic show.”

from USDA/APHIS Spokesperson Dave Sacks:

We're from the Government and we're here to help you...

This story illustrates a very important concept.

The greatest loss of freedom for the average Joe in this country, is due to what is called:
Tyranny by Administrative Law

It is Tyranny by Bureaucracy. You are innocent until proven guilty, at your expense. It is a consequence of the Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

The book that contains the list of all Federal Regulations is the "Federal Register". It grows by 70,000 pages per year. This is what DC does day in and day out. Don't believe me? Try this:The good news is, when the Fed Gov goes insolvent, this form of tyranny will lose its enforcement budget.

The USDA came back with a stipulation agreement:

1. John Dollarhite must admit that the Secretary (of Agriculture) has jurisdiction in this matter and waive an oral hearing and further procedures.

2. 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.

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, 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].

4. 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.



point #1 is very intersting.

Anonymous Call to New Animal Abuse Hotline Leads to Raid on Colorado Woman’s Rabbit
Farmby Bob McCarty

Debe Bell will probably never forget Thursday, July 21. It was the day she found herself surrounded by people from her local law enforcement agency, and they weren’t there to help.

Unlike John Dollarhite of Nixa, Mo., and several magicians across the country who’ve been hounded and threatened with massive fines by agents from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Bell had to go face to face with her hare-brained local sheriff.

An anonymous Crime Stoppers hotline tip led animal control officers from the Jefferson County (Colo.) Sheriff’s Office to descend upon Bell’s one-acre farm at about 10:30 that morning and, before the day was over, remove nearly 200 rabbits from the property. The 59 year old was being accused of 24 misdemeanor charges of cruelty to animals, including charges that she somehow mistreated two meat rabbits already inside her freezer. More on the hotline later.

Bell had purchased the 1.01-acre property 12 miles north of Denver nearly 40 years earlier with plans to raise as much livestock as she wanted. After all, it was zoned for agricultural purposes (“A-2”) and had everything she needed, including a four-bedroom, tri-level home and a 600-square-foot barn. It looked like a great place to raise a family.

About 15 years later, Bell formed Six Bells Farm Candle Company and Rabbitry as a licensed farm business. Launched as an offshoot of a 4-H project via which she taught her four children how to take care of something other than themselves, it grew into an operation that involved raising more than a dozen varieties of rabbits, primarily for personal meat consumption but also for use in educating children — including kids involved in 4-H — and members of the general public nationwide.

As the years passed, Bell’s expertise and reputation grew alongside her rabbit farm. Not only did she become president of the local Long’s Peak Rabbit Club, but she became known as the go-to “resource person” for 4-H kids in Colorado who were interested in rabbits. Her reputation as a top expert when it comes to understanding and caring for rabbits spread throughout Colorado and across the United States. But that was before the raid.

The Day of the Raid

When Bell, 59, woke to begin that day almost three weeks ago, she had no idea government agents would soon swoop down on her tiny farm and effectively put an end to the pursuit of happiness in which she had been engaged for more than 25 years.

An instructor and lab coordinator at Metropolitan State College in Denver, Bell was in Boulder doing research when she was interrupted around 1 p.m.

“My neighbor called and said, ‘They’re seizing your animals! You need to get home!’” Bell recalled.

When Bell asked for more details, the neighbor explained that animal control officers and deputies from the sheriff’s office had arrived around 10:30 a.m. and were preparing to seize her rabbits.

About 45 minutes from home, Bell wrapped up her research as quickly as she could and drove home to find out more about who was taking her rabbits and why. She wanted to save the rabbits, each of which she knew by name, breed, tattoo and sex.

Upon arriving home at about 1:40 p.m., she found the animal control officers being unreasonable and milling about on her property — without a search warrant. The “salt in the wound” that the situation had become was the fact that the sheriff’s office officials were accompanied by volunteers from the local branch of the House Rabbit Society — a nationwide group comprised of people who, according to Bell, think rabbits need to be raised like small children.

Much “discussion” took place during the day and, when the animal control officers told Bell she had “too many animals for your zoning,” she begged to differ.

“No, you need to check your zoning regulations,” she told them. “I moved in before you changed the zoning. I can have as many animals as I want. I have more than an acre. I’m zoned A-2.”

Apparently stumped by her knowledge of the local zoning, she said they told her they would set the zoning issue aside.

When she told them her business was a livestock operation, they told her they disagreed and began to push the proverbial envelope.

Bell said one officer told her, “We found a dead rabbit,” and acted as if that was the “nail in the coffin” for his case. She responded bluntly, saying, “Rabbits die” — a fact she learned while growing up in Central Texas, where everybody is aware of that fact.


That prompted the officer in charge to tell Bell her rabbits were going to be seized, spayed or neutered, and then put up for adoption.

“What for?” Bell asked.

Instead of answering her directly, the officer responded to her question with one of his own.

“When was the last time you were in the barn?”

“This morning at 5 o’clock when I watered them,” Bell answered.

“Well, they have no water,” the officer countered.

“They’re fine,” Bell replied. “They have a swamp cooler and three fans.”

What’s a swamp cooler? According to Bell, it’s an air conditioning device that blows air over moist pads to lower temperatures in environments such as barns. More on this later, too.

At that point, Bell said, the officers had been in her barn for more than three hours, had opened up the doors, messed with the barn’s water system and had, effectively, turned off the water to the swamp cooler.

When their often-heated conversation turned to the temperature inside the barn, Bell said she told the officer that her barn’s cooling system could not keep up if it had to air condition the back yard where the outdoor temperature was 94 degrees. That prompted more than one officer to literally scream at her, saying, “It’s 84 degrees in there!”

“Yeah,” Bell replied, stunned that the officers were apparently concerned about rabbits suffering in 84-degree heat.

When the officer asked if she had any idea how many animals she had, she answered, “One-hundred sixty-three and probably 19 or 20 babies.”

Bell said she went a step further by telling the officer she could tell him the location of every animal in that barn. In addition, she told him the cages were tagged, numbered and sexed — with either pink tape or blue tape on them — and that she knew each rabbit in that barn by name.

Though officers couldn’t have overlooked the fact that the rabbit enclosures were clean and the barn was equipped with cooling, fly-control and watering systems, Bell said they seemed intent on making sure she didn’t do anything crazy to get in their way.

Bell said she wasn’t allowed to move, was threatened with being arrested at least four times, could not go inside her barn and, if she wanted to go anywhere else, had to ask officers for permission.

When Bell told one of the four sheriff’s deputies on scene that she wasn’t comfortable with House Rabbit Society members being on her property, she said the deputy looked her in the eye and said, “It is what it is.”

Hoping to document her experience, Bell said she took three photos — two of which appear above — of the area around her barn. Soon after, she was told by a sheriff’s deputy, under threat of arrest, that she had better stop.



“They told me four, five or six times (that) they were taking the animals no matter what,” Bell said, noting that she pointed out to them several times that there was nothing wrong with the animals or the conditions in which they were living.

When an officer told Bell the rabbits were living in “deplorable conditions,” she told him he was wrong.

“They are not living in deplorable conditions,” she said. “Their cages are clean. The trays are underneath them. We’re cleaning this weekend.”

Bell went on to explain to the officer that kids from the local 4-H organization who are involved in raising rabbits come out every weekend to help clean cages and do other things related to the care of the rabbits.

$24,000 Per Month

Several times during the day, animal control officers approached Bell and asked her to sign the rabbits over to them. When she asked what it was going to cost her if she didn’t, their reply stunned her.

“They said, ‘Five dollars a day per rabbit,’” Bell recalled, “and I said, ‘That’s $815 per day. Take ‘em! I can’t afford that.”

As a result of recently putting two boys through Colorado State University, Bell said, she told the officers she has a “mountain of debt” already and could not afford more than $24,000 per month — for a minimum of one month. The entire herd of rabbits was worth only $17,000.

At approximately 4:30 p.m., Bell said, a sheriff’s deputy arrived with the long-awaited search warrant and, within a half hour, the assembled animal control officers and volunteers began hauling out the rabbits in an effort that lasted about four hours.

The ‘Official’ Story

When I contacted sheriff’s office spokesperson Mark Techmeyer by phone early Tuesday afternoon, he explained how an anonymous tip led to his agency obtaining a search warrant.

“They reacted on a Crime Stoppers tip and went out there, and they saw what they believed to be some issues,” Techmeyer said. “Then they were able to take that information back to the judge and get a warrant issued.”

Thanks to a new Crime Stoppers program launched in June 2011, he said, individuals can call a statewide animal abuse hotline and, while remaining anonymous, can report cases of suspected animal abuse.

Rabbit Experts?

While I had him on the phone, I asked Techmeyer if any of the employees at the sheriff’s animal control division were rabbit experts, Techmeyer never answered the question. Instead, he quibbled, saying, “That depends upon how you define ‘experts,’” and then changed the subject.

None of the animal control employees — or the volunteers accompanying them — knew much about rabbits, according to Bell. In fact, she said the rabbits were severely mishandled during their removal.

For instance, 10-day-old babies “still in a nest box with their mommy” were wrapped in a towel and placed inside a cat crate and stood their mother on top of them.

“I looked at ‘em and I said, ‘You just issued a death sentence for those babies,’” Bell said, explaining that the mother would stomp the babies.

In response, the sheriff’s office employee said, “That’s their mom. Why would she do that?”

“Because they’re rabbits,” Bell replied.

“They loaded them in cardboard boxes, put them in a horse trailer and hauled them off to the fairgrounds,” Bell said, “where they housed them in a concrete, non-air conditioned horse stall barn.”

In addition to being placed in a hot environment, Bell said, her rabbits were placed in dog and cat crates with solid-bottom floors, meaning, “The minute they urinate, they’re standing in their own urine.”

The Next Step

Asked what her next step might be, Bell said her attorney, Elizabeth Kearney of Burthoud, Colo., has written several letters on her behalf, trying to get a meeting with Scott Storey, the district attorney for Jefferson and Gilpin Counties, but “keeps hitting brick walls.”

“They don’t want to return her calls,” she said. “They don’t want to talk to her.”

In addition, Bell said, sheriff’s office officials will not provide any information to Bell about the condition of her rabbits and will not allow her veterinarian of nearly 25 years to examine them.

Why might that be? Bell thinks she knows the answer.

“I think, honestly, they dug themselves a deep hole,” she said, “and they don’t quite know how to crawl out of it.”

“They’ve destroyed me emotionally, socially and professionally,” Bell said, listing numerous ways in which local animal rights activists have publicized information about the case in an effort to make her and her four children — all adults who haven’t lived under her roof for several years — look bad. But that’s not all.

“They’ve made 4-H kids all across Colorado just sob,” she said, “because I am their 4-H connection.”

Bell noted that 12 of the seized rabbits belong to 4-H kids who were planning to show them at upcoming fairs — two at the Jefferson County Fair that begins Thursday and the remaining 10 at the Colorado State Fair which runs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 5 in Pueblo.



Rabbit raisers in Colorado are so scared they might suffer the same fate as Six Bells Farm, Bell said, that many are not going to show their animals at the Colorado State Fair. The shortage of participants at this year’s Small Animals Show is so severe that officials extended the deadline for entry and, in order to prevent animal rights activists from collecting the names of rabbit owners, officials are planning to not display the names of rabbit owners alongside their rabbits.

“I would hope the entire United States would get involved in this,” Bell said, “because this is a group of people that have gotten away with this crap once or twice and they’re just continuing.

“Because they’ve been given the power erroneously once, they’re taking it more and more,” she continued, “and they’re gonna chase farmers out.”

Closing thought for the day: Bell said she learned through a third party familiar with her case that the people caring for the displaced rabbits at the fairgrounds eventually bought a cooling device to improve the rabbits’ living conditions at the fairgrounds. What did they buy? You guessed it! A swamp cooler.

^This is how I feel whenever I read a story like this :facepalm: Is bullshit how the government penalizes those that make an attempt to keep afloat and rewards the scum that feed off the hard-working population's contribution to society. :vash:

Isn't that a little unconstitutional?

is the USDA constitutional?

that's the question.

It is the nature of governments and bureaucracies to grow way beyond their useful size.

The only time this will reverse is when the government goes insolvent. When their budget is cut, their power will diminish. Right now ~8% of the Federal Budget goes to interest payments alone (on the debt). When the interest rates triple or quadruple, because debtors suddenly realize they're loaning money to a deadbeat, that 8% could mushroom to 30 or 40%. Suddenly the USDA, and the FDA, and the DEA, could be de-funded.

I thought Federal Spending is supposed to rise 8% a year for the next decade, ignoring interest rate increases?

Were they at least paying taxes on the income from the rabbits? I get they werent for their computer business,

Which instance? I've posted a very rabbit stories in here.

As far as I'm aware the USDA doesn't enforce tax laws.