not to beat a dead horse... (Scranton: home, taxes, moving)
Northeastern PennsylvaniaScranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pocono area
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That's not the motivation behind it, I'm not going to get into it now, I'll be posting info soon enough with more detail.
Thats a load of BS.......It will finished just in time for the photo op before the election. The grand ribbon cutting ceremony will be front page in the times. I still can't believe that you don't see the POLITICS that fuels EVERYTHING that the city does.
Why the delay on the grove? They had all spring and summer to get in there and get going and clean it up and do the planting and landscaping. The city OWNS all the equipment and has the man power that is needed to get it done, so why the delay? If its done too soon then they cannot capitalize on it and if its done to late, the same thing. Drag out then finish it before the election.
Hell I wouldn't be surprised if he had the tigers in the grove for the ceremony.
My letter to the editor was printed today. Here is the complete version:
Mayor Chris Dougherty and Margaret Miller showed extremely poor judgment when they added two tiger cubs to the already overcrowded and poorly maintained Genesis wildlife “sanctuary.” Previous editorials have drawn attention to the unhealthy conditions at Genesis. I want to begin by expressing my agreement with these sentiments: the small concrete cages are cruel, unhealthy environments for the beautiful creatures that they contain.
But as bad as the living conditions are at Genesis, the problem with the recent adoption of tiger cubs goes much deeper. The cubs were acquired from a breeding organization called the G W Exotic Park in Oklahoma. A little research on the GW Exotic Park reveals some very sad facts. To begin, the GW Exotic Park is an unaccredited sanctuary. Its website proclaims that it is a member of the “United States Animal Sanctuary of America Association.” As this absurdly redundant name implies, this organization does not actually exist. There are only two organizations in the U.S. that provide accreditation to sanctuaries. They are The Association of Sanctuaries (TAOS) and the American Sanctuary Association (ASA). A phone call to the ASA revealed that the GW Exotic Park is not accredited and that its staff made up a fake accreditation in order to dupe the public.
Why, one might ask, is the GW Exotic Park hiding behind a false front? In 2006 PETA sent undercover investigators to the Oklahoma facility to observe the living conditions of its animals. Their report noted that, “GW has a record of animal abuse and chronic failure to comply with the federal Animal Welfare Act. During our investigation of GW last year, an undercover investigator witnessed that a lion was not provided with pain relief following the amputation of the stump of her leg after it was torn off by tigers, that a wounded horse suffered for days with an untreated broken leg before dying and being fed to big cats, that tigers were hit with a rifle butt, and that a goat had an untreated head wound.” Moreover, GW has received numerous complaints from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for violating the minimum standards of care set forth in the federal Animal Welfare Act. In January 2006, GW was put on probation for 18 months and paid a $25,000 fine to settle USDA charges that included “dangerous animal-handling practices, filthy transport conditions, failure to provide drinking water, insufficient staffing, and many filthy, wet, unsafe, and dilapidated enclosures.”
On the website for the Genesis Wildlife “Sanctuary,” Margaret Miller states that the purpose of her organization is to “help rescue exotic and endangered animals” from being abandoned, “thrown away,” or euthanized by their previous owners. In itself this is a noble aim. However, the recently acquired tiger cubs were not “rescued.” The GW Exotic Park has a long history of intentional and orchestrated tiger breeding, creating numerous litters of cubs each year, which in turn are traded and sold.
GW’s owner Joe Schreibvogel, who calls himself “Joe Exotic,” is a self-proclaimed magician. "Joe Exotic" hauls his collection of animals around the country to malls where he exploits them in his magic shows, while renting out baby tigers for birthday parties and weddings. GW Animal Park’s website boasts photo-ops and playtime with baby tigers for a mere $25. “Joe Exotic” needs a constant supply of baby tigers for his enterprise, so he simply breeds them. The surplus cubs end up in dismal homes, like the Genesis wildlife center.
Good sanctuaries do not breed or have accidental births. Good sanctuaries do not buy sell or trade exotic animals. The only organizations that should breed exotic animals are accredited zoos that work with the Survival Species Plan, a carefully monitored program that insures the continued survival of endangered species. There are over 5,000 tigers in private hands and pseudo-sanctuaries in North America. Sadly, so many of them end up neglected and abandoned by naïve pet owners and poorly run zoos. Currently, the American Sanctuary Association is desperate to find homes for many aged and abandoned exotic animals, including tigers. Margaret Miller of all people should know first hand the dire problem of unwanted and abandoned exotic animals. By acquiring tiger cubs from such a dubious organization as the G W Exotic Park, The Genesis Wildlife center compromises its credibility and only exacerbates the problem any legitimate sanctuary should be fighting to end.
Until The Genesis wildlife center shows legitimate plans to become an accredited sanctuary and create a viable natural habitat for its animals while adhering to standards that will prevent them from acquiring animals from breeding mills, my family and I will not support this organization. If these problems are rectified, I will gladly lend any support, both financially and professionally.
BTW, when I visited the G.W. Exotic Animal Park's website, I went to their "accreditation" page. The very first thing listed there is that the park is an "Associate Member of the Zoological Association of America." I am sure that was listed first so that folks would think that the G.W. Park is accredited by the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) which is the main accrediting organization for zoos in the U.S. and which has a lengthy application process involving a detailed inspection of the facility. The "Zoological Association of America" is another matter entirely. The "Zoological Association of America" does have a website, and when I went there I discovered that basically all that is required to become an "associate" member is the completion of a simple, one-page application form and the payment of a $40 fee. The G.W. Park is clearly a very shady outfit: Miller should not have had anything to do with them. Yet in her interview with the Times-Tribune she did not act as though the park was a bad place from which she was rescuing tigers. Rather, she acted as if the G.W. Park was a sanctuary that rescued tigers but simply had no room for the cubs. And she neglected to mention that the cubs were almost certainly bred at the G.W. Park. Shameful.
This whole episode makes me wonder about the origin of **all** of the animals at the GWC. I know that one monkey at the GWC was confiscated from a private owner who was not supposed to have it. But what about the rest of the animals? Judging from old Times-Trib articles, many of the animals have come from unidentified "zoos." Maybe this was not the first time Miller got an animal from a place like the G.W. Park.
Last edited by toobusytoday; 07-12-2010 at 09:38 PM..
Reason: removed authors name at her request
Thats a load of BS.......It will finished just in time for the photo op before the election. The grand ribbon cutting ceremony will be front page in the times. I still can't believe that you don't see the POLITICS that fuels EVERYTHING that the city does.
Why the delay on the grove? They had all spring and summer to get in there and get going and clean it up and do the planting and landscaping. The city OWNS all the equipment and has the man power that is needed to get it done, so why the delay? If its done too soon then they cannot capitalize on it and if its done to late, the same thing. Drag out then finish it before the election.
Hell I wouldn't be surprised if he had the tigers in the grove for the ceremony.
The city is not doing the project, but they will be helping to prep the site, and allowing the work to be done. I would say that the city would have finished the grove on their own, but since people like you are always crying about the taxes, I don't think it has been in their budget.
Last edited by scrantonluna; 08-06-2008 at 12:15 PM..
[ I've already written one letter to the mayor, which was ignored. A friend of mine also wrote, and was ignored. Maybe if hundreds of people write, we might finally get some action. It doesn't have to be a long letter: just let Mayor Doherty know that you are appalled at the conditions in the center, worried about the safety of the center, and doubtful of Miller's ability to manage the center, even with adequate funding. It's time for the taxpayers to demand some oversight of the GWC.[/quote]
Maybe airing concerns at a council meeting would be helpful??
I don't think that having GWC justify how they spend their 60k a year from the city, in detail, would be out of line. To be honest, they should really have to address council on a yearly basis to report on the condition of the facility and welfare of the animals. I am SURE that there are countless organizations in the city limits that would LOVE to get 60k dropped in their lap, and would accept it GRACIOUSLY, and would gladly account for it's use.
Last edited by scrantonluna; 08-06-2008 at 01:11 PM..
I don't think that having GWC justify how they spend their 60k a year from the city, in detail, would be out of line. To be honest, they should really have to address council on a yearly basis to report on the condition of the facility and welfare of the animals.
[ I've already written one letter to the mayor, which was ignored. A friend of mine also wrote, and was ignored. Maybe if hundreds of people write, we might finally get some action. It doesn't have to be a long letter: just let Mayor Doherty know that you are appalled at the conditions in the center, worried about the safety of the center, and doubtful of Miller's ability to manage the center, even with adequate funding. It's time for the taxpayers to demand some oversight of the GWC.
Maybe airing concerns at a council meeting would be helpful??[/quote]
That is a definite possibility. (I'm not a Scranton resident, or I might have tried that myself.) Just to be 100% clear, when I sent my letter to the mayor, I also sent copies to every single member of the Council. I got no replies or acknowledgements from any of them. That doesn't necessarily mean anything, since the letter was not addressed directly to them. Still, it really doesn't seem as if any one of them saw the GWC as a burning issue at the time. My letters were sent last February. It's possible that now, given all of the concern about the tiger cubs, a new set of letters would get more attention.
[ I've already written one letter to the mayor, which was ignored. A friend of mine also wrote, and was ignored. Maybe if hundreds of people write, we might finally get some action. It doesn't have to be a long letter: just let Mayor Doherty know that you are appalled at the conditions in the center, worried about the safety of the center, and doubtful of Miller's ability to manage the center, even with adequate funding. It's time for the taxpayers to demand some oversight of the GWC.
Maybe airing concerns at a council meeting would be helpful??[/quote]
BWAAAHHH HAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAA HAAAAA HAAA, ABOUT AS HELPFUL AS ***** ON A BULL!
I don't think that having GWC justify how they spend their 60k a year from the city, in detail, would be out of line. To be honest, they should really have to address council on a yearly basis to report on the condition of the facility and welfare of the animals. I am SURE that there are countless organizations in the city limits that would LOVE to get 60k dropped in their lap, and would accept it GRACIOUSLY, and would gladly account for it's use.
Our neighborhood could use about $20,000 of it for sure.
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