GOP reps bully activists
- KILLING HORSES & HARASSING ACTIVISTS
- Activists Fight Horse-Kill Bill: MO lawmakers torment Kinship Circle: Prank phone calls, obscene emails, verbal assaults…to disable the nonprofit
- Front Page News: GOP bully tactics make local/national headlines
- Revenge Trumps Governance: State GOP legislators target activists
- Squirrelly About Animals: In The Frog Kingdom
- Rural Lawmakers Aim At Activists: Hit Constitutional Rights
- Missouri Horse Slaughter Bill Died: But Not Controversy
- Reopen Horse Kill Plants? Just Say Whoa
- Perhaps Bust Of Rush Fits Well: In Missouri Capital
- Original Alert: That Triggered The Crazies
Rep Casey Guernsey-R
Singing Reps
WEIRD WIN: Missouri tries to renew horse slaughter on U.S. soil, but bill fails. Rep. Jim Viebrock proposes House Bill 1747 to sidestep a federal horse slaughter ban and allow for equine kill plants in Missouri. Kinship Circle issues alert urging MO lawmakers to reject horse slaughter in Missouri. Republican lawmakers retaliate against animal rights advocates with a pledge to pass this bill as revenge. But it stalls in committee. Then Rep. Viebrock covertly attaches horse-kill provisions to unrelated Senate Bill 795. In the end, your voice — along with support from rational Missouri legislators — proves stronger than pro-slaughter bullies. Against a backdrop of worldwide public protest, Missouri's Congressional session closes with no language to legalize horse slaughter. Thanks to all who spoke on behalf of horses!
Here's the weird part, a foreshadow of MAGA madness to come. Lawmakers bully Kinship Circle with prank calls and obscene emails. They neigh like horses, chant in creepy voices, scream incoherently and even sing the theme song from a 1960s TV show Mr. Ed, “A Horse Is A Horse.” Kinship Circle's Brenda Shoss files a police complaint against Missouri legislators for phone/digital harassment.
Brenda Shoss, Kinship Circle
Activists exercise free speech in comments campaign.
5/15/10 » Missouri Sessions Ends With Horse Slaughter A Dead Issue: Missouri's Congressional session ends with passage of S.B. 795 agriculture bill that increases some regulations, including rules related to large carnivores — but does not create mechanism to allow horse slaughter plants in Missouri.
5/11/10 » S.B. 795 Stuck In Committee: S.B. 795 is in conference committee where Senate members cannot agree on the House Committee Substitute that passed with amendments and included horse slaughter provisions.
5/7/10 » Horse Slaughter Provisions Hidden IN S.B. 795: Original horse kill bill 1747 (that was covertly attached to unrelated bill S.B. 795) is not removed from S.B. 795, as formerly believed.
5/2/10 » Reps Renew Harassment Of Kinship Circle: Missouri Reps debate a House Committee Substitute version of S.B. 795. Animal Law Coalition and R.A.G.E. ask their members to protest horse slaughter language in S.B. 795. Though Kinship Circle itself issues no more alerts since its 3/21/10 comments campaign, some Reps bounce hundreds of unread emails — from members of other animal groups (not from Kinship Circle) and even unrelated emails from their constituents — to Kinship Circle's server from May 1 to months beyond that! The vitriol from Republican elected officials is laced with sexism, obscenity and hatred for animal advocates or anyone perceived as liberal.
4/30/10 » Sleazy Politics: Sen. Dan Clemens, Chair of Senate Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee, says no further legislative progress on H.B. 1747 will occur. But Rep James Viebrock has already inserted horse kill provisions in S.B. 795, which passes in the House Agriculture Committee.
Harassment of Kinship Circle makes local and national headlines. 4/6/10 » St. Louis Post Dispatch Runs Lead Story That National Newswires Pick Up: Missouri's largest daily paper, St. Louis Post Dispatch, runs a front page story about state Representatives who tamper with public information and harass Kinship Circle. The Post also editorializes against killing horses and hounding activists in Squirrelly about animals in the Frog Kingdom. An Associated Press version runs in Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, Yahoo News, and more.
DIGITAL WARFARE, ADOLESCENT PRANKS, BULLYING
- Some GOP Reps forward a combined 5,000+ unread emails to Kinship Circl's server in an attempt to shut us down. A few send constituent emails unrelated to horse slaughter! They even bounce emails from pro-slaughter supporters.
- Rep. Casey Guernsey, R-Bethany memorably tells us: It's so fun to piss you wackos off. You're lucky I even acknowledge your existence. It's so much fun to taunt people like you, ha! Tell me, is it truly liberating to be so incredibly clueless?
- Phone calls to Kinship Circle from CALLER ID Missouri State 573-522-0000: A male voice bleats a tribal war chant, with incoherent noise and liquor-enhanced adult men snickering in the background.
- CALLER ID Missouri State 573-522-0000: A man sings A Horse Is A Horse from the 1961-1966 television series Mr. Ed, about a talking palomino horse. Disturbing.
- 10:00pm, CALLER ID Missouri State 573-522-0000: Creepy male voice drones “Brenda, Brenda – neigh – Brenda, Brenda – neigh, neigh…” with menacing, predator overtones to Kinship Circle director Brenda Shoss. The call frightens Ms. Shoss’ young son and leads her to present evidence to the police in a formal harassment report. The police officer's jaw drops when he sees all threatening calls and emails originate in Missouri State offices in Jefferson City, the state's capital. At the same time, Ms. Shoss calls the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the region's largest daily, to offer the story of elected officials who use bully tactics to silence a private citizen and nonprofit charity. STL Post turns the lead into front-page coverage, with many follow-up reports in op-ed and news sections.
Editorial Update 2024Killing horses for human ingestion is illegal on U.S. soil. But it's a temp ban that Congress annually reconsiders. No federal law exists to bar transport of U.S. horses for slaughter in other countries. America annually exports tens of thousands of horses to Canadian and Mexican kill plants. Ask your U.S. Rep and two Senators to pass The Save America's Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act now. SAFE permanently criminalizes domestic horse slaughter and prohibits export of U.S. horses for slaughter at foreign kill plants. According to Humane Society of the U.S., 80% of Americans support protecting horses over eating them.
elected bullies
Activist Targeted By State Legislators
by Tony Messenger, St. Louis Post Dispatch 4/1/10
Animal activist Brenda Shoss and the Missouri lawmakers who loathe her agree on this: Having your inbox fill up with hundreds of unwanted emails is infuriating. That's what happened to Missouri House members a week ago, when Shoss and members of her advocacy group, Kinship Circle, unleashed a deluge urging legislators to vote against a bill that would open the door for a horse slaughterhouse to come to the Show-Me State.
Lawmakers objected to the tactic. They said they had never before received hundreds of emails from all over the nation, and even the world, on a bill. So they struck back. Shoss received calls at her home from offices in the Capitol, taunting her and making neighing voices into the phone. One caller sang a version of the theme song from Mr. Ed. A number of the calls came late at night. Some legislators programmed their email systems to forward any message containing the word horse to Shoss. And some told the activist that they would consider passing the bill out of spite. “I would think that some people who voted against it previously might change their vote,” said Rep. Michael Frame, D-Eureka.
The response of elected officials has left the experienced activist dumbfounded. Even when her organization got involved in the high-profile animal abuse case of NFL quarterback Michael Vick, she had never seen such a vitriolic reaction. The late night, anonymous phone calls led Shoss to file a harassment complaint last week with the University City Police Department. The calls stopped, she said, after the Post Dispatch started asking lawmakers about them.
Frame is one of the lawmakers who awoke March 22 to a full email box urging him to oppose legislation — pushed by Rep. Jim Viebrock, R-Republic — allowing a horse slaughterhouse in Missouri. The bill would seek to bypass the ban on using federal funds for horse meat inspection by allowing state officials to collect fees and pass them on to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There are no horse slaughter plants in the U.S., but the meat is considered a delicacy in some countries. Proponents argue the bill would create a market for horses who are otherwise abused or neglected. Shoss and other opponents argue that Americans don't want to eat horse meat and that the slaughter process is inhumane. Frame is against the bill, but he said he understands the seething anger felt by some of his colleagues who faced the onslaught of emails from as far away as Spain and Australia. “I spent two hours before even getting to the office doing nothing but deleting those emails,” Frame said. “Almost none of them were from Missouri. I was as mad as I can be.” Frame was mad enough to call Shoss and give her a piece of his mind. He was one of the few lawmakers to reveal his name, Shoss said. Other lawmakers chose to respond to Shoss and her fellow activists via email.
“It's so fun to piss you wackos off,” wrote Rep. Casey Guernsey, R-Bethany, to one activist from his private email account. “You're lucky I even acknowledge your existence. It's so much fun to taunt people like you, ha! Tell me, is it truly liberating to be so incredibly clueless?” Guernsey said he heard about some of the phone calls made to Shoss but said he didn't make any of them. “I emailed her and asked her to stop,” he said. [NOTE: Brenda Shoss received no emails directly from Rep. Guernsey that asked her organization to end its action campaign.]
Several lawmakers chuckled when asked by the Post Dispatch about calls made to Shoss. Some said they thought they knew who made them, but none said they were involved. The way Guernsey and some of his colleagues see it, they shouldn't have to respond to issues from people outside their district. And wading through all the emails to see whether any are from constituents is a waste of time, he said. “If they're from Missouri and they have some dog in the fight, that's one thing,” Guernsey said.
Shoss said she thinks that attitude is shortsighted. [Democracy is messy; these legislators ought to grow up.] If horse slaughterhouses were to open in Missouri — which is unlikely, even if Viebrock's bill were to pass — that would affect horses everywhere, she argued. Shoss is a freelance graphic designer and writer. Her email pleas are generally fact-based and not particularly emotional. She directs Kinship Circle, which she founded, as a volunteer. The group also has a volunteer board. Shoss is a former officer of the St. Louis Animal Rights Team who has also advocated against puppy mills, cockfighting and the poisoning of urban pigeons.
By their nature, animal activists are persistent, Shoss said. She concedes that flooding someone's email box with messages is “inconvenient,” but says legislators overreacted. “Maybe Missouri lawmakers didn't know how organized and passionate we are,” Shoss said. Kinship Circle has coordinated animal rescue for Iowa floods and has been involved in animal aid for devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.
Other animal activists say what Kinship Circle does is no different than political groups that flood lawmakers with email. “This is the first time I've ever heard of any state legislature reacting so negatively. It's kind of shocking” said Susan Trout of Born Free USA, a national wildlife advocacy organization. Trout, recently asked to serve on Kinship Circle's board, said the group has a good reputation. Trout said that animal activist groups, like political advocacy groups, participate in similar email campaigns all the time.
The House passed Viebrock's bill in a voice vote. It needs one more House vote to go to the Senate. Shoss said she was shocked by the suggestion that some lawmakers might vote for a bill simply because they didn't like the way her group opposed it. “They're going to pass a bill to get back at me?" she said. "That's just scary.”
hostile losers
Squirrelly About Animals In The Frog Kingdom
by St. Louis Post Dispatch Editorial Board 4/4/10
There was a legislative reporter in the Missouri capital who, after many years of covering the state Legislature, developed a theory to explain the mindset of many of its members. “Jefferson City is the Frog Kingdom,” he would say. “All of these people are frogs back home, but once they hop across that bridge, they think they are princes.”
This is the best explanation we can offer for the reaction by some state lawmakers to an email barrage generated by the animal rights group Kinship Circle. The Post Dispatch's Tony Messenger reported last week that Brenda Shoss, founder and president of Kinship Circle, had alerted her membership to news that the Missouri House was considering House Bill 1747, which would legalize slaughter of horses. The bill also would prohibit any initiative petition seeking to regulate agricultural practices [which translates as no welfare oversight for puppy mills, factory farms or any animal enterprise]. Kinship Circle's website has a fairly sophisticated automated email system. With a few clicks, readers can generate an email and send it on its way. Animal rights activists are well-networked on the Internet, so lawmakers arrived at work one day to discover their in-boxes jammed with email from all over the nation. They were not amused. Some said they didn't have time to waste on mail from people who were not their constituents. No doubt they turn down campaign contributions from outside their districts, too.
A few programmed their computers to bounce the emails right back. A few apparently made taunting phone calls back to their correspondents, complete with horsey noises, even a chorus of the theme song from Mr. Ed. “It's so fun to piss you wackos off,” wrote Rep. Casey Guernsey, R-Bethany, to one activist from his private email account. “You're lucky I even acknowledge your existence. It's so much fun to taunt people like you, ha! Tell me, is it truly liberating to be so incredibly clueless?”
The House had the last horse-laugh, passing House Bill 1747 last week, despite its dubious legality (it flaunts federal law) and unconstitutionality — you can't exclude an entire class of initiative petition. What a splendid use of public resources.
To be sure, animal rights activists can be annoying, as can activists of any stripe. The better organized they are, the more annoying they can be. Ms. Shoss and her group failed to understand two salient facts: One, the eerie sense of self-importance that afflicts many people when they get elected to public office. And, two, the deep hostility that rural legislators feel toward animal rights groups.
This first became apparent in 1998, when Missouri still allowed cockfighting. Time and again, legislators had upheld it, so a citizens group got a referendum passed to outlaw it. Since then, rural lawmakers have had an almost paranoid fear that the same thing could happen with puppy mills, hunting and fishing, factory farming and the like. In 2003, lawmakers tried to make it a crime to stop on a public road and photograph a cow. You never know where PETA will strike next. Agriculture is one of Missouri's largest and most important industries. The huge majority of Missouri's farmers treat their animals well, and not just because it's their livelihood. We all are the better for it. In this, as in any public debate, the conversation must not be dominated by the fears and passions of those on the extremes.
MO GOP & Cruelty
Rural Lawmakers Aim At Activists. by Tony Messenger, St. Louis Post Dispatch 5/6/10. In Missouri, puppy mills, factory farms, bestiality, horse slaughter and cockfighting are a-okay.
The people reserve power to propose and enact or reject laws and amendments to the constitution by the initiative, independent of the general assembly. Missouri Constitution Article III, Section 49. Missouri lawmakers don't have much use for the will of the people. Sure, they pay verbal homage. It's invoked ad nauseam in political speeches. But the same lawmakers who boast so eloquently about their fealty to the will of the people are poised to strip a piece of it from the state constitution.
Five bills pending in the Legislature would prohibit citizen initiatives involving any aspect of agriculture. Only laws “based upon the most current industry standards and enacted by the general assembly” would be considered valid. Compare that to language in the state constitution, which specifically protects the people's ability to propose and enact laws “independent of the general assembly.” All five bills contain identical wording. That's a measure of the desperation of legislators, most from rural districts. The reason they're desperate? Fear. Call it PETAphobia — an abiding terror that animal rights activists might lurk behind every bush, tree and rock.
Farm groups are spooked because Missourians for the Protection of Dogs turned in signatures for a ballot measure called Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act. It contains all kinds of radical ideas, such as a provision that would require puppy mill owners to feed their animals every single day (imagine that!) The measure also would require that animals receive annual veterinary care, be provided with shelter and not be bred more than twice every 18 months.
Missouri has a national reputation for puppy mills, where dogs are bred in cruel conditions for sale as pets. Dog breeders and farm groups have warned that the puppy mill ballot initiative is just the first of a new crop of citizen-sponsored laws that take aim at factory farming practices and hunting.
The Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act is new, but irrational outstate fear has been ripening a long time. For example, look no further than bills sponsored by state Rep. Jim Guest, R-Kingdom City, in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Mr. Guest's bills would make it a criminal offense to stand beside a public road and take unauthorized photos of barns, fields and public land where animals graze. He described it as “anti-terrorist” legislation — because America might somehow be brought to its knees by unauthorized images of factory farms and puppy mills. Think that sounds paranoid? Former Sen. Morris Westfall, R-Halfway, blocked bills to criminalize bestiality in 2000 and 2001 for fear it might interfere with cattle breeding operations. He's long gone from the Legislature, but his spiritual descendants are with us.
Two of the five pending bills, in addition to stripping citizens of the right to propose ballot initiatives, legalize slaughter of horses for human consumption. Imprecise language in at least two other measures calls into question the legality of past citizen initiatives, including the 1998 law that made cockfighting illegal. The same lawmakers who want to kill horses for food, protect puppy mills and think photographing cows is terrorism also think citizens aren't qualified to propose initiatives on animals and agriculture. Voters should put those legislators out to pasture.
Horse-Kill Bill Died, But Not Controversy. by Tony Messenger, St. Louis Post Dispatch 5/28/10.
On the last day of the Missouri Legislature's session a controversial bill about horse slaughter died when the provision was taken out of another bill. But the controversy over some lawmakers harrassing a St. Louis animal activist lives on. A lawyer for Brenda Shoss (founder of Kinship Circle) sent a letter to five Republican Missouri representatives asking them to “cease and desist” their harassment of Shoss.
The lawyer, Nina Constance Marino of Great Neck, NY, wrote to Rep. John Diehl, R-Town and Country; Rep. Anne Zerr, R-St. Charles; Rep. Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage; Rep. Doug Funderburk, R-St. Peters; and Rep. Tom Self, R-Cole Camp. “It has come to my attention that you are harassing my client by forwarding to her and her organization hundreds of inappropriate emails in retaliation for Kinship Circle and its members exerting their constitutional rights. Your behavior is not only egregious and a clear abuse of power, but may be illegal and in violation of the U.S. Constitution. You are hereby put on notice.”
Lawmakers became upset with Shoss and Kinship Circle after the organization began a campaign against the horse slaughter bill. See story on the subject. Some lawmakers called Shoss at home and mocked her by making Mr. Ed noises into the phone, and others forwarded all emails to them with the word horse in it to her computer. Marino's letter indicates the emails are still coming back to Shoss, and she threatens legal action if it doesn't stop.
just say whoa
Reopening Horse Meat Slaughterhouses?
by Editorial Board, St. Louis Post Dispatch 3/30/10
Forget that stuff about a good 5-cent cigar. What this country really needs is a good slaughterhouse to process horse meat for human consumption. So says Missouri state Rep. Jim Viebrock, R-Republic. While that might seem like just another crazy dream (or nightmare) to most people, Mr. Viebrock is in a position to make it happen. The House gave preliminary approval to Mr. Viebrock's slaughterhouse bill, House Bill 1747. The committee also embellished his legislation, adding a provision to block citizen initiatives that “criminalize or regulate crops or the welfare of animals.”
Even if citizens gathered signatures and placed such a restriction (tough new rules aimed at restricting puppy mills, for example) on the state ballot — even if it were supported by an overwhelming majority of Missouri voters — the committee's amendment would prevent it from taking effect. That slap in voters’ faces probably is unconstitutional. It certainly is insulting. Supporters have high hopes for Mr. Viebrock's bill. Several told Post Dispatch reporter Georgina Gustin they hope the bill reduces the number of unwanted, abused and neglected horses. They hope it will raise the equine industry's struggling fortunes. And they hope it will create jobs in Missouri. Since the nation's last horse meat slaughterhouse closed in 2007, the bill's supporters say, the number of unwanted, abused or neglected horses has climbed. They believe closing the slaughterhouse increased horse neglect.
That tidy explanation leaves out one very important factor: a tanking economy, that shrank the market and bankrupted many small breeders. Even allowing for some uncertainty, it is difficult to see how supporters’ hopes could play out in the real world. For one thing, it is illegal to sell horse meat for human consumption in this country.
In theory, Mr. Viebrock’s bill would legalize sales inside Missouri. But none of the meat could be shipped across state lines without a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection. Congress has prohibited federal money for inspectors in horse meat processing facilities. That means there can be no interstate shipments, even if the ultimate market is overseas. Mr. Viebrock's bill tries to finesse that by creating a state fund that would be used to reimburse the federal government for inspections. It's not clear whether that would comply with federal law.
Here's another problem for the bill's supporters: U.S. horses are being sold for slaughter, but the processing facilities aren't in the United States. Horses that are considered unfit for any other purpose are sold to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada, where they are processed for sale in Europe and Asia.
With no national market for horse meat and unwanted horses already being sold to slaughterhouses, it is unlikely that a new facility in Missouri would increase demand enough to influence prices or reduce neglect and abandonment. But abandonment is not a concern of Mr. Viebrock's. He also is sponsoring a bill that would make it more difficult to impound farm animals thought to be victims of abuse or neglect.
HB 1747 is an ill-considered and probably unconstitutional piece of legislation. It rightly outrages horse lovers and other citizens, whose ability to initiate legislation would be abridged. The Missouri Senate often has to rein in the excesses of the House. This time the senators should just vote neigh.
Rep John Diehl-R
Rep Rick Stream-R
Bust Of Rush Fits Well In Missouri Capitol. Tony Messenger, STL Post Dispatch 3/8/12. GOP: Where sexism, racism and bigotry flourish.
The most powerful memorials are those that remind us of horrific events. In Springfield, MO, there is a tiny but poignant plaque in the SE corner of town square that memorializes one of that city's most infamous incidents: the April 14, 1906, lynching of three Black men. It came to mind amid the hullabaloo that squawker and Cape Girardeau native Rush Limbaugh should have a bust in the Hall of Famous Missourians on the third floor of the Capitol in Jefferson City.
News that House Speaker Steve Tilley planned to commission such a bust leaked out amid national furor over Mr. Limbaugh's sexist rants in which he called a Georgetown Law student a slut and prostitute. Most Missouri House Democrats signed a letter protesting Mr. Tilley's decision.
I think they have it wrong. There might be no better symbol of what a sexist place the Missouri Capitol often is than a bust of Rush Limbaugh, the nation's foremost misogynist. Much like their Republican colleagues in Washington, D.C., Missouri House Republicans shut women out of their recent floor debate over contraception. The move was hardly unique.
Ask almost any woman of any political party who has spent much time in the Missouri Capitol and she will have a story of sexism to pass on. Remember former agricultural department director Fred Ferrell referring to women staffers as “show dogs?“ That barely skims the surface.
Two years ago a group of male lawmakers ganged up on a St. Louis woman who dared to lobby against a bill that would have brought the horse slaughter business back to Missouri. They got together over a few evenings and left intimidating messages on the woman's home phone. They sang a version of Mr. Ed and made neighing sounds into the phone. Then they unleashed the state's email system to forward any inquiry about the bill to her [along with random constituent emails about totally unrelated issues], in an attempt to shut down her nonprofit.
A lawmaker who gets married usually gets a public acknowledgement in the House or Senate. Sen. Jolie Justus, a Kansas City Democrat, didn't. She and her partner had to drive to Iowa to legally get hitched.
In the final days of the 2009 session, former Sen. Joan Bray, D-University City, released an angry barrage that represented what so many women in the Capitol have felt, but not said: “I'm sick of women being treated like they are so stupid that they can't make their own decisions regarding their reproductive rights and their bodies,” Ms. Bray said. “I'm sick of the ethic around here that men are pro-life for their wives and pro-choice for their girlfriends.”
The words stung, and they hung like an albatross around every man in the building who had had an affair while proclaiming his commitment to family values. A bust of Rush Limbaugh would symbolize what the Capitol really is on too many days: a place where women, be they voters, staffers or elected officials, still are treated like second-class citizens.
Put the bust up, I say. Make it bigger than the others. Give it a place of prominence. Some shame is too important to be forgotten.
