Alert 11/4/08 USDA Silenced the Animal Fighting Seminar!!
Showing what can only be characterized as arrogance and a “public be damned” attitude, the USDA silenced their employee, Jim Knorr, from making the keynote presentation at the animal fighting seminar which was to be held on Saturday, 11/1/08, at 11 am – AND DID SO THE AFTERNOON BEFORE THE SEMINAR WAS TO BE HELD.
Mid-afternoon on Friday, 10/31/08, a message was left on our answering machine saying that Jim Knorr would not be able to present at our meeting the next day. (NOTE: A transcript of the phone message and other contact information is at the end of this alert.)
Mind you, this was mid-afternoon on a Friday with a list of some 60 people to be reached about the cancellation, including other presenters.
After working on the seminar with Jim Knorr for nearly four months, and sending the USDA a confirmatory letter on 10/3/08 regarding the seminar, the USDA waited until 18 hours before the seminar was to start to cancel Jim Knorr’s appearance.
The reason? The USDA claims: “There is an open investigation ongoing.” We thought the federal case against Michael Vick was over, and that information about that case was in the public domain. And if there was a new federal case – a new “open investigation” – it certainly seemed reasonable that Jim Knorr would know of it and that Geoffrey Cherrington, to whom the confirmatory letter went, would have told us of it promptly. Doing otherwise seems a most peculiar and discourteous way to conduct public relations.
On Monday, 11/3/08, however, USDA said the open investigation refers not to anything federal but to the Virginia state case against Mr. Vick, and what “their employee”, Jim Knorr, might compromise by presenting.
Assuming that this is the real reason (we’ve heard several other “real” reasons for the cancellation, including our “political activities”), why could they not have said so many weeks ago? Who is so arrogant in that department to handle things (or better put, not handle things) as they did? What did they think would happen to those sent invitations and planning to attend (some from far away), and to arrangements for space and food?
You can imagine the number of contacts which needed to be made very quickly so people wouldn’t be driving many miles to find no seminar, no continuing education credit. As it turned out, five people did not get notice of the cancellation and so came on Saturday to attend the seminar: Dr. Dan Kovich and Dr. Rachel Touroo, (both from the staff of the State Veterinarian), Asst. Commonwealth Attorney for Fauquier County Angela Catlett, and two very professional policemen/animal control officers from Warren County, Butch Carper and Junior Darr.
All five were very gracious about the silencing of Jim Knorr and spent nearly two hours with us, talking about issues of animal welfare in Virginia. It was good to be with them, but it was not as advertised.
What to do next? There was a huge amount of time spent by those who were going to present in addition to Jim Knorr (Jim is Senior Special Agent, Office of Inspector General Investigations, USDA). The other presenters were Susan Bauer who is an Asst. Federal Public Defender in Maryland and a former Special Agent for the Department of Defense, and Tony Spencer who is the Commonwealth Attorney for Caroline County. In addition, Patti Stinson and Don were to participate. So lots of time and effort expended.
There was, in addition, the effort to organize the meeting, get handouts prepared, get continuing education credit for ACOs and humane investigators set, arrange parking, buy food, etc. So a lot more time and now money in addition.
But most important, have we lost credibility with the animal welfare community because of this? Because Mr. Cherrington, the person contacted at the USDA about the seminar, failed to respond to the letter of 10/3/08, do we look as if we are babes in the woods, with difficulty telling which is our elbow and which isn’t?
Now what? Perhaps you could contact Mr. Cherrington and explain how you’d like your public servants to serve their public.
Thank you.
Lillian Clancy and Don Marro
______________
Geoffrey Cherrington 202-720-3306
Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations
USDA, Office of Inspector General
1400 Independence Avenue SW; Room 507A
Washington, DC 20250
email: GACherrington@OIG.USDA.gov
_________
A transcript of the phone call from the USDA received 10/31/08 is next, followed by a copy of the 10/3/08 letter to Mr. Cherrington.
The 10/31/08 voicemail message:
Hi. This message is for Lillian Clancy.
This is Beth Ann Jenkins with the US Department of Agriculture’s Office of
Inspector General, calling in regard to the invitation you sent to Mr. Cherrington –ah-
requesting a presentation by Jim Knorr who works for me -ah- regarding the Michael
Vick investigation at your meeting tomorrow. -ah- I apologize for the late notice.
However -ah- this letter, this request, was just -ah- brought to our attention yesterday by
our headquarters and –ah- I wanted to call and let you know myself that they have
determined that Mr. Knorr will not be able to speak to your group tomorrow. -ah-
Again, I do apologize for the late notice. However, we do currently have an open
investigation remaining, and I‘m sure you can understand –ah- the –ah- the –ah-
delicacies involved there. So if you would like to return my phone call, I’m in the office
at area code 212-264-3507 and -ah- if I’m not in the office, my cell phone number is
917-359-0736 and I’ll be happy to discuss it further.
Thank you.
Good bye.
______________
NOTE: Don returned Ms. Jenkins’s call to the NYC number on 10/31/08 and heard a voice mail announcement that Ms. Jenkins was out of the office from 10/17 through 10/31. He left a message.
__________________
This is the letter sent to Mr. Cherrington:
10/3/08
Geoffrey Cherrington
Deputy Assistant Inspector General for Investigations
United States Department of Agriculture, Office of the Inspector General
1400 Independence Avenue SW
Room 507A
Washington, DC 20250
Dear Mr. Cherrington:
I write to let you know that we have asked Jim Knorr to address our group on 11/1/08. My husband, Don Marro, and I are co-founders of Virginia Voters for Animal Welfare and Virginians for Animal Welfare. It is the latter group which has its focus on education and raising awareness that will be sponsoring Mr. Knorr’s presentation. We have asked him to address an invited audience on issues involved with animal fighting and ways to prosecute animal fighting cases successfully.
This presentation is not only educational, but also provides an opportunity to say thank you to Mr. Knorr and to all of you at the USDA who helped so much in bringing the Michael Vick case to successful conclusion. We can only imagine all the work which needed to be done and all the agent and agency time that was involved.
To give you a little background, during the 2007 session of Virginia's General Assembly, our advocacy group, Virginia Voters for Animal Welfare, promoted a bill to require veterinarians and public employees of pounds/shelters to report suspected dogfighting. The bill was not successful although we came close.
Within three months of the end of that session, the Michael Vick case broke. In the 2008 session of the General Assembly, many bills we advocated addressing animal issues, including increased penalties for animal fighting and making it a RICO offense, were introduced and successfully enacted.
We understand there are some details of the Michael Vick case which can’t be made public because of the state case still pending. We know of Mr. Knorr’s presentation to the FBI, and are aware he will not be able to provide as much detail for us. Nevertheless, our target audience of animal control officers and humane investigators may receive continuing education credit for attendance if our application for such is successful. In addition, we anticipate some Commonwealth Attorneys and members of the General Assembly may attend in addition to our general membership.
We have indicated to Mr. Knorr that any costs for his presentation will be paid, reimbursed or advanced.
Please let us know if there are situations in which we can be helpful should you need help with animals, particularly if the issue involves animal fighting. And if we can be helpful in contacting Congressmen regarding related issues, you have but to let us know.
Sincerely,
Lillian Clancy
Virginia Voters for Animal Welfare
and
Virginians for Animal Welfare
3318 Bust Head Road
The Plains, VA 20198
540-253-5309