Are Law-Breaking Dealers Untouchable?
It seems that an auction house's best customer these days are the horse dealers working in the "meat industry". These guys buy in volume on a regular basis, keeping the cashing flowing through the auctions of PA, NJ, NY, MA and many other states.
Many of the dealers who are in the "killer buyer" business have numerous fines outstanding, have had their trucks put out of service for safety reasons, and continuously and blatantly break the laws. But yet, I have yet to see one actually behind bars, extradicted or otherwise charged in direct proportion to their violations.
An interesting article was written by Penelope King where she is interpreting the political relationships between the dealers, the auctions, the local politicians and who's kissing who's butt. Arlow Kiehl is a well known "killer dealer" who recently had a run in with the law while leaving the New Holland Sales Stables with both hogs and horses loaded onto his double deck trailer. I am reprinting Ms. King's article with her permission:
Arlow's license - connections to the U.S. President 2000
by Penelope King
Suspends? Takes away? Revokes?
Are you serious???
The legal jargon in the PA Department of Agriculture is intentionally written to PROTECT people like Keihl.
It reads something along the lines of "if a person is convicted in Pennsylvania or in another state of similar transportation offenses, the PA Department of Agriculure MAY refuse to give out the Dealer and Hauler's license to that person". (Or something like that.)
But the buzz word is "MAY". Not "HAVE TO".
Remember the big picture game plan....it's Governor Tom Ridge, trying to suck up to Texas Governor George Bush for this year's Presidential election. These two guys are heavily assisted by Sam Hayes (Secretary of the PA Department of Agriculture) who is then heavily assisted by Senator Noah Wenger (Chairperson of the PA Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee --- conveniently overseeing HB 590 as we speak, and who is also a proud farmer, born and raised in New Holland, PA).
And lets not forget the locals who are willing to kiss up to all of them...the New Holland Police Department, the New Holland District Justices, the Lancaster County Humane League, the PA Dutch Tourism Bureaus in the Lancaster area as well as Pennsylvania as a state.
Involved veterinarians are Dr. Bruce Schmucker at the PA Department of Agriculture, and of course Dr. James Holt who is the current New Holland hired gun (both whom were born and raised right around there, by golly). And also of course Dr. Bastion, who's recent comments on allowing 3-legged horses to ship on kill trucks are certainly golden. It was he who who told State Representative Jim Lynch (from way out yonder in Warren County, damned far away from New Holland to have any inkling of what is REALLY going on there!) that such horrific regulations were what was wanted by the opposition. (After all, any horse should be able to stand up on 3 legs while 11 months pregnant on a diamond-plate steel floor in a 5'7" truck for 1500 miles during a heat wave. Shoot, everybody knowed dat.
Which, of course, Jim Lynch immediatly put into HB 590, even though he publically claimed he didn't, and then hustled HB 590 through the PA House Judiciary Committee at 12:30 AM last week, JUST IN TIME to get it secretly passed and then slipped on over to the Senate --- and New Holland's Senator Noah Wenger.
Brilliant move for those sneaky little politicians, no? Somebody buy them a round at the State Capital next time you are in town.
Hmmm, who else. Well, there's State Representative Raymond Bunt from Montgomery County (who is also heading up the PA Farm Bureau). He religiously tells reporters that, after all, "any abusers should get arrested under the current cruelty laws of PA", which are supposedly strong enough to handle people like Arlow Keihl. And therefor we don't need any stronger laws in the great state of Pennsylvania.
Funny, because those cruelty laws are only ever a summary offense, which out-of-state people will NEVER be extradicted on, should they skip out on a Pennsylvania cruelty ticket. And those cruelty laws have never been tested much at all against a killer buyer (at least, not before this week) in pretty much all of Pennsylvania's history.
Mainly of course because New Holland has all the politicians well in pocket, and any problems were usually swept away with one phone call to the local politicians like State Representative Jerry Schuler of Lancaster County, who openly swears in public there's no problems going on there.
And if the PA SPCA finally showed up this week and still ignored their own abilities to prosecute...eeshk.
And let's not forget the Pennsylvania Equine Council, adored by Penn State University, who's favorite public denial sayings have ranged from "illegal and abusive activity has never been proven" to "double decker trucks don't go there any more" to "oh, we really only have an interest in preserving horse trails" or even "changing the ceiling heights in the kill trucks is just really too much of a big step right now".
Remember, the PA Equine Council kisses up to the American Horse Council, who is determined to grandfather in the double-deck cattle trucks, during their false "Humane Transport to Slaughter" federal laws that are coming out. Remember, the more horses bred in this country, then the more money flies around. And heck, we gotta sneak the used up horses out of the system somehow, so even MORE horses can be created/purchased/sold. After all, that's what grows the industry and makes everybody rich.
Take your pick, I've heard them all, directly from the head honchos of those organizations.
The PA Equine Council is headed up by the same guy who runs University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. So while he's charging horsemen prime rate for any injury, illness, or medical work done out of New Bolton's mighty facilities, he thinks nothing of allowing the PA Equine Council to stand on the wrong side of Pennylvania's most urgent welfare problem. Guess that's really what New Bolton and the University of Pennyslvania school are all about.
Maybe someone should mention this to the benefactors of these two massive universities...
So now you know why Arlow's Kiehl's livestock hauling license remains intact, regardless of his unbelievable history. Or any other killer buyer, for that matter, that envelopes themselves in the atrocities of New Holland. Heck, they have the future President and Vice President eating out of the palm of their hands, when you think about it.
And after this first four years in the White House, do you think Vice President Tom Ridge won't run for the top office, after his gig with President George Bush finishes up? Just a meandering thought.....
The following link chronicles Arlow Kiehl, one of the most notorious "killer dealers" in business today and his recent "run-ins" with the law.
|