Testimony from Chris DeRose
A letter from Chris DeRose pulled from Best Friends
See below, a letter from Chris DeRose pulled from a website I found:
I feel compelled to tell you the truth about Tiger Ranch from my perspective. I have been doing investigations now for over 30 years into every type of animal issue you can think of. LCA has been responsible for putting the first people in State and Federal prisons, had the first government licensed dealer to have his license permanently removed, as of today got the first dogs [11 of them] out of a laboratory and into a sanctuary to be placed in great homes, and the list goes on and on. LCA’s
SIU [Special Investigations Unit] and I are extremely meticulous about acquiring the proper evidence for a case. We don’t shoot for 100% but for 150% so there is NO question about the case. We are the only organization who can say they have worked with the US Attorney’s office and 6 other Federal Agencies to get an indictment and conviction and sentencing on the most notorious USDA Class B dealer in the country - CC Baird. This also extends to several of the largest cock fighting busts in the United States as well as many other cases. We have been termed the "FBI of Animal Rights" by media. LCA represents thorough and careful examination of every case. We will not get emotionally involved so we can keep a clear perspective on the objectivity of the investigation. This is very hard for many people - myself included - to separate their emotions from their intellect. However if one is to come up with an unbiased conclusion of guilt or innocence they must "separate their emotions form their intellect". Everyone who has seen this video automatically assumes that Tiger Ranch is an evil place or "hell hole" for animals and that Lin Marie is a horrid cold callous person who would allow these animals to suffer and die the way it has been portrayed in the video. After so many years of doing investigations and being extremely thorough I can tell you without a doubt these accusations are not only misleading and false but they couldn’t be further from the truth. I wouldn’t stake my reputation or LCA’s on something I know is FALSE and trying to change it unless we knew "150%" that we were right.
There is an ole saying from the thirties -[paraphrasing] "if you tell a big enough lie enough times to enough people they will think it’s the truth". That was by Joseph Goebbels the Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi party. People have been jumping to conclusions because of this video. You can go into the best sanctuary or shelter in the country and if you wait long enough and look hard enough you will find something that is not up to speed and capture it on camera. Lin Marie admits "she is not perfect but they do their very best to give these animals a second chance at life". It is not only sad what has been done to TR and Lin Marie but a travesty to take away such a facility and then euthanize [another word for kill] many of these animals who may have been saved. Anyone who has gone out to this facility as I have would see that these people really care and that the facility itself is in very good shape. Most of the housing is relatively new buildings or at least they look new. I have dozens of pictures from people who have visited this place at the time of this video and couldn’t rave enough about its operation. If it were such a bad place LCA would have taken on this case and put them out of business as we have done many times
before!
It is true that LCA was contacted back in October of 07, but it is not true that "we were unable to take on this case". It was LCA’s clear decision to "refuse this case" on the grounds that the evidence gathered was inflammatory and not portraying an accurate picture. Our preliminary research showed a whole different side of TR and Lin Marie. It showed that they were indeed helping many animals from certain demise. So we "refused" to go after one lone woman with her small band of dedicated volunteers who were doing there very best to help the community with their discarded, sick, dying, and feral cats. The same people who have just dumped their cats off at TR are now so concerned over their welfare. There is something wrong with that picture. These few individual also have jumped on this band wagon or should I say witch hunt to bring down TR. They are caught up with emotions not reason! I wish they would have been so caring before they discard their companion animal.
I will say that I was very pro euthanasia before this case and to some extent still am but I have learned much in the process and that is many if not most of these animals with these virus’s [such as the Calici virus] and illnesses look really horrible but most of the animals can make a full recovery. So why kill them? What I see here is nothing more than an extremely different point of view between the PSPCA, my former investigator Mike Winikoff, and others who would rather see these animals "euthanized" than have a chance at recovery. When I first saw some of these conditions my first instinct was "these animals were better off dead than suffering like this". Well if we all shared that reasoning many of us in car accidents or have cancer or some other disease would be "euthanized" on the spot. Maybe we all need to take another look at this and weigh out the good vs. the bad. I have walked away from this case with a little different perspective.
It is appalling to see the PSPCA and others involved in hurting TR who has done so much good and not go after the puppy mills right in their back yard. When PSPCA says "this is the worse case they ever saw" they should be ashamed of that statement since the state of "Pennsylvania is the Puppy Mill Capital of the Nation" and is riddled with horrendous conditions at the mills where countless thousands of puppies and adults suffer horribly every day. Why isn’t the PSPCA doing something about them? It’s always easier to go after the small sanctuary and blow it out of proportion and potentially make a lot of money from donations and who knows that maybe another new TV show will emerge out of this.
One of the reasons we were first to be asked to investigate TR by the informant is that they needed "LCA’s expertise in the investigations field and legal issues." If the conditions of the facility are so horrible as the media states then why has it taken so many months to get so little video when LCA got 76 crucial hours of incriminating video as well as hundreds of photographs and data in about 5 months of undercover investigation putting the largest USDA government federally licensed dealer permanently out of business? If our investigations weren’t so thorough then why did HBO do a 75 minute documentary Dealing Dogs? And why have so many Federal Agencies work with us on this case? If this so called investigation began seven months ago as the media reported, they must have started in August, two months before the Western Pennsylvania Human Society did their investigation and saw nothing wrong with the facility. PSPCA Director Howard Nelson labeled Lin Marie a "hoarder" and stated that "this facility is a classical hoarding situation!" Does a hoarder work tirelessly to spay and neuter many hundreds of animals per year at a lower cost than most local vets or shelters? "If she is a hoarder, why is she so courteous, patient, compassionate, and non judgmental of others?" says one supporter. TR is a sanctuary that has become home to cats in poor health and cats that no one wants or would help. The descriptions by PSPCA’S Rogers, Nelson, Winikoff, and the informant are so inflammatory they are deserving of legal action.
I can only hope for everyone’s sake these individuals come to their senses and drop this case immediately, stop the killing of the remaining animals, and return them to TR where they belong and can live their lives out peacefully.
Chris DeRose
President and Founder
Last Chance for Animals - LCA
www.lcanimal.org
Link to LCA photos of Tiger Ranch:
http://www.lcanimal.org/alert/tiger/index.html