PETA Sues Circus - Circus Sues ASPCA
Circus battles AR
terrorists, protecting our right to wholesome family entertainment
while maintaining a world acclaimed Elephant Conservation facility
for over a decade
Feld Entertainment, Inc.,
today filed a lawsuit against the American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and other animal rights
organizations charging conspiracy and numerous violations of the
Federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Barbara J. Andrews © TheDogPlace - Aug. 28, 2007
- The RICO lawsuit is a direct result of the discovery
of more than $100,000 in payments to Tom Rider who was a plaintiff in
litigation filed by various animal rights groups against Feld
Entertainment in 2000. The lawsuit alleges that Rider, a former Feld
Entertainment employee, and the other activist defendants engaged in a
pattern of racketeering activity consisting in part of payments to Rider
through an organization controlled by the defendants' lawyers. The
lawsuit alleges that under RICO, these payments constituted bribes and
illegal gratuity payments. The lawsuit further alleges that the
defendants took actions to conceal their conduct.
Feld Entertainment's lawsuit sets forth the alleged facts in detail. In
addition to the claim that Rider is a "paid plaintiff," the lawsuit
alleges that the defendants committed various illegal acts, including
bribery, obstruction of justice, wire fraud and mail fraud, making them
all subject to the federal RICO statute.
"This lawsuit is a direct result of the animal rights extremists' agenda
to deny U.S. families entertainment choices like the circus and their
ongoing conspiracy to harm Feld Entertainment," stated Stephen Payne, a
spokesperson for Feld Entertainment. “Feld Entertainment looks forward
to proving to a jury the magnitude and scope of the defendants'
conduct."
The
defendants named in the lawsuit include the ASPCA, the Animal Welfare
Institute (AWI), The Fund for Animals (FFA), the Animal
Protection Institute (API), the Wildlife Advocacy
Project (WAP) and Tom Rider.
Feld Entertainment is the world's leading producer of live family
entertainment. The company's spectaculars have toured the US, 50 other
countries, six continents, and are seen by millions of people each year.
In 1995, Feld entertainment established the Ringling Bros. and Barnum &
Bailey Center for Elephant Conservation (R), a state-of-the- art
facility which has become a recognized leader in the conservation, study
and care of the endangered Asian elephant.
http://www.thedogpress.com/SideEffects/0709-Circus-PETA-SPCA-Lawsuits.asp
Handy links:Animal Rights Terrorists defined in Federal Appeals
Court
ALF, ELF, PETA, HSUS - the connection
- FBI ranks ELF as the #1 Domestic
Terror Threat.
How Animal Rights groups use the law against breeders - an
attorney explains
AR Terrorism a first-person account of armed break in, the
federal suit, why the FBI calls it terrorism.
PETA Sues Circus for Conspiracy
Editor's note: Are we making progress or
is PETA more successful today? If there is any humor in this
story, it is the pot calling the kettle black re infiltrating an
organization.
NORFOLK - Sept 2007 The circus may have left town that Sunday, but
the show continued in a Northern Virginia courtroom. People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is suing the head of the parent
company of Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows Inc. for
conspiring to infiltrate and harm its operations.
PETA's civil suit against Kenneth Feld, chairman and chief
executive officer of Feld Entertainment, alleges that Feld and numerous
associates orchestrated a protracted "massive conspiracy" against PETA
and other animal-rights groups. The suit claims that these
associates - including Feld employees, private investigators and a
former top CIA official - infiltrated PETA and other animal-rights
groups over a period of years in order to steal documents, monitor their
activities, distract them from their missions, finance opposition groups
and otherwise hamper their work.
PETA claims these crimes were committed because of the group's
longtime campaign for the rights of circus animals, particularly
elephants. The conspiracy charges included breaking and entering, burglaries,
wiretaps, document theft, and planting and supervising undercover
operatives, according to the suit.
These tactics are the same Feld has been accused of using against
other animal-rights groups, a freelance journalist, a former Feld
employee, who is critical of Feld "These
activities apparently stem from defendant Feld's personal paranoias and
his personal vendettas to destroy anyone that criticizes him, his
family, or his corporate empire," PETA's suit says.
Feld spokesman Paul Clark responded Friday, saying, "We don't
believe there's any merit to the allegations by PETA. Mr. Feld has done
nothing wrong." The actions of PETA and other animal-rights groups
over the years, he said, are most likely "an attempt to close the circus
down." PETA alleges that Feld's group hired at least two people "to
volunteer and/or procure employment" at PETA and to use these positions
"for illegal and immoral purposes."
Details of the alleged conspiracy against PETA emerged in a lawsuit filed
in federal court in 2000 against Feld by Performing Animal Welfare
Society, a California animal-rights group. In that suit, PAWS
(interestingly acronymed as the federal bill recently defeated by dog
breeders) alleged that Feld's associates had sent two of their employees to
volunteer with PAWS in the late 1980s and early 1990s in order to steal
confidential documents about the group's donors and officers. These documents surfaced in the late 1990s in conjunction with a
lawsuit filed by a former Feld employee, Charles F. Smith, who left the
company in 1997 and sued Feld soon after.
A PAWS officer, who reviewed 20 boxes of documents unearthed in the
Smith case, claimed in the PAWS suit that the boxes contained, among
other things, PETA personnel and payroll records.
More revelations emerged as part of Smith's suit against Feld,
including an affidavit by Clair E. George, who served as deputy director
of operations for the CIA from 1984 to 1987. George was
convicted of perjury in 1992 during the Iran-Contra affair and later
pardoned by then-President George H.W. Bush. As third in command at the
CIA, George oversaw the agency's global covert operations.
In his affidavit, George stated that he served as a Feld consultant
in the early 1990s. As part of his duties, George reviewed reports from
a private investigator working for Feld "based on their surveillance of,
and efforts to counter, the activities of various animal-rights groups,"
according to the affidavit. George also stated in the document that he "discussed these reports
in meetings in which Mr. Feld was present."
PAWS' lawsuit against Feld was eventually settled, with Feld
agreeing to reimburse the group and give it some of the company's circus
animals for its sanctuary.
PETA's suit, meanwhile, claims PETA is one of the animal-rights
groups mentioned in George's affidavit and alleges that George "oversaw
the infiltration" of these groups, even bringing in another ex-CIA
operative to assist him. For his duties, the suit alleges, he was "paid
several million dollars."
The suit maintains that while Feld had others do his work for him,
he "masterminded and directed" the conspiracy and "closely monitored,
oversaw and was kept closely apprised about the events." The suit also
alleges that Feld settled with PAWS to prevent negative publicity.
Smith, PAWS and PETA are not the only ones to take similar legal
action against Feld. In 1999, freelance journalist Jan Pottker filed a
multimillion-dollar suit against Feld, claiming he had overseen a
conspiracy against her that involved spying on her, tapping her phone,
breaking into her home and sabotaging her writing career with phony
publishing deals.
Pottker alleged this retribution stemmed from an unflattering 1990
article she wrote about Feld and his family for a business magazine.
Her theory was partly corroborated by ex-CIA employee George, who
detailed in his affidavit for the Smith case how he had gotten hold of
Pottker's outline for her proposed Feld biography and then "undertook a
series of efforts to find out what Pottker was doing and reported on the
results of my work to Mr. Feld."
George also detailed how he was "assigned" to arrange for a
publisher "to publish a book by Pottker on another subject to divert her
from her proposed book on Mr. Feld."
In a separate suit, former Feld employee Shan Sparshott won a
$500,000 judgment in 2001 against Vienna, Va.-based Feld Entertainment
and Smith for illegally audio- and videotaping her in her office and at
home. The case was reversed on appeal on procedural grounds.
In 2001, PETA successfully sued Feld for the return of some its
documents, which Feld's attorneys eventually released, and "therein
virtually admitted those documents were stolen," according to the
current suit.
In addition to the personnel and payroll records, PETA believes
Feld's associates took "financial documents, detailed phone records and
other highly detailed internal memoranda."
The current suit, filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court, is the
latest iteration of one dating from 2002. In it, PETA seeks damages and
reimbursement for money spent uncovering the "scope of the
infiltration," retrieving their documents and attorney's fees in what
could total $1.8 million.
In November, a Fairfax County judge fined members of Feld's defense
team after they made claims of judicial misconduct and interfered with a
deposition. In December, the same judge sanctioned Feld for failing to
reveal his net worth and provide an unredacted copy of a 30-page
document that allegedly details plans to discredit PETA and join with
other anti-PETA groups.
Feld Entertainment has previously settled a case with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture regarding violations of the department's
Animal Welfare Act for elephant mistreatment. Other cases are pending.
Kenneth Feld, who took over as head of Feld Entertainment upon the
death of his father, Irvin, in 1984, had a net worth of $725 million as
of October 2004, according to Forbes magazine. In addition to
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, Feld Entertainment also has
managed Disney on Ice and the Siegfried & Roy magic show in Las Vegas.
"We think it's not a serious lawsuit," Feld's spokesman Clark said
Friday of the PETA matter. "We think, if anything, it's a publicity
stunt."
Other PeTA info:___________________________________ 
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