Lee Hall is legal director of Friends of Animals and operates GRASP (Great Ape Standing and Personhood). An organization “mindful of the issues of animal rights generally, the core mission of GRASP is to secure legal recognition of the rights of apes and all nonhuman primates to live in their own ways.” Sounds great, right? Well, one would think any step in the direction of granting all animals legal rights designed with the animals’ best interest in mind to be a step well placed. Instead what you have is another avenue created by FoA (Friends of Animals) to say what you want to hear to your face and behind your back they do exactly the contrary. Take the case of the OSU chimpanzees and two human plaintiffs. FoA attorneys argued that the OSU chimpanzees did not have legal rights as they are merely property owned by Primarily Primates Inc. Now there defense for this defense is “it was forced to use this defense”. I couldn’t disagree more. Had FoA attorneys accepted that the OSU animals had standing then all they had to do was convince a jury that as animals with legal rights the best place would have been PPI and the plaintiffs would obviously disagree then each side would provide evidence as to whether or not is in the best interest of the animals to remain in the care of Primarily Primates Inc. Instead they said the animals are just property owned by PPI. FoA and PPI have a mindset as evident by such statements as “several high value animals are missing…”  Anyone can see this. Their lies are finally catching up to them. They can no longer lie to cover another lie. There is too much proof coming from their mouths. These are the actions and statements presented by FoA and PPI. The underhandedness of FoA, PPI, GRASP or whatever you call yourself now will continue to be exposed.

Apparently not..........

I wanted to rebuttal the lies PPI is spewing on their latest installment of videos on their website. With regards to the “holding pens” being destroyed I personally began the demolition of these cages. This is where 75+ guinea pigs, 2 bobcats and 3 servals were forced to live for up to 6-7 years. These cages measured approx. 10 feet by 10 feet by 7 feet tall. Stephan claims the enclosures we moved the servals to are too small. Well they are at least 5 times bigger than the “holding pens” so Stephen which would you say is the better enclosure and why would you force any animals to live in those tiny cage?

Let’s take some time to talk about PPI’s before and after videos. First let’s remember that PPI let these cages sit for days after the heavy rain came through the area. You see in the before pictures lots of blankets and toys. Hay for soft bedding. While PPI tried to make it look like we hadn’t cleaned the cages in weeks that simply isn’t true. We cleaned cages and gave fresh enrichment everyday. Let’s look at the “after” pictures. Boring steel and concrete with a few 2x6 planks for perching. How does that enrich an animal’s life? Yet again there is documentation provided by PPI and FoA now showing how they don’t “believe in enrichment”. As I have said over and over we had experts visit the grounds the day we left (and if the AG had done what he said he would in court and visited the grounds prior to the turn over he would have seen it as well…sound fishy). Are we really expected to take Tello and Feral’s word over 100’s of experts? I think not. Again I challenge FoA and PPI to present anyone from any of the most respected organizations that are willing to support them.

 

It has already been witnessed the stress the animals have suffered when seeing the "Original PPI Care Staff" back on the grounds.  Why would anyone want to promote and force upon these beautiful beings (The Animals left to suffer) that same fear and distress after 6+ months of the life they should have received many many years ago.....

My name is John Fischer and I was the Animal Care Supervisor in 2003-2004 and again under the court appointed receiver from October 13, 2006 through May 1, 2007. I would like to address a few outright lies by Priscilla Feral and Stephan Tello attacking receivership actions while at Primarily Primates Inc. I have tried several times unsuccessfully to respond on the Primarily Primates Inc and Friends of Animals websites only to have my responses ignored and not forwarded to the pubic just like every other person who has tried to post the truth. First off let me tell you the real reasons the Attorney General dropped the lawsuit against PPI. It had nothing to do with the actual charges being found unwarranted. The AG said in court that the receiver had cleaned up the sanctuary and relieved the overcrowding allowing the PPI board the opportunity to maintain what we had started. This was just a way for them to get out from under a case they had mishandled from the beginning. This statement is equivalent to saying if a child is abused all you have to do is take the child away long enough for the bruises to heal then give him back to his abusers. The real reason is that FOA had enough money to buy outstanding legal counsel (counsel with obviously no sense of compassion for animals and viewed animals as simply property) and the Texas Attorney General got out lawyered. First the AG filed the suit in the wrong court. He filed in Travis County instead of Bexar County where PPI is located. The AG also allowed into evidence a false affidavit. I don't know from whom the affidavit was presented or what was false about it but FOA's attorneys threatened to have the suit dismissed based on these grounds. The assistant AG actually on the case, Ted Ross, had very little support from anyone inside the AG's office and was obviously out gunned by Priscilla Feral. So rather than face the embarrassment of his own mistakes he sacrificed the animals. That is why in the settlement agreement it states that PPI and Priscilla Feral will not sue the AG's office. Why would this be part of the agreement if Priscilla and FOA were never listed as defendants in the case? Simply to cover the AG's backside.