Kill all the lawyers,...except ours

Well folks, I am just flabbergasted. When I told the folks at Zoo Atlanta that I was checking with the Federal Office about permits,...they dumped me. They called off the deal that we had already made. I'm not going to post all the correspondence, but it looks fishy to me. On one hand, I had Victoria Davis from the Federal office telling me we would need multiple permits, and on the other hand, I had Zoo Atlanta telling me to trust them, and that "NO" federal permits were needed. So when I told them that I would contact the person in charge at the Federal office, they seemed to get nervous. When I suggested that I would go along with the zoo as long as they would agree to take care of me legally, /....they just flat out dumped me. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I approach something with the potential to cause me copious amounts of trouble, I try to be extremely cautious. The Zoo did not seem to understand that. Nor did they seem to care. When I called Dr. Brad Lock at the zoo today, he initially tried to tell me that someone from Georgia, with indigos had contacted them, and was wanting to do the same thing for them. But when I inquired further, he got noticeably angry, and he admitted that my concerns, and inquiries about Federal permits was the real problem. They did not want to attract Federal attention. And they did not want to provide me with legal council if the deal went south.

As I understand it, the Federal folks do not look at private breeders quite the same as zoos and institutions. So zoos, and academic institutions don't have as much to worry about. But private individuals need to be very careful! So all I was trying to do was to clarify that difference, and define what my legal responsibilities are. I was not trying to cause trouble, but rather make sure that there would be NO trouble prior to the deal. And for whatever reason, Zoo Atlanta didn't like that. So they dumped me. Now I will not be doing a breeding loan with them. And that is sad.

So now I am back to square one. And I still don't know for sure what is legally required for such a breeding loan. I still don't understand the law. And we still don't have legal council to explain the law to us, and guide us through the labyrinth of legal mumbo jumbo. And we still don't have a lawyer to defend us, or keep us from doing something wrong in the first place. All I really want is to have someone who is a lawyer, who understands the Federal Interstate Commerce Permit system, who is willing to answer our questions about such. Yes, I am sure there are regular folks out there who do understand the law, and would be more than happy to explain it. But I learned from my experience in the Army to NEVER take legal advice from someone who is not a lawyer. We used to call those guys, "sh*t house lawyers".

What if we could find a lawyer, or lawyers who would be willing to take a close look at the interstate commerce law, and translate it into plain English, and post the translation on a website, or answer questions about it on a forum? That way regular folks like me could know what the hell is required without asking a buddy, and without asking the folks at the Federal office. And then if the Feds want to make an issue, we could refer them to this lawyer or lawyers. The problem is not individual state laws,...the problem is that damned Federal Interstate Commerce Permit,...which, by the way, was originally written for the railroad. We don't need to worry about individual states at this time. Just the Feds.

Or maybe we need to contact a herper in Congress and just re-write the dawgawn law, so that everyone understands what they need to do, in every case, without legal council,...no offense. I know we need to do something, because the status quo SUX BIG TIME!!!
T.