Breaking News! Your Help and Action is Needed!

Do you want to help make a change for the better? Then help us with this!

I'm going to try and keep this short and to the point (which is difficult for me as you all know when I am passionate about something!).

There is a farm in Three Hills Alberta that calls itself the Guzoo Animal Farm and it needs to be shut down. They are up for licensing this week, on Friday April 1st, 2011 (no this is not an April Fools joke btw) and you can help by pressuring the Alberta Provincial Government to NOT re-new their operating license.

This so called zoo is 2 hours from where I live and the first I heard about was last night on Facebook when someone started sharing pictures that were taken there on March 26th. The pictures my friends are horrifying. Here are just a *few* (you can Google "Guzoo Animal Farm" to see more disturbing proof of neglect).

Rotting carcasses left out in the open

Garbage including food in plastic (the oranges) in animal enclosures

This is where this mama goat and her baby are kept. :o(

(Photos courtesy of Nic Burgess and hosted by Jonnyruzek on Flickr )

Online petitions help, but the best thing that you can do is to contact the Premier of Alberta, Ed Stelmach, MLA Mel Knight, Minister of Sustainable Resource Development and Richard Marz, MLA of Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills.

They need to hear your voice and they need to hear it now and they need to know this is important enough for you to send an email and take it one step further than a petition.

First I will paste the letter that I just sent to them today. Feel free to copy it, tweak it and make it your own and send it off. Then at the very end, I will include the email addresses of those who need to receive it, and also of those I cc'd to help create more media awareness of this atrocity.

First the letter:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

March 28, 2011

(via email)

The Honourable Ed Stelmach - Premier of Alberta

The Honourable Mel Knight - Minister, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development

Mr. Richard Marz - MLA for Olds, Didsbury and Three Hills

Ron Bjorge, Executive Director Wildlife Management Branch, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development

Dear Mr. Marz, Mr. Knight, Mr. Bjorge and Mr. Stelmach;

I am writing with deep concern for animal welfare, to respectfully request that you not re-issue an operating license this week on April 1, 2011 to the Guzoo Animal Farm located in Three Hills Alberta. I am absolutely shocked that this ‘farm’ is still allowed to operate even though there have been hundreds and hundreds of critical violations throughout the years regarding facility management, animal care, and irresponsible breeding practices.

Guzoo Animal Farm likes to think of itself as an animal rescue society when nothing could be further from the truth. There are hundreds of unsettling and graphic photographs documenting the true distressing conditions of the Guzoo Animal Farm. To say it is not a safe haven for animal rescue would be an absolute understatement. 

Garbage in animal enclosures, rotting carcasses left out in the open and bleeding animals chewing on paper and plastic is not acceptable in any way or any form. It is clear that after 20+ years of multiple and inexcusable violations, (100 of which were observed in 2007 alone) Lynn Gustafson has no intention of changing his practices nor learning how to properly care for animals.

As a society, we must call a halt to the acceptance of cruelty to animals and enforce a policy of harsh punishment for these crimes. To allow individuals guilty of perpetrating such cruel acts to go unpunished or not sufficiently punished would be to sanction these horrific crimes and would permit them to go on to commit serious and violent crimes against humans.

I am formally requesting that the harshest penalty be imposed against the owner(s) of Guzoo Animal Farm, including the maximum jail sentence as well as immediate revocation of their license to operate and house any and all animals, domestic or otherwise. In addition, I strongly suggest that Lynn Gustafson receive mandatory psychological counseling and be prohibited from ever owning or harboring animals now or in the future.

This is a very serious matter and it is imperative that a strong message is sent to the community that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated by a civilized society by seeking the maximum penalty.

Thank you for your valuable time and consideration.

Sincerely,

(name, address, phone number and email address here)

Cc:

Danielle Smith, Leader - Wild Rose Alliance,

Brian Mason, Leader - Alberta NDP;

Raj Sherman, Leader - Alberta Liberals

Global TV Calgary and National,

CTV Calgary and National,

CBC Calgary and National (via web form),

The Calgary Herald,

The Calgary Sun,

The Alberta SPCA,

SPCA (via web form),

Zoocheck Canada,

The Animal Welfare Foundation of Canada,

World Society for the Protection of Animals,

The Huffington Post,

The Globe and Mail,

The National Post (via web form)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Send the letter via email to Premier Ed Stelmach, Mel Knight, Ron Bjorge and Richard Marz:

premier@gov.ab.ca, grandeprairie.smoky@assembly.ab.ca, richard.marz@assembly.ab.ca, ron.bjorge@gov.ab.ca

In the CC line, email these people and any other media outlets you feel I missed. I also emailed the Wildrose Alliance, Alberta Liberal and Alberta NDP in addition to numerous local, national and international media outlets. This situation needs immediate attention, especially considering they have been operating for almost 20 years and have been getting away with this critical level of neglect. The best way to do that is to let the media know that this is a concern to the public and worthy of their attention.

The email addresses that I cc'd are as follows (you should be able to just copy and paste them into the CC line):

Calgary@globalnews.ca, viewers@globalnational.com, tips@global16x9.com, calgarynews@ctv.ca, newsonline@ctv.ca, news@ctv.ca, info@awfc.ca, frances.rodenburg@rogers.com, submit@calgaryherald.com, calnews@calgarysun.com, info@albertaspca.org, zoocheck@zoocheck.com, scoop@huffingtonpost.com, wspa@wspa.ca, Newsroom@globeandmail.com, office@albertaliberal.com,
 info@albertandp.ca

Phone calls are great, however letters are also wonderful and often more efficient and effective when you can email them (as opposed to sitting on the phone listening to a busy signal waiting to get through to someone).

Here is the online petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/guzoo/

And here is the Facebook Group where you can stay updated: https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9518425359&ref=ts

Also, a Facebook Group member has indicated that she heard back from MLA Marz and was told to contact:

Mr. Byron Jensen, the district fish & wildlife officer in Drumheller at 403-823-1670 (free by first dialing 310-000).

Another member has indicated it is Ron Bjorge in charge of issuing the license. You can email him (address is above with the others) or call him 1-780-427-9503.

If you are outside of Alberta, or even outside of Canada, you can still help! Contact our government officials at the addresses above and ALSO contact Cindy Ady, Minster of Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation at mailto:TPR.minister@gov.ab.ca and let them know as potential visitors and tourists to Alberta you are horrified at what the government allows to operate and that you will consider taking your tourism dollars elsewhere.

I'm also shouting out to the Ellen Show (it's stretch I know, but we need all the help we can get)! Ellen we need your help here! I'll confess I'm encouraging everyone to flood your Facebook Wall and email you and Tweet you, but it's for a good cause - I hope you don't mind! ♥

Remember to be respectful, thoughtful and kind when campaigning for change. Nothing is ever accomplished and all credibility is lost with rude and scathing emails, language and posturing.

Thank you everyone for any and all help you can give to this cause!

Now, back to our regular scheduled programming...