For Immediate Release:
January 27, 2022
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Faribault, Minn. â Brandishing just-obtained photographs of sick and injured animals at Moulton Chinchilla Ranch (MCR) near Chatfield, PETA supporters will descend on the courthouse office of Rice County Attorney John Fossum tomorrow to call on him to pursue cruelty-to-animals charges against MCR owner Dan Moulton. The protest comes after PETA received damning public records revealing that authorities seized 10 suffering chinchillas from MCR a full year ago because of their obvious neglectâyet Fossumâs office hasnât taken action, leaving approximately 700 chinchillas to continue suffering in Moultonâs squalid shed.
When: Friday, January 28, 11:45 a.m.
Where: Rice County Courthouse, 218 Third St. N.W. (at the intersection with Second Avenue N.W.), Faribault
This Fillmore County case ended up with Fossumâs office after PETA, which investigated MCR last year, discovered that both the county prosecutor and the sheriff were friends with Moulton on social media. Last August, Fossumâs office cited a pending civil case by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a reason not to pursue criminal charges, even though the USDA doesnât have the authority to enforce state anti-cruelty laws. The newly obtained records reveal numerous grounds for a state cruelty prosecution, including an independent veterinarianâs statement that the 10 chinchillasâ conditions were âsevere enough to warrant their removal from the property due to probable cause of animal crueltyâ; records from the Animal Humane Society (AHS) of Golden Valley revealing that six of the 10 chinchillas required euthanasia as a result of severe neurologic, eye, and/or dental disease that would have been treatable âhad they received appropriate and timely veterinary careâ; and the AHS humane agentâs statement that â[t]he evidence suggests that Daniel Moulton failed and/or was unwilling to provide [chinchillas] with adequate and consistent veterinary treatment that meets the minimum standard required by state law.â
âThese documents paint a picture of neglect so egregious that it seems like an open-and-shut case, but itâs been a full year and Fossumâs office still wonât act,â says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. âHundreds of chinchillas remain in danger in this callous abuserâs clutches, and PETA is urging the Rice County Attorneyâs Office to hold him criminally accountable for these animalsâ suffering.â
The USDAâs civil caseâwhich addressed violations only through 2017 and therefore nothing documented by PETA or law-enforcement officials last yearâconcluded with a federal judgeâs declaration that Moulton is âunfitâ to hold a USDA license over an âastoundingâ record of federal animal welfare violations. But although a USDA inspection report from November documented that he had again knowingly denied veterinary care to suffering chinchillas, the agency still hasnât seized any animals from him. PETA believes that a state prosecution for cruelty is the surviving chinchillasâ only hope.
PETAâwhose motto reads, in part, that âanimals are not ours to abuse in any wayââopposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETAâs newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Source: Peta.org