“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, and ignorance may deride it, but, in the end, there it is.”
- Winston Churchill
- Winston Churchill
“The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.”
- Neale Donald Walsch
It's not uncommon to realize after a conversation with me, that you know little more about me than you did before the conversation started. Not realizing it, I tell little about who I am, where I'm from and what makes me "tick". As a result, I've been encouraged to reveal some background information of a biographical nature on this site so, here it goes.
Born in Rochester, NY and raised in Wayne County, NY, I had always had an affinity towards animals of all kinds. During family outings, I would talk my brother into opting for animal-related activities and establishments such as zoos and parks like Sea World. Anywhere there were animals, I wanted to be there.
The main reason for my interest in animals was my introverted nature which was evident at an early age. I was my own best friend but, with growing up in a "perfectionist" household, I was also my worst enemy sometimes frequently subjecting myself to worse criticism than I would anyone else under the same circumstances. I guess that can still be the case to this day.
After graduating from college in 1994, I continued a life "separated" from the community around me. This was induced by the religious philosophy to which I adhered at the time. To be separated is to keep distance between oneself and "the world", as separatists call the rest of society. The rest of society is on its own track and it's not forming into a compassionate and progressive existence. In fact, society seems to get progressively worse in regard to moral standards and the quality of everything we do and everything we are. Thus, even though I am an empathetic person, I am aloof from others and keep everyone at least "an arm's length" away. I still believe in separation from society and remain separated to a degree but not as much as I was.
I graduated from Fordham University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies in 1994. I spent an academic year abroad in Cairo, Egypt attending an university in order to learn about Islamic Civilization and Modern Society, with a sub-concentration in Wahabi Islamic Theology. I studied Arabic both at Fordham and at the university in Egypt and continued my study of French which began in junior-high many years prior to my interest in learning Arabic. The Arabic I learned was Egyptian colloquial and Fusha (Q'uranic Arabic or the written form of the language from القرآن الكريم).
Reading the Q'uran and other Arabic writings wasn't very difficult to get use to from the start. Reading and writing Arabic is accomplished from right to left on a page, opposite of how the English language is read and written from left to right. This wasn't a major factor to overcome as I had done a lot of reading and testing starting from the end of a novel or testing booklet respectively and finishing it at the beginning. For this reason, i was use to absorbing literary details in reverse order than expected by the tradition and teachings of the English language. Let's just say that taking the SATs in highschool wasn't an easy task as one must stay in a specific section going from front to back of the test booklet as the proctor dictates. Test-taking was very confining for me and can still be to this day. Luckily, I don't take many tests nowadays.
I was diagnosed with ADHD and ADD in my mid-30's although it was most likely an affliction I possessed since childhood. Especially when looking back at my school records as far back as grade school, I see teacher comments about my zoning out and not focusing like I should in class. Interestingly, I also found notes indicating that I was highly empathetic towards my classmates. I'm not sure how such a behavioral characteristic was measured or noticed at such a young age; however, it is one which I have kept to this day sometimes to my detriment unfortunately.
Although my intention still was to go to law school, I first opted to get my Master's Degree from R.I.T. in 1997 in Software Development & Management. I worked as a database administrator/data administrator for approximately five years rising to high-level support consulting within two years of starting my career in the IT field. I took a couple paralegal courses over the years but dropped out after the lawyers who were the instructors of the courses I was taken told me that I should put my energy into getting into law school instead. I continued to procrastinate as I heard ever increasing number of stories of new law school graduates having difficulty finding work, etc. One story that struck me was how a Princeton grad opted to be a "bus boy" at a restaurant until he could find work as an attorney. I thought having a skill set in another field would be a good idea in case, after graduating from law school, jobs were difficult to find, after all that i had heard by that point.
Throughout my 30's and into my 40's, I continued to work with animals and spent several years working with various species of animals. I ran my own informal ferret and rabbit rescues and it was at this time when i began a lifelong interest in mustelids and lagomorphs.
Interest in wild lagomorphs led to my working with the Eastern Cottontail after acquiring my wildlife rehabilitator license from the state when I was 39 in 2012. Although I specialized in cottontails, (hence the name of my rescue business Caring For Cottontails Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, Inc.), I took in a variety of indigenous species from field mice to coyotes and loved them all for their own intricacies and characteristics. In February 2013, I incorporated the rescue as a charitable organization with the state and started working on the tax-exempt status I would need to expand the business.
I have worked with a variety of veterinarians both as a veterinary assistant employed at their practices but also as a client. I have experience and a working skill set acquired from working in many different veterinary medical disciplines such as emergency care, surgery (mostly orthopedic surgery, post-op care and recovery), internal medicine, ophthalmology and oncology. The acquirement of such knowledge and skills, I have been able to extend one cat's life from a few years to nine years that had serious cardiac problems and another from less than one year to five years which had cardiac disorders different from the ones the previously mentioned cat had. I currently have one cat that is eighteen years old and still going strong. Her sister also lived for almost eighteen years too but had to be euthanized. I had these animals since they were only 8-10 weeks old. I keep my pets for life - no matter what species they are.
I have skills with small and large animals alike as I worked with horses ever since I was sixteen years old and started riding around eleven years of age. I worked at racetracks taking care of and exercising thoroughbred racehorses as well as working on a dressage farm performing similar duties. I kept my own horse for almost twenty years and also worked at a number of other barns, including one that offered therapeutic riding for mentally impaired individuals called "hypotherapy". I became involved with hypotherapy and became a part of the program myself as an instructor, teaching the children how to get on the horse and ride. I would ride with some of them or walk beside them leading the horse until the child felt more comfortable with riding the horse independently.
I've also taken a number of nursing classes in a B.S.N. program and worked in the healthcare field during which I acquired skills in emergency, intensive care, bariatric surgical, medical-surgical and telemetry nursing. I was a nursing assistant for over ten years and also did freelance home care as well. In addition, I am well-versed in prehospital care since I worked as a Basic EMT for two ambulance companies in the Rochester, NY area as well as volunteered for another.
My two goals: law school and working with animals, never seemed to be goals that would ever coincide. I had always felt I had to choose between the two. However, after getting licensed as a rehabilitator, my activities were scrutinized by both the state and my colleagues as I opted to do things a little differently than many rehabilitators and exotic animal owners. However, that wasn't as much of a problem as the misunderstandings NYSDEC staff members, law enforcement officers, and licensees made with laws that pertained to regulated activities with wild and exotic animals.
When my business was attacked unmeritoriously by Lieutenant Powell of the NYSDEC in May, 2016, by way of false accusations and testimony of my activities and licensing, it was time to open the law books again and take a look at the laws that Lt. Powell is charged and sworn to uphold. Needlesstosay, he is not doing his job. That is the nicest way I can explain his role in the misinterpretation of the law and abuse of process I experienced personally and noticed in case files of other licensees subject to the same treatment.
Abuses of the legal and law enforcement systems are habits which the NYSDEC officers have been exercising against licensees for many years; some of whom work their butts off volunteering for the NYSDEC as wildlife rehabilitators. There is no financial assistance for rehabilitators at all so each one must find a way to finance his or her activities on their own. Their dedication to giving wild animals a second chance at life in the wild, serves as a purely charitable and crucial, albeit unusual, service to the community around them and the state at large. Rehablitators are the ultimate conservationists whom have made sacrifices and compromises (many times putting off obligations in their personal lives to be at the beck and call of the NYSDEC), many people would never consider making. Each rehabilitator should be treated with the highest level of respect by both the authorities and the communities in which they are established.
Since November 2015, I have put substantial energy and resources into reading and understanding the laws shaping the field of wildlife rehabilitation as well as exotic animal ownership. I have even learned from the legal staff at the NYSDEC and what I have learned about the laws is quite surprising. NYS residents, whether licensed or not in some capacity by the NYSDEC, have many more freedoms than the NYSDEC Special Licenses Unit and Law Enforcement Division wants anyone to know about. It is the most extreme type of corruption or misconduct when a governmental agency egregiously violates the constitutional and civil rights of its residents by infusing its personal belief systems and agendas into the letter of the law.
New York state residents have endured many civil rights violations at the hands of the law enforcement division and the Special Licenses Unit of the NYSDEC - especially in the cases of those of us in the wild and exotic animal industries. What you, as a reader, will learn throughout this site will shock you when you find out what the truth is versus what we, as residents of this state, are led to believe by the NYSDEC.
It's time to start turning the tables and fighting false law with the real laws that protect us as much as they protect anyone (or anything) else. This project will take many years of learning, hard work, and challenging those responsible for the corruption while recuperating the reputation and loss of property (just to name a couple violations) to which private individuals have been subject by the implementation of false law by the NYSDEC.
This project is the merging of my two loves: animals and law, which I never could have predicted. I have come full circle. This challenge of governmental interference in our pursuit of liberty and the right to live as we wish is what I was meant to do at this time in my life. There is no doubt about that.
So, thank you Lt. Powell. Thank you for targeting me and destroying the business I worked so hard to lawfully construct over the years. If it wasn't for you, the rest of our state's residents, especially those who are, or will be, licensed by the NYSDEC-SLU, would have been suffocated by a dark future of made-up regulations and forced to follow along with an alien belief system. Such beliefs appear to be largely inspired by the extremism of the animal rights movement and the collaboration between those groups and state governments with a few greedy exotic animal owners becoming involved in an attempt to get free animals. I know I am right - both legally and ethically, and I will never waiver from my platform of fairness across all sections of society in terms of access to justice as well as consistent and appropriate application of the law.
So much of the anger I embodied caused by the actions of Powell over the last several years has waned and I am looking at the experience with a tone of gratitude. Since the gratitude has started, the struggle I've experienced with feelings of helplessness and dismay have been predominantly replaced by internal peace, especially as the pieces of my project are falling into place.
I truly believe everything happens for a reason. Sometimes humans cannot ascertain what the particular reason is for events occurring in our lives. All I know is that Lt. Powell, in his rampage of hate and destruction, has led me down the path in my life in which I was always meant to take. It is for this reason, I will sincerely be forever thankful to this man for crossing my path in life and leading me down the one I wouldn't have seen otherwise.
Yes, the struggle is over, but the battle has just begun and the tables are being turned 180 degrees.
So, as Al Bundy says ... let's rock! -->
Born in Rochester, NY and raised in Wayne County, NY, I had always had an affinity towards animals of all kinds. During family outings, I would talk my brother into opting for animal-related activities and establishments such as zoos and parks like Sea World. Anywhere there were animals, I wanted to be there.
The main reason for my interest in animals was my introverted nature which was evident at an early age. I was my own best friend but, with growing up in a "perfectionist" household, I was also my worst enemy sometimes frequently subjecting myself to worse criticism than I would anyone else under the same circumstances. I guess that can still be the case to this day.
After graduating from college in 1994, I continued a life "separated" from the community around me. This was induced by the religious philosophy to which I adhered at the time. To be separated is to keep distance between oneself and "the world", as separatists call the rest of society. The rest of society is on its own track and it's not forming into a compassionate and progressive existence. In fact, society seems to get progressively worse in regard to moral standards and the quality of everything we do and everything we are. Thus, even though I am an empathetic person, I am aloof from others and keep everyone at least "an arm's length" away. I still believe in separation from society and remain separated to a degree but not as much as I was.
I graduated from Fordham University with a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies in 1994. I spent an academic year abroad in Cairo, Egypt attending an university in order to learn about Islamic Civilization and Modern Society, with a sub-concentration in Wahabi Islamic Theology. I studied Arabic both at Fordham and at the university in Egypt and continued my study of French which began in junior-high many years prior to my interest in learning Arabic. The Arabic I learned was Egyptian colloquial and Fusha (Q'uranic Arabic or the written form of the language from القرآن الكريم).
Reading the Q'uran and other Arabic writings wasn't very difficult to get use to from the start. Reading and writing Arabic is accomplished from right to left on a page, opposite of how the English language is read and written from left to right. This wasn't a major factor to overcome as I had done a lot of reading and testing starting from the end of a novel or testing booklet respectively and finishing it at the beginning. For this reason, i was use to absorbing literary details in reverse order than expected by the tradition and teachings of the English language. Let's just say that taking the SATs in highschool wasn't an easy task as one must stay in a specific section going from front to back of the test booklet as the proctor dictates. Test-taking was very confining for me and can still be to this day. Luckily, I don't take many tests nowadays.
I was diagnosed with ADHD and ADD in my mid-30's although it was most likely an affliction I possessed since childhood. Especially when looking back at my school records as far back as grade school, I see teacher comments about my zoning out and not focusing like I should in class. Interestingly, I also found notes indicating that I was highly empathetic towards my classmates. I'm not sure how such a behavioral characteristic was measured or noticed at such a young age; however, it is one which I have kept to this day sometimes to my detriment unfortunately.
Although my intention still was to go to law school, I first opted to get my Master's Degree from R.I.T. in 1997 in Software Development & Management. I worked as a database administrator/data administrator for approximately five years rising to high-level support consulting within two years of starting my career in the IT field. I took a couple paralegal courses over the years but dropped out after the lawyers who were the instructors of the courses I was taken told me that I should put my energy into getting into law school instead. I continued to procrastinate as I heard ever increasing number of stories of new law school graduates having difficulty finding work, etc. One story that struck me was how a Princeton grad opted to be a "bus boy" at a restaurant until he could find work as an attorney. I thought having a skill set in another field would be a good idea in case, after graduating from law school, jobs were difficult to find, after all that i had heard by that point.
Throughout my 30's and into my 40's, I continued to work with animals and spent several years working with various species of animals. I ran my own informal ferret and rabbit rescues and it was at this time when i began a lifelong interest in mustelids and lagomorphs.
Interest in wild lagomorphs led to my working with the Eastern Cottontail after acquiring my wildlife rehabilitator license from the state when I was 39 in 2012. Although I specialized in cottontails, (hence the name of my rescue business Caring For Cottontails Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, Inc.), I took in a variety of indigenous species from field mice to coyotes and loved them all for their own intricacies and characteristics. In February 2013, I incorporated the rescue as a charitable organization with the state and started working on the tax-exempt status I would need to expand the business.
I have worked with a variety of veterinarians both as a veterinary assistant employed at their practices but also as a client. I have experience and a working skill set acquired from working in many different veterinary medical disciplines such as emergency care, surgery (mostly orthopedic surgery, post-op care and recovery), internal medicine, ophthalmology and oncology. The acquirement of such knowledge and skills, I have been able to extend one cat's life from a few years to nine years that had serious cardiac problems and another from less than one year to five years which had cardiac disorders different from the ones the previously mentioned cat had. I currently have one cat that is eighteen years old and still going strong. Her sister also lived for almost eighteen years too but had to be euthanized. I had these animals since they were only 8-10 weeks old. I keep my pets for life - no matter what species they are.
I have skills with small and large animals alike as I worked with horses ever since I was sixteen years old and started riding around eleven years of age. I worked at racetracks taking care of and exercising thoroughbred racehorses as well as working on a dressage farm performing similar duties. I kept my own horse for almost twenty years and also worked at a number of other barns, including one that offered therapeutic riding for mentally impaired individuals called "hypotherapy". I became involved with hypotherapy and became a part of the program myself as an instructor, teaching the children how to get on the horse and ride. I would ride with some of them or walk beside them leading the horse until the child felt more comfortable with riding the horse independently.
I've also taken a number of nursing classes in a B.S.N. program and worked in the healthcare field during which I acquired skills in emergency, intensive care, bariatric surgical, medical-surgical and telemetry nursing. I was a nursing assistant for over ten years and also did freelance home care as well. In addition, I am well-versed in prehospital care since I worked as a Basic EMT for two ambulance companies in the Rochester, NY area as well as volunteered for another.
My two goals: law school and working with animals, never seemed to be goals that would ever coincide. I had always felt I had to choose between the two. However, after getting licensed as a rehabilitator, my activities were scrutinized by both the state and my colleagues as I opted to do things a little differently than many rehabilitators and exotic animal owners. However, that wasn't as much of a problem as the misunderstandings NYSDEC staff members, law enforcement officers, and licensees made with laws that pertained to regulated activities with wild and exotic animals.
When my business was attacked unmeritoriously by Lieutenant Powell of the NYSDEC in May, 2016, by way of false accusations and testimony of my activities and licensing, it was time to open the law books again and take a look at the laws that Lt. Powell is charged and sworn to uphold. Needlesstosay, he is not doing his job. That is the nicest way I can explain his role in the misinterpretation of the law and abuse of process I experienced personally and noticed in case files of other licensees subject to the same treatment.
Abuses of the legal and law enforcement systems are habits which the NYSDEC officers have been exercising against licensees for many years; some of whom work their butts off volunteering for the NYSDEC as wildlife rehabilitators. There is no financial assistance for rehabilitators at all so each one must find a way to finance his or her activities on their own. Their dedication to giving wild animals a second chance at life in the wild, serves as a purely charitable and crucial, albeit unusual, service to the community around them and the state at large. Rehablitators are the ultimate conservationists whom have made sacrifices and compromises (many times putting off obligations in their personal lives to be at the beck and call of the NYSDEC), many people would never consider making. Each rehabilitator should be treated with the highest level of respect by both the authorities and the communities in which they are established.
Since November 2015, I have put substantial energy and resources into reading and understanding the laws shaping the field of wildlife rehabilitation as well as exotic animal ownership. I have even learned from the legal staff at the NYSDEC and what I have learned about the laws is quite surprising. NYS residents, whether licensed or not in some capacity by the NYSDEC, have many more freedoms than the NYSDEC Special Licenses Unit and Law Enforcement Division wants anyone to know about. It is the most extreme type of corruption or misconduct when a governmental agency egregiously violates the constitutional and civil rights of its residents by infusing its personal belief systems and agendas into the letter of the law.
New York state residents have endured many civil rights violations at the hands of the law enforcement division and the Special Licenses Unit of the NYSDEC - especially in the cases of those of us in the wild and exotic animal industries. What you, as a reader, will learn throughout this site will shock you when you find out what the truth is versus what we, as residents of this state, are led to believe by the NYSDEC.
It's time to start turning the tables and fighting false law with the real laws that protect us as much as they protect anyone (or anything) else. This project will take many years of learning, hard work, and challenging those responsible for the corruption while recuperating the reputation and loss of property (just to name a couple violations) to which private individuals have been subject by the implementation of false law by the NYSDEC.
This project is the merging of my two loves: animals and law, which I never could have predicted. I have come full circle. This challenge of governmental interference in our pursuit of liberty and the right to live as we wish is what I was meant to do at this time in my life. There is no doubt about that.
So, thank you Lt. Powell. Thank you for targeting me and destroying the business I worked so hard to lawfully construct over the years. If it wasn't for you, the rest of our state's residents, especially those who are, or will be, licensed by the NYSDEC-SLU, would have been suffocated by a dark future of made-up regulations and forced to follow along with an alien belief system. Such beliefs appear to be largely inspired by the extremism of the animal rights movement and the collaboration between those groups and state governments with a few greedy exotic animal owners becoming involved in an attempt to get free animals. I know I am right - both legally and ethically, and I will never waiver from my platform of fairness across all sections of society in terms of access to justice as well as consistent and appropriate application of the law.
So much of the anger I embodied caused by the actions of Powell over the last several years has waned and I am looking at the experience with a tone of gratitude. Since the gratitude has started, the struggle I've experienced with feelings of helplessness and dismay have been predominantly replaced by internal peace, especially as the pieces of my project are falling into place.
I truly believe everything happens for a reason. Sometimes humans cannot ascertain what the particular reason is for events occurring in our lives. All I know is that Lt. Powell, in his rampage of hate and destruction, has led me down the path in my life in which I was always meant to take. It is for this reason, I will sincerely be forever thankful to this man for crossing my path in life and leading me down the one I wouldn't have seen otherwise.
Yes, the struggle is over, but the battle has just begun and the tables are being turned 180 degrees.
So, as Al Bundy says ... let's rock! -->