About me

My interests lie in the areas of Constitutional Law, Economics, and how those areas affect society and the animal welfare and rescue communities.

Why do I seem to be “at war” with PSPCA?

I have never personally had an interaction with anyone at PSPCA. I have no personal “axe to grind.” However, I have been deeply, personally, and passionately involved with animal rescue efforts in Pennsylvania for years.

When I first heard about PSPCA’s raid on Tiger Ranch - which was the day after the raid took place - my first reaction was probably typical: “Thank heaven they saved those cats.”

I had heard “of” Tiger Ranch, but had never been there, nor did I personally know anyone who had been on site. I thought, “I knew the things I heard about Tiger Ranch must have been too good to be true.”

Being a “rescue person,” I immediately started searching the internet for more information. I happened upon a message board at the Best Friends website where active, heated discussions about Tiger Ranch were already unfolding.

Within 24 hours, I was asking myself serious questions. Within a few days, I was asking other people posting at the Best Friends Network community serious questions. And 5 days later, I was convinced that the entire thing - at least with respect to the way the raid was handled - stunk to high heaven.

You can find my blog post about that particular epiphany here: “Please send litterboxes“.

The more I learned about the so-called “investigation,” the raid itself, and what went on in the days and weeks immediately following, after the cats were hauled off to the shelter in Clarion, the more the whole thing stunk. It stunk worse than an intact tomcat marking his territory.

From that point forward, I started to really pay attention to what else PSPCA was doing in Pennsylvania, and how they conduct the business of “Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.” And did not like what I saw.

If there is one thing I CAN NOT STAND, it is hypocrisy and duplicity.

If there is a second thing I CAN NOT STAND, it is animal cruelty.

Combine the two… and IMO, you get PSPCA. YMMV.

One thing led to another… and tortiball.com was born.

All news and commentary about PSPCA can be found under the topic “PSPCA” on this site.

Why do I think anyone else cares what I think?

Short answer: I don’t.

This site exists solely for the benefit and amusement of myself and a few other like-minded individuals. I put it up so I could organize and catalog the Tiger Ranch news stories as they unfolded. Later, I started to add commentary, stories, and links about other things PSPCA was doing, the 2008 presidential election, LOLcats, the crash and burn of the global economy, and anything else that interests or amuses me.

If anyone else finds anything remotely interesting or useful here, that’s wonderful.

About “The Worl Famus Grate an Feersom Tortiball”

For those not fluent in kitty pidgin, that’s “The World Famous Great and Fearsome Tortiball”.

What the heck is a tortiball, anyway?

The Tortiball rolls on missions to “skwish meen hoomins.” As explained by Annie (in “Critter Conversations” back in 2005 on the old Best Friends Message Forum):

The “Worl Famus Grate an Feersom Tortiball”

The Tortiball was started maybee 5 yeers ago by, well, me. We was al havin a grate parade up an doun the stares at sisser Callie Haines hous (whin she lived with that Scruffycat). I thot wooden it be wundrafel if al us Tortis formed up inta a gient BALL an rolld up an doun the stares. Well, it was so fun thet we kepp doin it. Then, we deesidid to role on Misshuns of Mersy or reskew. Like if som hoomin is meen to won of owr aunties, we role to skwish them. An somtimes, if its a reel meen hoomin we role CLAWS OUT!!

An other times we role in parades an partees an things like thet.

I was so amused at the thought of “The Grate an Feersom Tortiball” that I adopted the term and have used it to this day.

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The Constitution is

not negotiable.

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