D&D Farm Animal Rescue Dale Tolentino
D&D Farm Animal Rescue is in north Boone County, 6000 N Creasy Springs Road Columbia,MO 65202 USDA Exhibitor License 43-C-0228
Reporters have mistakenly tried to turn this into a story about big government picking on small time farmers, but the real tragedy here is that USDA only inspects, on average, once a year. They have found 15 violations and yet have not been able to get the owners to comply. It often takes 6 years or more for the USDA to take any serious action and animals suffer needlessly in the interim.
According to Guidestar, Dale Tolentino hasn’t filed an IRS tax return on D&D Farm Animal Rescue since 2004 which doesn’t bode well for how donations were spent over the past 8 years.
Dozens of volunteers from an organization by the name of United States Zoological Association, USZA, came to help correct 15 violations identified by the U.S.D.A. If the violations were not corrected by Sunday (Feb 5, 2012), the agency had said it will confiscate the animals. What the reporters failed to do was to investigate the origines of USZA which appears to have been created as one of many aliases of Joe Schreibvogel to try and bestow some “accreditation” legitimacy on back yard breeders and road side zoos like his that breed lions, tigers, ligers and other wild animals for use as photo props and petting props.
Joe Schreibvogel, president of the U.S.Z.A, said that would most likely have meant a death sentence for the tigers, lions, cougars, bobcats and other exotic creatures housed at the sanctuary. Similar facilities are full, he said, and many have already closed down because of a lack of funding. “The next step would be to euthanize them, but I am not going to let that happen,” Schreibvogel said. Schreibvogel said this while yet insisting on breeding lions, generic tigers and ligers which all serve no conservation value and who all add to the overpopulation of dangerous carnivores in cages.
During routine inspections, the USDA identified violations such as lack of written dietary or veterinary plans for animals.
On its most recent visit two days ago, USDA inspectors found larger violations, such as fences that were too short and an enclosure that had an improper flooring material, and gave the sanctuary until Sunday to correct these issues.
More than 16 violations just since 2009 and many were repeat offenses and involved lack of veterinary care, filthy water bowls, poor food handling, etc.
