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From the Editor

a Tiger among the Jungles

by Judi McLeod

March 1, 2004

It was back in the days when Toronto City Council was banning the circus from coming to town that I first met the plucky Steve Kendall.

Banning the circus was mainly the inspiration of Holly Penfound, a radical animal rights activist who caused havoc at the Toronto Humane Society before landing in the office of then New Democrat Party (NDP) Coun. Peter Tabuns, of ban-Harvey’s-Hamburger fame. Penfound, executive assistant to Tabuns, was with sidekick Rob Laidlaw, owner of a "non-profit" company called Zoocheck.

Claiming monopoly status on the save-the-cuddly-animal-movement, Zoocheck swooped down on small petting zoos and roadside menageries across the country, throwing little people out of work. The rhetoric of their brochures tugged at the heartstrings. Emotionally driven and exaggerated, Zoocheck sent a legion of sweet grandmothers running to banked pension cheques and teenagers to piggybanks, raking in fortunes.

In short when it came to tapping the public heart, Penfound and Laidlaw did PETa (People for the Ethical Treatment of animals) proud.

Enter Steve Kendall, whose business card read: Putting People First, a name deliberately designed to antagonize opportunists in the ranks of animal rights activists.

a formidable enemy to the radicals, the Pittsburgh, Pa native came fully equipped with all the right credentials. an animal lover lacking only the opportunist drive of the other side, Kendall had climbed into the cages of tigers. Before ever dropping his business card, he had taken the trouble of going out into the field to learn the business, travelling with circuses to learn, firsthand, how our animal friends actually get treated when they’re under the Big Tent.

Lesson Number One was circus owners do not, by and large mistreat the animals; they depend on them to make their living. But as Kendall was about to learn in animal rights’ circles, a little truth can create a lot of personal angst.

The ambitious goal of Penfound Company was to ban the circus from all cities and towns in North america. They lost in Toronto when a court judge ruled that city council had overstepped its bounds. The lobby moved on to other municipal centres and so did Steve Kendall. The american soon noticed that the activists flooding council chambers were not exactly homespun, they were flown in from other locations, including Vancouver. When he was able to prove this little fact to a variety of municipal councils being feverishly lobbied, the circus ban was often voted down.

But the more effective Kendall became, the more danger he faced. Hate mail arrived by the bagful from as far away as Saskatchewan.

as Huntingdon Laboratory employees can attest, animal rights activists have been known to follow through on threats of physical violence. It sometimes took expensive court orders to protect the innocent from the harassment of increasingly bolder radicals.

In spite of it all, Kendall, who kept his fax chugging out factual information, continued the fight.

Ugly Threats and money-draining lawsuits did nothing to stunt his style.

Even when people he worked to defend backed off, hanging him out to dry, he refused to turn his back on the fight.

In more recent chapters, Penfound joined Tabuns, now Executive Director of Greenpeace Canada, as a toxic campaigner/Environmental Health Coordinator. She now is the executive assistant to local Toronto politician Paula Fletcher. Tabuns is angling for Liberal MP Maria Minna’s east-end federal seat and waiting for Paul Martin to drop the writ for the May 10 election.

Kendall, whose tell-all book a Tiger among the Jungles is due for release the end of this month, may have the last word. The release of the book also happens to coincide with the kickoff of the PETa versus Ringling Brothers court case.

against all odds, as a single soldier up against an army, Steve Kendall survived the animal rights activist to become a Tiger among the Jungles.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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