We love having Juma here while waiting for a trial date and we will miss her terribly if she goes back home. We are happy that we were able to help. This wonderful cat remains in contact with her owner and handler who she is very bonded to. Read about her story below.
(FWC) Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s gunmen, unlawfully raided a Florida licensed wildlife facility on March 2, 2022. FWC in partnership with its most favored corporate entity removed, Juma, an African lioness from her handler and licensed facility under a false flag. Juma was removed from her home during an unlawful and violent raid on her handler’s licensed wildlife facility. The lawsuit seeks to return control of Juma to her lawful owner and push back on FWC’s retaliatory Marxist brown shirt tactics.
Juma has been lovingly hand raised by her owner since she was just a little cub. Juma was violently shot twice and dragged out by FWC gunmen and its business partner in an abrupt and unlawful raid. FWC and its business partner trespassed against Juma’s home facility in an afternoon raid. Several of the gunmen were fully kitted out with military grade tactical gear and weapons of war, on March 2, 2022. The FWC leader onsite, who was in communication with his superior at FWC headquarters, nefariously ordered the other FWC gunmen to stop the recording of their body cameras so that they could execute their plan without key audio evidence coming back to haunt FWC. Juma was ultimately removed from her home during an unlawful and violent raid on her handler’s licensed wildlife facility and financially exploited by FWC. What FWC never expected was that a lone citizen would revolt against FWC’s tyrannical conduct and file a lawsuit so that FWC’s illicit behavior could be exposed to the general public. Other licensed facility owners live in fear that if they speak out their facility license would be targeted and punished.
FWC has a history of killing animals, abusing its Florida citizenry’s due process, their right to privacy and most recently its authority against its licensees. Over the years, FWC has come under the influence of animal rights extremists and FWC has become progressively more abusive toward its small to medium family-owned Florida wildlife licensees, while at the same time showing favoritism toward its largest corporate owned facilities. FWC unilaterally selects and rewards its most favored activist controlled corporations and activist unlicensed corporate NGO “stakeholders” while violating the most fundamental American constitutional rights of its licensed Florida citizens.
FWC, over the years has become a highly politicized office of government, targeted and infiltrated by Marxist animal and property rights activism. In effect, one hand washes the other. The Florida legislature needs to hold an oversight review of FWC in what is officially termed an OPPAGA review. An (OPPAGA) Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability review of FWC’s relationship to its licensed and unlicensed “stakeholders” is just and warranted.
Juma’s History as told by her handler
“Juma was born January 26, 2018. Her mother was a beautiful white lion named Mali. I didn’t have my own facility at the time, but I saw her at least every other day. Most of the time it was Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. A lot of times I’d spend the night so we could be together. If I wasn’t there, she would be with the people that owned the facility. She was never just left alone. She always had someone to show her love. Juma had some problems, if she’d been born in the wild, she wouldn’t have lived. To begin with she was walking a little funny. I just chalked that up to her being so young. By the time she was two (2) months old, she wasn’t using her back legs. She’d have to pull herself around with her front legs. I took her to the veterinarian, and they said that her calcium seemed to be okay, but that she had weak bones and a cracked vertebrae and might grow out of it. I was bottle feeding her and made sure I gave her extra vitamins along with calcium and plenty of love. She was my life. It took about two (2) months, but she started using her back legs. The vet told me I needed to keep her from climbing up onto stuff and jumping down. When I was at the facility, I kept her inside and the bond between us grew super strong. She was a real good girl. While playing, she’d bite me and claw me when I was awake, but if I was sleeping, she wouldn’t bother me. I slept on a couch in the living room. If I was asleep, she’d come put her chin on the couch and nudge me. Then I’d pick her up and we’d sleep together. It wasn’t long before she got to where she was climbing on everything and I couldn’t take her inside anymore, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t sleep with her from time to time, still. She was off the bottle by then, but I still had to give her vitamins, so I had to cut her meat up in small portions to hide the vitamins in and hold it in my hand. She was very good about not biting my hand. She could tell the difference between the meat I was feeding her and my hand, even if I had juice all running down my arm. To this day, she’s still good that way. No matter what she’s eating, if it’s in my hand, she’ll take it but my hand is safe. She’s never been aggressive while eating. I can walk into her enclosure with her food and feed it to her. Another thing she does is she’ll take my hand or my arm in her mouth and lightly chew on it or pulsate on it. It’s kind of like a pacifier to her. She started doing that as a cub and still does it. As she was growing up, I’d put a collar on her and take her for walks. She loved going around to the other enclosures seeing all the other animals. She was never aggressive toward any of them. As I said before, at the time, I didn’t have a facility. I had to keep her with someone that did. I made sure I saw her quite often. The longest she ever went without seeing me was 2 days and then I’d go spend hours with her. Once I was able to get my own facility, I put a tent up a few feet from her enclosure to stay in and I saw her every day and made sure she got plenty of love. Juma is now four and has spent her whole life with me. For the past 2 years, it was every single day. Unfortunately, because of issues with paperwork that FWC and I were having, I needed to file an appeal. I filed the appeal, but they came in and took Juma. FWC claimed I didn’t file the appeal. When I showed them evidence of my appeal on my phone, they said, “it’s in the wrong court, “we’re taking her anyway.” They were very insistent that she go to Carol Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue. Juma is used to getting loved regularly. She has always been caressed and hand-fed by me. Juma will be deprived of all of my physical human contact at Big Cat Rescue. I am so worried for her. I know she’s wondering what’s going on not being able to see me. Big Cat Rescue will not let me see her. That’s the way they worked it to separate Juma from me. My worry is that she may get depressed. They’ve already said she’s not eating like she should. The last Lion they took from someone was a male that died within 5 months. For the record, I’ve never abused Juma or any other animal in any way (Sworn Affidavit of Juma’s History Exhibit 1)”.
Both Juma and her owner were caught in the crosshairs of FWC’s power grab among FWC, the legislature and the Florida Supreme Court. FWC’s conduct in this case is a direct challenge to the American founding principles of governmental checks and balances. Specifically, FWC is abused its quasi-judicial powers in a manner that threatens the independence, authority and the principal role of the Florida Supreme Court and the judicial branch of government.
FWC is abusing their government power and continues to retaliate against JUMA’s loving handler. JUMA’s owner, is a Member of The Cavalry Group LLC, the nation’s largest advocate for animal ownership and animal enterprise, and The Cavalry Group’s legal team has stepped in to immediately challenge FWC’s unilateral actions to challenge FWC’s authority and unilateral decision-making process. FWC authorized the use of unnecessary violence against an endangered species. FWC used the threat of arrest, force, and intimidation to dispossess a private citizen of their personal property without a court order. FWC violated a private citizen’s constitutional due process rights to direct where their animal should be transported to and used a licensing clerical error as a pretext for redistributing and supplying FWC’s most favored “stakeholder” with a priceless endangered lioness, for corporate/governmental fi nancial gain. JUMA was injured and placed at risk of death and psychological torture. She was imprisoned in solitary con finement away from any regular contact or visitation from her pride leader and lifelong caretaker because of the FWC’s intervention and its financial and political interests. The Cavalry Group has reached out to the Florida Attorney General’s Of fice and Governor Ron DeSantis’ Of fice on multiple occasions for immediate assistance to correct this injustice to JUMA and her handler.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP:
- Please donate to support the fight against FWC’s tyrannical, retaliatory, and violent governmental abuses. DONATE HERE
- If you have had any interactions with FWC or know anyone who has experienced FWC’s wrath, please share your story directly with Mindy Patterson HERE.
