The Dark Underside of New Jersey Dog Breeders: New Jersey Consumers Against Pet Shop Abuse (NJCAPSA) Congratulates BioJobBlogger in Prevailing Against a SLAPP Lawsuit
While I wasn't much of an Andy Warhol fan, I do subscribe to his assertion that everyone at some point in their lives has “their 15 minutes of fame.” I believe that I have about 5 min left, so I wanted to alert BioJobBlog readers to an article that was posted on the New Jersey Citizens Against Pet Shop Abuse (NJCAPSA) site detailing the SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) lawsuit filed against me by two nefarious South New Jersey dog sellers. These lawsuits are intended to silence vocal critics of persons engaged in questionable activities. It has been increasing used by puppy millers, pet shop lobbying groups and other entities who want to silence animal rights and other advocates that support the humane treatment of animals.
While the case against me was dismissed with prejudice, there currently is no anti-SLAPP lawsuit legislation in NJ. This lack allows persons to sue others whether or not the lawsuits are without merit or frivolous. For those of you who may not have been sued in the past, I can tell you that the fees associated with getting SLAPP lawsuits dismissed can be as high as $50,000. Knowing this, persons who file SLAPP suits, expect defendants to settle before any additional legal action is taken. I chose to bear the costs of litigating the suit because the persons, who sued me, have in the past threatened, intimidated and sued others who publicly spoke out against them.
Those of you, who may know me, understand that I am neither a crusader nor a martyr. That said, I will fight or litigate anyone who attempts to deprive me of constitutionally-guaranteed right to free speech and expression. Nevertheless, the lawsuit filed against me had its intended impact on my blogging activities. That is, I could not blog about the plaintiffs for over five months. Perhaps more egregious, was the chilling observations that the lawsuit filed against also silenced others who had been vocal about the dubious dog-selling practices of the plaintiffs. And, sadly, during that period, the plaintiffs ramped up their dog-selling business and continued to advertise and sell puppies and dogs with impunity.
It is ironic that the legal system, which is supposed to protect the rights of all Americans, can also be misused and abused to take them away!
To learn more about SLAPP suits and their adverse effects on First Amendment rights, please visit this site.
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Fighting!!!!!!!
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Summer has finally arrived and everyone I know is kicking back, looking forward to their previously planned vacations and enjoying their four day (summer hours) work week. While many folks still have jobs, the unemployment rates are not dropping as quickly as anticipated and large numbers of layed-off and right-sized former life sciences employees are still without jobs. 
As many of you know, I have had an ongoing dispute with a nefarious dog grifter (.jpg)
Despite a down economy, it appears that business for the dog grifting team of Donna Roberts aka Marcie Duben (and many other false identities) and Dawn Abrams is booming. The reason that I know this is that over the past week or so I have received several message regarding from BioJobBlog readers about bogus dog transactions.
m another one of Grace Abrams’ grifting victims. Apparently, this individual purchased a sick puppy from Ms. Abrams several months ago which at one year old developed some problems that likely resulted from congenital defects due to inbreeding. This person told me that a friend of hers also purchased a ‘Havanese” from Ms. Abrams which they suspect really isn’t a Havanese (despite ‘papers’ that indicate that it is). As you may recall, we also received suspect pedigree papers for the dogs that we purchased from Ms. Abrams (
