The Harold Wolf family has been operating the "Wolf's Giant Animal Swap Meet" for many years in western Noble County in Northeastern Indiana. Animals sold, traded, and bought at this summer swap meet have been known to include all sorts of exotic and dangerous animals from black bears and cougars to snakes, alligators and foxes.
For the past 20 years, animal rescuers we have been on the receiving end of buyers barely leaving the swap meet grounds before calling to ask someone else to take their newly purchased "pet". These kinds of calls culminated in 2012 in a local animal sanctuary contacting the venue to inquire about how they screen their vendors to a) ensure they are operating legally, and b) ensure the animals are properly cared for. The sanctuary wanted to know what measures are being taken to ensure buyers know legal requirements to own regulated animals.
The organizers of the event, in their replies (which we would share here if they had not deleted the conversation off social media) made it clear that not only do they not have any requirements for vendors, they will gladly give a space to anyone who pays for one. They don't care if the vendor is selling animals legally, or not. They don't care if the buyers understand or know the legalities of buying or keeping any animals, or not. They are simply a venue, yet they are a venue that is enabling illegal activities, homeless exotic pets, and even dangerous animals entering family homes. As alleged by many who have frequented the meet, this venue knowingly and repeatedly allows animals to be put into danger and be treated inhumanely. Noble County lacks any humane officer, and suffers from incredibly weak ordinances related to animal welfare - with very little, if any, oversight. It has been nearly impossible to put enough public pressure on this operation to bring any positive - even common sense - change.
The result of this blatant lack of business ethics, a direct indication that "profit" is the sole motivation for holding this meet, is that by now literally hundreds of animals have changed hands only to wind up displaced to become someone else's "problem". Legitimate animal sanctuaries, those that do not buy, sell, breed, trade or use animals for commercial gain, are full.
We need your help! We need YOU, the members of the public, to be a voice for the animals. Will you please sign this petition to send a loud message to the Wolf family that it is time to prohibit the sales or swaps of any Indiana Class I, Class I, or Class III wild animal as defined in the Indiana Wild Animal Possession Permit regulations.
http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-WildAnimalPossessionPermitFlowChart.pdf
This would prohibit the transactions involving foxes, raccoons, bears, wild cats, and many other wild and potentially dangerous animals from being pawns of profit. Thank you for your support!
