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• Our Story •
Wolfe Pack Press (WPP) is a non-profit organization that prevents animal cruelty
through education. WPP was originally formed to fill a void in the education of animal
control officers, law enforcement officers (police), veterinarians, and people rescuing
and sheltering animals. The problem was that those people were often confronted with
situations where animals were being abused and treated cruelly. Since they had never
been trained or taught how to effectively deal with those situations they were left
to stumble through as best they could, often resulting in nothing being done to stop
the situation, remove the animals from the situation, or prosecute the offender.
They had to learn as best they could through the school of hard-knocks.
In 2005 Catherine Wolfe, a wildlife biologist and attorney, filled that
void by creating WPP. Ms. Wolfe created Powerpoint presentations and educational
material to teach the best ways to handle animal cruelty cases. Ultimately Ms. Wolfe
wrote a book, Get The Edge In Fighting Animal Cruelty Cases, which details
her knowledge and experience in dealing with animal cruelty cases, and doing so in
the best way possible for the animals while maximizing the chances of successful
criminal prosecutions of offenders.
Ms. Wolfe has also written numerous articles and a scholarly paper that are available
on the website free of charge. Ms. Wolfe has also written a children’s book, Pets
Rule! In Pets Rule! a city becomes disgruntled with the candidates running
for mayor. As a form of protest, a pet owner enters his dog (Caesar Magillicutty)
in the race. In real life this actually happens but to Ms. Wolfe’s knowledge, no
animal has ever won an election for public office. This is, of course, until Mr.
Magillicutty won as mayor. That is how Pets Rule! begins – Mr. Magillicutty
is elected mayor of Kitty City and then proceeds with business by appointing a City
Council to govern the city. As council members he appoints are all cats and dogs.
As the city council they go on to debate and pass laws to promote the welfare of
the city’s animals. Their debates are both educational and entertaining. The book’s
illustrations are delightful and offer great insights into the character of each
city council member.
Interestingly, Pets Rule! nearly happened in real life this past year. In
a city in Michigan called Flint, the voters were unhappy with the candidates for
mayor – one was a convicted murderer and another was a drunk driver (driving the
wrong way on an expressway with 3 flat tires). So, one of the voters entered his
pig, Giggles, as a write-in candidate. Giggles’ owner (an attorney) felt that Giggles
would have been a much better mayor than any of the human candidates and he took
her out on the campaign trail. Giggles forged a serious campaign that “went viral”
and was watched by people all over the world.
As the election drew nearer, Giggles’ popularity grew to the point that she became
a serious contender and stood a good chance of actually winning the election. To
prevent that from happening, the Michigan Legislature had to pass a law that precludes
animals from holding public office! Had they not done that, Flint, Michigan may well
have had a pig for its mayor!
On its own Pets Rule! is a wonderful educational tool for children concerning
the democratic process in the United States. However, in conjunction with Giggles’
campaign, it is especially poignant now as the United States presidential campaign
gets into full gear for the 2016 election. With the presidential debates and campaigns
dominating the news, Pets Rule! affords parents and teachers a wonderful means of
teaching children about the electoral process as it is happening in real time. And
as an added benefit, Pets Rule! teaches children (and many adults) how to be responsible
pet owners.
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