Dear Friends,

I want to thank those of you who called Lake County (IL) State’s Attorney Michael Waller’s office yesterday. We inundated their office with phone calls and really got their attention. Unfortunately, Mr. Waller has chosen not to prosecute. Their responses to this issue are as varied as the ones we received from Starbucks. They range from "there isn't a video tape", or "the video tape doesn't show abuse", or "they are prosecuting", or "the neighbors' claims are false and they aren't prosecuting", and so on. At this time we should take a look at the characters of the opposing parties in this issue.

First, we have State’s Attorney Michael Waller. This is not the first time we have witnessed the callousness and indeed corruption of Michael Waller and his office of political hacks. In fact, Michael Waller has for years ignored animal abuse. When SHARK brought him graphic video footage of rodeo animal abuse at the infamous and drunken Wauconda rodeo, as well as the Lake County Fair rodeo, Waller refused to do anything. When drunken rodeo supporters hit protesters, threw rocks and bottles, shined lasers in our eyes, made obscene threats and exposed themselves in front of female protesters and much more, Waller ignored it. All of it. When Lake County sheriff’s deputies stole and destroyed video evidence of police brutality, Waller supported the crooked cops.

Karen Rappaport is an Illinois humane investigator with credentials from the Illinois Department of Agriculture. She has been a tireless worker for animals for years and has been responsible for incredible advances in humane issues in the Lake County area and beyond.

Karen Rappaport looked at the video evidence and saw cruelty. The police officer who made the arrest saw cruelty. Why didn’t Michael Waller see cruelty? It isn’t that he is blind. Michael Waller is corrupt. Michael Waller is as corrupt an official as we will hopefully ever find. The fact is, Michael Waller’s corruption is one of the prime factors that led me to label rodeo thugs and their minions, the “Rodeo Mafia.”

Now, Michael Waller has demonstrated his corruption yet again. Like all corrupt bully cowards, Waller is hiding behind his equally uncaring and incompetent staff. I anticipate that we will put the video footage of the dog abuse on our website and will go back in our archives to find footage of other issues Waller has ignored. We will try to get the media interested in this issue and in particular, this corrupt government official who refuses to do his job in general.

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