Major Victory for wildlife conservation … Corrupt wildlife department pulled into line by judge.
Media release dated 30 July 2015.
In a court ruling of global significance, officials from a rogue wildlife department in Australia have been told to comply with the law and issue various wildlife licenses to the snake man Raymond Hoser.
In 2006, corrupt officers in the wildlife department of Victoria, Australia commenced a war against globally recognized scientist Raymond Hoser. The battle lines were drawn when they attacked the renowned conservationist and his education business, Snakebusters, by illegally imposing rules against him and then using creative interpretations of the law to allege Hoser had broken them.
On 7 February 2009, the same officials were responsible for the deaths of over 170 innocent people in a bushfire disaster of their creation known as Black Saturday.
Hoser published an expose of this event in 2010, including an associated scam by department officials using a tame pet Koala to scam hundreds of thousands of dollars from law-abiding people. That money was illegally used for home renovations.
In response, the department manufactured a series of false claims against Hoser, widely reposted globally and in June 2010 charged him with the first of dozens of bogus criminal offences.
Hoser was cleared of all false claims and charges in September 2014, as detailed in the media release and judgement posted at:
http://www.smuggled.com/snake-man-cleared.htm
In spite of this, the department officials, led by Ron Waters, (recently moved to another government entity), Glenn Sharp, Emily Gibson and Don Hough, continued to raise a never-ending barrage of false claims and bogus allegations of criminal acts and animal cruelty by Raymond Hoser in order to justify their own illegal actions against Hoser.
This included an illegal armed raid with 11 police and wildlife officers, running nine hours, where they deliberately killed a number of Hoser’s snakes, smashed and stole property and then took it upon themselves to phone established clients of Hoser’s business and tell them he was unsafe and should not be engaged.
At the time they also put out a number of media releases falsely alleging Hoser's displays were unsafe.
In contempt of a Court of Appeal ruling dated 5 September 2014 and an earlier one dated 8 June 2012, Hough and the others at the department illegally refused to issue Hoser licenses paperwork as required by Hoser to trade.
The wildlife department hijacked by the corrupt officials was known as the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE), renamed a number of times in recent years, and now carrying the acronym DEWLP.
After having the hatred and audacity of serving a summons on Hoser and his family at Christmas in 2014, Hoser had to fight the entire legal might of the Victorian government in a tribunal hearing at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for his ongoing right to continue doing Australia’s best wildlife displays.
The department’s lawyers failed in an attempt to get an injunction against Hoser following the 5 September 2014 judgement against them.
The VCAT hearing in 2015 was marked by DEWLP witnesses including Glenn Sharp and Ron Waters committing perjury, exposed as such from earlier material created by them in the form of videos each had created and did not expect to have tendered in the proceedings.
At the end of the hearing in March 2015, the DEWLP had only made fools of themselves and wasted many hundreds of hours of Hoser’s time and cost him many thousands of dollars, to defend himself against the ridiculous allegations.
In complete contempt of the Victorian taxpayers, Ron Waters, Glenn Sharp and their band of thugs managed to rack up bills totalling millions of dollars to unlawfully attack Hoser’s wildlife conservation business, including through the engagement of teams of highly paid lawyers and barristers to fight the battles they kept waging against Hoser, through almost every significant law court in Victoria.
In a judgement and ruling dated today (30 July 2015), Gerard Butcher, a senior member of VCAT, confirmed a number of obvious facts including:
Mr Hoser has "an extensive knowledge of reptiles."
Mr. Hoser's "wildlife in general are well looked after".
The snake man "possesses significant ability in the husbandry and handling of snakes."
Mr. Hoser "does not mistreat his snakes."
Mr. Hoser "has cause to be critical" of the DEWLP.
Butcher further noted: "No major issues adverse to the applicant (snake man Raymond Hoser) were discovered.", this effectively meaning that Hoser had always complied with the law, even when it was being creatively used against him by corrupt government officers!
and
"It was suggested on behalf of the respondent that there was a possibility of the applicant's venemoid snakes could regenerate their venom glands. No scientific evidence to substantiate this was produced and against the proposition is the applicant's evidence that this has not occurred. I cannot be satisfied that the possibility exists. I conclude that the applicant's venemoid snakes are not 'venomous'. Clearly, if one looks at the requirement to use a 'pit', it is for the purpose of protecting members of the public from the danger of envenomation. I am satisfied that the danger does not exist where any venemoid and non venomous snakes are used in a demonstration by the applicant."
Butcher further ordered that the DSE immediately restore all licenses paperwork to which Mr. Hoser had been legally entitled to all along.
Hoser today said “my wife and vulnerable young children have had to suffer having loaded guns shoved towards them in an illegal armed raid in 2011 and non-stop abuse and hatred since then. They will never recover from this, but are entitled to appropriate compensation, damages and restitution. For others who have died as a result of the reckless actions by the departmental officers, they will never be able to make amends.”
As a result of the diversion of Hoser’s clients to less safe alternatives, (noting Hoser’s business has an unmatched perfect safety record), several people in Australia have died from venomous snake bites. Hoser today said “The department must move immediately to stop the ongoing damages caused by their reckless actions and I have already set-out a template of what needs to be done in my submissions to VCAT”.
The corrective actions required include:
Corrective advertisements in the tabloid media admitting to past mistakes and widely disseminated lies;
Compensation, damages, costs and restitution to Hoser, his staff and other adversely affected parties and;
as Hoser today put it “compliance with the law for a change by Ron Waters and his band of thugs”.
As he has done before, Raymond Hoser has tried to get the department to act within the law and today stated, “Even after having my life and that of my family, totally destroyed by these violent thugs, I am happy for them to make amends and to start working with Snakebusters to assist in wildlife conservation at all levels. They have the chance to become part of the solution instead of being the problem.”
Further details phone: 1 300 1 SNAKE
(03) 9812 3322
0412 777 211
Snakebusters reptile shows can be found at: http://www.snakebusters.com.au
This media release is placed at:
http://www.smuggled.com/snake-man-cleared-again-Corrupt-wildlife-department-pulled-into-line-by-judge.htm
Further details:
Raymond Hoser, the snake man. Phone (Australia) 0412-777-211
Other links of relevance
VCAT Decision in favour of Hoser dated 30 July 2015 as a pdf file is posted here
The Snake Man is cleared by Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal.
The relevant Supreme Court of Appeal Judgement of 5 September 2014, as a pdf file is posted here
The relevant Supreme Court of Appeal Order of 5 September 2014, as a pdf file is posted here
