An Open Letter to Mark Aldridge/Cinch Marshall/Fair Go/Geoff Sharp/Whoever You’re Pretending to Be Today Dear Mark I have been following the events that have transpired since the RSPCA first attended Moorook Animal Shelter on 6 March 2013. I have observed what has been taking place from all sides of the issue and have a number of concerns I would like to raise and questions I would like to ask. I contemplated doing this with you directly on your Facebook page but as I have seen happen repeatedly to others, I believe that anything I posted would be deleted immediately and I would be harassed, belittled and threatened by your followers. Would you please explain why, in your role of candidate for parliament and spokesperson for Moorook, you chose to use your leadership role to set a negative and aggressive tone amongst your followers? You have engaged in a public campaign involving threats to the physical safety of RSPCA officers including removing them from the Moorook premises; asking bikies to attend Moorook during inspections and calling for truckies to block the road and prevent RSPCA vehicles from accessing Moorook; using abusive language toward RSPCA officers (such as calling them “filthy scum” and “morons”) as well as people who have openly spoken out against Moorook; endorsement of the harassment of both individuals and businesses (such as Woolworths and businesses who support the RSPCA); condoning vigilante behaviour from your followers; deleting and blocking people who have questioned what you and Moorook are doing and refusing anyone who does not agree with you the right of reply; and posting updates on Facebook that contain half truths that are designed to cause angst amongst supporters and whip them in to a frenzy about how unjust something is without providing them with all the facts. Would you please explain why you have condoned inappropriate behaviour from your followers and what you are doing to provide support for the Moorook volunteers who have suffered considerably as a result of your actions? You may believe that you have no responsibility for what your followers do and to some extent this is correct, however, if you conduct yourself poorly and allow your followers to do the same on your own Facebook page, you are seen to condone what they are doing. You made no move to dissuade overzealous followers who were preparing to deface the windows of Woolworths stores with posters condemning them for removing support for Moorook, nor have you ever called for your followers to remove threats they have made to RSPCA officers or people who have opposed yourself or Moorook and often go out of your way to make comments that further inflame the situation. Furthermore, your behaviour has encouraged retaliation by people who are fed up with being harassed, abused and threatened by your followers and this has largely been taken out on Moorook volunteers. This retaliation has resulted in two volunteers resigning due to breakdowns in mental health, one of whom spoke of attempted suicide on your page, a third volunteer who has been fired from Moorook and I believe there was a fourth resignation just prior to your own forced resignation as spokesperson for Moorook. Would you please explain why you promote yourself as an aspiring politician who is honest and transparent, when you seem to have very little respect for the law and acting with integrity? Despite your position as a candidate for office and during your time as spokesperson for Moorook, you openly encouraged your followers to break the law on multiple occasions. After publicly stating that neither Moorook nor your own Willow Wood Sanctuary could solicit or accept donations of any kind, you continued to suggest ways for your followers to avoid the law, even going so far as to suggest people slip money inside birthday cards that you would collect for Lola at the Awareness Day on 19 May 2013. You have publicly stated that you are no longer permitted to sell eggs from Willow Wood Sanctuary and that you would try to evade the law by selling the egg cartons with “free” eggs. You have encouraged your followers to block the roads and deny passage to RSPCA vehicles, which is not only an obstruction of justice but a public safety issue. Would you please explain why brand new electronic gates and a state of the art CCTV system were just installed at Moorook, in an attempt to prevent the RSPCA from gaining lawful access for inspections? Would you please explain whether the thousands of dollars for this development came from public donations? Would you please explain why you used your role as Moorook’s spokesperson to generate fear that the RSPCA is behind a multifaceted conspiracy against you, Lola McLachlan and Moorook, involving several government departments? Please also explain why you are blaming the RSPCA for failure by yourself and Lola to adhere to legislation that has been in place for years and does not fall under the RSPCA’s jurisdiction? You have blamed the RSPCA for the complaint that was received regarding illegal fundraising by Moorook. You have blamed the RSPCA for Willow Wood Sanctuary not being able to continue fundraising illegally. You have blamed SAPOL for being in league with the RSPCA because they attended Moorook as protection for the RSPCA staff and have attended your own premises on other matters. You have blamed the RSPCA for Woolworths allegedly pulling their support for Moorook (and let us remember that Woolworths have publicly stated that the only way in which they have supported Moorook was by allowing a donation bin to be placed outside their store). You have blamed the RSPCA for Willow Wood Sanctuary no longer being able to rescue native animals or sell eggs. Would you please explain why you have used your role as political candidate and former spokesperson for Moorook to spread half-truths, misinformation and lies? I have witnessed this on more occasions than I can count however, the five events that stand out most in my mind are as follows: 1. When an individual made up a lie and said the RSPCA was around the corner from Moorook on ANZAC Day you ran with the story, without verification, and used it to generate anger amongst your followers. You had invested so much in to embellishing the story that when that individual came forth and admitted having lied that, instead of simply stating that the RSPCA weren’t there, began to make up stories about the RSPCA being seen at a local service station and “locals” informing you that they had denied RSPCA officers overnight accommodation. You even perpetuated the lie that police officers had pulled the alleged van over and defected it. Why do you continue to allow people to believe the RSPCA were preparing to raid Moorook, despite the RSPCA advising that they were not in the Riverland and the instigator of the lie admitting she lied? 2. Stating on 16 May 2013 that the RSPCA are on their way to Moorook loaded up with cages to seize more animals when they were not en route to Moorook. You used this to whip your followers up in to quite the state without providing any facts or explaining where this information came from. After a few hours your wife then started posting on your page under your account name and stated that she had received confirmation that the RSPCA were currently at Moorook. At the same time, Paul Winds was commenting on your page under a photo he posted of the Channel 7 helicopter (so presumably was at Moorook with you) that the RSPCA were a “no show”. Another follower then posted on your page underneath your wife’s comments, that the RSPCA had been contacted directly and confirmed they were not at Moorook. You waited until the following evening to advise your followers that the RSPCA did not make an appearance at Moorook and provided no explanation why your wife posted that she had confirmation of their attendance, despite having plenty of time to make other comments and posts on other matters. Why did your wife state that she had confirmation that the RSPCA were at Moorook? Why did you not advise your followers that the RSPCA were not in attendance as soon as possible? Why have you since deleted all record of this incident from your Facebook page? 3. Endeavouring to create a frenzy in the rescue world by stating the RSPCA is after all no kill shelters across the country and that two had already been closed down, with the proprietors facing similar charges to those laid on Lola. You said that one was in Victoria and one was in Western Australia and promised to share more specific information that evening. Despite being asked several times for more information you ignored those questions and have never provided evidence or further details about these alleged closures. Several people have done extensive online searches and all have been unable to find even one reference to back up your claims. Why did you refuse to back up your statements with evidence when asked? 4. Stating that the RSPCA and SAPOL cut the locks on the gates at Moorook to gain entry for an inspection and then later stating they found a key to the gate and used that to open the gates. At no time did you ever clarify which version was the truth nor did you retract incorrect statements you made about the RSPCA entry being illegal. Why did you deliberately try to fire up your followers and create outrage at actions by the RSPCA that were completely legal and did not take place in the manner in which you described? 5. Advising your followers that the Australian Federal Police had contacted you and were launching an investigation in to a Facebook group that was painting you in a negative light. If you had taken the time to look at the AFP website you would have very quickly have been able to determine that the AFP do not deal with threats, including threats by social networking sites or forums. Why did you encourage your followers to take screen shots of the group in question and submit individual complaints to the AFP, complaints that would be considered a nuisance by a department that does not deal with this issue? Would you please explain why it was not a conflict of interest for you, as a person seeking political office and an advocate for Moorook, to have accepted promotion of your businesses, requests for donations to be made to Willow Wood Sanctuary and 50% of proceeds from an online store by Moorook (an arrangement that has since be rescinded upon notice that you do not hold a Section 6 Licence as required for fundraising), an organisation you repeatedly claimed to be helping for no personal gain? You have also stated on multiple occasions that your involvement with Moorook is in no way linked to your political aspirations. Would you please explain why you and your wife asked supporters of Moorook to wear your campaign t-shirts whenever the media was going be present and have sought out Moorook supporters to assist with delivering 3000 campaign flyers in your electorate, if this is not about political gain? I notice you have once again posted on your Facebook page that using social networking for personal attacks, threats and bullying is not acceptable. I agree completely with this sentiment however, I cannot fathom how you can have the audacity to make public statements of this nature when you are prime example of how social networking can be abused. You have repeatedly been caught out using multiple fake profiles to intimidate, bully and threaten people and, as described earlier in this letter, have used Facebook to abuse the RSPCA as well as encourage and condone others to harass and attack individuals and businesses. How on earth does your conscience allow you to sleep at night? I hope this letter assists your followers and the general public to piece together some of what has transpired since the RSPCA first inspected Moorook, encourages them to ask you some serious questions and that they insist upon equally serious answers. Yours sincerely A Concerned Member of the Public
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 07:48:46 +0000
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