FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday/August 31, 2015
Contact: Stu Chaifetz, SHARK, 856-428-2635 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Attention Political Editor
Ranking U.S. Sen. Inhofe May be Guilty of Federal Ethics Violations,
Oklahoma Tax Avoidance and Animal Cruelty After Senator's Pigeon-Kill
Fundraiser Caught on Undercover Video; Another Pigeon Shoot Set for 9/11
OKLAHOMA – U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) may have violated several federal ethics, tax and other laws, in addition to breaking Oklahoma criminal statues at a campaign fundraising event he held last year in which he participated in shooting pigeons from point-blank-range, according to a nearly year-long investigation by an international animal protection watchdog. (Inhofecruelty.com)
After a nearly year-long investigation, SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness) is filing documents with appropriate federal and state agencies. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o86sPTaZCbs
SHARK initially exposed Sen. Inhofe's cruel shoot via an undercover video that went viral last September after the Inhofe pigeon-killing fundraiser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDbN36abT0k. SHARK said its main focus will be an ethics complaint against Sen. Inhofe filed in the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics:
1. Sen. Inhofe, for his political fundraiser, used federally-owned land, federally-funded government employees as workers and solicited government employees for campaign donations.
http://sharkonline.org/images/handouts/hatchcomplaint.pdf
http://sharkonline.org/images/handouts/inhofeethicscomplaint.pdf
http://sharkonline.org/images/handouts/bureauofreclamation.pdf
http://sharkonline.org/images/handouts/ethicscomplaintbuchanan.pdf
2. SHARK said Sen. Inhofe may be guilty of breaking Oklahoma laws, including "Tax Avoidance," for not paying sales tax on pigeons purchased from a Michael Daugherty, who has been involved in illegal cock fighting. Campaign filings list about $10,000 paid for pigeons in 2013 and 2014 fundraisers, but there is no mention of a sales tax. Daugherty and Sen. Inhofe may have engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the State of Oklahoma and its residents by deliberately not paying sales tax. http://sharkonline.org/images/handouts/salestaxcomplaint.pdf
3. SHARK also said Sen. Inhofe violated Oklahoma anti-cruelty laws – SHARK's video shows pigeons, a protected species in Oklahoma, were willfully kicked, mutilated, shot, wounded, destroyed and tortured.
http://sharkonline.org/images/handouts/animalcrueltycomplaint.pdf
"Sen. Inhofe, you have disgraced yourself by holding such a despicable event, and also dishonored your office because you used Government land to raise political money, and you used government employees as servants to serve your donors. Shame on you Senator Inhofe. Shame on you for your corruption and your cruelty," said Stu Chaifetz, the SHARK investigator who first made the pigeon-shooting fundraiser public.
SHARK has learned Sen. Inhofe is planning another live pigeon shoot fundraiser for this coming September 11, 2015. “On that solemn day while we remember the tragedy that befell our country, a sitting United States Senator will be engaged in a mass slaughter of animals with his political donors,” said Chaifetz. “Inhofe needs to be exposed and held accountable for all that he has done."
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