Proud to call Bob a friend

By: T. Michael Riddle

I first discovered Bob Stevens through a mutual friend named Bill Stewart about 24 years ago, and that was during the time when Bill was publishing a magazine called: The Pit Bull Reporter.
Being an American Pit Bull Terrier fancier and utilizing them for my hunting business I would voraciously read anything that I could find about the Pit Bull.

I also found myself enjoying writing about and having published, many stories of my wild boar hunting exploits and adventures with them in various magazines also devoted to the breed.

Through this relationship with The Pit Bull Reporter, The American Dog Breeder’s Association and other like publications I continued to see advertisements for videos, Bulldog products, and a hardcover book about the breed called: “Dogs Of Velvet And Steel, Pit Bulldogs A Manual For Owners.”

That particular advertiser and expert about the American Pit Bull Terrier (Bulldawg) and author of Dogs Of Velvet And Steel was Mr. Robert J. Stevens, and I soon found myself sending $24.00 to the address indicated to get my copy of this book.

*note: Amazon Books is now selling Dogs of  Velvet and Steel for $500.00 and up!

The book arrived in the mail about 3 weeks later and as I excitedly tore open the boxed wrapping and then grasped the red colored with black lettering prize between my fingers, I noticed that the author had scribbled something on the inside cover.  It read, “To Thomas “The Tracker” Riddle, Best Wishes, Bob Stevens,”

Wow! I was immediately floored, this very much admired man knew me from my writings about hunting wild boar with my Bulldawg’s.

* also note: They are called Bulldog’s for a reason and that is due to the fact that early American settlers utilized the breed for helping to control unruly stock and especially “Cattle”, henceforth the term, “Bulldawg”

Of course I immediately sat down and wrote a letter thanking him for the autographed copy of his book and thus began a pen pal relationship with Bob that found us regaling each other over the next few years with many wonderful hunting tales, and especially with and about our Bulldawgs.

About 4 years later after that initial meeting with Bob I decided to venture out and into the magazine publishing business myself, and with my very first copy of : Dog’s Boars & 44s proudly sporting a featured article written by Mr. Robert J. Stevens, I was ecstatic and completely beside myself with pride in that first printing.

Bob Stevens and I not only shared a mutual affection for the American Pit Bull Terrier breed and the hunting of wild boar with them, but we both also had developed a strong yearning to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of the dog, and to discover more about its illustrious history.

For those who do not know anything more than what the popular news media has been spoon feeding the public concerning this wonderful animal, Mr. Stevens (who also holds a college degree), and his book can fill you in quite elaborately on just what makes this most complicated and affectionate dog tick.

For the sake of brevity we will fast forward to the last year that President Clinton was in office and how this attack on our First Amendment, the Constitution itself and the whole fiasco here had gotten started. It seems while holding to their untruthful nature that Wayne Pacelle and Ingrid Newkirk, respective heads of the Humane Society Of The United States and People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals, “H.S.U.S. and P.e.T.A.” had convinced our congress that a certain underground group of individuals were producing and catering to a small market of person’s who enjoyed watching “Crush Videos.” These video’s allegedly depict a small animal that would be crushed underneath a woman’s high heel clad foot.

The reason I charge “Untruthful” is because when asked to bring into evidence that these distasteful video’s are around and being sold, not even one single alleged video could be brought forward to show that this horrible type of filming even exists.

H.S.U.S. and P.e.T.A. also did the same thing with the Internet Hunting scheme, a “pay for the experience” computer game where a live animal is baited to within camera and automated firearm range, and then with a click of the mouse, you can kill said animal. That scheme never even got off the ground because it’s originator received so much negative reaction from the public that he pulled the plug before even a single internet hunt was even sold. Yet, H.S.U.S. still cites in their propaganda material that they were chiefly instrumental in it’s demise, H.S.U.S. and P.e.T.A. only jumped upon the bandwagon after it’s creator shut the project down of his own volition.

After getting a poorly written and ambiguous law into place and then signed by President Bill Clinton which made it illegal to transport for sale across state lines, any video or other form of media depicting animal cruelty, the H.S.U.S. then vigorously went after Mr. Bob Stevens.

All can be viewed here.

That is when Bob called upon me to come and testify on his behalf at the original trial nearly 6 years ago in Pennsylvania, and my testimony can be viewed at page 4 of the brief as an expert witness on behalf of the defense.

Bob’s defense, and rightly so, was that his video’s fell under the exemptions to the law which were: Religious,Political,Scientific,Educational,Journalistic,Historical and Artistic Value.

As far as Mr. Stevens videos are concerned they do fall into each and every exempted category, and should not be viewed as otherwise.

The audacity of the H.S.U.S. and their megalomaniacal desire for power made them press on, and with a flash and flurry of propaganda laden press releases funded by their large money coffers, they were able to get a conviction against Mr. Stevens. The appeal was immediately filed and then the appellate court eventually overturned Bob’s Pennsylvania conviction. The H.S.U.S. true to their form and not leaving things be, then filed an Amicus Brief with the Supreme Court of the United States Of America.

Bob called me and asked that I get anyone and everyone involved to file their own briefs in opposition and if you take a look at the Amicus Brief In Opposition you will see that even the Liberal Media like The New York Times and some Animal Rights advocate groups are in support of Mr. Robert J. Stevens, and his long standing fight against these tyrannical, anti constitutional groups like H.S.U.S. and P.e.T.A.
Bob also informed me that as a witness to the original Pennsylvania case that I would not be able to file my own Amicus Brief.

When Bob called me and informed me of the Supreme Court date, October 6th 2009 I was excited and anxious to go, and although he informed me that he might not be able to get a seat for me I told him that it did not matter and that I would be there anyway. He called back a little while later and said that his lawyer, Ms. Patricia Millett had in fact obtained a seat for me, good news but as I said, a little thing like not being able to sit in the gallery was “not” going to keep me away.

Later, on the night of the 5th we all met at a nice restaurant, all of Bob’s family attended the feast as well as my Wife and two children and life was very tranquil at that point. Good food, good spirits, loved ones all around you and feeling very high in optimism pertaining to tomorrow’s events about to take place.  We all knew that for better or for worse, that history would be made on the very next day at the Supreme Court Of The United States Of America.

The next day we all met in the hotel lobby for the limo ride over to the court house and when we arrived there was such a fanfare of paparazzi you would have thought that a rock star or the President had arrived. We were met by Ms. Millet’s assistant and she informed us to not look at the cameras nor answer any questions which might be posed by the media people.  These camera toting media thugs were so rude as to shove their cameras right up to within inches of our faces, and when one in particular got a little too close for my comfort level I gave him a hard elbow to his ribs and knocked him off balance, and I just kept walking on. You see, during my career as a rock and roll artist I became very familiar with how to deal with these type of paparazzi, and if you even say one single word to them, they will blow it completely out of proportion and in a very negative way, just to sell the story.

We were led through a side entrance and into the court room and I have never seen so much marble in all of my life as was in that building. Everything was made of marble, brass and hard woods and thoroughly designed to make an individual feel small and intimidated. But it all was very beautiful nonetheless while at the same time being cold and unforgiving, it most certainly was designed to show all who entered through its hallowed doors just exactly who was the all seeing, all knowing and Almighty boss of you!

As we sat there waiting for the nine Supreme Court Justices to enter I looked to my left and not more than three seats over was Mr. H.S.U.S. Wayne Pacelle himself, in the flesh! Or should I say in the plastic as he appeared to have had so many facelifts that he did not even bear the resemblance to a human being anymore. He looked much more like those marble statues standing cold and distant right out in the halls behind us there. And then shocker of shocks, right near him and seated closest to us was Ms. P.e.T.A. Ingrid Newkirk or someone who bore a very close resemblance to her.
These Vegetarians and Vegans all look about the same to me so I might have been mistaken, but the more astute part of my mental state says that I was not.

Then we all rose for the entrance of the 9 justices, John G. Roberts, John Paul Stevens (no relation), Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarance Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Steven G. Breyer, Samuel A. Alioto and Sonia Sotomayor. It was Neil Katyal for the prosecution who started the proceedings and right out of the gate Ms. Sotomayor began grilling him and in the process uncovered many inconsistencies and contradictions within his diatribe. Ms. Sotomayor stated that there was not a discernible difference between Mr. Stevens videos and the popular P.B.S. series about Pit Bulls filmed by David Roma. And in fact, David Roma’s P.B.S. series contained more gruesome footage of pit bull fights than those of Mr. Stevens videos!

Justice Antonin Scalia then interjected by saying: “I really think that you should focus on the right under the First Amendment of people who like Bull Fighting, Cock Fighting or Dog Fighting, to present their side of the argument.
It is not up to the government to decide what are peoples worst instincts. If the first amendment means anything, that’s what it means.”

The rest of the justices, with the exception of Mr. Clarence Thomas who remained reticent and contemplative throughout the session, all pretty much followed Ms. Sotomayor’s lead and to the point that Mr. Katyal simply cut his speech short, and excused himself out of frustration towards the hard line of questioning.

Ms. Patricia Millett (far left) and her team

In bright contrast, Ms. Patricia Millett was in top form and eloquently handled all questions with poise and grace with the exception of one question, which was posed by Justice Alioto that had something to do with Human Sacrifice and would she pay for a T.V. channel which aired such horrific things as that.  This question caught everyone a little off guard but after the first few seconds of shock had passed Ms. Millet said that although she personally would not give such television shows her patronage, to just let the public decide with their wallets whether such a thing as the Human Sacrifice channel should exist or not. The First Amendment is about the freedom to express yourself through free speech and the government has no business dictating what we choose to see or hear.

Afterwards we all filed out of the courtroom and posed for a few pictures before retiring to our hotel rooms, exhausted. elated, and mentally numb from what we had just witnessed.

If this absolutely ludicrous and broad ranged law is upheld by the Supreme Court then we can all say goodbye to Hunting Videos, Magazines depicting any animal being legally harvested. And even Cave Drawings of pre-historic man bringing down Mammoth and Wildebeest with their spears can be outlawed under this far reaching piece of legislation.

All the way from that little Pennsylvania kangaroo court and the first court appointed lawyer, assistant D.A. Michael Navarra whom suggested that Bob take a plea bargain, and then on up to the Supreme Court Of The United States Of America. Bob Stevens has held true to his Christian beliefs and the United States Constitution all the while holding up his rights as a citizen therein.   Mr. Robert J. Stevens has fought a long and hard 6 year battle for that very freedom called the First Amendment and when the dust finally settles from this battle, we will all owe a great debt of gratitude to him for having the Dignity, Loyalty, Courage, Devotion and Determination to hold true to his All American Beliefs.
Just the same as the American Pit Bull Terrier dog’s which he loves so much, Bob Stevens is Game to the end.