10/17/2026
A crackpot coalition of Goofballs, Grifters & the Gullible are trying to deny Lemon Grove residents the Freedom and Right to buy a pet Bird within the Lemon Grove city limits.
Don't let these extremists Gaslight you.
Vote NO on Measure E
This November, Lemon Grove, CA voters will have the final say on the proposed bird sales ban, and it is important that they hear from people who understand both responsible Aviculture as well as Business and the local economy.
To begin, Voters should know that there are only 11 municipalities in the entire United States, (out of 19495 towns and cities) that ban the sale of Birds and many of these are affluent cities and towns where the per capita income is double to almost triple that of Lemon Grove and with less of the many structural challenges facing our city.
In sum, Over 99.94% of America's town's and cities know that a bird sales ban is bad news, (a ban would be especially bad for Lemon Grove).
Advocates for Lemon Grove should be pursuing
ways to invite, broaden, build and revitalize Downtown. This Bird ban would do the opposite.
A Bird ban will hurt small business in Lemon Grove
A Bird ban will reduce Sales Tax Collections
A Bird ban will contribute to making investors shy away from investing in Lemon Grove itself as the city will be seen as toxic to business
A Bird Ban will contribute to the downward spiral of distressed downtown businesses and proliferation of blight and boarded up buildings.
It is important to note that local pet stores contribute to the local economy, local sales taxes collections and are open to regular health and safety inspections. Customers may also have return and heath guarantees and can do credit card chargebacks in the event of a dispute.
Both stores and The community should support and insist upon strong standards of animal care, responsible ownership, education, and enforcement against neglect, but a blanket bird sales ban is not the right solution. It will remove both the responsible, educated aviculturist store owners from doing business in Lemon Grove along with any "bad actors ," instead of focusing on addressing poor care where it actually occurs.
Accordingly, If a city has a bad restaurant, you shut down that specific restaurant—you don't ban all food establishments. Lemon Grove should punish bad actors, not all law-abiding retail bird stores.
The proponents of Measure E want to force you to get your pet companion Birds from "non-profit" Bird rescues and shelters, but the regular county animal shelters have zero exotic birds while there are very few rescues in San Diego County or the entire state that have exotic birds and definitely not enough to meet public demand,. In addition, many of these so-called "Rescues" are actually opaque, filthy and sketchy sh*tholes run by people who are either mentally ill hoarders with a savior complex or lowlife grifters who have found that it's a way to make a quick buck off of good hearted gullible people and donors.
The "Rescue" Industrial Complex: A quick look at some of the general "animal rescue" outfits in California shows violence, neglect, bloated budgets and little transparency.
Regarding bloated budgets, the head of the San Diego Humane Society, who is pushing this extremist ban, takes in $500,000 a year running a "non-profit " while a slew of his subordinates are raking in a quarter of a million dollars each annually .
A look at the ASPCA shows that the CEO is collecting $1.2 Million per year with 7 of his Executives raking in over a half - million dollars annuall each.
Not a bad gig for a non-profit. (Meanwhile, in contrast, the average Lemon Grove resident exists on only $36,672 per year , tied for the lowest per capita income in San Diego County. .
As for those who believe that Rescues are safer & less violent environments for animals than retail stores, just Google "Miranda's Rescue" and you will see the real quality of care rescue many animals receive from their nonprofit stewards.
Miranda’s Rescue is a 50-acre animal sanctuary located in Fortuna, California, owned and operated by Shannon Miranda.
Miranda’s Rescue is officially registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity organization.
The facility marketed itself as a "no-kill" shelter and accepted animals from private owners and shelters across California for high transfer fees ($500 to thousands of dollars per animal), but then the owner/operator shot hundreds of them in the head, buried them in a back field using a bulldozer and then claimed they were adopted out so he could get more animals. Investigators found that over 730 dogs transferred or surrendered to the rescue between January 2025 and mid-2026 remained completely unaccounted for, with adoption records located for only a small fraction of the intake. FBI and the California Department of Justice) excavated the property and recovered the remains of 138 dead dogs, (including 117 intact carcasses and 21 additional skulls) alongside roughly 600 dog collars.
Despite the above stated horrors Miranda’s Rescue is still open for business and continues to accept new animals into this "No Kill Rescue".
The horror stories involving Rescues and Shelters are voluminous with new shocking revelations hitting the press on a regular basis, from the San Diego Humane Society unknowingly shipping hundreds of cute little rabbits and other small animals to Arizona where they were allegedly used as reptile food, to over 700 starving and sick horses and other animals having to be rescued from a non-profit horse sanctuary in Julian this past summer. (Villa Chardonnay Horses with Wings).
In fact, just this past month, another "rescue" was raided in Upland, California, where the non-profit hoarded hundreds of cats in horrific conditions.
On September 21, 2026, authorities served search
warrants and rescued 405 malnourished and neglected cats from an industrial complex on 11th Street in Upland, California. The operation targeted Furget Me Not Purebred Cat Rescue (which also operated under names like Furry Friends Resort and Serenity Spa and Cat Lounge). This massive multi-agency raid quickly escalated into a severe animal cruelty investigation. Inside two commercial units, investigators found hundreds of living cats suffering from severe malnourishment, dehydration, and untreated injuries.
Beyond the 405 living cats rescued, a deeper investigation at the properties and the owner’s Claremont home uncovered 28 dead cats stored in a freezer and 119 cremated animal remains.
Of course, like the rest of the "Rescue" outfits I noted, the Furget Me Not Purebred Cat Rescue operates as a registered, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
The proposed Bird Sales Ban is also a racist Attack on the multi ethnic working class of Lemon Grove and our city and East County's diverse cultural traditions.
The customer base of retail bird stores in East County is overwhelmingly people of color, with Latino, Asian and Middle Eastern families making up the overwhelming bulk of people who visit and shop at these bird stores.
A blanket ban on bird ownership ignores the cultural fabric of our diverse communities, and is a deeply insensitive overreach by the petit bourgeois (statistically 80% white female) animal rights extremists and "non-profit" grifters who are pushing for the Bird Sales ban in this city, (a city that is half Latino)
For many Latino, Mexican, and Native American families, keeping and breeding birds is a proud, generation-spanning cultural tradition.
Likewise, for many of the thousands of Muslims who reside and shop in East County, keeping dogs inside the home as pets is considered haram (forbidden) and many Muslim families choose birds for their family's companion animal are are frequent patrons at our area's retail bird stores.
The proposed Bird sales ban will hurt Birds as it will drive care and sales underground and will hurt city residents as this is basically an attempt to deny bird ownership to the families who live here by making it difficult to get a bird locally.
If The Bird Ban crazies have their way, you or your Abuela (grandmother), will be forced to fill out an application to get a simple canary or parakeet and perhaps then suffer through a humiliating home visit by some sketchy "rescue" person, oftentimes some grifter, hoarder, some old white pigeon "rescue lady", or similar facsimile thereof, who will determine your worthiness regarding whether you should be given the "privilege" to own a simple parakeet. 😆 (it boggles the mind why anyone would voluntarily vote to subject themselves to this).
For senior citizens who may feel isolated or lonely, a social, (and oftentimes talking) bird as a companion provides a vital sense of comfort and joy and being able to shop and buy a companion bird right here in Lemon Grove without traveling out of the city is an important convenience.
The Hidden Agenda: Who is Behind This Ban?
This policy isn't driven by local community needs other than the need for RJ at Lemon Grove Pet supplies and EXOTICS to clean up his foul smelling pet store, which was the local catalyst for the ballot Measure, as animal control and/or the Health Department has failed to Crack down on him.
Looking beyond Lemon Grove, This ban is being pushed by aggressive animal "liberation" groups like Stategic Action for Animals and by supporters of PETA, a group whose ultimate, explicit goal is to ban all forms of pet ownership by implementing ever-tightening legal restrictions.
Some of the same crowd promoting this proposed bird ban have, in the past, protested and/or picketed against Sea World,, Rodeos, Circuses, the Racetrack, Children's Petting Zoos and even against the children's pony rides at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, forcing them to close down.
These folks protest at pretty much any venue where the public interacts with animals . Animal protection is a noble endeavor and some of these issues have merit; however, there is a point whereby some of these activists and groups "go off the deep end" and become delusional misanthropes.
In summation, Measure E is Bad for Birds & Bad for Lemon Grove!
Don't let animal rights extremists, rich white guys, (like the CEO of the Humane Society), who live at the beach with their 3 legged dog , pigeon ladies and out of town Los Angeles extremist funders dictate what your family can love and care for. Keep our bird community safe, legal, and transparent and defend your right to shop.
Rather than harming Lemon Grove by banning retail bird stores, the energy and efforts of community activists would be better spent addressing the many real socioeconomic challenges facing Lemon Grove .
For starters, Lemon Grove has the lowest life expectancy in San Diego County. ( In fact, I own a Moluccan Cockatoo that will live longer than the average Lemon Grove resident.).
In almost every metric Lemon Grove is not just below the San Diego County average on health and socioeconomic measures but it is at, or near, the very bottom.
The biggest gaps are in life expectancy, stroke, diabetes, alcohol-related illness, poisoning/overdose, and access to health care where Lemon Grove is at the very bottom, or tied for the worst health outcomes in the entire County.
In addition, Lemon Grove has high unemployment, a shortage of affordable housing, high rental costs relative to income, homelessness, high fuel prices, child poverty, aged infrastructure, ICE agents prowling the streets, recially profiling and terrorizing city residents, and a weak property and anemic sales tax base, etc...These are the real issues that residents face and which should be the basis of community action and Ballot Measures.
Lemon Grove has lots of challenges facing it that need to be addressed, but shutting down legal retail bird stores will solve none of them, and will only serve to make things worse.
Vote NO on the Lemon Grove Bird Sales Ban. Don't let them take your Freedom away. 🍋
