Rabbit regulations have McCaskill hopping mad

WASHINGTON — Marty Hahne’s magic tricks don’t work in Washington.

Hahne is the Springfield-area magician who became a media sensation a few years ago, when the Washington Post wrote about an obscure federal rule that required him to have a license and disaster plan for his rabbit, Casey, the furry star of his children’s magic shows.

The reaction was wondrous—at first.

The federal Secretary of Agriculture quashed the disaster plan requirement immediately after the Post’s story was posted online. And by early 2014, lawmakers in Congress had directed the Agriculture Department to craft an exemption to the rules, so that Hahne and other magicians no longer had to submit to surprise federal bunny inspections and other silliness.

Nearly three years later, though, those political edicts seem like hocus pocus to Hahne, a.k.a. “Marty the Magician.”

Agriculture Department regulators haven’t finalized the exemption, so he still has to file annual paperwork for his rabbit permit, and Casey still gets regular visits from the USDA inspectors. The Ozark-based magician even has to send the feds his travel schedule if he and Casey go on any overnight trips.

“When I travel with my rabbit, like if I’m going to an elementary school in Kansas City … the letter of the law says I need to fax or email them my itinerary,” said Hahne, who performs at schools, libraries, and birthday parties. “It’s just a real inconvenience.”

The decades-old rule was originally intended to regulate zoos and circuses, but it has expanded over the years to scoop up even small “animal exhibitors” like Hahne. The issue captured national attention when the USDA moved to expand the rule even further—requiring businesses that sell or exhibit animals to develop emergency plans for their furry friends in case of a flood, tornado or other disasters.

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That proposal, since nixed, stemmed from a public outcry after thousands of animals were abandoned during Hurricane Katrina. Congress got involved then too—passing a law requiring the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make sure rescue plans addressed the needs of individuals with pets and service animals.

Hahne said it’s all gotten a bit out of hand.

“If you have six tigers in a show, you should be inspected,” he said. “But if you have one little bunny rabbit?”

Federal regulators have not ignored magician’s bunny saga. But they have taken years to re-write the rules that require smaller animal exhibitors to get a license and inspections. And the proposed rules they’ve come up with would still ensnare Hahne in their regulatory net.

On Aug. 3, more than two years after Congress called for the exemption, the Agriculture Department’s animal and plant division issued a 12-page draft proposal. Under that measure, to wiggle out of the licensing and inspection requirements, magicians and other animal exhibitors can’t make a living off that activity.

“… Persons who derive their primary source of income from exhibiting the animals, or who generate a substantial amount of money from such exhibition as determined by APHIS (the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service), would not be eligible for the exclusion,” the draft rule states. The agency said Congress’ legislative directive should be interpreted to mean “the activity is not a full-time job or primary source of income.”

But Hahne is a full-time magician, and Casey is a regular part of his act. “Their definitions don’t help me out,” he said.

Now, the Agriculture Department’s proposal has Sen. Claire McCaskill hopping mad.

“I can think of no earthly reason why a magician should be subject to a burdensome registration regulation from the government for his lone rabbit,” the Missouri Democrat said. “I relish the opportunity to arm-wrestle bureaucrats who dropped their common sense on their way into the office.”

McCaskill sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last week blasting the agency for taking so long to enact the new rule and for failing to figure out a common-sense solution to the magician’s dilemma.

“This is a classic example of bureaucrats in Washington identifying a potential problem but using a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel to address it,” she said.

Lyndsay Cole, a spokeswoman for the USDA’s animal and plant agency, said agency officials met with McCaskill last week to hear her concerns. She said USDA officials are now reviewing all the public comments submitted on the draft rule before finalizing it.

“The intent of our proposed rule is to exempt business activities that are de minimis – meaning they are of a sufficiently small size, maintain or infrequently exhibit a small number of certain common non-dangerous animals, or own household pets that are exhibited occasionally, generate less than a substantial portion of income, and reside exclusively with the owner – from federal licensure and oversight,” Cole said.

Hahne said he was encouraged that McCaskill decided to weigh in on the matter. But it might take more than a little magic to get the rule fixed.