Grand Cypress Ranch, Inc./GCR

RR 1   Box 97B,   Jacksonville, IL   62650

(217) 243-7683   phone        (217) 245-2919  fax

gcr@rhealiving.com  e-mail

May 5, 1998

Illinois Department of Public Regulation

James R. Thompson Center

100 West Randolph

Suite 9-300

Chicago, IL  60601

Fax:  312 814 3145

Re:  Complaint #  199812438

Dear Ms. Puente:

Please add the following evidence to the complaint:

1.     Dr. Valli’s response to my e-mail of April 5.

2.     A partial list of journal references co-authored by Victor E. Valli and listed in the National Library of Medicine.  The full list is 198 papers, this edited list of over 80 papers focusing on environmental chemistry is remarkable not only for its numbers, but also for the content.  Dr. Valli is well published in the field of environmental chemistry and toxicology, usually co-authoring with Canadians.  He was formerly affiliated with the University of Guelph and has obvious expertise in the area of toxic effects.

3.     An unsolicited e-mail from Dr. A. Yee at the University of Guelph.  It is truly a remarkable and improbable co-incidence that this offer would come from the University of Guelph, a foreign university, just a few months after my last complaint was filed. 

4.     The cover pages of some of Dr. Valli’s published papers showing his affiliations and area of expertise.

5.     A paper that was immediately following his in a fall 1996 issue of the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health:  “Effects of 3,3’,4,4’-tetrachlorobiphenyl, 2,3.3’,4,4’-pentachlorobophenyl, and 3,3’,4,4’,5-pentachlorobiphenyl on the developing chicken embryo when injected prior to incubation,”  by D. C. Powell et al.  As Dr. Valli frequently publishes in this journal, I believe he had access to this paper.

6.     I left this section from my patent application on Dean Valli’s desk during the meeting of January 1997.  He was extremely condescending and disinterested. This is taken from the patent for Rhea Extract filed August 1996:  “The effect of Rhea extract on chicks compromised by an environmental toxin: atrazine herbicide identified.”  Yet, my data looks incredibly similar to the data in the Powell paper described in point 5.  Unaware of the Powell article when I wrote this section, I did not cite it.

7.     A graphic showing the similarity in mortality data in the Powell paper and mine. 

8.     A complete evaluation from the University of Illinois on rhea chicks that I brought in during fall, 1994.  Based on this report, someone with a strong background in toxicology should suspect toxins as a cause of this disease. This report was not delivered in a timely manner.  I  complained and then it was issued.

Based on this evidence it should be considered that Dr. Valli at least had suspicions about the cause of the fatal epidemic slowly and painfully killing thousands of ostrich and rhea chicks and leaving surviving chicks stunted and deformed.  By the time I presented him some of my work in January of 1997, he had received the journal with the Powell paper describing the effects of PCB’s on chicken embryos.  As I have stated before, it has been openly stated to me that the beef industry does not want the ratite industry to succeed.  I was very much a threat, not only because I was solving the chick mortality problem, but I was developing a successful treatment and one that had wide commercial applications.  At the same time, since I was not a beneficiary of the academic system, I had no reason to slowly milk and manipulate the grant system.  I did have every motive to move the issue to a quick completion.

Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars as this industry collapsed.  Left without capital,  we have been unable to move forward at any more than a snail’s pace.  Had we known what was killing our chicks, the ratite industry would have had much greater credibility.  Both Dr. Troutt and Dean Valli were well aware of the high chick mortality problems and in the January meeting Dean Valli called the ratite industry a pyramid scheme.  I agreed.  I cannot help but believe this situation met the needs of a beef industry wanting to see the demise of an efficient and healthy potential competitor.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Donna Cardinale Fezler

President