Tim Kennedy talks Sheepdog Response, Hunting Nazis, Poachers, offers advice to Vetrepreneurs
Tim Kennedy brought his military experience and weapons tactics training to New Jersey where he, along with his staff of military and law enforcement professionals at Sheepdog Response, instructed police, military, and civilians, various aspects of self-defense. Over the course of several days Kennedy and his team spent half the time on the range at Cobra One Tactical, improving students’ shooting skills and teaching proper techniques and strategies to get an edge in the gun fight.
The other half was on the mats at Sakura BJJ in Dover, teaching students how to keep their weapon out of the wrong hands, and how to create the space to use it if attacked.
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Tim Kennedy talks Sheepdog Response
“This is SheepDog Response. It’s one of my companies,” Kennedy said.
“Our motto, our mission is to make our students and hopefully the rest of America, the hardest person somebody ever tries to kill. So that means they have to have the fundamentals basics of shooting and of fighting. That is what the course is comprised of. Half the day is shooting, half the day is fight. Right now we’re working on the fighting. Right now they are working on two-on-one drills so, two bad guys, one good guy, or two good guys, one bad guy, knives guns, every worst case scenario. How are you going to live?”
You announced your retirement from mixed martial arts earlier this year but you’ve remained active in a number of endeavors. What have you been up to since?
“Retired…… (laughs). Man, I’m working! I have a have a tv show on History Channel, Hunting Hitler, that I host. Season 3 is coming out this Fall, which is an amazing show. We are rewriting history with things that we find about what the Nazis did after the war. Right now we’re in the times where the Alt Right and the Neo Nazis are resurfacing in Europe. It is a very scary time to go back and look at. I get so irritated when some of these people are like ‘Look a these Nazis.’ No man, I know what a Nazi is cause I’ve been hunting them for five years. Like actual real Nazis. Not some jerk that is carrying a torch and chanting about a statue. That’s just an asshole, that has some jacked up beliefs.
“But like real nasty SS tattoos on their neck, swastikas on the chest, second generation from dudes that were fighting in Germany, that were burning Jews. Those are the guys. So I know what a Nazi is. It’s a cool show. It’s been a great three seasons. Got another show coming out with A&E, The Army Sniper Competition. Gonna go in and cover that as a competitor and as a shooter. And then I’ve got another show coming up after that, that I’m going to go do very ‘Tim Kennedy’ like things. So a lot of television. I reenlisted (in the military) after the election in November. I’m still with the Special Forces unit that works in Africa. I have five companies that I’m the owner of, Sheepdog Response being one of them. I’m part of a foundation that helps Military and Law Enforcement first responders get training, so like….. I’m working. I think retirement is definitely not the right word.”
You were able to use your military experience and training to create a brand, a business if you will. You are also part of Ranger Up which is one of the leading brands in military apparel. What advice would you give to an aspiring Vetrepreneur, a military Veteran looking to become an entrepreneur?
“I get frustrated looking at the military community and it’s like ‘Veteran-owned, give us your business.’ No man! Be the best business. Have the best product. Have the best customer service. Be a the right place at the right time. All the things that we know how to do, do that in business. Be the best. Business is gonna come. That’s just how it is. I think there’s this contagious sense of entitlement in the Veteran community, like they deserve something. You don’t deserve anything.
“You were promised a couple of meals and sometimes a bed to sleep on while you are in the military. What they gave you is discipline. What they gave you were tools to be successful. Now you have to do that. So, I don’t know anybody that works harder than me. People are like you have a brand, or you can promote products, but yeah man, I work 15 or 16 hours every single day, in between me traveling all over the world to find nasty bad people. So there’s no excuse. Success is 100 percent on you. Nobody else is going to do it for you. You have to do it, so you, military community, be ready to do hard work. That’s what this is, hard work.”
You have openly discussed your love for protest and free speech, but disparaged riots and looting. You have also recently discussed on social media, that you are working to eradicate poaching. Is this a new endeavor?
“It’s not a new venture. I’ve actually been involved in counter-poaching for a long time, both working in Africa and South America. I’m a hunter. I love the outdoors. I’m a conservationist. I love wildlife. I love hunting it, I love eating it, I love appreciating it, I love photographing it. And I hate people that take advantage of it. And that’s what it is when you look at the defenseless and helpless. I have 15 years in Special Operations. From human trafficking to terrorism to counter-drug, weapons smuggling to include poaching.
“Whether they are smuggling trophies out, rhino horns out, all of that money is connected. If you are buying a coin online that was in a museum in North Iraq, ISIS took that and they are selling that to fund their terrorist game. If you are buying Rhino horn because it makes your dick hard, you are funding terrorists. My friends that have died, knowing what terrorism does, having fought human trafficking for 11 years now, working for multiple non-profits, I know how these things are connected. And to make it even worse these animals are helpless. Nobody protects them.
“But it’s not just the animals, cause the money made from poaching goes on to support other dicks, other assholes, other dudes that are part of syndicated crime networks, so I’m not only fighting to protect the animals I love and care about, I’m also fighting terrorism, by fighting poaching. So when you look at the military community, particularly Special Operations, you see a really soft spot for women, for kids, and for anything helpless, anything that can’t protect itself. We just feel obligated to be there for them. We’re the defenders of the defenseless. Like our motto, “De Opresso Liber”, We are going to ‘Liberate the Oppressed’. This is what we live for. You have a very small community with a soft spot in a very specific place that are watching these guys for decades take advantage of kindness, weakness and now you are gonna have a skillset, a group of guys that are some of the scariest men on the planet, starting to look for poachers. Special Operations guys, Special Forces guys, Green Berets, Navy SEALS, Rangers, all of them with some of the most violent skills on the planet looking people that are hurting animals, so…. DON’T DO THAT!”
