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The world has made dramatic changes in the way we breed and keep animals over the past decades. Many of those changes are good. Animals in this country, the United States, and in most other civilized countries, have it better than they ever had. Our pets are living longer, healthier lives.
The state cruelty and neglect laws, when enforced, insure that we treat our animals well. Leash laws and voluntary spay-neuter programs have solved the dog overpopulation problem. We still have a "dog distribution" problem in which some areas still have too many in shelters, but that is being addressed by moving those dogs to places where there are not enough dogs. Noise and nuisance ordinances in populated areas prevent dogs from causing problems for neighbors. These changes are good and dog breeders support them. There is still a problem in cat overpopulation, but as I'm a dog breeder, I'll leave that one for the cat experts to address.
A very few Americans want radical changes that are designed to end the human-animal relationship altogether. These are the animal right fanatics. They believe that animals should have the same rights as people, and that to achieve these rights, they must live separately from people. No one should be allowed to hunt, to eat meat or any food produced by an animal, wear clothing made from animal products, use any animals for medical research or even keep pets.
These radicals recruit support from millions of Americans who believe in one piece of the radical agenda and send money to support that "cause." What they don't know is that their checks are used to support the darker parts of the animal rights movement. The money they send to help "poor homeless animals" ends up funding an agenda they would never condone.
Unfortunately, the animal welfare movement has been hijacked by extremists and those who believe in helping animals are doing the opposite by funding national organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA)
But the fight against animal rights is growing as people begin to realize that the humane movement has indeed been waylaid by extremists, as Patti and Rod Strand told us more than a decade ago in their book, The Hijacking of the Humane Movement. Though the book is out of print now, you can still find a used copy occasionally on Amazon. It's well worth the price. Animal rights is not about loving animals. It's about hating people.
If you love animals and want to see them continue to be a part of our lives, join the Pet-Law email list, explore the Pet-Law site, check out the links at that site, and help us fight for the freedom to own and breed pets.
The very first step you can take to help is to send your donations to your local shelter, where the money will be used to help animals, never to a national "humane" organization. The second step is to tell at least 50 other people the truth about animal rights and the national organizations. You can order a Got 50? teeshirt, cap, mug, pin, magnet or bag to help you open the conversation. When people ask what it means, tell them about the animal rights movement and the fight against it.
