I'm a few clowns short of a circus, and unfortunately I've disillusioned myself into thinking I can write. Godspeed.

Friday, November 16, 2007

Animal Rights Activists Make me Sick

As anyone who knows me well can attest to, I am absolutely animal crazy. I've had dogs almost my entire life, as well as rabbits, cats, chickens, ponies, horses, guinea pigs, fish and as of recent, mice (the domesticated variety, I'd much rather they be my spoiled pets than potential fodder for a hungry pet snake, although I understand that snakes need to eat, too). There's almost nothing I wouldn't do for an animal, and I would rather go hungry than see my animals go without their food. They are my kids, and although they all tend to drive me batty on occasion, I love them dearly.

I recently joined the Causes application on Facebook. Specifically to join a group vowing to help Stop Puppy Mills. In case you're unaware of what a puppy mill is, they're an absolutely abbhorent commercial dog breeding facilities for the purpose of supplying puppies for resale to pet stores and animal testing facilities. Check out the actual Stop Puppy Mills website for more information. I do have to forewarn you -- some of the pictures are extremely graphic and quite disturbing. Some of the videos are worse.

Anyway, I pointed out on the group that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, often known as PETA, is actually a horrible group for anyone caring about the welfare of our domesticated animals. Ingrid Newkirk, their national director, has stated several times that pet ownership is simply oppressing our animals and that it is cruel and wrong and needs to be stopped altogether. I can't knowingly support an organization that would like the entire idea of owning domesticated animals for the purpose of companionship abolished.

What is PETA's true hidden agenda here? Would they like us all to release our domesticated animals into the wild to have nature take it's course? Perhaps we should follow PETA's lead and destroy most animals entrusted in our care to spare them our oppressive ways?

If you don't believe me, please check out this website, or this one.

According to PeTA's own filings, in 2004 PeTA killed 86.3 percent of the animals entrusted to its care -- a number that's rising. Meanwhile, the SPCA in PeTA's home town (Norfolk, Va.) was able to find loving homes for 73 percent of the animals put in its care.

It makes me a little angry knowing that my $25 cheque each year -- entitling me to free address labels and a jazzy little quarterly newsletter -- was really going towards killing the very animals I was trying to help save.

The information above wasn't what made me stop sending them the money though. I've only recently found out about that.

What really got to me was their adamant stance on the 'cruel' sport of dogsledding.

Cruel? If only I could bound and gag Ms. Newkirk and stick her in a snowbank to watch me harness up a team of my Siberians before a run. If only she could see the way they dreaded the cruelty. It shows in the way their tails wag, the way they scream out their enthusiasm in a chorus, the way they jump into their harnesses, scratch at the gate to be let out and lunge at the end of their gangline ready to let loose and run. If you don't believe me, just come home with me one day and watch me unlace my sled from it's place in the shed. Bring earplugs though. There's a reason I'm one of the only prematurely hearing impaired 24 year olds I know.

The disappointment in my dogs' faces when I put it back in it's storage place will break your heart. So of course we'll go for a run. We have to. The dogs will plot our deaths if we don't.

But cruel?

If letting a dog do what they love to do the best; have the most fun they've had all day; do what it is imprinted in their genetics to want to do, is cruel, then tell the dogs -- I'm sure they'll understand. Before they plot your death of course.

These dogs love their 'job'. They live for it. We couldn't force them to do anything they don't want to do. Trust me. I've tried my dad's Goldens in harness. Dogs won't do what they don't want to do. And 120 lbs. worth of a Golden duo IS enough to hold up 250 lbs. of husky muscle. Just for your information.

As three time Iditarod champion Jeff King has said, you can't push a rope, and if the dogs decide not to pull, well, that musher isn't going anywhere. Just ask DeeDee Jonrowe, whose hopes were crushed in the 1999 race when her veteran team of dogs stopped and made it clear they'd had enough. The same thing happened to others in Iditarod 2000, with several teams simply stopping and declining to move one step closer to Nome, despite the musher's best entreaties, a rebellion that earned the dogs a plane ride home, not sudden death.

I'm on a tangent though.

The point of this was that I posted my views on this group and my anti-PETA remarks apparently offended some ignorant little moron who felt the need to call me some choice names and tell me that by showing dogs, I am oppressing the very animals I claim to love.

I love that word.. oppression. What does it mean?

op·pres·sion [uh-presh-uhn]
–noun
1. the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
2. an act or instance of oppressing.
3. the state of being oppressed.
4. the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, anxiety, etc.

So essentially, this little ignoramus believes that my dogs (who would rather be with their people than anywhere else) are being treated cruelly by being bathed, going on a car ride (this is just one of their favorite things), visiting all the other dogs, and being petted and trotted around a show ring.

Again.. tell the dogs this. My Siberian hasn't been in a show ring in almost 3 years and she's miserable. It was our special time together, where she got more attention in one weekend than she did for months before (I'm referring to the attention from judges, fellow fanciers and spectators of course.. tell me how one person can compete with hundreds?). Although she despised bath time (what dog truly enjoys it?), it was a minor evil compared to getting to go to a dog show. Even now, 3 years later, the words 'dog show' cause her to perk up her ears in a way that only 'cookie' and 'walk' can.

You can't make a dog do anything they don't want to do. It's the biggest reason every show breeder I know has at least one 'show prospect' in their backyard who is finishable (meaning they can win enough to obtain 10 points at CKC sanctioned conformation shows, therefore obtaining the title of 'Canadian Champion' or being 'finished') but who will never see the show ring again. They didn't thrive in the hustle and bustle of our fancy, and as I've mentioned, you can't get a dog to do anything they don't want to do.

However, oppression it is not.



Extremists scare me. In any form. Animal Rights extremists are the worst of the bunch.

Organizations like PETA fund terrorist movements (the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front both recieve generous donations from them, and are both classified as terrorist organization by the FBI), which means Animal rights extremists have no problem resorting to violence.

Even the wonderful Ms. Newkirk has publicly admitted this much.

"Our nonviolent tactics are not as effective. We ask nicely for years and get nothing. Someone makes a threat, and it works."
- Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA, US News and World Report, April 8, 2002

They have been convicted of arson, they bomb university research labs (
conveniently overlooking the injurious and life-threatening hazards to first-responders, firefighters, pedestrians and motorists created when emergency vehicles dash to the conflagrations created by their "freedom fighters) , and brutally beat or threaten those who don't share their views.

They have no problem using scare tactics on children. PETA made the news in 2005 when they handed out activist comics with a scary looking man tearing the innards out of a fish on the cover. Plastered over the picture in big letters, it says, "Your Daddy Kills Animals."

They post tactless ads in the same thread every year. 3 years ago at Easter, I remember driving down the Yellowhead to see a giant billboard with the words "He Died for your Sins" and a Pig. The message -- Go Vegetarian.

Animal rights nuts have no problem coming to dog shows and letting loose our napping canine companions from the safety of their crates and x-pens, believing their work is for the greater good, namely releasing the beloved 'oppressed' pets. The result?

Disoriented dogs running amok -- dog fights, pandemonium and worse, dogs escaping from the show building or site, running onto the busy roadway, being hit by a car and dying.

How is this not the true oppression?

After all, they have the power as the opposable thumbed species to open the doors and allow the dogs to run to their fates, which are sometimes quite cruel.

Are you a pet owner? Drop the term 'animal rights' from your vocabulary right now, use the words 'animal welfare' instead. Why?

Animal rights, as a philosophical viewpoint, is fundamentally different from animal welfare, since it maintains that animals are not ours to use at all-for food, clothing, entertainment (including companionship), or experimentation.

Animal Welfare endorses the responsible use of animals to satisfy certain human needs - from companionship and sport, to uses that involve the taking of life, such as for food, clothing, and medical research. Animal welfare advocates seek to ensure that all animals used by humans have their basic needs fulfilled in terms of food, shelter, and health, and that they experience no unnecessary suffering in providing for human needs.

Oh, and the next time you see Pamela Anderson -- ask her how she likes being a dog owner.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Quirky Cori said...

Now this is the thing - people that willingly beat their dogs and the general public are completely different people.

People that show compassion for animals and spend time with animals have a better understanding of their pets wants and desires. Seeing a dog excited about going to a show or going on a race, know far more about their animal than anyone that hasn't experienced it first hand.

It's the same with dogs as it is with children - some parents chose to spank their child if they have done something bad - some parents chose time out. It's a matter of training and discipline and with dogs it is no different.

My family had a border collie - which in it's very innate breeding is designed to herd animals, whether they be horses, cows, pigs or even children in order to stay together and do as commanded. We did not do any formal training from this dog - it was trained from birth by it's mother.

Most people do not view making a dog "work" as cruelty. We have simply harnessed a power within an animal that they are born to do.

Whether it's working as a guard dog, a herding dog, a sled dog or tracking dog, these animals provide us with the ability to go beyond our own limitations.

Brigit - I think your blog post was well written and brought up some very good points about something you have first hand knowledge of. I think the person that just copied and pasted this text - doesn't have any first hand knowledge of what a true working dogsled team can do. I think they have opted to steal from other sources rather than going out and seeing it for themselves.

Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 12:42:00 PM PST

 
Blogger breepeace said...

*ROTFL* Glickman? Is that you again? Do we need to have the same arguments that we've been having for the past 9 years? Get a life woman.

You can't change my mind about a sport I know and love intensely. I know more about the internal workings that you and your copy-paste commands will ever care to know.

I know that those mushers and their dogs are the best of friends and that those dogs run because it's what they were bred to do and what they love to do. Dogs die on the trail. Dogs die in backyards of the same afflictions.

If you knew anything about the dynamics of dogs, you would know that dogs thrive when serving a purpose, these dogs know their calling in life, and I know first hand that a dog who doesn't want to work isn't forced to work. That's counterproductive. They're sent home and usually retired and placed in a home, or re-evaluated before the next race.

As for culling litters of puppies -- who? I know 2 Iditarod mushers firsthand and neither of them purposely culls puppies when any dog has the capacity to run in harness or produce revenue for puppy sales.

But don't worry... the dogs are already plotting your death. :)

Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 3:57:00 PM PST

 
Blogger an animal life said...

Thank you for a well thought out and well written article. You write from the heart and know your subject well.

Animal Rights Activists (ARAs)make me sick too. Most of them don't know one end of an animal from the other. They care little for the real welfare of animals, but care greatly for the chance to exert power and control over others.

They are hypocritical to the extreme:

"Mushers believe in "culling" or killing unwanted dogs, including puppies."
"On average, 53 percent of the dogs who start the race do not make it across the finish line."

53% eh? well that's a heck of a lot less than the 97% of the unwanted dogs and cats taken in by peta in 2006 that were "culled". They didn't make it past the finish line either, and many of those too were puppies,kittens, and expectant mothers.


Another trait of ARAs is their limited vocabulary. Have you noticed, they use the same few words over and over again, to describe any and every animal's situation. Abuse; filthy; dying, inappropriate diet, suffering. Come one ARAs read the dictionary, there are other words out there you know.

Keep uyp the good work breepeace, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

Saturday, March 22, 2008 at 6:10:00 PM PDT

 
Blogger ladyhorserider said...

Very well written article. I hope that many people see this and think twice before they send their hard earned money to the likes of PETA, WSPA, or Zoocheck or any of the hundreds of other money sucking organizations that are taking advantage of the well meaning animals lovers in this world.
As you said so well, sled dogs will not run if they choose not to, the reason they do is because they love the sport as much as the mushers.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 4:00:00 AM PDT

 

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