KACHING!
By: Dr. Al Grossman
The
ringing sound of the old fashioned cash register meant a sale had been
made and that money was now in the till. Money, Money the mother's milk
of politics as described by Jesse Unruh, a former speaker of the California
Assembly when running for election against Ronald Regan.
Let's
face it, the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) through their very professional
fund raising campaigns has raised millions of dollars through misleading
advertising and an appeal to save the poor darling Puppies, Seals etc.
Would it come as a surprise to you that most of the money collected
never found its way to help anyone but the administrators of the fund
raising companies and the top brass of HSUS. HSUS is listed near the
very bottom of charitable organizations that deliver monies to the actual
recipients in need.
It appears
that HSUS main thrust at the present time is to work hand in glove with
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to introduce legislation
at the National, City, County, and State levels to destroy both the
livestock industry and the breeding of Pure Bred Dog and Cats. According
to a profile in a 2003 New Yorker magazine Ingrid Newkirk, the president
of PETA, by her own claims, wants to destroy al pets. She claims to
be responsible for euthanizing thousands of pets brought to a shelter
where she worked in Washington, D.C. She explained "I would go
to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals
myself. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every
day." They weren't even given a chance to be adopted. She took
them out because she felt she could give them what she felt they deserved.
This is a woman now in a position to influence the lives of thousands
of pets and who leads a horde of vengeance minded brain washed bleeding
heart converts. She is interviewed on radio and television as though
she is the avenging angel rather than a demented fraud.
If this
were a nurse killing off her patients because she thought it was for
their own good, she would be serving a life sentence for murder. The
State of Virginia is so disgusted with Newkirk and her organization
and their killing of dogs and cats that they have introduced legislation
to declare PETA a slaughterhouse. Debra J Saunders writing in the San
Francisco Chronicle on June 23rd, 2005 tells us not to be fooled by
the slick propaganda of PETA. The organization claims to champion the
welfare of animals, as the many photos of cute puppies and kittens on
its website suggests.
But
recently two PETA employees were charged with 31 felony counts of animal
cruelty, each after authorities found them dumping the dead bodies of
18 animals they had just picked up from a North Carolina Animal Shelter
into a dumpster. According to the Associated Press 13 more dead animals
were found in a van registered to PETA.
The
rise of HSUS and PETA has coincided with the economic boom. It allowed
them to collect obscene amounts of money thus fulfilling the fantasies
of Newkirk and Wayne Pacellle president of HSUS. Their thoughts must
have been: "if we can collect all this money we must be on the
right track so we can do what we want". The Center for Consumer
Freedom, which represents the food industry, a frequent target of PETA
campaigns, released data filed by PETA with the state of Virginia that
shows PETA has killed more than 10,000 animals form 1998-2003. "In
2003, PETA euthanized over 85% of the animals it took in.," said
a press release from the lobby, "finding adoptive homes for just
14%. By comparison the Norfolk (Va) SPCA found adoptive homes for 73%
of its animals and Virginia Beach SPCA adopted out 66 percent."
Like
other demagogies in our history like Father Coughlin, The Kingfish Huey
Long in Louisiana, the John Birch Society, etc., they have had their
day in the sun.
Their
biggest asset is the need for government entities to generate monies
to balance their budgets. HSUS/PETA present them with the opportunity
to raise money from the backs of dog and cat owners by onerous legislation
designed by HSUS to rid the nation of all pets and convert us to being
vegetarians as well. Legislators seeing $$ signs go along with HSUS
lobbyists and think that this action will get them re-elected. Far from
it. The legislator in California who introduced and promoted AB 1634
for its passage was soundly defeated in his next election. The animal
radical fanatics appeal to legislators is that they purport to be able
to rally a large voting bloc. If they don't go along it's implied that
the voting bloc can be turned against them. However, a poll taken by
the Los Angeles Times indicated that over 80% of the people polled were
solidly against the thrust of the anti dog/ cat legislation, which mandated
spaying and neutering their pets. These poll results have been replicated
elsewhere. In May 2009 the American Veterinary Medical Association also
came out against the mandatory spay/neuter programs promoted by HSUS/PETA
insisting that if it were to be done it should be done by private owners
at their request.
States
and localities which earlier have passed such severe anti dog/cat legislation
and which significantly raised the fees for owning such animals found
that their costs for running such programs swelled far above the revenues
produced and they were in the red. People rebelled by not licensing
their dogs at the exorbitant fees spelled out in the legislation. Somehow
word had not spread to the august bodies approving such legislation
that their constituents were downsized, laid off, or forced into bankruptcy
by the current economic situation. Talk about squeezing blood from a
turnip...
Adding
insult to injury the Animal control officers have taken it upon themselves
to use their newfound authority supposedly granted to them under legislation
to harass and threaten people to seize their dogs or jail them if they
did not comply. Somehow either the legislative bodies or their agents
are not aware of the United States Constitution which, under the Fourth
Amendment, "provides the right of people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and
seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon
probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The fifth amendment reads in part "nor shall any person be deprived
of life, liberty, or property, without due process off law; nor shall
private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
Many
of the raids upon unsuspecting owners and breeders seem to have HSUS
members in attendance. They have no business directing the Animal Control
officers in their duties. Many of the dogs seized are then sold with
no recompense to the owner.
Increasingly
the agricultural industry, hunting enthusiasts and the dog/cat breeders
have fought back against the onslaught of PETA and HSUS. In many instances
they have turned back legislation and in some cases competent counsel
has been hired to fight such onerous legislation such as that passed
by the city of Louisville. The National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA),
a seventeen-year- old non-profit organization along with the American
Kennel Club (AKC) and the ASPCA and a host of other organizations has
led the fight against the Animal Radicals.
HSUS
and PETA are not friends to pet owners, breeders or pet business of
any kind, nor to reptile or bird owners, hunters, fisherman, pet stores,
pet retail sellers, ANYONE in the pet trade regardless of what you are
selling. The HSUS would like to stop the pet trade in its entirety because
the HSUS doesn¹t believe animals should be owned much less used
as a food product according to www.PetDefense.WordPress.com.
An important
consequence of the current recession is that people are no longer contributing
to charities and the likes of HSUS/PETA at the rate they did prior to
the downturn in the economy. We see report after report that the giving
well has dried up. Even churches have suffered. People no longer have
disposable income to give to the likes of HSUS/PETA. These organizations
now need to reevaluate their priorities. Can they afford to have as
many lobbyists to help forward their legislative agendas? Can they afford
to spend monies on costly solicitation campaigns that are bringing less
and less money? Can they continue to afford costly newspaper ads in
newspapers that have fewer subscribers and are in danger of going out
of business themselves?
The
Animal Radical stalwarts might also want to be aware of what they wish
for. The last times such activism won the day was when they banned alcohol
consumption and the teaching of evolution. Those triumphs all turned
out to be Pyrrhic. There are some successes that are simply not survivable.
If by any combination of luck and coincidence HSUS/PETA succeeded in
criminalizing the raising of dogs and cattle it would swiftly become
the victim of backlash that would make it rue the day. This would apply
with redoubled force to any imitative that would make the United States
trade its hard-won scientific prowess in favor of animal radical fanatics.
Christopher
Hitchens writing in the April 6th issue of Newsweek believes that this
country is so constituted that no one group and certainly no one confessional
group is able to dictate its own standards to the others. He states,
"sometimes I wish they would get their own way, just so they would
find out what would happen to them."
HSUS/PETA
are a danger to our way of life and a threat to the economic future
of agriculture in this country. They are hell bent on eliminating raising
dogs and cats for pets and want to convert all of us from meat eaters
to vegetarians. Lord, I hate Broccoli, Spinach and Carrots.
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The
above article was posted on the CFA-SWR list on June 3, 2009 with the
permission of the author to cross post.