Bumper sticker from Zazzle

Best Friends’ “No More Homeless Pets” page, with links to info and resources

Compassion Action Institute: “Don’t buy animals — adopt them”

Last Chance for Animals’ Pet Overpopulation page

HSUS’ Pet Adoption information page

ASPCA’s “Adopt” page

In Defense of Animals’ pet shop page, with video This is about pet shops that sell dogs from puppy mills.

I would have considered puppy mills to vastly different from “responsible” breeders. But from what I’ve read on the change.org site, the “responsible” breeder’s attitudes towards dogs as “property” and people’s “right” to “own” them, and their attitudes toward people who are looking to end other (and worse) forms of animal abuse don’t strike me as being any different than what I’d expect from people who run puppy mills.

As long as we’re killing, what, 4-5 million companion animals in shelters every year, be part of the pet overpopulation solution and not the problem. Adopt, and don’t “pre-order” or buy puppies from breeders of any type — “responsible” or not.

To the “responsible” dog breeders: How about breeding one less litter per dog per year, until the pet overpopulation problem is solved?

Here’s a little something I found linked to NAIA’s site:

New Mexico Officials May Ban the Sale of Cats and Dogs

This is about considering to ban the sale of pets in pet stores. But the dog breeders were afraid it could be expanded. In the article, it says

The Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) has issued an alert urging those who oppose the amendments to attend the board of commissioners meeting next week.

PIJAC said there is a high probability such restrictions could spread to neighboring counties. The city of Albuquerque, which is located in Bernalillo County, already has in place an ordinance banning the sale of pet-shop cats and dogs.

The council recommended citizens consider that pet-store puppies tend to receive veterinary care more frequently then puppies from other sources. It cited a study conducted by Cornell University that found no other source produces healthier puppies than pet stores.

PIJAC also said commercial suppliers of puppies for pet stores are generally required to be licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture, which has strict standards for maintaining breeding facilities.

PIJAC warned that people wanting to buy puppies will turn to other sources that are not regulated and may offer less healthy dogs, such as backyard breeders.

It also said that evidence shows pet stores are not a significant source for dogs that end up in animal shelters and pounds.

I’m surprised. I don’t know who PIJAC is, but assume it’s a recognized organization by “responsible” breeders. Do they really think puppies sold in pet stores are more regulated, when pet stores are notorious for getting their puppies from puppy mills? Do they really think that the USDA does a decent job, when YouTube videos of abysmal plight of puppy mill dogs are from mills that are licensed by the USDA?

I think if “responsible” breeders want to protect their reputation, they should distance themselves from puppy mills and pet stores.

Here are a couple of YouTube videos that I just found:

The USDA and Puppy Mills:

The Truth about Puppy Mills:

There are many more videos on YouTube on the topic of puppy mills.

And if that isn’t enough, here’s a link to something I posted earlier this month, tagged as “composted dogs as fertilizer”. Please visit the “Puppies Are Biodegradable” site to find out about a dirty little secret of the dog breeding industry.

I’ve been reading posts on the www.change.org site — and with the exception of an animal research student and some guy who thinks the way to conserve lions (to save them from extinction) is to farm them for meat, and is constantly pushing the preservation of the “right” to “own” animals and posted an idea for the death penalty for animal rights “terrorism” — it seems that the most vocal and most opinionated anti-animal rights posters are dog breeders, of all people, like I’m guessing abou 95% or more. (Horse owners who want horse slaughterhouses reopened are another group of surprisingly animal-unfriendly people who are set in their opinions. But I don’t recall them propagandizing like the dog breeders constantly do.)

Here I thought it would be the meat industry or the drug industry or people who balk at the idea of veganism. But no. I Googled for various prolific posters who go by a full name or initials and a last name, and found a Sheltie breeder, Afghan breeder, Airedale breeder, Rottweiler club member, and a Parrot person who is affiliated with NAIA.

They seem to have bought into the propaganda of NAIA, and consider animal rights activists “extremists” who want to eliminate pets. They have chosen their “truth”, and are unyielding to anything anyone else has to say.

On the one hand, it’s good to know who the opposition is, and heartening to know that it’s a relatively small segment of the population. On the other hand, it’s enough to motivate me to strongly encourage people to adopt from shelters instead of buying from breeders.

Well, that explains a couple of things about my old bulletin animal board at church, and some correspondences I had with a dog-breeding priest. (He was good friends with my curate who is also a vet.)

Since I outed the guy on change.org on the page with his idea to ask for the death penalty for animal rights “terrorists”, he’ll probably be looking for me.

To counter some of the anti-PETA propaganda that the dog breeders constantly preach almost half-truths to sway public opinion against animal rights, Donna Lisa posted (on 12/23, so you’d have to page down) PETA’s explanations to some of the propaganda — particularly accusations like “PETA Kills Animals” and PETA funds “extremists”. It is worth reading for anyone who is interested in hearing both sides.

Here’s a video of how to make vegan kabobs with tofu and seitan, and also shows the different types of tofu, and some ideas of what they’re good for. I just watched it, and since there was an option to embed the video, thought I’d post it here.

'rhymes with vegan' episode 1 - tofu kababs and edamame

Click here for more recipes/videos at Rhymes with Vegan.

I decided to embed another video about cooking a Thanksgiving meal, which could be used for any “family food holiday”:

Rhymes With Vegan - SPECIAL Thanksgiving Episode from rhymes with vegan on Vimeo.

I dragged this picture of my dog off my daughter’s Facebook page. He’s wearing the jammies she bought him (be)for(e) Christmas….

Today(*) is the 10th anniversary of Myko’s unexpected death.

He was the most docile dog I ever met, and a very beautiful tri-colored Sheltie. He made going to the nursing home a comfortable experience in the beginning, when I had to go visit my dad.

I was told that he was originally a show dog. But I was at least his third person, when I brought him home to live with us only 11 months before — on Epiphany. He was about 10 or 11. He was overweight. I thought he had back problems, and he had cataracts. His nails also hadn’t been trimmed so they were turned in odd directions, so he couldn’t wear them down by walking. I didn’t know there was anything else wrong with him until the Monday morning before he died, when he didn’t want to come in the house, and when he finally did, he stayed under the china cabinet. I called the emergency vet and took him in. They did a blood test, etc., which ended up revealing all kinds of things that may or may not have been life-threatening, but which had gone undiagnosed until then. I took him to his regular vet the next morning, where he ended up dying alone in the night, and we never got to say goodbye. It was a devastating Christmas. We adapted the funeral service from the Book of Common Prayer, complete with Scripture readings and hymns — alone in the back yard. It was then that I noticed that the Church really didn’t have anything to offer at a time like that.

I don’t have any digital pictures to post. (I do have some regular pictures somewhere.) It’s odd, because even though I have another Sheltie with similar markings, I can’t remember exactly what Myko looked like. Maybe he looked something like this, except a little darker and with his ears bent downwardly. He had a cute snout that turned upward a little bit.

* I posted this at 11:39 p.m. on December 23rd. But I see that Word Press is already calling this December 24th. He died on the 23rd.

Sheldon is almost 10 now, which worries me. I hope he’ll have a lot more time than Myko did.

There is a divide between animal welfarists and animal rightists or abolitionists.

I used to think that the abolitionists were impatient when they considered animal welfare to be a way of exploiting animals a little more humanely, that small incremental improvements were a waste of effort — or are worried that minor welfare improvements would make people feel OK about eating “free-range” eggs, or meat “as long as the animal was humanely raised” — as if anyone would know which if any in their meat aisle were. As one famous abolition said, after all these years, all animal welfare won for chickens is an extra inch of cage space.

“Welfare” has a less-demanding-sounding connotation than “Rights” does.

My own personal definition of “animal welfare” has to do with looking after the best interest of the animals in our care, and means “animal protection” or “guardianship” in the non-legal sense of the word. (For people who get worked up over the idea of “guardianship”, maybe “conservator” is a better word.) I am pretty much an abolitionist in my own personal life, but tend to be tolerant of well-meaning people who aren’t on the same page.

But lately, I find myself increasingly irritated by people who profess “welfare” as a veneer for “ownership rights”. And I find them to be totally sucked in by the type of propaganda that comes from sources like “The Center for Consumer Freedom” that is the “Swiftboating” front for corporate interests of various sorts. When I hear the “welfarists’” comments, they are so twisted, and they all trot out the same “talking points” from the same unknown source. They like to call animal rights activists things like “extremists” and “domestic terrorists”, and supposedly feel personally threatened that the animal rights activists are going to change society so quickly, that they won’t be able to keep pets.

The reason I’m posting this is because of some ideas and comments I’ve read on the www.change.org site. I’ll link to a few. Then I’ll link to a blog blurb that was posted elsewhere on that site, because it sort of correlates with what’s on my mind, although it pertains to a different kind of responder than the typical animal-owning “welfarist”.

Here are a sampling of ideas I found on change.org, to give a flavor of what’s irritating me about the anti-AR people:

Protect constitutional property rights of animal owners

Strengthen the Animal Welfare Act, Increase Funding and Penalties, and Remove Exemptions (It’s clear that the negative posts are written by people who have interests to protect.)

Animal WELFARE

Classify PeTA and ALF as domestic terrorists and eliminate them

Death Penalty for Animal Rights Terrorism

Reinstate Horse Slaughter (Dig the “horse lovers” who think they should be able to send their horses to slaughter when they’re no longer “useful”, and think some hungry person in a Third World country could benefit from having a little horse meat to supplement their diet. Regarding the starvation argument, did it ever occur to people who aren’t able to buy feed anymore, that they could grow grass, oats, barley, alfalfa or whatever horses eat?)

After reading the anti-AR posts, and especially those that rage against organizations like the HSUS & PETA with their typical propaganda, I wonder what the animal owners feel is acceptable to protect animals. What have they done? What animal protection or animal welfare groups are acceptable to them? That might be telling….

Blog blurbs:

Ready to Attack Animal Rights Activists? Consider This First

Industry Docs Pushing to Paint Activists as Terrorists Revealed

CCF Labels HSUS “Terrorists” in New York Times (CCF is “The Center for Consumer Freedom”.)

I can’t find the article I was looking for on the change.org site, but it was in reference to the link below from the “Suicide Food” site, which included the sorts of comments that seem to be universally pervasive on public forums whenever the topic of animal rights comes up. I’m just waiting for some group to start posting these comments on my blog, and am surprised that no one has yet. Of course, I have the power to delete….

“Anatomy of a Scandal: a digression”

The “Suicide Food” site exposes a certain sort of marketing ploy. Their site says,

What is Suicide Food? Suicide Food is any depiction of animals that act as though they wish to be consumed. Suicide Food actively participates in or celebrates its own demise. Suicide Food identifies with the oppressor. Suicide Food is a bellwether of our decadent society. Suicide Food says, “Hey! Come on! Eating meat is without any ethical ramifications! See, Mr. Greenjeans? The animals aren’t complaining! So what’s your problem?” Suicide Food is not funny.

For examples, check out the links to “Self-cooking”, “Self-saucing” and “Self-grinding” which actually make a mockery of what animals go through.

The following is unrelated to the rest of this post, but I found it while searching. And it tells how many animals are killed for a variety of reasons….

Animal Use and Abuse Statistics: The Shocking Numbers

Guess This Meat!

The World Famous Burger Museum

“>

(As someone pointed out on the YouTube site’s comment section, it isn’t just factory farming that contributes to Global Warming, but animal agriculture in general, world-wide. But factory farming contributes to it too, since 95 of our meat comes from factory farms. And America raises/consumes more livestock than other countries. I bring it up, because I don’t want people to think that the greenhouse gasses from livestock is limited to animals in factory farms.)

Optimistic Vegan - Cruelty Free - Food Celebration

Chart shows that human Anatomy is that of an Herbivore (Listen to Pachelbel’s Canon as you watch.)