Like the first Rant, this piece is very long. I make no apologies for that. This is a convoluted issue that spans decades of time. Difficult issues are not outlined in sound bytes, and bumper sticker logic and drive by one liners will only get you so far. But it is an issue of critical importance, if you love animals or own animals, and consider this an important aspect of your life. So spend the time to find out why this Rant is so important, and how you can protect the animals you love, and yourself.
Hello. Allow me to introduce myself. Some of you already know me (fondly, I am told, although I take leave to doubt that) as the Wicked Witch of the MidWest. Others of you know me (less fondly) as Cheval du Battaille. I ride a very old Warhorse, and I have been tilting at windmills now since about 1979. One of the most resistant, so far, is the long standing War I have been fighting, first on a more limited front when it was the Pit Bull Wars in the early 80's. Then, when it expanded to take on the entire Fancy, the Warhorse reared and screamed a challenge, and so it has remained until today.
That was back in 1984. As you can imagine, my Charger is getting a bit long in the tooth, and the armor is dented and rusty. But though the ravages of time are evident, it has not dampened our spirit at all. I will still couch lance, and enter the fray, in defense of our way of life, and that will continue until someone else is forced to take up my shield and my cause when I am finally felled. That this will happen, I have no doubt. Because finally, finally the long awaited Time of Awakening has come: the Enemy has mis-stepped, and the sleeping Beast that is the Fancy has been aroused. Oh, it is not fully awake yet, but the long dream-time has been dispelled. The sleep now is fitful, and filled with savage nightmares. The Fancy rouses, slowly and reluctantly, but inevitable now as a glacier, terrible in its ponderous majesty. It will arise, there is no longer any doubt. And when it does, the Charger and I will greet it with a ferocious grin and a bow to acknowledge our drowsy ally, and then we will continue what we have been doing for the past 30 years: forging to battle, only this time secure that there is finally someone on the flank.
This is a battle for the heart and soul of our way of life; our mutual love of animals, and everything that goes with it. It affects all of us; not just breeders, in fact not just dog owners, but farmers, and fishermen, and hunters, and pet owners or animal husbandists of every flavor and type. If you own cats, or rabbits, or cage birds, or cattle; or enjoy going to the zoo, or the circus, or the dog show, then this concerns you, and you need to understand that, and take a stand. We are ALL being targeted, divided and assaulted on all sides, and it is time that the curtain was pulled back and the larger Plan was shown, in all its ugliness. When the smoke screen is dissipated, those who have been working on the wrong side of the line out of ignorance, thinking they were doing a Good Thing, can begin to see how they have been duped. It is not too late to see the Enemy for what it is and change sides, but it soon will be.
And so, my doggie/kittie/farmer/pet owning Facebook friends, now that the battle is about to be irrevocably joined, I am going to say some things that will either piss you off to the point of unfriending me, or galvanize you into action. To be honest with you, I really do not care which, as long as you DO SOMETHING. Even if it is wrong, even if it is helpful to the Enemy in some way, I don't care, because at least then you will have declared yourself Friend or Foe, and the rest of us can plan accordingly. For those of you coming late to the fray, a little background should help to delineate which side of the aisle you want to be standing on.
It is not surprising that so many people are confused or maybe even oblivious to what has been going on. This War has been long forming, the battle lines have been continuously moving, since the late 70's, and even before. In the beginning, it was difficult to even see that it WAS the beginning of a conflict that would span decades. In the very beginning, it was just one breed under the gun, and it seemed like just a random string of sad events that was taken out of context, and given legs by the media: The creation of the mighty cartoon character, the Pit Bull of Doom; stronger than a freight train and more ravenous than a tiger shark. At first, I, like many others, thought it was just bad luck or bad timing, this horrendous, incessant assault on a breed that had always been well liked. After all, there was historic precedent; at one time, the lens of the media had been trained on the German Shepherd (which for years was said to be 'mean and unpredictable;') and then the Chow (declared to be a surly 'one man's dog', and vicious to all else, especially children;) and later the Doberman (which labored under the myth that 'they turn on their owners, you know;') and that last particular lie still echoes today. It seemed, at first, that the Pit Bull was just joining that unlucky group of dogs, where a few individuals were involved in biting incidents that blew their reputation completely out of proportion to the truth. Sad, and wrong, but not insurmountable. All of the previous breeds had taken their licks, but had eventually arisen from the cloud of suspicion and calumny, if not unscathed, then at least returned to the mainstream with a few scuffs here and there.
But this time, it was different. It was hard to see, at first. I still do not know if the original assault on the unlucky breed was a planned action, or simply the Enemy taking advantage of a lucky break. What I *do* know is that it was a very short time before we began to see a pattern to these events. Every time there was a biting incident that could even remotely be blamed on a 'Pit Bull,' it was, whether the dog even LOOKED like a Pit or not, and it was clear that Someone was pushing an agenda, and trying to keep the public focused on this myth of the Vicious Dog, keep it firmly in the forefront of their minds. We began to see 'Pit Bull attacks' taking up larger and larger copy space, and gracing the front page more often than not. It did not matter if it really was a Pit Bull or not; any slick coated mixed breed that bit someone was immediately declared to be a 'Pit Bull.' In one notable example, a woman came back to her car in New York, and promptly called Animal Control and shrieked that there was a "huge Pit Bull!" menacing her. Animal Control and police rushed to the scene, to discover that a stray Golden Retriever had delivered a litter of puppies in the back seat of her open car. It was CLEARLY not a Pit Bull. When the dumbfounded Animal Control officer asked her why she thought it was a Pit Bull, she answered matter of factly "Because it growled at me!" The fact that it looked NOTHING like a Pit Bull meant nothing; the fact that it was growling to defend its newborn litter was key. It GROWLED, therefore it was a Pit Bull. It must be said that there was a certain cachet to declaring you had been attacked by a ravening "Pit Bull;" it sounds much more dramatic than to admit you were nipped by a Cocker whose food dish you had ill-advisedly disturbed. Similar stories, dozens over the years, created a pattern, and the public was duly convinced: Pit Bulls were 'different' than other dogs. Born vicious, they just could not help themselves when they saw bare human flesh, and the demon that slept inside them WOULD come out, it was just a matter of time.
And then I saw it. This was the 'hook,' the thing that made this case different from all the other breeds that had been subjected to this kind of selective bigotry in the past: The noble German Shepherd had Rin Tin Tin as an avatar. The regal Doberman, sleek and beautiful, also happened to be highly popular. Even the Chow, which was fluffy and cute, had a large following itself. Unlike these, the Pit Bull had no such respectable icon to draw upon for a buffer. People had long forgotten Pete the Pup, of the Our Gangs comedies, and the breed was just... not popular. Couple this to the fact that the muscular physique of a Pit Bull is a very special kind of 'beauty' that many do not see, and you have a perfect storm: a dog that can be the ugly butt of everyone's scorn, without any adequate defense. Not to mention, at that particular point in time, the breed's numbers were very low, overall. The story went that the only kind of people who would want to own 'one of those dogs' were criminals, drug dealers, bikers, and dog fighters. In short, people whose rights could be safely marginalized because they were 'not nice people.' It is easy to deny the same Constitutional rights against illegal search and seizure, or removal of private property without due process, when it is someone you don't like. It is easier still when you are *afraid* of them. This is an ugly side of human nature, but it is highly predictable. Not to mention, politicians with aspirations realized that if they could get their mugs in the paper, riding on the back of the hysteria fomented by inflammatory media hype, they could be seen as a Protector of the Populace by suggesting some legal assault on the breed or the other, for the Good of Society. And the Enemy was watching, and taking notes... Do you see it yet, do you understand? Well, bear with me, because in a very short while all will be clearer.
By the mid 1980's, we were seeing community after community adopting Breed Specific legislation, mostly aimed at the Pit Bull, but occasionally drifting off to some other breed temporarily caught in the spotlight after a particularly grisly attack. Sometimes, it was due to the new breed being involved in a high profile biting incident, but more and more often, other breeds got added to the 'list' of proscribed dogs for frivolous reasons. City counselors, ignorant of dog breeds but eager to get their names in the press, went through books to find all the breeds that were simply somewhat related to a Pit Bull, or somewhat looked like a Pit Bull. Other breeds got added due to specific grudges that some of these city leaders held against them, such as the aforementioned German Shepherd, Chow, and Doberman, along with a host of others.
By the year 1984, the year of the great AKC Centennial Show, the number of breeds on the firing line in various communities had risen to 37, and showed no signs of abating. By that time, I had already stood in several court rooms as an expert, refuting the lies about these breeds, speaking the truth to ignorance and prejudice, and getting several of the more high profile ordinances shot down. I spoke before the Houston City Council, and a few weeks later at Galveston, where Sara Nugent and I got a standing ovation from the gallery when I threw my (white) Western hat in the middle of the city council floor and challenged their Mayor to tell us again, in front of the gallery and the seated City Council, that she, as an elected official, didn't care what the Constitution said. Both of those ordinances were sidelined.
Oh, there were consequences. You see, some of these ordinances were being championed by influential people who had hoped to use the media attention to further their political aspirations. After speaking in front of the Houston city council, I had Animal Control on my porch two days later with a stack of bogus complaints. Oddly enough, every other person who spoke on the floor that day got a similar visit within days after the hearing. Worse, after the Galveston ordinance was sidelined, my home was targeted by... I will leave you to figure out who it was that 'coincidentally' shot and killed all but two of the dogs on my property in Oklahoma, three days later. They ran down the gates with a heavy truck, incidentally running over two of our dogs on the way to the kennels, where they killed everything in sight, including a litter of 10 week old puppies. Did you think I was kidding, people? This is a WAR. And in war there are always casualties.
This was when the Pit Bull War was still in its infancy, and we were only just trying to fight containment skirmishes. We had no organized plan, and many of our fellow breeders were still trying to hide behind our breed (American Staffordshire Terriers) insisting that this was a Pit Bull problem, not ours. By this time, of course, the AmStaff had been added to the infamous 'List' just as the Staffordshire Bull and the Bull Terrier had been, so this was no longer any protection. Still, many hesitated, refusing to join the fray, refusing to pull their heads out of the sand, insisting we were 'not Pits' and did not deserve what was happening. As if the Pit Bulls did. As if there was a meaningful difference between us. Even there, even in a breed that was and still is highly populated with 'dual registered' dogs that showed both in the AKC as AmStaffs and at UKC shows as Pit Bulls, there was strong pressure to 'make it go away' and pretend it was a Pit Bull problem, not an AmStaff issue. Outside of our 'house,' reaction was even worse: the rest of the dog community made it deadly clear that they intended to throw us under the bus and let the BSL people have us, as long as THEIR precious breed was not on the firing line. It wasn't their problem.
I stood on the floor of one of the bigger meeting rooms at the AKC Centennial in 1984 (and yes, the year was prophetic) and I spoke to a large gathering of my fellow breeders. It was the best place I could think of to beard the dragon; there were more dog people at that event than at any other at the time in history. Not even Westchester or Westminster could boast such an entry. I knew that what had happened so far was only the beginning, only the barest hint of what was to come, and I *knew* I had to make an impression. So, I spoke, as carefully and thoughtfully as I could, and I tried so hard to reach them. I raised the specter of Reverend Niemoller, who had famously said during the Holocaust,
"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."
I pointed out that this could no longer be dismissed as a "Pit Bull" problem, that there were already over 30 breeds being targeted, and the list was growing weekly. And, Breed Specific Legislation was no longer the only threat. By this time, the Enemy had casually reached out and started suggesting Mandatory Spay and Neuter, initially aimed at the 'problem' breeds (Pit Bulls et al) but later snaking out to ensnare others. In one community, they were talking about declaring any dog over 30 lbs to be illegal. I made my case: This thing is no longer just a 'Pit Bull' issue; this was becoming more than a breed thing, and was beginning to threaten all dogs, and all breeders. There was already talk of trying to establish a 'threshold number' of litters, after which a breeder was to be denounced as a 'puppy mill.' The risks were obvious: If we did not hang together, we would surely hang separately.
I tried to make them see the nature of the Enemy, how it was eroding our support base, and coming after us one by one, counting on us insulating ourselves from our fellow's misery until it was too late. By this time, PeTA had already outed itself as being one of the Enemy, and was clearly reveling in our misery and adding to it. I tried, I tried so hard to show cause and effect; to make them see that this was not a *breed* issue, that the real target was DOGS, *all* dogs, and that our carefully managed, carefully bred dogs were no less in the crosshairs than any others. I was thanked for my efforts with a smattering of polite clapping, and several titters. Comments obviously meant to be overheard, as I dejectedly made my way through the crowd, made it crystal clear: None of this was serious, I could be safely dismissed as some kind of crank, because no WAY would there ever be legislation making it illegal to breed dogs, not if you were being RESPONSIBLE about it!
It was apparent to me then: We were not ready. No one wanted to give up their comfortable fantasies that this did not concern them. It was too much work, and it cut into their fun too much. The Fancy was fully invested in ignoring the Enemy at their gates, sure that if they just buried their heads deep enough in the pillows, eventually the Enemy would get tired of storming the gates and go away. But it was even uglier than that. Our own brethren, the people who had rubbed shoulders with us at the Group rings for years, turned cold shoulders to us instead and decided that, perhaps we can let the Enemy have a breed or two, no one *important* will miss the AmStaffs or the Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and maybe if we toss them a sacrifice they will go away and chew on that. And they had cause to be worried, and to start thinking about who they could afford to throw under the bus, because by now, the Enemy had moved the goalposts again.
This was about the time we began to really see a lot of investment in propaganda about the Big Lie: the story about 'pet overpopulation' that was filling our shelters and causing millions of dogs to be killed every year. Nevermind that shelter intake, not to mention kill rates, had been steadily DROPPING since the 1960's; they had been reduced, largely through pressure to spay and neuter pets, from a high of 20 million killed yearly in the 1960's, to 6 million by 1984. (It is now down to between 2 and 4 million.) There was no celebration that we were on the right track, and making good progress, no. We were told, and sold the Lie, that shelter intake was a crisis, it was worse than it had ever been, and more dogs were dying than ever before. And the Big Lie laid this problem squarely on breeders, although in the beginning, they opined that it was the 'puppy mills' who were to blame.
Well, who could get mad at that! No one likes puppy mills, squalid filthy places where the dear l'il doggies suffer. And so, as easy as that, with a minimum of fuss and no objections, we have designated our new Demon and put a target on it. And just like the Pit Bull Wars, breeders were far more anxious to divorce themselves from 'puppy mills,' and draw big fat lines showing how We were so much different from THEM, that no one bothered to see the imminent danger, or stand up for their rights. They don't HAVE rights; they are Not Nice People. (Just like those drug running bikers who are the only ones who like Pits, right? Remember?) We were all exhorted that we needed to 'do something' about this terrible scourge. What to do?
Well, first of all, we have to make sure we show how WE are Not Like Them. Numbers were floated around that purported to state how many dogs was 'too many' and at what point someone became the dreaded 'puppy mill.' Worse, many in the Fancy were HAPPY to be complicit in deciding how many litters was 'too many' and that anyone who had more than that was a 'puppy mill.' Of course, we all know how many litters is 'too many,' right? And that would be: More than YOU have. And if you are a Sporting dog breeder, with a Pointer bitch who throws 10 pups at a crack, you might be excused for thinking 2 litters a year is PLENTY for any breeder to have, and more than that is just not reputable... but, while making that the law might not bother YOU too much, it is certainly going to be a problem for the Toy breeder who is often lucky to get 2 or 3 viable pups in a litter, and often as not gets only 1. Tempers were heated; arguments at kennel clubs over how to address this 'terrible problem' were rampant. Fingers were pointed, enemies were made, targets were assigned.
It was at this time that the two-pronged attack of the Enemy began to be more evident: They had learned, you see, in the early years of the Pit Bull Wars. They had learned some very important lessons: First, if you can make a group of people into Bad Guys, then you can do pretty much anything to them, legal or not, moral or not, and no one will raise too big a fuss. Especially if they are a small group to begin with. Second, once you define who the Bad Guys are, by propaganda and trash talking, then instead of sticking up for their friends, others who used to be proud of their association are suddenly nowhere to be found when the shooting starts. Nobody wants to champion a scummy 'puppy mill.' Ohhh, it was so slick! I watched it happen, along with a lot of other people who saw the clear and present danger, and I wept for the cluelessness of my fellow fanciers. I tried, over and over, to get them to SEE that there was never going to be an adequately low number until you got to NONE. "No, that isn't true, that's just silly; they will NEVER come after meeeeee because MYYYYY dogs are Important to the Future of the Breed, and WEEEEE produce Quality Offspring. Not like that scuzzy Miss Highpockets over there who has FIVE LITTERS A YEAR!"
And again, it was about this time (the mid 90's) that we started to see breeder bashing openly among fellow fanciers, and it became the new Reputable to have as FEW litters as possible. In fact, the fewer litters you had, the more quality you had as a breeder. Tell me ANY other endeavor where having LESS experience is somehow laudable! But in this upside down Brave New World, that is exactly what was happening. Breeders no longer touted upcoming breedings proudly, afraid of backchat in the kennel club and dark whispers at the show sites. And social media was really beginning to take off then too, providing the ever-present gossip mongers with a new vehicle to torment their adversaries. In an incredibly short time, we breeders were no longer responsible people who loved dogs, creating healthy, beautiful, loving pets for worthy families, and creating some of the finest to hold back for the future to create even better ones. No, now we were pariahs even among our fellow breeders for breeding 'too many.' How many is 'too many?' As a single example, I know a breeder who was decried and labeled a 'puppy mill!' for having five litters in 12 years. This, in a very small breed where every drop of blood is precious. This is less than a litter every 2 years, and yet there are still those who are convinced this breeder is a puppy mill, because someone told them so, after someone else told THEM so, after one of their competitors made it up and told it to THEM. And not a one of them ever bothered to follow the rumor back to its origins; why bother? Once the label of 'puppy mill' has been tossed out there, it can never be redeemed.
Why does this matter? Well, remember what I said about people distancing themselves from others over perceived differences, trying to keep themselves safe and out of the firing line at all costs? THIS is what I was talking about. Remember how human nature works. Once you have identified the Bad Guy, *nothing they say in their own defense is true.* NOTHING. And it does not matter if you have known them for 40 years and you KNOW the allegations are false from personal experience. NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO YOU, EITHER if you speak up in their defense. In fact, they will insist that YOU are a Bad Guy too. You must be, otherwise why would you take their side? Truth does not matter. Only the assault matters, and no one will thank you for telling them that their anger and their vindictiveness is misplaced.
The sad truth is, people, the vast majority of them anyway, are hopelessly shallow and cruel. They LIKE hurting others. Of course, our society prevents this most of the time because of laws and social mores. So, when there is a flaw that can be exploited, and someone is declared 'fair game' due to being determined to be a Bad Guy by currently popular propaganda, there are literal howls of glee. These are shriveled, shitty little souls who live to tear down others to their pitiful level, and just don't get the opportunity often enough. They revel in it, and they feel holy and noble for engaging in it because it is Publicly Sanctioned cruelty. And they will NOT thank you for taking their shiny, bloody toy away from them. No, they will not. Do you think I am being unfair to our fellow humans? Here is an example of what I am talking about:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=574320019247104&set=a.219802384698871.70289.218524331493343&type=1&theater
No, it's not just me. That is human nature, gritty and nasty as it is at the core. Yes, even the people you care about, maybe some you care the most about, will gladly engage in slamming someone they have never met, if someone tells them they are a Bad Guy. How many people do you know who mindlessly pass on those 'Share as widely as possible!' hysterical posts about Sleazy Suzy who collects dogs for bunchers, or for fighting, or hell any damn thing, to EAT them maybe. Nobody bothers to find out if it is true or not, they just mindlessly pass it on. And so it goes. And yet another breeder is put out of business, their animals STOLEN under color of law, their breeding programs laid waste, their animals neutered and scattered to the four winds. Even if they are later exonerated of any wrongdoing, their breeding program is OVER, programs that maybe spanned several patient, careful decades. Nobody bothers to discover if the allegations are true before reacting, it does not matter. It isn't just dogs, by the way. This is happening all over the country, to rabbit breeders, and horse breeders, and cat breeders, and cattlemen... NO ONE is safe.
Do you think you are? You are only deluding yourself. Trust me, I do not care if your place is so immaculate that you can EAT off the floor of your exercise areas, YOU TOO can be a target, and be brought down. A single pile of poop, when they show up at your house before 7 am, before you have had a chance to do the yard that morning, can be photoshopped into a hundred. I sure hope your dogs didn't pick up any parasites at the last show or field trial you attended, because if they did, that too is evidence of your 'neglect,' not a normal part of animal husbandry. Do your dogs hunt? Better hope they have no scratches or broken toenails; any visible 'wounds' will be blown up and exploited as 'evidence' of your unfitness to own an animal. Got any litters? Your poor bitch will be paraded on the internet with her titties sagging, and the story will be that she is being 'exploited' by you for filthy money. The implication is that her dugs look like that ALL the time because you have worn her out breeding her near to death. Doesn't matter if this is her first litter. Anybody down on their weight? Those will be touted as 'emaciated,' even if it is a sighthound breed that is normally very spare and athletic. You let your dogs play outside? Better hope it is 70 degrees out, because if there is visible snow or it's too hot, you will be accused of 'neglect' for not keeping them comfortable. Nevermind if this is a breed designed to work sheep outdoors in all kinds of weather; letting them BE outside is ABUSE. What the hell is wrong with you? It's COLD out there! Oh, the poor, poor babies, their poor frostbitten feet! Nevermind that many dogs have thick coats and are DESIGNED to handle cold terrain, that their paw pads and the fur between their toes are Nature's creation, sufficient to keep them comfortable in a full array of climates. YOU are negligent for keeping them outside, you cruel person you! Your carefully cleaned areas will have trash cans tipped (supposedly looking for 'evidence') and that strewed trash will ALSO be photographed as 'evidence' of the 'squalor' your animals live in. For heaven's sake, don't let anyone see that you have DOG HOUSES that the poor animals are expected to huddle in, frozen near to death in this terrible weather! Let's carefully NOT notice that these 'suffering!' animals are not even USING the shelters, they are running, barking and playing outside because they are quite COMFORTABLE in that weather! You are just making excuses for your cruelty. You have no business owning a STUFFED animal. Let's put YOU out there and make YOU live in those dog houses... carefully ignoring the fact that humans are an originally tropic species and do not have *thick fur coats and tough paw pads to protect them from the elements.* You DESERVE to suffer like that because you did that to your poor dogs! That is the kind of logic you will get from these so concerned citizens, any of which have no clue what proper husbandry really looks like... they just know YOU are not providing it. Because the Interwebs said so. So there.
And the moment, the very INSTANT that a 'hit' is put out on someone by the Rabid Animal Rights Activists, a breeder's life as they knew it ENDS. Thousands of emails, texts, faxes and phone calls from 'concerned citizens' who know NOTHING about this person except what the hysterical emails said, but will move Heaven and Earth to see them 'brought to justice' and all their animals taken. The hype continues to ramp, especially if someone with authority goes to look and sees nothing wrong in the beginning. Oh, s/he was bought off, or just incompetent; look at the PICTURES! Those poor animals are in dire need of intervention! Now it is a CAUSE. new Facebook pages are created, and shared, to get as many people to overreact as possible. Overburdened law enforcement will finally act on it just to stop the NOISE, and it will not satisfy the howling mob if they go out and find nothing wrong. No, it will not stop until someone is arrested and ALL the animals are 'safe' (read: taken by rescues who will then
So, what do we do about this? What can we do? The bad news is, it is very, very bad. The original Rant was written in 1998. It is now 2014, and things are FAR worse in many ways. Many people have already been 'made examples' of. Others are afraid to move, to speak, to try to protect themselves or stand up for others, for fear of reprisal. Even my flying monkeys are not up to managing this. But, the good news, as I said, is that we are finally, incrementally but absolutely, starting to wake up as a group. This is a sea change, long in the coming but inexorable once it has now begun. It will take time to become a tsunami that will slap the RARAs silly. In the meantime, they are a clear and present danger. What do we do?
Here is where the screaming starts. Because as I said in the first Rant, we do not have the time, nor the numbers, to refuse to join hands with others who can help us. We are all in this together. You think you are 'too good' to speak up when your fellow American's rights are being trampled, because you have decided they are not 'nice enough people?' Fine. If you want to be an asswad, and insist that no one who fails to live up to YOUR standards is worthy of your assistance, then you have NO right to squeal when it is YOU under the fence, and the rest of US stand by. Yes, that means you too, Prissy Sissy. Don't come boohooing to US about how they misrepresented all your hard work and your pristine home, and made you out to be some scummy ANIMAL ABUSER, and then expect us to give a damn, when YOU were the one helping them to draft the laws that hurt us all. STOP buying into anti-breeder propaganda. STOP thinking you can find a number that is 'enough' and that anything more than that is 'too many.' STOP thinking that we can 'compromise' with terrorists, and that is precisely what the RARAs are. STOP thinking this will all blow over and leave you and your animals alone, because you are a nice person. Believing that the RARAs will leave you alone because you are 'good' is like a vegetarian believing the bull won't charge because they don't eat meat. It is going to take some time for our side of this story to trickle into mainstream consciousness, and until then we are very vulnerable. Because WE, the dog breeders out here, are WAY in the minority, and the propaganda from the RARAs is decades in the making, and the general public is not going to listen to US at first. Until they have heard us, until we can speak truth to the propaganda, we need each other. The arguments between commercial breeder vs show breeder vs farmer vs pet owner has to STOP until we get more traction. Right now, the enemy of our Enemy is our friend.
Furthermore, STOP REACTING TO HYSTERICAL ACCOUNTS ABOUT OTHER BREEDERS. I do not care if the Interwebs says they are a heartless bastard. Start paying attention to WHO is saying this, and try to find out WHY. I don't care if you don't like rabbits, or cats, or cows, or Whangdoodles. I don't even care if you think Mr. Jones could do a better job of caring for his. And let me make this distinction, although really it should not be necessary, but sadly I know it is for a prissy bunch of you. We are not talking about genuine abuse here, where animals are dead, dying, ill, and obviously GENUINELY abused. Obviously no one wants to defend that, but stop quibbling about what kind of care is 'enough,' and no, you do NOT get to interject 'enrichment' into the conversation. If they are fed, watered and reasonably healthy (this does NOT mean flawless show condition BTW) then this is a bogus call for 'rescue' and YOU need not to join in the catcalls. In fact, it would behoove you to SPEAK UP for Mr. Jones' rights. Yes, he still has them, even IF you don't like the way he cares for his animals. Trust me, for all that you look down your nose at others who do not do things the way YOU think is proper, somewhere there is someone looking sadly at YOU and thinking the exact same thoughts. So get over yourself. Remember Rev Neimoller. Yes, that applies to you too. Yes, you need to step up and speak for the rights of Cassie the Commercial Breeder too. Most commercial facilities are clean and the animals are well cared for, despite what 'common knowledge' (otherwise known as widespread propaganda slandering breeders) says it is. Often their pups grow up playing with their kids and grandkids. So what if your dogs are nicer than Suzy's? Isn't that why you get to charge more? Suzy still has RIGHTS. This is still America, yes even for Suzy. And Mr. Jones. You know why this is important? Because if EVERY time the RARAs started in on another one of us, if we all stood UP for them, instead of joining in the rock throwing, it might give them pause. If we start throwing rocks BACK it will definitely make them back up, and give us some room to work. Stop worrying about whether you are helping an 'animal abuser.' Chances are VERY good that you are not, no matter how hysterical the interweb accounts of their perfidy are. And here's a news flash: even genuinely BAD people, real criminals, HAVE RIGHTS. So even when you see someone you think is a Bad Guy, but his rights are being trampled, you STAND UP if you are a good American and you demand his rights too. Because as a society, we are only as good as the least of us.
Give other people permission to be ignorant. That's right. We are all on a learning curve here. And give them permission to be human, and flawed. They still have rights. The guy with the Flat Creek Border Collies is a prime current example of a witch hunt. Would I keep animals the way he did? No, I don't. But, local breeders were working with the man, trying to help him, and making progress. HE HAS RIGHTS and they are being trampled. I do not CARE if you like him or not, I really do not give a fat huzzah if you think he is a scumball of the first water HE STILL HAS RIGHTS. And you, as an American citizen have a DUTY to stand up when other American's rights are being threatened. If you do not, then as bad as he is? You are WORSE. Because you are letting us ALL down, and all of our animals too, right along with yours.
The Enemy is at the gates. They have stated their position clearly: "One generation and out." Personally, I have no problem with that. I'd like to see RARAs be discredited as a group and lose their precarious hold on our society in this generation. It can be done. The Beast is restless. Even pet people are beginning to wake up and see the danger. What will you do? Will you continue to preen and posture about how much loftier you are than the herd? Or will you put down your mirror, pick up your sword, and join us? That trumpet is getting really strident. Can you hear it yet? Will you answer?
WHAT WILL YOU DO??
