09.24.09
Posted in Pet Owner Bill of Rights at 2:10 pm by Administrator
NATIONAL PET OWNERS BILL OF RIGHTS
Within the United States, pet owners are under attack. Unscrupulous animal rights extremists are waging a battle to eliminate pet ownership.
Dogs and Cats have always been an important part of the American way of life. Pet owners care for, cherish and share our homes with our pets who provide us with unconditional devotion and quality of life. Therefore, we the people affirm:
• We have the freedom and the right to choose and own the dog or cat that is best suited for our family, without regard to origin, breed, sex or pedigree.
• We have the right to protect and nurture our pets with the understanding that they belong to us and are therefore our private property.
• We have the right to protection from Government interference into our privacy regarding decisions about our pets.
• We have the right to be protected from threats and intimidation, illegal search, seizure and unnecessary impoundment of our dogs or cats.
• We have the right to be informed of how our pet tax and licensing dollars are spent.
• We have the right to protest pet laws regarding unreasonable or restrictive licenses, fees, or fines.
•We have the right to require Government to conduct full and open impartial hearings and research before making healthcare decisions for our pets.
• We have the right to protect our pets against seizure by anyone, for any reason, whose action could result in euthanasia.
• We have the right to demand public resources be provided for the exercise and enjoyment of our pets.
• We have the right to require public information regarding pet safety and education be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community.
http://petpac.net/action/national_pet_owners_bill_of_rights/
Permalink
09.11.09
Posted in On the National Front at 2:21 pm by Administrator
Posted On September 10, 2009 From Center for Consumer Freedom
Consumer Group: Senate Confirmation of Animal-Rights Activist Cass Sunstein Will Have Hidden Costs
New “Regulatory Czar” Threatens To Nudge America Toward Vegetarianism, Loony Lawsuits
WASHINGTON–This afternoon the United States Senate confirmed the nomination of Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama White House. The confirmation came after three different senators placed procedural “holds” on Sunstein’s nomination, and only succeeded after a highly unusual cloture vote on the Senate floor late yesterday. Sunstein is a self-described believer in the philosophy of “animal rights.” He has argued that sport hunting should be illegal, that meat-eating should be rare, and that animals should have the right to sue human beings in courts of law.
Today David Martosko, Director of Research at the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, issued the following statement:
The judicious and ethical use of animals is woven into practically every part of the American experience, and Mr. Sunstein’s confirmation is a sad indication that radical ideology can trump our way of life. Sunstein embraces the fringe belief that animals are people, and people are animals. Now that his philosophy can inform government policy, Americans who raise animals for food, hunters and fishermen-and even cancer researchers who use lab animals-could find their work prohibitively expensive or a red-tape nightmare.
Cass Sunstein perfectly represents a segment of society that wants to exercise as much control over ordinary Americans as possible: control over what we eat, what we drive, how we stay healthy, and even which doctors we can afford. Our personal freedoms shouldn’t be subject to the whims of a political ‘czar’ who gets his values from a PETA website.
The Congressional Research Service reports that between 1968 and 2006, only 54 judicial and executive nominees-out of many thousands-needed a cloture vote to escape the objections of U.S. Senators. Majority Leader Harry Reid’s use of this tactic is a good indication of just how radical Cass Sunstein’s views are, and how far out of step animal-rights dogma is with ordinary Americans.
The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies, and consumers, working together to promote personal responsibility and protect consumer choices. http://www.consumerfreedom.com/
Permalink
09.09.09
Posted in What is HSUS? at 9:43 pm by Administrator
HSUS is a lobbying group, pure and simple, whose goals is focused on animal rights and not on animal welfare. Some excerpts and links follow (to see more information, click on the links):
From www.localhumane.org (a group of humane societies who felt the need to distinguish themselves from HSUS):
Myth #1
Local humane societies function as chapters of and are governed by the Humane Society of the United States.
Actually, local humane societies and HSUS not only have no operational connections, they often differ in primary missions. Whereas most local humane societies are focused on animal welfare issues, principally the euthanasia of companion animals, HSUS takes a much more broad approach and is more heavily focused specifically on animal rights.
Though local humane societies often come in many different flavors (privately funded, public-private partnerships, etc.), none are governed by HSUS either directly or indirectly. Most such humane societies are private non-profits that are governed by a volunteer board of directors and are operated by small management teams and volunteers.
Its effect…
Governance issues are critical to local humane societies in that such a false assumption implies standards (promoted by HSUS) and a breadth of programs that may or may not be consistent with the local organization given the demographics and region in which the particular humane society is located. Given the marketing sophistication of HSUS however, the public is often expectant of standards to which local humane societies cannot adhere due to inadequate funding (see myth #2).
Finally and most importantly, the ingrained misperception of general HSUS governance over local humane societies implies a direct financial connection that ultimately effects the capabilities and performance of local humane societies.
Myth #2
Local humane societies and their programs are directly funded by the Humane Society of the United States.
This is a pervasive misconception with wide spread implications. In truth, local humane societies are not at all directly funded by HSUS. They are, across the board, funded in three ways (various combinations apply):
1. Public funding (tax dollars)
2. Earned income (sale of goods/services)
3. Private contributions (including grants)
HSUS may argue that it does supply funds via grants to local humane societies and, therefore, funds them. However, grant funding is different than both public funding and monies generated via earned income in that both of these sources imply a degree of operational governance and oversight that grants simply do not. In addition, many organizations grant monies to local humane societies, which would seem to indicate that many other organizations ‘fund’ local humane societies in the same manner as HSUS. Consider for a moment that Walmart often supplies community grants to local humane societies. Yet no one would believe that local humane societies derive monies from Walmart as a primary source of income nor that Walmart has any degree of governance over local humane societies (see myth #1).
Its effect…
This misconception is particularly devastating to local humane societies as the false assumption that such organizations are funded by HSUS drives contributions away from local services, often fueling the underfunded state of affairs that result in sub standard performance of the very local organizations that donors seek to support. Invariably, funding that could directly benefit local communities is diverted to different and often unanticipated agendas.
From www.activistcash.com:

Despite the words “humane society” on its letterhead, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is not affiliated with your local animal shelter. Despite the omnipresent dogs and cats in its fundraising materials, it’s not an organization that runs spay/neuter programs or takes in stray, neglected, and abused pets. And despite the common image of animal protection agencies as cash-strapped organizations dedicated to animal welfare, HSUS has become the wealthiest animal rights organization on earth.
HSUS is big, rich, and powerful, a “humane society” in name only. And while most local animal shelters are under-funded and unsung, HSUS has accumulated $113 million in assets and built a recognizable brand by capitalizing on the confusion its very name provokes. This misdirection results in an irony of which most animal lovers are unaware: HSUS raises enough money to finance animal shelters in every single state, with money to spare, yet it doesn’t operate a single one anywhere.
Instead, HSUS spends millions on programs that seek to economically cripple meat and dairy producers; eliminate the use of animals in biomedical research labs; phase out pet breeding, zoos, and circus animal acts; and demonize hunters as crazed lunatics. HSUS spends $2 million each year on travel expenses alone, just keeping its multi-national agenda going…
From http://www.activistcash.com/organization_blackeye.cfm/oid/136
Hiring the Animal Liberation Front
Even seasoned animal-rights veterans were surprised in April 2000 when the Humane Society of the United States sent John “J.P.” Goodwin on an anti-fur junket to China. Goodwin was not just any animal activist: he was then an avowed member of the terrorist Animal Liberation Front (ALF). Less than a year later he was formally identified as an HSUS legislative affairs staffer; Goodwin would later change his rhetoric to match HSUS’s corporate policy of not endorsing violence as a protest tactic.
Goodwin, a high-school dropout who had previously co-founded the Texas-based Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, pulled no punches when it came to his priorities. “My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture,” he had written to one Internet activist mailing list.
Goodwin himself has been arrested and convicted for being the ringleader of a gang that vandalized fur retailers in multiple states during the 1990s. The animal-rights newspaper Animal People News profiled Goodwin in 2000, noting that he “gleefully announced a string of Animal Liberation Front mink releases and arsons against furriers and fur farms” while a “spokesman” for the underground terrorist group.
Permalink
09.08.09
Posted in Pet Laws at 9:42 pm by Administrator
The next meeting of the IL Task Force on Breeders is scheduled for September 29,
2009 at 9 a.m. The address is Il. Department of Agriculture Auditorium, 801
Sangamon (State Fairgrounds) Springfield IL. This meeting is open to the public.
This is VERY important. Jordan Matyas, the IL director of HSUS is launching a
MASSIVE email/flyers/poster campaign in an effort to get this draconian bill
passed. It is essential that breeders continue to make our voices heard.
Please note that new language in this bill will require records-only shelters
such as JNMRF to pay an annual fee if they have “rescues” in the state; there is
further discussion that foster homes would also have to be individually
licensed. Therefore, if you are a breeder AND you rescue, you will have to pay
two annual fees (plus whatever you are already paying). Additionally, “foster”
has not yet been defined as to length – we do not know if that means overnight,
a week, a month, etc. This could possibly end rescue as we know it.
It is also VERY important to note that Mr. Matyas is circulating these flyers
with reference to the new law as the ORIGINAL HB 198, rather than as amending
the current Animal Welfare Act. This is just another vicious tactic by HSUS to
try to promote what they want.
Please, either try to attend the Springfield meeting, or contact your
representatives and continue to voice your concerns over this bill.
Permalink
09.06.09
Posted in Pet Laws at 7:12 pm by Administrator
It’s a sad, sad world when responsible dog breeders are faced with being raided by H$U$.
It’s a sad, sad day when the CA legislature is trying to pass mandatory spay/neuter laws while their state is in financial crisis and their state is burning down.
Permalink
09.05.09
Posted in Pet Laws at 9:16 pm by Administrator
What is a license? Many view it as a freedom, when it is not. A license makes it a crime to do something without having that license.
H$U$ has convinced our lawmakers that even hobby breeders must be licensed. Therefore, hobby breeders are by definition criminals unless they hold a license.
Similarly, H$U$ wants foster homes – those people who welcome a needy dog into their home with NO reimbursement for the care given – to have a license. If H$U$ wants to eliminate pets from being in shelters, why do they want to make it criminal to be a foster home, which helps to relieve shelters of unwanted animals?
H$U$ simply wants to end animal companionship altogether. Don’t be fooled by their clever words and website. They do nothing to actually help animals. They do not operate a single shelter, nor do they contribute money to shelters. They have an enormous operating budget to send out fancy fliers and pay lobbyists to influence our legislators. And yet they think they are entitled to the Helmsley money which is supposed to support the “care of dogs.” H$U$ is so intent on criminalizing breeding of any dogs that they have lost their focus on helping dogs.
Wayne Pacelle does not even HAVE a companion animal. Is this the person who should be making decisions for those who do?
Permalink