The Other Coast by Adrian Raeside for August 01, 2013

Yeah, I suppose they COULD all be loose and ransacking garbage cans, roaming around biting people, getting run over by cars. How horrible!

The Humane Society here had to start refusing more animals because they have no more room.

My first rescue dog was a stray puppy brought in to the vet where I worked. That was forty years ago this summer. We’ve had nothing but rescue dogs since, and a more glorious bunch of tail-wagging, goofy, touching individuals couldn’t be found. Whether it’s a shelter or a rescue site I can’t urge potential owners strongly enough to look for at least one rescue dog, cat or other animal.

And as bad as the situation is for dogs & puppies, cats are subject to even worse. Dogs in the northeast often find homes, the shelters are even taking in canines from around the country. Felines on the other hand are treated as if they are a throw away item more often subject to torture and abuse at the hands of people who hate cats. Shelters are so full they often waive adoption fees. It’s so very tragic for those of us who love ALL animals

Adults who take in kittens because they are cute and then abandon them when they become cats and are inconvenient are cruel and setting a horrible example for their children.

Many facilities do a good and kind job in caring for abandoned pets. We are delighted with the pets we adopted from such places.

Then don’t pass by. Stop in and take one or two home with you.

Not if the pets don’t have owners.

Sounds like you hate being a human. DO something about it then!

Let us not forget to pass some of the blame to the AKC – advocating dog choice based on aesthetic tastes, and helping to keep up the demand for breeders’ products. Perhaps worse, though, is that many of the design traits that the AKC celebrates (short snouts on pugs, bulldogs, etc., tapered hind quarters on German shepherds, etc.), cause the dogs to suffer, and others have to be created by physically altering the dogs – docking tails, “training” ears, etc. I don’t know how AKC folks can claim to truly care about dogs.

Today our local Animal rescue league had a "kitten clearance. All kittens were $30 between the hours of 1-3 pmI checked their adoption page, they have 13 dogs available compared to 68 cats.

Bet there’s a Trap, Neuter, Release program in your area. That would be TNR, and you might call around your local vets to see if they are participating. It’s an excellent program, so effective that I read a complaint from someone living in a mature TNR area, and they said they the vermin problems were getting out of hand.

Pick one – which would you rather deal with? lol!

But TNR is a great program.

@rush.diana

“At your Rick Berman and Co propaganda? "

Ah. I wondered which of you was going to object to Humane Watch.

For those of you who have NOT been drinking the AR KoolAid, go and look in your refrigerator and count up the animal protein items in them.

The AR extremists are committed to a vegan planet. Yes, it’s a global agenda. Yes, it means NO domestic animals at all, none, and no contact with wildlings.

Berman speaks for the meat industry, yes. However, whatever Newkirk and Pacelle say about the zero animal protein diet, (you’ll have to dig; they have gotten rather coy about the Vegan Agenda since they were able to field a lobby), how long could you function on a diet totally free of animal protein?

Some can, yes. According to Vegetarian Times, the total percentage of the vegan/vegetarian population has been stable at 2% for decades.

Realistically, if it’s such a great diet, why hasn’t it taken off? It certainly does get GREAT press, so … why no growth?

The reason for that is that it is NOT either a healthy nor natural diet. Fine for those it works for – but what about the rest of us? Are you going to wait until you can’t afford a half a dozen eggs, or a pint of milk before you fight?

Compared to that issue, pets are trivial. But they aren’t trivial, not in emotional terms and not in practical terms. We have ample evidence to support the positive aspects of keeping animals – children suffer fewer allergies, the ill and disabled are comforted by them, the elderly maintain Their health longer and live longer. They are discovering that dogs can smell cancer cells before any other diagnostic procedure will expose it.

We have already pretty much abandoned seeing eye dogs. I haven’t seen one in years. Of course, It’s been some years since the AR extremists bullied the Guide Dog agencies which bred and trained the dogs into abandoning their sound, humane effective training protocols. Now they are confined to ‘purely positive’ methods, which guarantee huge attrition rates, and make the dogs not only more expensive, but more difficult to find at all.

You can believe Berman is bad, if you like. What he is trying to do is wake people up to the AR agenda. He is protecting your right to access animal protein, and pets.

CAFO needs no support. CAFO gets subsidies, and makes obscene profits. The small, diverse, traditional farmers need the defense, because the AR extremists are targeting them actively. Killing and maiming their stock, in the name of ‘protecting animals’.

I suspect you aren’t an extremist at all, you have just trusted the wrong advisors.

The AR extremists are no animal experts. They actively oppose all animal use. They have never bred an animal. They have never raised an animal. Very few of them have even owned an animal.

Would you go to a Scientologist to schedule your surgery? That’s what you are doing. If you love animals, the AR activists are not your friends, and certainly not friends to your aimals. Berman, on the other hand, thinks if you want to keep pets, you should be able to. He’s not stealing them, abusing them, mutilating them and selling them. The AR activists are. Their foot soldiers who do most of their scutwork are mostly oblivious to that fact.

Is that the kind of expert you want to consult? Seriously? Experts who actively oppose no-kill sheltering? Experts who dump their rescues in high risk environments and talk about abusive OWNERS*? Experts who take every opportunity to slander and libel true animal experts, who truly love their stock?

Eat your vegan diet, if that’s what works for you. But your willing association with the kinid of destruction and callous brutality which is the outcome of the ‘kind’ AR extremist activities does your credibility no good. Worse, it will cost you your pets if you continue on that path.

““thanks to your lengthy diatribe I just wrote them out a check.”Me too!!! Perhaps @Hawthorne had too much caffeine tonight.”

I don’t use caffeine, speak for yourself.

If you’d sent the check to your local shelter, it would have helped the animals. None of it (unless you sent a HUGE check) will benefit any animals. It will be used to lobby against all animal use by humans.

Congratulations.