Who are the players and why should we care?

Thanks to everyone who stopped by yesterday and left comments, and those who stopped by and just read. I appreciate it.

This would seem to be a relatively simple issue - you are either for animal welfare or animal rights. You love and care about animals, want to see them cared for well and want to continue to have them in your life or you think we should see them from afar. Unfortunately, it's not. There are larger than life public players, like PETA, HSUS, AKC, UKC to name a few. They are "in your face" with welfare and rights. There are other players, however, who need to be recognized and addressed if we are to "win" this war for our animals.

HSUS and PETA are the most visible. They thrive on publicity. PETA doesn't care if it's good or bad, the more outrageous the better for them. HSUS tries to be more "moderate", more main stream. The truly dedicated, fanatic AR supporters, however, think HSUS and PETA are lightweights.

The true believers think PETA and HSUS are "new welfarists" because they are willing to compromise with care to reach the end of domestic animal use. The true believers can be broken down into several categories:

1. Abolitionists - animals should be free from all interaction with humans; "domesticates" here should  be cared for, but no breeding to maintain the species - dogs, cats, cattle, sheep, etc.

   2. Animal rights supporters - animals have intrinsic rights to be free from ownership.

Rather than turn this into a dry, dusty treatise, I suggest the following website for research. This one really lays it out well:  www.animalethics.org.uk . This website gives a thorough breakdown on the differences in each group.

The players in that world are vastly different from Wayne Pacelle (CEO, HSUS) or Ingrid Newkirk (Co-Founder of PETA). The players in the true believer world are professors, lawyers and scholars. They are TEACHING our children at universities across the country and world about animal rights law, animal abolition, speciesism, and how we as humans are morally and ethically obligated to stop "using" animals in all walks of life.

While HSUS & PETA the most public adversaries, we need to make sure we are aware of these others. I used to post on an AR/AW debate board on Yahoo. One of the strongest AR proponents I dealt with went by the silly name of "Rags". Rags, it turns out, is a professor of sociology in Wales, he's a former executive committee member of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, a form ALF press officer and a co-founder of the Fur Action Group. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment for conspiracy to commit criminal damage for ALF, and has a PhD - his thesis was the subject of human/non-human relations. He continues to teach.

Rags made no bones about it - I was a slave holder, an exploitive, perverse, evil human. I regularly allowed my male dogs to rape my female dogs, I strung them up by their necks and dragged them around the ring for my own pleasure, I sold their children for money. In short, I was someone with less value than most animals. One of his favorite AR colleagues is Joan Dunayer. You've never heard of them have you? You need to know their names, they are teaching young people that YOU and I are evil doers of the worst kind.

Joan Dunayer brought us the joys of Speciesism. According to the theory of speciesism a spider or ant have the same value of life that a dog, a human or a horse has and all due consideration must be given to them. As humans we have the moral and ethical capability of choosing to not harm them, so we must under any circumstance subrogate ourselves to avoiding harm. Of course, any interaction is harm.

The other darlings of AR are Dr. Steven Best, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, University of Texas, El Paso; Tom Regan, Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University, retired; Gary Francione distinguished Professor of Law and Nicholas deB Katzenbach Scholar of Law and Philosopy at Rutgers University of Law.

We must, of course be ever vigilant of the nefarious doings of the HSUS, ASPCA, PETA, AHA and Best Friends to name a few, but we need to be aware that there are forces with much sublter approaches to grabbing the next generation and teaching them about our "evil" ways.

I don't want to be hysterical or a gloom and doom crepe hanger, but this is serious. One only has to look at how in the last 10 years more and more of our rights as pet owners, dog breeders, and exhibitors have fallen away.  Bob Barker, of Price Is Right fame has donated the following in order to further his own agenda of animal use abolition:

$1,000,000 to Georgetown Law school for Animal Rights Law studies

    $1,000,000 to SHARK to stop pigeon hunting in PA

    $1,000,000 to Drury University for Animal Rights Law

    $5,000,000 to Sea Shepherd to commit piracy on the high seas

We can combat this with education of our own. It means going to Bark in the Park and handing out brochures, it means participating in Meet The Breeds, it means doing therapy work with our dogs, it means no more apologizing for having purebred dogs, it means being armed with FACT not a belief system.

Here are a few websites to peruse and take a look at who is teaching the next generation:

www.drstevebest.org

www.abolitionistapproach.com

www.vegancrowd.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Yates

More as I'm able. Please feel free to leave me suggestions (be kind, please).

Me torturing yet another corgi - U GrCh/Ch Castell No Time to Kill, Cowboy

We were in New York at Bryant Park

Comments

[Pat Ward]

Good job, Kathy. Thank you.

[Sheila in NJ]

Kathy,

A good discussion of some of the players who think HSUS and PETA are just not radical enough! Will you be writing about Peter Singer and Gary Yourofsky in the future?

Singer has a joint appointment at Princeton University in New Jersey and a university in his native Australia. He is said to be the "inspiration" for PETA through his book "Animal Libveration."

Yourofsky goes from one college campus to another in the United States espousing violence in the cause of Animal Rights. His group is called ADAPTT (Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow) http://www.adaptt.org/ He has been employed by PETA in the past; I'm not sure who is bankrolling him now.

[Boxwoodgardens]

Very Good so list the good websites:

http://www.consumerfreedom.com/ActivistCash.com
and
AnimalScam.com
CSPIScam.com
HowMuchFish.com
HumaneWatch.org
MercuryFacts.org
ObesityMyths.com
PetaKillsAnimals.com
PhysicianScam.com
SweetScam.com

and we can see more of the info out there!

[Pemmom]

I want to be careful about using the same websites that are seen on so many other sites. Humane Watch and Consumer Freedom, while okay with me, set up people to question credibility because of who those players are. HSUS and PETA are enough on their own. While appreciate the input, I don't want this to be just another blog with the same info. Thanks, though Boxwood.

[Pemmom]

Sheila - I will be discussing Pete Singer and Gary Y, as well as Steve Hindi - SHARK, the beneficiary of Bob Barker's largesse.

[Jagdteckel]

"I was a slave holder, an exploitive, perverse, evil human. I regularly allowed my male dogs to rape my female dogs,"

This quote demonstrate clearly that our understanding of the extend of hatred by these fanatics has been lacking. We knew they hate humans but it turns out they hate life as a whole.
Paired with total ignorance of nature, of biology, the 'big picture', it makes a very dangerous mix.
Such delusional self-loathing deserves nothing more than professional (and preferable institutionalized) help.
One thing they ALL have in common, is that they are anti-democratic - every one of them. They use the democratic freedoms to destroy the system from within.
They are like maggots, feeding on their host.