Do You Know About the Humane Society of the United States?

Despite their deceptive tug-at-your heartstrings television ads featuring shelter animals, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) doesn’t operate a single pet shelter or adoption facility anywhere. The HSUS is NOT associated in any way with your local Humane Society. It does NOT provide local shelters with funding. In reality, the HSUS is a wealthy animal-rights lobbying organization (the largest and richest on earth) that crusades for the same goals as PETA and other radical groups. HSUS campaigns intentionally distort facts and misrepresent the organization as an animal welfare or animal protection group. They are neither.

"Progress: Evolution or Excess?"

An unusually plump issue of  Dogs in Review arrived in my mailbox today. This was the 2010 Annual issue, a cornucopia of recent canine social events. The glossy splendor of this latest production was carefully preserved in plastic wrap. The cover photograph revealed the "Dog of the Month", a Scottish Terrier. This stately lady won Best in Show at the Eukanuba National Championship show last month. She stands proudly at attention, with exaggerated  eyebrows spiked out and extending halfway down the muzzle, sharply pointed ears, and an artfully sculpted beard.  

I savor this magazine in the same way that I delight in a dog show. It's a decadent feast of eye candy; a taste of something that overflows with delight and drama; fraught with potential danger, yet, at the same time, so wickedly delicious!

The Top Ten List

Swedish Vallhund "Apollo"

SUBJECT: Top 10 things you will never hear an Animal Rightist say

10. Shelter dogs can have problems; they aren't for everyone.

9. Your animals are kind of a mess. I know you mean well so we're going to get you some help.

8. Mandatory spay/neuter is a lousy idea. If all dogs are sterilized, where will the puppies come from?

7. We're firing all the lobbyists and lawyers and we're going to put the money into training animal control workers, improving shelters, and organizing transport programs.

6. We're good at raising money but we don't know much about animals. If you want advice about animal policy, you should talk to an experienced breeder, rescuer, or farmer of that species.

5. Animals aren't human; only humans can have rights.

4. We have too many laws about animals. Most owners are trying to do the right thing anyway.

3. You're such a good breeder I wish you would have litters more often.

2. It's not the number of pets, it's the care.



And at the very top of the list:


1. We're going to be proposing a law to make it easier and more fun for people to own pets.

Walt Hutchens

Timbreblue Whippets

Gandhi; he's no Einstein

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”  Mohandas Gandhi

Wrong, dude.

This is one of those oft-repeated platitudes that is more a feel-good concept than it is a reflection of reality.

• The ancient Egyptians worshipped cats, yet practiced slavery.
• Indians esteem cattle, yet maintain an oppressive caste system.
• Nazi Germany pioneered the modern era of animals rights philosophy, but had no qualms about exterminating eleven million human beings.

What Planet Are You From, Anyway?

You'd have to be a cave-dweller to miss the media propaganda blitz about Global Warming....er, I mean Climate Change. We have reduced toxic industrial pollution here in the US to negligible levels. Plastic is passe (not biodegradable you know); we've Reduced, Reused and Recycled, so there isn't much left in the way of environmental guilt trips to lay at the feet of humanity. You'd think.

We needed some way to reinforce the basic precepts; that all men are created equal evil, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights responsibilities...but how??