Wednesday, May 5, 2010

How Many Is Too Many? None Of Your Business

Less than a month ago, a longtime, respected, poodle breeder was raided by Animal Control and had her 34 dogs confiscated based on a claim of "unhealthy conditions of the living environment." Evidence indicates that this may not be the case and that she was targeted by animal rights activists, but true or not, it has resulted in comments like the one below.

"I don’t understand why anyone would have 34 dogs. One person really cannot manage that amount...I just think unless you have hired help and a place for your dogs 34 is way to many for me."

Who is to say how many is too many? Just because you or I may be unable to care for 34 dogs does not give us the right to make that decision for anyone else. The number owned has no bearing on the level of care. One animal can be too many for some people, and yet others can handle fifty just fine.

Despite this, several states are moving to pass legislation limiting the number of animals an individual may own. As I have just explained, the number is NOT the issue, nor is it any of our business, and unless there is concrete evidence of abuse and/or neglect, it’s none of the government’s business either. These ineffective, irrational and unfair laws are in fact, the result of pressure from radical animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States, whose much larger agenda is to eliminate animals from our lives altogether.

Having said that, what bothers me most about comments like the one above is that they are made by those who are most active in the fight to save our pets from these fanatics - the same people who have been with me in Sacramento, trying to make our legislators understand the true goals of the animal rights movement. How can such well informed people then turn around and judge someone for having too many dogs? The bottom line is that the minute we make that statement, we’ve opened the way for a limit law.

By the way, years ago I saw a couple on the Phil Donahue show who owned 200 cats. They were retired and spent every minute and every dime they had on those cats. Vet bills, food bills, all of it. They’d roast entire turkeys for them. Those cats were the most loved, most well-treated cats I’ve ever seen. Who are we to say that they had too many? For them, it wasn’t too many.

Hey, I think five cars is too many for one person to take care of, but unless you’re parking them on my lawn, it’s none of my business. As long as cats and dogs are considered property under the U.S. Constitution, NO ONE has the right to tell anyone how many is too many. End of story.

6 comments:

  1. I don't know why you hate animals so much as to fnd the need to write this blog? Your lack of expertise in animal rights and basic humane thinking is painfully apparent after reading just a few lines of this diatribe. Please do some real research, get a taste of reality by visiting or volunteering at a shelter. Then come back and write from a position of knowledge. As an example, your post from March'10 indicating importation of puppies to slam the Woodward Center, when all they really have to do is walk 10 yards across the courtyard and get as many puppies as they will ever need from the county shelter, is really just a ridiculous justification for hobby breeders ("the best breeder" ...now really, com'on?)

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  2. Anonymous ... what is your point? Your lack of education in matters of animal reproduction is painfully apparent after reading just a few lines of your diatribe. Please do some real research and get a taste of reality by breeding, birthing, raising, socializing, training and finding forever homes for several litters a year - for a couple decades - before judging others based on your own inabilities and lack of knowledge.

    Just because you can't or don't want to breed, raise and train a kennel or cattery full of dogs or cats does not mean the joy of that blessed life is not someone else's truest calling.

    Oh, by the way - most good breeders ask their local shelters if they can help rescue or foster. Many are refused solely because they're breeders. Discrimination is ugly wherever it's found, wouldn't you agree?

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  3. Anonymous Kool-Aid drinker: Get educated. Go to www.hsussucks.com read the articles about how this "animal rights" racket and others "associates" are MAKING$$$$$$$ off of criminalizing law-abiding citizens. "Puppy mills" propaganda is just a marketing ploy. Where should people get pups? From China? Roumania? Mexico? 100s of 1000s come into the USA from out of the country every year because people want puppies, especially purebreds so they know what to expect. Do they want a family pet or a guard dog or a sheep herding dog? Why not support American bred dogs? Dogs only live for an average of 7 years. It takes alot of pups to replace those that die. To believe HSUS' propaganda is to drink the Kool-Aid.

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  4. Anonymous,

    I have worked with animals all my life, and I have volunteered at various animal shelters since the 1970s. I was also instrumental in the formation of our local breed club rescue group.

    If Helen Woodward Humane Society can walk 10 yards across the street to the county shelter for all the dogs they need, then why don't they? They go to Romania EVERY MONTH to get stray dogs. Why?

    It's simple. Because your version of animal rights means No Animals Left. That's why.

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  5. 6 dogs is more than I can care for but no one should dictate how many someone else can own. This is a free country and it is none of your or my business how many pets or children someone chooses to have. We have laws to protect childern and dogs from abusive care, we need no more laws and no more exploitation of our laws in the name of "caring/saving." This "caring/saving" is an abuse of our laws that allows mentally imbalanced people who believe it is their duty to fabricate causes to deprive people of their rights.

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  6. Well we see what happens when a company like BP has too many oil wells and can't handle their business, and they are professionals. Non-professional hobbyist dog breeders with too many dogs with inadequate facilities and poor practices in some ways represents a similar concern. If I want a goo american bred dog then I will go to a professional breeder and get the dog I really want and from a credible source. Puppy mills or those breeders that fit that description, are nothing but pure excess and contribute to the overall issue of unwanted pet population.

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