Thursday, September 9, 2010

Animal Rights Puritans

Here’s a question for you: Is it wrong to feel good about yourself? It is, according to the animal rights crowd.

Here’s the scenario:


I watched a “Today" show program where Matt Lauer interviewed a woman who
suddenly realized she was an animal hoarder after the “Animal Hoarder" show
came to her door. Before, she thought she was helping animals, but they
made her realize she was in it to make her feel good, purely selfish reasons.

Barbara


Can you imagine? The woman actually thought she was simply trying to help animals! And she had the sheer audacity to feel good about herself for helping the little furballs. Oh, yeah. The animals were in good shape and her house was, too. Seems her only problem was a) having the animals and b) feeling good about helping them.

Of course, those of us who have been “educated” by the animal rights folks know better. We know that it’s wrong to feel good about ourselves or anything we do for animals. That might lead to us wanting to keep animals enslaved as pets. We’re not supposed to take pleasure from helping animals or (gasp!) living life. We’re lowly humans and the sooner we slink off the planet, the better. That will just leave domestic animals to fend for themselves until their numbers dwindle and they die off, too. But beautiful Gaia will be left in all her pristine beauty, unencumbered by such crawling, unworthy creatures as humans or animals to mess things up.

Of course, those of us who really love animals know better. Doesn’t it just make you sick that ARs are convincing people that it's wrong to feel good about helping animals? I guess if you donate a kidney to someone, which most people would consider a generous act, you would need some mental help if you felt good about yourself. By this line of thinking, why should anyone donate to a charity or non-profit? It might make them feel good about themselves. Tell that to HSUS when they ask for money.

What I actually believe is that animal rights people do try to suck all the joy out of the world. For whatever reason, they only see the negative. They see the world in black and white — mostly black. To them, every owner is an abuser; every breeder only cares about money; every dog and cat are suffering. I think it’s the animal rights people who are mentally ill because they are incapable of seeing the beauty in the world or feeling the love. They can’t see all the people who love their pets — yes, pets, not “companion animals” or some other euphemism, and certainly not “slaves.” They can’t see all the breeders who adore puppies and raise them with the greatest care and love. They can’t see all of the happy, well-cared for cats and dogs in the world who would never be happy without their owners (not “guardians” or “caregivers”). How sad is it that these animal rights people are blind to so much of the happiness in the human-animal relationship?

Instead, they live like old-time Puritans, hating anyone who enjoys life, and looking for sin everywhere. Or, in their case, looking for anyone or anything that they think suggests animal abuse or “hoarding.” It would be laughable if it weren’t so sad and if it didn’t have such terrible consequences for innocent people and their pets, like raids and seizures, ruined lives, and animals euthanized.

The world outgrew the Puritans. We can hope that our time will move away from these animal rights puritans, too. It is all right to feel good about yourself for helping animals. It doesn’t make you a bad person or a person who needs mental help. It makes you perfectly normal — a good, generous person with a big heart. Don’t let these fanatics stop you from helping animals. They’re the ones who are sick. Not you.

3 comments:

  1. And after those clean, well cared for, and LOVED, animals were removed from this "Animal Hoarder" they all were CROWDED into a shelter, with cold concrete floors, cheap stale kibble, and little hope for a warm loving home. After a week, several became sick and the youngest ones died due the crowded conditions. And the shelter owner continued to collect more animals that could not be properly cared for, but she's NOT a hoarder.....she's defined as a shelter.
    Hmmmm.....maybe those kind souls who want to help and provide for homeless animals should call themselves "Animal Shelters". They can be non-profit and it will be legal to accept donations....yeah......that's how it works...:-)

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  2. This is an excellent article, and absolutely correct... it's the same mindset as the worst of the Puritans: "*I* feel guilty about X, so anyone who does X is a sinner."

    Tho I take issue with one statement:

    "Don’t let these fanatics stop you from helping animals."

    No, that should be "...helping and enjoying and owning animals."

    Because if we specify "helping" to be the feelgood part of it, that marks the rest as evil.

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