Sunday, April 17, 2011

Animal Rights Groups Tarnish the Pet Expo

Every year, the California Federation of Dog Clubs operates a booth at the Pet Expo in Orange County, CA. Information is provided about how to responsibly care for your dog, as well as information about the threats to ownership from the animal rights groups and the current legal challenges in our state. I helped staff the booth all day yesterday.

Now if you have never attended one of these Expos, let me describe the events for you. There are booths for individual breeds that are manned by breed clubs. There are rescue and adoption booths. There are many vendors and demonstrations as well, as the Expo rather resembles a county fair.

Demonstations are held with splash dogs and jump dogs and service dogs. There are petting zoos and pens filled with alpacas. There are entire buildings dedicated to small animals such as cats, birds, hamsters, rabbits, rats, reptiles, fish, etc. All in all, it's great fun; there's so much you'll want to see, particularly when you are an animal lover like I am!



We noticed that nearby to our booth was a booth advertising the California Spay-Neuter license plates. You may recall that the spay-neuter license plates are sponsored by "Social Compasssion", the group founded by longtime PETA employee Jane Garrison and her friends. The brochure about the license plate campaign claims:
Spay and Neuter saves lives!......every year, hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats are euthanized in California's shelters simply because there are not enough homes. The simplest and most responsible act that a pet owner can take to alleviate this crisis is to spay or neuter their pets.
Really? There are over five times more new homes opening up for dogs and cats every year in the US than there are pets killed in shelters. There IS no crisis.

And, studies to date show that spay-neuter SHORTENS lives, not saves them. All that bombastic rhetoric, when the truth is that spay/neuter actually CAUSES some very nasty health problems.

And, just as a technical point of information; it ain't "euthanasia" when they kill adoptable animals. It's just plain killing.


The "California Pet Lovers License Plate" campaign, spreading all those lies about why animals are KILLED in shelters. Maybe the reason for all that shelter killing just MIGHT be that the shelters are paid by how many they kill? Just a thought. When you get paid by a bounty system, there tends to be a lot of victims. Or maybe it could be that animals are killed because limit laws prevent people from adopting? Or could it be that areas that recently enacted mandatory spay-neuter laws find that suddenly their intakes are UP, not down?

Odd that in the midst of such a "crisis", "Save a Mexican Mutt", "Compassion Without Borders", and many other groups are actually IMPORTING dogs into California from other countries.

It ain't rocket science, folks. Shelters kill animals. Punitive programs and oppressive laws kill animals. And guess what, the animals who are already spayed/ neutered are killed too, right along with the rest.

I had flyers printed up and ready to go to inform the public about the facts behind the spay-neuter license plate program, but we were told by the event manager that we could not pass out anything that maligned another group who paid for a booth at the Pet Expo.




Yes, there's a dark cloud looming over the Pet Expo, and it seems to hover lower and larger each year. More and more, we are finding some very radical animal groups in attendance. Last year, right across from our breed booth, we had a booth set up by an animal rights pet rescue group. They had merchandise there emblazoned with anti-breeder slogans such as "Don't Breed, Don't Buy, ADOPT".

Here is a sign at a booth that I photographed yesterday.






There were plenty of rescuers with anti-breeder T-shirts as well. "Don't buy"? I guess they are giving the adoptables away for free? No money will change hands? They explain their fees as  "Oh, that's not even enough to cover our veterinary expenses" Hey, guess what, that is exactly the same situation that breeders are in. Most all operate operate at a loss.


No, we are not allowed to spread the truth about the California Spay Neuter License Plate fund; yet, for some unknown reason, these radical animal rights groups are never told to tone down their anti-breeder rhetoric.  

Our group also had to be subjected to a booth nearby for a group called "Arm the Animals". This group is anti-hunting, and just anti-HUMAN in general. They were selling T-shirts featuring screenprints of armed deer, gorillas, dolphins, elephants, even cats and dogs! The implications of these images of animals armed and fighting man are chilling. It really is not at all cute, chic or funny.








Still ANOTHER radical group across the aisle from us was the Irvine Animal Care Center.....the very group that is currently pushing in Irvine for mandatory spay-neuter of all pets by the age of six months. They also want to ban circuses, rodeos, and petting zoos. They wish to outlaw the sales of dogs and cats in pet stores. A nutty group like this has a spot at a pet expo, which features a petting zoo and pony rides? Guess the IACC's disdain for petting zoos didn't override their desire for $$$$ sales of pet supplies and donations to their rescue group. The IACC, an anti-pet store group, had a booth right next to PetStore.com! How's that for irony?

All that push for oppressive pet legislation, and yet the Irvine shelter admits it never has to kill for space.

My sister went to the Pet Expo for the express purpose of buying grooming equiment for her Poodle. Nope, no booths selling grooming equipment. Not a scissor, clipper or poodle comb in sight.

There was, however, a booth providing FREE grooming services to newly "adopted" rescue pets. Hey, what sort of home check can be done when a pet is adopted at a Pet Expo? 

With all the radical groups in attendance, and the big push for "rescue" and "adoption", it's no wonder the breed booths each year are dwindling. Most of the breed booths now consist only of RESCUE groups for each breed. The value of obtaining a well-bred dog or puppy from a breeder is now a POLICALLLY INCORRECT notion, it seems. What a sad state of affairs for our society.  


How much more radical animal rights rhetoric must we endure at the Pet Expo? And when will the operators of the event realize that animal expos and fairs will cease to operate if these groups have their way.


Wake up and smell the coffee, Pet Expo! Without encouraging participation by those who breed and raise animals, and excluding the radical animal rights groups who wish to end all purposeful animal breeding, the "Pet Expo" will not survive into the future.


10 comments:

  1. I was at the Houston Pet Expo yesterday. Our cocker rescue booth was right next to HSUS. Across the aisle from them was Texas Humane Legislative Network. Had to bite my tongue to not cause a scene.

    Yes, WAKE UP PET EXPO!!!

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  2. I'm a rescuer and the facts are THIS.. If you're a responsible breeder then great.. but for EVERY 1 of you.. there are 6 people breeding just to breed for greed!

    More homes opening up than dogs in shelters? ARE YOU HIGH? "Really? There are over five times more new homes opening up for dogs and cats every year in the US than there are pets killed in shelters. There IS no crisis. " That's just a straight out LIE! Such a blatant fabrication I nearly choked when I read it.

    No shelter is required to report their numbers of euthanized dogs and an estimated 1/4 do reporting a staggering 4-5 MILLION dogs a year, (think concentration camp figures),from Puppies to old agers; from mutts to purebreds. I see it every day.

    Let me tell ya buddy.. I've seen whole litters and mom's get euthanized the day after birth because they, needing their own kennel, took up to much room.

    Personally I think you're just making these "facts" of yours up to justify what you do. As I said, if you're a responsible breeder breeding only to better the breeder more power to you because we need breeders like that... BUT being a former breeder myself... I'm going to tell you to stop trying to blow smoke up people skirt! WE ARE IN CRISIS and its getting worse!

    One way to ensure you're a good breeder .. spay your dogs before you sell them if they are going to pet homes, or ENFORCE a spay Neuter contract... if you don't already then you aren't being very responsible.

    You're the kind of person that were I a radical rescuer I would drag you down to the local shelter on Euth day and let you watch...EVERY day for a year and then dare you to repeat this dribblish bull crap you're peddling. People like you.. make me ill!

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    Replies
    1. THANK YOU! Couldn't have said this better myself!!
      It's almost a year after you wrote this,Anonymous, but it STILL stands. The #'s of DISCARDED ANIMALS ARE STILL Outweighing the amount of homes and families that can take them in. IN ALL STATES!!!

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  3. Dear anonymous poster
    I am high on LIFE, but that is beside the point. Do you suppose that shelter expert Nathan Winograd lies? Read about the shelter stats in this country before you spout off on something that you obviously don't have a clue about.
    http://www.nathanwinograd.com/?p=1390

    Here's from another article on the same subject:

    According to a national study done by Maddie's Fund and the Humane Society of the United States, 23.5 million people in the US will get a new pet each year. Some of those people have already decided where they will get that pet i.e. they will adopt from a shelter, go to a breeder or get a pet from free to good home ad etc. However, 17 million of those people have not yet decided where they will get their new pet. So these “undecideds” are the homes that are up for grabs. These 17 million people could be convinced to adopt.*

    Today, between 3 and 4 million animals are being killed in “shelters”. So it’s pretty clear that the “demand” for pets each year (17 million) far outnumbers the “supply” of animals being killed in shelters (3-4 million).



    Continue reading on Examiner.com: The earth is flat, pet overpopulation exists and other myths we've been told - Houston animal shelters | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/animal-shelters-in-houston/the-earth-is-flat-pet-overpopulation-exists-and-other-myths-we-ve-been-told#ixzz1MIbQMveS

    Shelters don't "euth" when they kill adoptable dogs. Euthanasia means to end a life of suffering or interminable pain. Killing adopatable pets is just plain KILLING. You must not have been reading this blog for long, or you'd know that the "crisis" is manufactured. Shelters choose to kill. Why else would shelters and rescues import hundreds of thousands of dogs from other countries each and every year?
    Please do educate yourself to the true situation. There are several other great articles on this blog. Try "Rethinking Spay and Neuter" to find out why sterilization is not always a good idea, unless you don't give a fig about the health of dogs. Read "It's Raining Cats and Dogs....From Other Countries". You might just learn a thing or two.
    From where I sit, there are plenty of rescue groups selling for GREED. They charge plenty for their pets. There is even a new PET STORE in the Lakewood Mall, run by Found Animals Foundation. Read "The Six Million Dollar Pet Store" on this blog. Big market for product that just flies off the shelf.
    Please don't post your drivel here again, I have a policy against posts by uninformed drama queens.

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  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  5. I warned you, anonymous dipshit. You are OUTTA here.

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  6. It is not "euth" day.. it is KILL day and any "shelter" worked who allows a "shelter" to kill for space gets what they deserve.. the dogs don;t deserve.. and it is NOT necessary.. but how else to keep the $$ rolling in if not by blaming people instead of finding a solution and I don;t mean pink one We are not :"in crisis" and it not getting worse.. it is getting better.. MUCH better...
    rescue is getting a bad name for itself and people like the poster here are the reason why.. anyone who kills puppies for "space" should be dragged down to "no kill " shelter and watch how it is really done..

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  7. NO ROOM AT THE INN.is still . NO REASON TO KILL.. most shelters are required to report.. in fact they get paid by reporting how many they KILL.. they get paid by the KILL numbers.. who would kill because they were "taking up too much room?" people who don't give a damn..

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  8. Wow starbreeze, you are so ignorant it is sad. If you truly love your animals, wake up and stop contributing to the injustice of this world. The statistics and facts are blinding. You may hide behind your blog, you may delete this post because you can't accept the truth, or you feel powerful because you started a meaningless blog that makes zero difference in the world, but if you chose to look away from the reality you're choosing to contribute to the cruelty. It's ok to not support animal welfare groups or not agree, but trying to stop them is a lost cause, uneductaed people like you don't stand a chance in this movement. Good luck handing out your fliers at the next expo, they'll come in handy to pick up dog shit, it's honestly laughable.

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  9. AHH, getting under your skin, eh, Jessica? The truth is a bit painful for you to face, it seems. Yep, the statistics and facts ARE blinding and they are all posted on the pages here.
    Checked the hit counter here lately? About 33,000 hits to this blog, from all over the world! YES! I am laughing! Hallelujah, let the truth ring out from the rooftops!
    Lost cause? Naw, not at all! As of today, there are seven US congressmen who have formally requested the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of the HSUS. About time that the Hypocrites Shilling the Ultimate Scam are exposed to the world and brought to their knees!
    Thanks for showing everyone just how cruel you are. Your personal attacks, totally devoid of substance, speak volumes. That's the typical tactic of those who don't have any real facts to back up what they are saying.

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