Animal Lovers Should STOP sending money to Zealots

Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:29 am (PST)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/nov/12/animal-lovers-should-stop-sending-money-to-zealots/?print-friendly

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November 12, 2009
Animal lovers should stop sending money to zealots
Rich Landers
The Spokesman-Review
 

I took a beating in the letters-to-the-editor pages a few weeks ago for
pointing out the threat national-scale animal rights groups pose to the
sports of hunting and fishing.

Now I'm turning the other cheek.

Readers shouldn't assume that the published letters were the only reaction.

Nor should they think the threat these groups pose is limited to hunters
and anglers.

The published letters came mostly from one group of Spokane-area animal
rights activists and Wayne Pacelle, the national figurehead for the
Humane Society of the United States.

But many phone calls and e-mails called for more scrutiny of these
groups and the moral fascism they are trying to impose on society's use
and enjoyment of animals.

One veterinarian pointed out that these groups are clawing their way
through legal and legislative channels toward giving pets individual
rights rather than leaving them designated as the property of their owners.

The vet said that, among other problems, this would have huge
repercussions in the costs of veterinary care and liability.

"Can you imagine the costs of routine pet procedures if we have to run
unnecessary tests and insure ourselves for protection against possible
multimillion-dollar lawsuits?" he said.

One e-mail came from a woman who works with a small-town animal welfare
organization that does the dirty work of caring for the epidemic of
lost, abused or unwanted pets. She thanked me for pointing out that
these local nonprofit animal rescue groups – including the local Humane
Societies that have no connection with the Humane Society of the United
States – are always scrapping for money to do their work.

"I used to donate (to HSUS), years ago, but all the money seemed to go
to mailings with another free key chain and a request for more money,"
she wrote. "I was never sure that my donation was helping homeless animals.

"I now only donate locally, like to the Spokane Humane Society, or to
our organization, where 100 percent of funds are spent on vet care."

This woman, the veterinarian and others asked not to be identified
because they didn't want to endure the crap animal rights groups like to
dish out to dissenters.

Speaking out publicly can start a smear campaign and financial burden
for a pet care professional or local animal charity.

A story in Tuesday's paper detailed how the HSUS, PETA and other animal
rights zealots are trying to prevent the use of animals in veterinary
training and biomedical research.

Medical and veterinary students cannot learn the complexities of
hemorrhage on a computer model. Period.

Scientists who are trying to find cures for diseases and test surgical
procedures and devices are having their lives threatened by the moral
fascists.

"I'd rather see (animals) euthanized than go to a research facility,"
said Minnesota Animal Rights Coalition president Charlotte Cozzetto.

These are the nuts who are draining millions of dollars from the
checking accounts of little old ladies and others in the uninformed
masses who think they are saving puppies and kittens.

But in most cases, these national groups donate little or nothing back
to the actual care and welfare of those unwanted animals that are
euthanized by the hundreds of thousands every year.

Pacelle smugly wrote The Spokesman-Review to charge me with misinforming
the public about the ramifications of his recent testimony before the
Supreme Court. He said the case had nothing to do with possibly making
hunters and anglers criminals for being filmed or photographed with
their quarry.

What he failed to say was that it was Justices Scalia, Sotomayor and
others in the Supreme Court chambers who were making that association,
not this lowly scribe in Spokane.

He also failed to acknowledge the numbers I shared with readers from the
HSUS tax forms showing that more than half of the $4.8 million the group
raised in one year for its feeble facade of creating wildlife
sanctuaries goes back into mailing and propaganda.

This is the huge difference between sportsmen-supported wildlife
conservation groups and national animal zealot groups.

When you write a check to Ducks Unlimited, the Rocky Mountain Elk
Foundation or The Nature Conservancy, the money goes into preserving
habitat for wildlife survival and human quality of life.

A check written to HSUS largely supports moral fascism.

These zealots must constantly squeal about animal atrocities, because to
be reasonable and effective would curtail the heavy flow of cash into
their pockets.

Contact Rich Landers at 509 459-5508 or richl@spokesman.com.

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