AKC and KKK: One of these things is not like the other
By Christie Keith
February 6, 2008
I hate to give them any press, because it’s clearly why they do these things. Indeed, it seems that the provocation of media coverage and blogger/email list outrage has become an addiction for those crazy folks at PETA.
But Denise Flaim at Newsday.com had some choice comments about their latest ad, scheduled to run during the airing of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show next week, and try as I did to resist blogging about it, I couldn’t help it.
I guess in a world where up is down, pit bulls should be siezed from cruel fighters so they can be killed by, well…. PETA, loving animals means killing them, and turning women into pieces of meat is better than eating meat, it makes all kinds of sense to compare dogs to African-Americans, dog shows to a lynching, and the American Kennel Club to the Klu Klux Klan:
“When it comes to contempt for ‘mixed breeds’ and a fetish for ‘pure bloodlines,’ there’s not much difference between the KKK and the AKC,” says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “Not only does the AKC promote breeding as a ’sport,’ it also opposes spay-and-neuter laws that would save the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals.”
Where to start? First, if you’re going to make a correlation between the closed canine gene pools and unfortunate moments in human history, eugenics concepts put forth in Nazi Germany is the better fit. Steve Budianksy does an excellent recap of this in his book, “The Truth About Dogs.”
As for the AKC aversion to mixed-breeds, PETA must have missed the memo about the AKC considering opening up performance events such as obedience and Rally to non-pedigree pooches. Cynics opine that this is as much an economic imperative than a moral one, and they’d be right. But I’ll take a Boss Tweed over a Grand Wizard any day of the week.
Second, breeding is not the sport — dog showing is.
Nachminovitch’s last comment is a reference to AB 1634, the California law that was narrowly defeated after opposition by purebred dog and cat breeders because it required mandatory spaying and neutering of every puppy and kitten at 4 months — an age considered too premature by many (yours truly included) because of potential health implications (increased risk of osteosarcoma among them). In truth, reputable breeders sell all their pet-quality puppies on contracts stipulating that they be spayed and neutered.
I like Denise when she gets a rant on. Check it out here.
And the exhorbitant cost of the TV ad is paid for by well-meaning people who have been duped and have given their hard-earned cash to PETA not knowing it is all a lie. Wake up, people!
Comment by Nadine L. — February 6, 2008 @ 11:14 pm
Daphna Nachminovitch runs the division at PETA responsible for taking in pets and killing 97% of them.
Comment by trucorgi — February 7, 2008 @ 7:43 am
Steve Budiansky. That rang a bell.
From a Bark magazine review of Matthew Scully’s “Dominion”:
“Scully also does an admirable job in deconstructing the polemics of behavioral theorists like Stephen Budiansky and Professor John S. Kennedy. A student of evolutionary biology Budiansky believes that animals act by a kind of “unthinking intelligence” arising from their genetic coding or “hardwiring.” Animals, he further argues, lack language, therefore they lack the ability to form concepts, therefore lack consciousness, therefore they cannot suffer. He also promotes the notion that dogs, and other animals, including primates, only mimic human emotion and intelligence. Scully contends that Budiansky, and other theorists, hold a position of dominion that is “without that moral sensibility.” These theorists are quick to discount anything that can’t be measured or replicated in their labs. But to anyone who has shared a life with animals, it is readily evident that such theories are poppycock. For, as Scully reminds us, “None of these abstract theories would warrant such space and attention if they stayed where they belonged . the problem lies in their practical application . which give license to what people actually do to animals.” Hunters and animal husbandry experts can be counted as fans of Budiansky’s views.”
http://www.thebark.com/ezine/l.....ws_02.html
Comment by shibadiva — February 7, 2008 @ 7:45 am
I wish someone from a major respected animal organization would do a nice succinct piece on why PETA doesn’t speak for the rest of us. I’d love to have something I could send to new organizations every time they cite PETA as an authority on some animal issue
Comment by 2CatMom — February 7, 2008 @ 8:01 am
So if you are involved with AKC, you’re on par with racists (according to PETA)? I’m not sure where I fit in as we have a “mixed race” home - that is, purebreds and mixed breeds. O and my Chihuahua mix does not sit at the back of the bus either - she bullies everyone else and maintains her spots on the couch and the bed while the others lie on the floor.
Comment by slt — February 7, 2008 @ 8:47 am
We live in a society where over 4 million animals are killed each year because of a lack of homes. At the same time, groups like the AKC are encouraging over-population by supporting the breeding of animals. It’s about compassion. Don’t breed or buy while homeless animals die. It’s basic math.
Comment by Nancy — February 7, 2008 @ 6:25 pm
Don’t breed or buy while homeless animals die. It’s basic math.
Nancy — it’s basic propaganda.
There is no reason to kill those 4 million animals OR stop preserving dog and cat breeds. You can do both. Not so many years ago, that 4 million was 27 million. You don’t have to choose, and the price of saving those 4 million animals — many of which, by the way, are feral cats — is not the extinction of many of the breeds that are part of the human race’s history and heritage.
It’s a false equation.
It was through the dog fancy I discovered rescue. It’s because of my passion for dogs that I have been involved in low cost spay neuter programs, and feral cat trap, alter, release programs. I have advised uncounted hundreds of pet owners on how to choose a pet, how to train a pet, and how to solve pet problems, so that all those animals had good homes for life. I’ve been personally responsible for hundreds of cats and dogs being altered who might not otherwise have been.
Neither I nor any other ethical breeder is part of the problem. We are part of the solution.
On the other hand, people who spread lies and propaganda, people who think there is no better way to run their shelters except by wholesale killing, people who drive wedges between animal lovers so that we waste our time fighting instead of helping that last 4 million dogs and cats?
THEY are the problem.
Comment by Christie Keith — February 7, 2008 @ 8:14 pm
Check out the BAD RAP blog, people. I mean: PEOPLE!! The Vick pit bulls are in PEOPLE! Smiling from ear to ear, too.
Man, that is some nice news.
Comment by Luisa — February 8, 2008 @ 2:25 am