pet connection

(Note: I’ve added some material to this original post, mostly because I was too lazy to start another. Just FYI. On the updates, not the laziness.]

As I’ve mentioned a few times, I have a different, more nuanced view of the HSUS than I do of PETA.

PETA is an animal-rights group, with views that are outside of the mainstream. This is America, of course, and they are entitled to those opinions and to advocate for them in any honest and legal way possible. I disagree with many if not most of those views, but I do not disagree with their right to have those opinions. My problem with PETA is that I have often believed there’s a mis-match between what they say and do, like supporting the Vick pit bulls with a bunch of loud protesters and signs while advocating for all pit bulls to disappear.

An aside: The Bad Rap folks are having the best time ever with a related PETA statement:

But we must consider that nice families rarely come to a shelter to adopt pit bulls; almost without exception, those who want pit bulls are attracted to the “macho” image of the breed as a living weapon and seek to play up this image by putting the animals in heavy chains, taunting them into aggression, and leaving them outside in all weather extremes in order to “toughen” them. There is no denying that pit bulls are at a higher risk of suffering a horrible fate. – Jeff Haines PETA Spokesman

Hmmmm. I don’t know. The whole idea of “nice families” sounds just a tad elitist to me. What’s the subtext here? I think we all know. But I gotta say I have personally known some pretty tough looking customers who don’t live in gated communities and still manage to love and care for their pitties like family members.

Update: Well, gosh, if I’d just looked at the other blogs I usually read, I would have noticed that Luisa was ahead of me on this one, over on Lassie Get Help:

You see the weird thing that happened there? Jeff said “nice families,” but it must have been some kind of glitch, because I’m positive he meant to say “white people.” … Pit bull owners, as everyone knows, have names like Tupac McGangsta and Felony Illegalpants Martinez. They don’t vote. They don’t matter. We don’t know them and we don’t want to know them. They’re not like us.

It’s crazy that the pit bull’s salvation may be riding on photos of happy middle-class white people with their pibbles, and crazy that I should fret, every time I send a letter to some idiot politician, that she’ll glance at my name and shrug and say, “Mexican,” and ignore everything I took the trouble to write: the facts, the science, all of it. Crazy that anyone, in 2008 for crissakes, should think that such horrifying laws do any good. It’s just nuts.

Yep. So let’s not sterotype dogs or people, shall we?

Good pet owners can be found everywhere, in every neighborhood, with all kinds of dogs. Ditto, the bad ones, and don’t get me started on the ignored, neglected backyard “child accessories” of a million well-off “nice families” who can barely find time to throw food out the back door, what with Emily’s soccer games and Joshua’s swim meets. (My niece: “If McKenzie has puppies, can I have one?” Me: “No.” My niece: “Why not?” Me: “Because I’ve never been to your house when your Lab has been in the house, or anyone in your family is paying the slightest attention to him.” Niece: “Well, Mom doesn’t want him in since we painted. But Dad built him a really nice dog house! The color matches the house!” Me: (Biting tongue until it bleeds) “Uh-huh.” Niece: “So if McKenzie has puppies, can I have one?” Me: “It’s ‘may I’ not ‘can I.” And no, you may not.”)

OK, now HSUS. Over the years I have known many, many people who have worked for the HSUS and have fought hard for animals, even risking their lives to do so. Do I agree with everything the HSUS has said and done? Not at all. But I think it’s a big organization that has shown itself capable of changing, and I think it’s changing now, especially with regards to supporting no-kill commmunities, although I see that Nathan Winograd seems to disagree.

Having fairly recently been invited to share a vegan meal with HSUS top dog Wayne Pacelle (whom I’d never met), I’d guess that he would prefer that we all go vegan, but that doesn’t stop his organization from working towards humane, sustainable animal agriculture, which is what I believe in and support.

From his blog:

It is obvious that tormenting downer cattle—as seen in the videos and photos HSUS undercover investigators recorded at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. in Chino, Calif., as well as four livestock auctions across the country—is bad for the animals involved. I’ve always believed it was also bad for the meat industry, too, and was perplexed by those meat industry representatives who defended a practice that reflected so poorly on their industry and had the potential to inflict such economic damage. For the industry, there’s nothing positive about meat recalls, interruptions of operations at slaughter plants, the possible introduction into the food supply of an animal with mad cow disease or some other dangerous pathogen, the closing of export markets, the stigma of cruelty, and the decrease in consumer confidence. It’s just not good business.

The industry, in the wake of several HSUS investigations, seems to be recognizing this very point, and there have been a number of commentaries and statements by leaders within different industry sectors about the mistreatment of downer cattle. The American Meat Institute and other players reversed their opposition to a downer ban and petitioned USDA to ban the slaughter of downer cattle. The California Cattlemen’s Association and other agriculture groups are supporting a bill, A.B. 2098, in California to upgrade the state law against selling, transporting, or slaughtering downer cows. Good for them.

And this week, I picked up in my daily news clippings the most emphatic and gracious commentary from an industry leader to date. I paste below a column from Dan Gralian, president of the Nevada Cattlemen’s Association, and it’s worth your time to read it. I send my thanks to Mr. Gralian for his statement and his principled position.

Here’s the rest, including Mr. Gralian’s article.

There are a lot of people who are raising food animals with compassion and concern not only for the animals but also for the environment. They are saying “no” most emphatically to factory farming, and reclaiming our ancestral compacts with animals and the earth.

I support their efforts with my words and my money. They are insiders, and I am not, but together we can change industrialized agri-business and make it about “farming” again. (Hey, kinda like I feel about horse-racing: Acknowledge that a lot of people on the inside are and long have been working for change, and support those efforts.)

Good on the HSUS for recognizing and encouraging change. A cattleman praised in an HSUS blog: Either hell has frozen over or we’re maybe moving away from the “you’re with us or agin’” us crap that has rotted so much of what passes for public discourse in recent years, not only on animal issues but on all issues.

Speaking of horse-racing: If Casino Drive gets scratched from the Belmont, well, remember, I called it (at the end of this post). The horse-racing industry desperately wants a Triple Crown winner, a “hero” to “save the sport.” I said I’d say “hmmmmm” if Casino Drive didn’t run for some reason. I’m warming up the “hmmmm”-generator now.

Update: Casino Drive is out. His presence in the race may well not have made the slightest bit of difference to Big Brown. Despite the fact that CD’s mom also dropped the last TWO Belmont winners (including the super-filly, Rags to Riches), the horse himself is a lightly raced youngster who has shown great promise. He was a big question mark anyway in terms of experience for this race, pedigree aside. But I predicted two weeks ago that he’d scratch, and …. well … hmmmmmmm.