Animal Welfare

by AChinook  Dec. 10, 2008

Mankind has an abysmal record of animal treatment, of ourselves and all other animals, which is growing increasingly worse, especially in our profit-at-any-cost advanced industrial development.  More than a few people are so appalled by this that they support animal rights organizations, but are all animal rights groups' efforts any more humane?  

One major group is PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), which is basically a vegetarian organization that is a nonprofit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) corporation.  Outside the U.S., there are affiliated offices in Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, Republic of China (Taiwan), and the United Kingdom.  There is also the peta2 Street Team for high school and college-age activists, and the Foundation to Support Animal Protection, which manages PETA's assets.  They radically seek "total animal liberation," according to their president and cofounder, Ingrid Newkirk.  

PETA works through public education, research and investigations, animal rescue, legislation, special events, and celebrity spokespeople.  To their credit, PETA has exposed animal abuse in numerous laboratories and agribusiness, cleaned up substandard animal shelters, and prodded many pet businesses to treat the animals they house more humanely.  In one of their programs, each year they build and set up hundreds of sturdy dog houses, with straw bedding, for dogs that are chained outside all winter.  In 2007, this amounted to over 400 dog houses.  They also provide information on vegetarianism, companion animal care, and countless other issues to millions of people.  

However, as with all man's institutions, there is a dark side to their activities that casts considerable doubt as to their ethics and agenda.  One glaring example is that, not counting the pets PETA spayed and neutered, the group has put to death over 90 percent of the animals it took into it's shelters - over 19,200 dogs, cats, and other companion animals from July 1998 through December 2007.  In comparison, the Virginia Beach SPCA, just down the road from PETA’s Norfolk headquarters, managed to adopt out almost 70% of the animals in its care last year, as do many other shelters.  PETA found adoptive homes for less than 1 percent.  

In 2000, when the Associated Press first noted PETA's Kervorkian-esque tendencies, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk complained that actually taking care of animals costs more than killing them.  

PETA takes in nearly $30 million each year in income, much of it raised from pet owners believing their donations will help animals.  Instead, the group spends huge sums on programs promoting vegetarianism, such as likening people who eat chicken with Nazis, scaring young children away from drinking milk, and so on.  They also spend tens of thousands of dollars defending arsonists and other violent extremists, and provide aid and comfort for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF).  The ALF and ELF are considered domestic terrorists.  

PETA's goal of "total animal liberation" means no meat or dairy, of course, but it also means essentially no aquariums, no circuses, no hunting or fishing, no fur or leather, no medical research using animals, and very likely no pets.  

It might also be of interest that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has ties with PETA, and is a fanatical animal rights group that seeks to remove eggs, milk, meat, and seafood from the American diet.

Another major group is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) which is a multinational conglomerate with ten regional offices in the United States and a special Hollywood Office that promotes and monitors the media’s coverage of animal-rights issues.  

Despite the words “humane society” on its letterhead, the HSUS is not affiliated with your local animal shelters. Nor despite the omnipresent dogs and cats in its fundraising materials, is it an organization that runs spay/neuter programs or takes in stray, neglected, and abused pets. And despite the common image of animal protection agencies as cash-strapped organizations dedicated to animal welfare, HSUS has become one of the wealthiest animal rights organization in the world.  

While most local animal shelters are under-funded and unsung, HSUS with a 2006 budget of $103 million has accumulated $113 million in assets and built a recognizable brand by capitalizing on the confusion its very name provokes.  HSUS raises enough money that it could finance animal shelters in every single state, with money to spare, yet it doesn’t operate a single one anywhere.  

Instead, HSUS spends millions on programs that seek to economically cripple meat and dairy producers; eliminate the use of animals in biomedical research labs; phase out pet breeding, zoos, and circus animal acts; and demonize hunters as crazed lunatics. HSUS spends $2 million each year on travel expenses alone, just keeping its multi-national agenda going.  

Opposition like the lobby group National Animal Interest Alliance, which is linked to the factory farming industry, and animal breeders which resist efforts to curtail the puppy mill industry, actively attack groups such as PETA and HSUS.   Their efforts provide some balance, but their own agendas are no more noble.  

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There is so much that can be done to improve the well-being of our animals, but vegetarian organizations that blatantly play on our sympathies to further their own radical agenda are just as bad as our pet and livestock industries.  

What can you as an individual do?  A good starting point is with your own companion animals, in providing species appropriate diets and avoiding wallet-vets that make a living off of dispensing the pharmaceutical industry's concoctions that promote chronic illness (at the least).  Another thing, when you decide to acquire a new companion animal, try first to adopt one from a reputable shelter or rescue group.  If that fails, at least look for a breeder that really cares about their animals (as in one that raises their animals naturally and would encourage you to follow more natural and healthy diet and medical approaches).  

What not to do is contribute to organizations like the ones above, or purchase goods from pet industry store fronts.  

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you.  That is the principal difference between a dog and a man".   -- Mark Twain