Dog Politics

Last night, the wife and I hosted a political meet and greet for Mark Forsythe -- one of our local Kansas City candidates that is running for city council for our district.

It was interesting in 2006 the number of times a city council person would make a comment favoring BSL and someone close to me would mumble "and I voted for this >jerk<".  Dog issues are seldom high on the list of priorities for people when running for office...so about 90% of the time, unless they really know a candidate, most voters end up voting for someone with little knowledge about their stance on BSL, or other animal related issues.

Thus, the "Politics" section of the KCDA Website.  The idea is to rate how certain candidates feel about animal-related issues.  We'll be putting in voting records on proposals, newspaper quotes, etc as necessary.  This is a luxury Kansas City Dog Advocates has over rescue groups -- which by their nature of being non-profits can't get overly involved in politics.  KCDA can.

The thinking here is that people should know how candidates feel about dog issues.  It may not be the sole decision-maker for them, but it should be part of it.  I think a lot of fighting BSL can be done before candidates ever get in office -- by being sure the right people are in office making the decisions.  This means knowing how candidates feel about animal welfare and dog ownership issues.  This means voting and campaigning for and against people who we feel deserve it.

Dog owners represent a majority of people in the population -- so them banding together to get the right people into office can send a very strong message to politicians.

The Kansas City page is up at KCDA.  It isn't completed, but we'll be filling in the gaps as we get closer to election time.  We'll also be working on the pages for other cities throughout the metro in the early part of this year.

As for Mark, so far he's the highest ranking candidate in Kansas City politics.  Mark has taken a very strong stance (read the Sept 14  entry) against BSL and against KC's BSL Mandatory Spay/Neuter Policy.  That's why we hosted him.  And that's why I'll be pushing for him to win.