So earlier this week, I got emailed a "FactSheet" that the Humane Society of the United States is handing out regarding mandating spay and neuter for all "pit bulls'. This is a 'factsheet' from the largest and richest animal welfare organization in the country -- and it has barely a fact on it. Here are some "highlights (I'll put my comments in Blue):
Here are the headers or their categories:
Pit Bull Overpopulation is a crisis for the breed and the community
Protecting Pit Bulls means Protetcting Communities; Spaying and Neutering Pit Bulls is the answer
Cities need to enact Pit Bull Spay Neuter Ordinances
Will this Ordinance Lead to a Pit Bull Ban?
How will it work? Case Study.
The case study goes on to promote the "results" from the San Francisco Ordinance -- straight off their press release. Percentage of dogs classified as 'pit bulls' dropped from 60% to 25%. Percentage of bites involving 'pit bulls' dropped from 32% to just 11% in the 18 months before and after the ordinance (I still for the life of me cannot figure out where they calculated this number from. I have the numbers, and can't even come close to recreating it.) Number of 'pit bull' euthanized dropped by 24%.
This is the research of the largest Animal Protection group in the US? They can't do better than this? Did they just ignore the work of T.E. Houston, or the numbers themselves?
Maybe my biggest beef with the entire "factsheet" is from the "Will this ordinance lead to a pit bull ban?" section. Here's the verbage:
Many people oppose breed bans as ineffective because they punish responsible owners, fail to address the root problem of irresponsible ownership and can cause the deatsh of well-behaved dogs. Unilke a breed ban, a pit bull spay/neuter law sawves dogs by prventing wanton, irresponsible breeding by ill-intentioned owners. Ultimately, a pit bull spay/neuter law can actually prevent pit bull bans by curtailing the number of abused pit bulls and therefore the number of pit bull/human conflicts.
In some ways I can respect their desire to use this as a replacement for breed bans - -it is less restrictive than banning. However, they have been widely circulating this flyer in New Jersey (where breed bans are prohibited so there is no need to protect people from breed bans). They have also been derailing Missouri SB 886 (which would prohibit breed bans and actually wipe out all breed bans in the state) by trying to allow for mandatory spay/neuter of pit bulls in the ordinance.
HSUS, you're not helping! If the goal is to make it so that BSL/MSN will be a replacement for breed bans -- don't use it as a replacement for laws that already DON"T ALLOW BREED BANS. And instead of reading the numbers off a press release, how about using the immense resources you have to actually do real research and analysis of the numbers (which will lead you to a quite different conclusion.).
It's a shame that HSUS would rather derail true animal welfare policy with their agenda than to actually make fact-based claims and studies and focus on policies that actually work. They continue to ignore case studies like Caglary and the No Kill philosophy for their own agenda. It's a darn shame.
I have a quibble (hey, it's what I do!).
The H$U$ is absolutely NOT an animal welfare organization. They are animal rights.
They are NOT an animal protection organization. They are animal rights.
Breed/shape directed mandatory sterilization IS a breed ban. Duh.
It's just that due to propaganda about 'overpopulation' (BS), 'overbreeding' (BS), 'over abuse of 'pit bulls' compared with other shapes' (BS) the 'sterilization changes behaviour and has a calming influence' thing (BS) the public believes it.
The media have been carrying water for AR for over two decades - knowingly and worse, unknowingly.
Sterilizing all the dogs can have only one outcome and you don't have to be a genius to figure out what that outcome is.
The only overpopulation, aside from humans themselves, is of lies, propaganda, hypocrisy and those possessed of a cult-like fervour directed towards an anti-domestication agenda.
They want to get rid of all the dogs, cats, goldfish, budgies, cows, horses, goats, sheep, chickens and all the rest of the animals with whom we've had a millennia-long relationship.
That's really all there is to it.
Posted by: Caveat | March 22, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Shame? There's your proof in the pudding of what we are fighting.. They publish false data, sugar coated with emotional strings based upon alleged facts which are actually misrepresentations. We had 5,000 flyers (to start with) printed, which said the opposite of what HS published. They have to be sent to the people deciding the law. Don't believe for 1 second that they don't "know" the numbers. They darn well know them and publish instead-- misrepresentations. Jennifer Fearing is their economist from Harvard I believe. She has no lack of math skills. And she is heavily into mandating spay/neuter and had her hand in SB861 for SF..Need we say more?
Posted by: S. Kennedy | March 22, 2008 at 11:06 AM
Caveat, right again!
Posted by: S. Kennedy | March 22, 2008 at 11:08 AM
You know that HSUS wanted the Vick dogs killed, same as PETA.
They advise shelters to always kill dogs seized from alleged dogfighters.
More than any other organization, they are responsible for hyping dogfighting, and probably INCREASING its popularity.
They are 2 faced about BSL.
They are NO friends of pit bulls.
Pit bulls are just their stalking horse for more restrictions on pet ownership.
Posted by: Emily S | March 22, 2008 at 06:11 PM
Yeah, you're a little generous offering they're promoting MSN to avoid/substitute breed bans for the very reasons you listed - they're promoting MSN where there isn't BSL. The end results are the same - eradicating the breed...and then the next breed, and then the next...
Posted by: MichelleD | March 22, 2008 at 11:08 PM
HSUS has the power to ruin our lives. What can we do??
Posted by: Becky | March 23, 2008 at 01:05 AM
HS doesn't actually have any guts, but what they have is the ability to target a large group of people since they are 100yr old. However just because of that, doesn't mean organized grassroots people can't tell the truth. However, with biteblogs and bitesites out there, the turf becomes more difficult. Not impossible. We all know certain breeds are very popular/at same time very UNpopular; amazing. They can't MSN any breed out of existence but they will try/make it harder for people. As long as they keep using the 'ole emotional ploy they will get somewhere. But that is true of any case, since people are driven by emotions. If MSN in CA can be shot down for the state as a whole, the same can happen elsewhere.
Posted by: S. Kennedy | March 23, 2008 at 02:14 AM
You're right, S. Kennedy.
The reason that 'pit bulls' have been targeted imo is because they are difficult to define and identify.
It casts a very wide net and the fear-mongering has ingrained a lot of myths into the public consciousness.
Basically, to the fearful, any short-haired, medium-sized dog that looks like a pariah (the original dog) is a 'pit bull'.
Stir in a lot of fake news, get the hysterical calling their reps, and bingo! You've created a monster and managed to oppress a huge demographic of dog owners at once.
Same steps, different target.
1. Isolate the target, make it seem different from its peers.
2. Transform the target - 'pbs' aren't even dogs any more
3. Run a relentless propaganda campaign - truth is irrelevant, it's repetition that counts
4. Remove civil rights for reasons of public safety - the fear-mongering will allow this to pass
5. Turn neighbourhoods into govt spy networks
6. Release the targets' names to the authorities
And Goebbels is your uncle!
Posted by: Caveat | March 23, 2008 at 08:52 AM
I couldn't have said it better. That is EXACTLY the truth. And throw in a little ethnocentrism-racism in to boot. Instant fear mongering type nonsense which is quickly gobbled up by the lukewarm IQ public. Oh-- and legislators in some place. And I wonder what economic-racial profiling shows as to which races own these bully dogs? I haven't seen anyone do 'that' study. Maybe they are afraid. Can you imagine? Study shows population 200,000. Dogs owned 50,000. Bully dogs=10,000. Median income of bully dog owners=?? Race of bully dog owners= ?? Percent of public that hate the bully dogs now=95% ????? Probably not that far off from what I see. I can hear HS now..."Let the process begin with highly promoted misrepresentations, glittering generalities, much emotional hogwash, and may we net another $5,000,000 from yet another campaign of deceit!"
Posted by: S. Kennedy | March 23, 2008 at 12:09 PM
All animal rightists and animal welfare groups became animal terrorists at the instant they coalesced under the agenda of eradicating all domestic animals world wide. These people aren't about animals. They are mentally warped, find their identities in controlling all others, and are precisely what they pretend to most abhor--cruel to animals. Whacko should no more be permitted to eradicate all species of domesticated animals than Hitler was permitted to eradicate all Jews.
Posted by: Twilight | March 23, 2008 at 01:40 PM
Barb at My dog Votes did a year-long survey.
The average 'pit bull' owner is quite nicely described here:
http://dogpolitics.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/01/white_woman_wit.html
Posted by: Caveat | March 23, 2008 at 03:10 PM
I might have made an error but I can't see the year long survey?
Posted by: S. Kennedy | March 23, 2008 at 06:38 PM
Twilight - No true animal welfare group wants to eradicate domestic animals...that's the agenda of animal RIGHTS groups. AR groups may call themselves AW but they're not... I know exactly what you mean and completly agree.
AW groups are getting lumped into AR groups and AW groups are calling themselves "Animal Rights" and they're not - I've heard Winograd talking about "fighting for animal rights" and his policies are SO not AR.
The reason I bring this up is its getting harder, if not impossible to seperate the two in the public mind and to politicians. AW groups are getting lumped in with crazy PETA folks and being seen as irrational... People think H$U$ is the ultimate AW group because THEY SAY they are... we need a new name.
We even have a hard time with KC Dog Advocates (we're really stand for ASAP - Americans for Sane Animal Policy :-). Animal welfare has become secondary to our group. When in institue sane and fair policies and procedures the AW portion would (almost) take care of itself.
Posted by: MichelleD | March 24, 2008 at 09:54 AM
WEll, I believe that animals have rights! (but I am not part of the current 'AR' propagandists, such as PETA and HSUS.)
In fact, I protest the fact that they even define themselves as Animal Rights activists, because they really are not. And knowledgable folks KNOW this.
They don't give a hoot about animals or their genuine rights (like to life or the comforts of a home)
I believe animals have a RIGHT to NOT be MURDERED by PETA and/or HSUS! I do not believe that PETA and HSUS have the RIGHT to place themselves in positions of judging who deserves to live and who deserves to die.
Michelle is exactly right: 'instituting sane and fair policies and procedures, the AW protion would (almost) take care of it.
I believe that most people know that when their 'visions' require actions that they know to be wrong, must then realize that they are commiting actions that are wrong.
And when they try to candy coat their actions, such as insisting that killing an animal is really not killing an animal, they must know deep down inside that they are wrong. Still, they do it to satisfy their own egos and liberate themselves to commit atrocities. That simple.
Posted by: Becky | March 24, 2008 at 11:11 PM
Unfortunately, the ARs are all about emotional propaganda covering up the bitter truth. For the AR 'followers' that don't even understand the biggies behind the AR movement, they all think they are actually "saving" animals. Every single ploy that HS/PETa/the rest use, involve the emotional hook of the "poor" pig, cow, turkey; "abused" blah blah blah, and the PEOPLE who caused it. Once they get that causal link established, they have the hook in and sunk. Only those that can see through that facade will realize what's going on. Animal planet has some ok shows, but much of it is nothing but HS et al simply doing their normal propaganda disguised as a show. Have u ever watched it? English people over-stressing how the animal is stressed out, and it is repeatedly stated. (Remember part of conditioning people to believe something is to repeat it continuously) To most people, it's convincing and they never even question it. When you have reality like that, ARs calling themselves as such just make the words AR a dirty name. As the CO federal court just announced in one sentence,in dismissing the Denver case, there is no human-animal bond right mentioned in the constitution.
Posted by: S. Kennedy | March 25, 2008 at 12:51 AM