A message to dog owning sportsmen about protecting their traditions, avocations and livelihoods from anti-hunting, anti-breeding, animal guardianship advocates. Forwarding and cross posting, with attribution, encouraged.
Dear Friends,
The following article from award-winning New England outdoor writer, Marc
Folco, is well worth reading. As an additional comment to the writer's
mention of HSUS anti-breeder legislation in the guise of eliminating puppy
mills: HSUS is currently losing this state-level battle about 3 to 1;
however bills are still pending in 8 states.
Susan Wolf
Sportsmen's and Animal Owners' Voting Alliance - http://saova.org
Open Season: Firing back at the critics June 21, 2009 6:00 AM
I get hate mail on the average of once a week, and I don't know why. My
column shouldn't be controversial.
Hunting has been around since the caveman, and guns have been around shortly
after the Chinese invented gunpowder - and our Constitution clearly states
that U.S. citizens have the right to keep and bear arms if they so choose.
So, hunting and owning guns are two of America's oldest and most
time-honored traditions.
Why make them - and my column - a controversy?
After 21 years of dealing with cry-baby anti-hunters and runny-nosed
gun-grabbers that whine incessantly about my column, the outdoors lifestyle
and the shooting sports, I've become thick-skinned. Their barbs don't
penetrate. Some hate mail I answer, some I don't. Some I answer here.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), based in Washington, threw
another of its hissy-fits recently because I wrote about how the wealthy
animal rights group has been investigated after soliciting donations to
reunite pets with their owners during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
They took in $34 million for that purpose but only spent $7 million on it.
So, a whopping $27 million of solicited funds were used for something else.
In his letter to the editor, HSUS's Michael Markarian skirts that issue and
also avoids the notion that the group is pushing to get 41 dog bills enacted
in 26 states that are cloaked as eliminating puppy mills, but go to the
extreme, as usual. Language in such bills has included mandatory
spaying/neutering (or pay $500 per dog per year that is not spayed or
neutered), reporting all puppy sales to local authorities and eliminating
the practice of humane tethering.
Markarian uses diversion, and says that the group campaigns vigorously
against abusive hunting practices. They also (falsely) claim that I defend
inhumane practices. Inhumane? By whose standards? Those of animal rights
extremists? By their standards, all hunting is inhumane and the group's
underlying agenda is to eliminate all hunting.
HSUS President and CEO Wayne Pacelle has been quoted as saying, "If we could
shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would," as quoted by the
Associated Press in Impassioned Agitator, Dec. 30, 1991. "Our goal is to get
sport hunting in the same category as *** fighting and dog fighting," as
quoted in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Oct. 8, 1991. And, "Sport hunting -
the killing of wild animals as recreation - is fundamentally at odds with
the values of a humane, just and caring society," HSUS Website 2003.
And according to a report from the U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance (USSA), Pacelle
recently criticized in his blog, those who disagree with the group's agenda,
practically accusing them of not being in step with American culture, the
report says.
Pacelle suggests that HSUS opponents should, "start adjusting to the
evolving ethos in American culture. You'll get ahead through innovation and
adaptation, not stubborn adherence to custom or current business
operations." He also stated that other animal rights groups, "miss the
bigger picture, and our interest in reaching mainstream Americans."
"Mr. Pacelle's own words pull the curtain back and unveil the real intent of
the HSUS," stated USSA President and CEO Bud Pidgeon. "He admits to
attempting to 'mainstream' the group - at the same time he criticizes
'custom.' There's only one reason to do this and that is to fundamentally
change America to correspond to the HSUS agenda."
The HSUS is also involved in a lawsuit to stop the delisting of the gray
wolf as an endangered species in the Great Lakes states, where the wolf has
rebounded to thriving and healthy populations, far exceeding the goals that
were established in order to remove it from the list. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service - under the both the Bush and Obama Administrations - has
determined that the wolf numbers are more than sufficient for it to be
delisted. But that's not good enough for the HSUS and other animal rights
groups that are spending money on the lawsuit.
Could it be that the money being donated by people who are duped into
believing they are helping doggies and kitties, is being used by these
groups to fund those expensive anti-hunting lawsuits which tie up the courts
with nonsense? We already know that a lot of the money feathers the nests of
high-paid executives at the top of these groups.
Without an animal rights agenda, they're out of their quarter-million-dollar
salaries and would be slinging tofu at a vegan joint. You want veggie fries
with that?
Just this week, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is in an
uproar because President Obama swatted a fly. So, is swatting a fly (or a
mosquito) now considered inhumane and abusive by animal rights' standards?
Are we now to adhere to the animal rights doctrine that mainstream America
does not swat dirty, disease-carrying insects?
I see the animal rights brigade as nothing more than a noisy band of
half-baked control freaks, led like sheep by cunning executives interested
only in job security, who want to dictate how we spend our leisure time,
what we eat and how we raise our own private pets. If you don't like
hunting, don't hunt.
If you don't like meat, eat weeds. Don't want puppies, get your dog spayed.
But why are they trying to shove their ridiculous agendas down our throats
and make controversy out of "truly mainstream" activities that have been
"custom" for centuries? It's a free country, and if I want to hunt, eat
meat, raise a litter of puppies and stomp on a bug, I should be able to
without worrying about those whiny ***-beaters trying to outlaw it all.
Marc Folco is the outdoor writer for The Standard Times. Contact him at
openseason1988@aol.com
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090621/SPORTS/906210384/-1/NEWSMAP
Genuine Working Mississippi Lacy Team Owner
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In the end, it will not matter if you were well liked. But, it will matter what you stood for! If you claim it, be prepared to prove it!