It's here!
A little while back I made a bumper sticker using Zazzle. I saw it in a store, and it was brilliant yellow with two "yuck" faces and said "Friends don't let friends fund H$U$." Then I found the customize button.
I used a photo of a dog I transported from shelter-to-home a little bit ago, messed with it a bit, and voila:
For those of you wondering, the Zazzle store is woofnwhinny (and it's not my store).
I'm desperately hoping it isn't interpreted that I hate dogs and people shouldn't pay for them, ha. What I meant when I made it (and before I clicked the order button and realized it could be misinterpreted) is that people who want to help dogs shouldn't attempt to do so via funding the HSUS.
I've always found myself fighting the HSUS when they situate themselves against things like keeping pets, transporting big snakes, complaining about farming or science, or like the current battle, demanding that chickens not be in cages of any size despite the prevalence of disease in non-segregated birds. I never see any science behind their arguments, and why should they give any? They have always seemed an organization founded externally on blind passion and internally on dollar signs.
In any case, disagreeing on core methods of animal treatment and welfare is just the reason we disagree. Why do I
hate them, though? I hate them because they make life more difficult for animals. They start problems and don't finish them, leaving messes for unfunded and unaided shelters to clean up. They take dollars away from needy rescuers by misrepresenting themselves. It's that kind of playing dirty that has no place in the world of animal care.
That fact is widely unknown here. I don't have anything to give (more than what I am now) to my local animal community, so I'm giving knowledge. Here the majority of people still believe the commercials and ads - that if you give money to the HSUS they use it to give pets blankets and food. In reality, they ramble on about what a great, reformed guy Vick is and lobby, lobby, lobby against pet and livestock ownership without ever having gotten dirty themselves. Oh yes, I'm passionate.
You are 100% welcome to do your own research and make up your own mind on the HSUS. I am NOT telling anybody what to believe, just ranting about my own thoughts. If you didn't know anything about what they do before now, let my crazy ramblings get you googling a little about how they really spend your cash. Just as HSUS's own website is its own end of the spectrum (biased source - pro-HSUS), Humanewatch.org is a website on my end of the spectrum (biased source - anti-HSUS).
Never, ever trust one source - go read everything you can!
Oh, side-note - did you know French bulldogs can't reproduce? I didn't! Just learned that the other day. All the puppies come from artificial insemination. I just think that's really cool.
It makes me think about the topic of dog breeding. The more I associate myself with people heavily involved in rescue*, the more I find myself standing alone in a crowd of people thoroughly AGAINST animal breeding. That is not me, that is not my view. I do understand that by looking simply at the numbers, one could believe that NO breeding should continue EVER because we clearly have enough. This is like taking guns away from people with gun licenses - only the people who have them illegally will be left with them. Do you want the illegal, under-the-radar, inhumane backyard breeders to be the only ones cranking out puppies? Really?
There are absolutely responsible, ethical breeders of dogs and cats. The dogs you see at huge dog shows with perfect conformations and health, those are from good breeders. Their dogs wind up at shows, are only bred if they are the lowest risk with something great to ADD to the breed. Good breeders only pair animals when they have a valuable way to improve the offspring. If they were forced to stop, not only would a ton of people have their talents and callings taken away from them, dogs and cats would be taken away from all of us. You'd either have the most rotten, deformed, unworthy, feral animals taking over the genetic pool, or you'd succeed in your mission and drive cats and dogs off the planet entirely.
I'm not anti-breeding. I think what we've done with most dog and cat breeds is perfected animals for a purpose. Working animals, companion animals, animals that coexist the best with the variety of human populations of which we consist. Every time I see someone bash breeders as a whole and insist NO animal should be bred, I wince. It's stupidity. It isn't thinking for yourself - it's seeing too many needy animals put down and searching out a scapegoat.
Oh well. I've never bought from a breeder, but that's because I'm pretty darned poor. That, and what would I do with an impressively bred animal? Nothing to better the breed, that's fo sho, which puts them on the SAME (not lower) level as shelter pets. Just way more 'spensive. And with a more clear health history.
Honestly, if I were to buy an animal from a breeder, it'd probably be a mouse. Mice have their own problem though - everyone breeds mice with unknown histories willy nilly but the amazing, long-bred lines are kept strictly to themselves. Breeders never sell those mice to the public - only to other breeders with whose practices they agree. I get irked at that, too, but then I get questions from people who wonder why their mouse pups are all dying and if they should breed mom again and then I understand why. *rolls eyes*
Okay, rant over!
-Mouse
*see: crazy people. Don't get me wrong, I think people who rescue are caring, amazing people, but every single one I have ever met is a little bit crazy. Or a lot crazy. You see what humans are capable of doing to animals, and how some people view them, and you lose a little faith in them. It just changes you. I'm going to do my best to not go nutty, but when you work in animal rescue, you kind of start to think of them like your children. And who wouldn't go a little crazy when somebody does the things to your children that people do to dogs and cats?
