The time has come for ALL breeders to take the high road against the animal “rights” threat to our animals. For too many years we have been playing catch up and boxing at shadows put up by the AR groups. It is time to say stand up and say - PROVE IT!!

            We hear over and over again about the “pet overpopulation” and yet there are NO accurate statistics to prove that this is happening. No one has gathered an accurate accounting on a national level. NAIA has started a shelter statistics study but they haven’t even begun to get total figures on a national level. We hear that rural shelters have an overabundance of animals being euthanized. Yet there are rescues transporting animals from one state to another, one shelter to another by a form of underground railroad run by volunteers. Where is the accurate accounting for EVERY animal in and out of a shelter and an accounting of the reason why every animal is there? Counting feral cats, elderly animals whose owners bring them in for euthanisia and wild animals that have been injured can skew and pad shelter figures without indicating a "pet overpopulation" problem The ARs are demanding microchipping and spay/castration for all of our animals. The shelters should be held to the same standard to prevent animals from bouncing from one shelter to another and being counted multiple times. If there are rural shelters with too many animals, why are shelters in New York, New Jersey, Florida and California importing dogs from foreign countries such as Mexico, China, Israel, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas?

            We need to start a grassroots movement to DEMAND shelter accountability starting with our local shelters – city by city, county by county, state by state until this MYTH of “pet overpopulation” is proven to be either true or the falsehood many of us believe it to be. It is estimated that 75% of all American pets are spayed/castrated. Even Nathan Winograd, one of the earliest proponents of the no-kill shelter system and someone who tends to lean towards the AR philosophies is not buying into this MYTH anymore. His new book is entitled “Redemption, The Myth of Pet Overpopulation”.

            The time is NOW!! Just because groups like HSUS and PeTA say it is so doesn't make it true. Stand up and say it every time they say “pet overpopulation” – “I want PROOF. Not opinion – facts, figures, the actual numbers - irrefutable proof that will stand up in a court of law. Prove it or SHUT UP!!”

JMO

Elizabeth Brinkley, MFA in Theatre,
Legislative Liaison
Dante Kennels, est. 1974, Latrobe, PA
http://www.dantekennels.com
Member - ASSA, TRSSCGP, WCOTC, OHA, NAIA, ADOA

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